Why So Many Retail Businesses Grow Broke

Should you do 25% off everything this Black Friday? That's what Stacey, who owns two children's shoe stores, asked inside My Million Dollar Store. Stacey's shoes are made for her stores, she gets a couple of deliveries a year, and she'd rather have the cash than the boxes. In this episode, Sal explains why the discount percentage is the last thing to decide, and builds Stacey's Black Friday offer back from the outcome she needs: selling more pairs. You'll hear: - Why a flat 25% off everything brings in bargain hunters who buy one pair - The multi-buy Sal would run instead, and the wording mistake to avoid - Why new-season stock and full-price VIPs should stay out of the sale Show notes and transcript: https://salenaknight.com/black-friday-offer/ My Black Friday Formula interviews you about your store and builds your Black Friday offers, products, emails and socials: https://salenaknight.com/bff

Q4 has a way of filling every available minute. Stock is arriving. Orders need to be packed. Staff need to be rostered. Customers need help. Christmas ranges need organizing. And somewhere in the middle of all of that, you're still supposed to send your weekly email and keep showing up on social media. The problem isn't that retailers don't know marketing matters. The problem is that when the business gets busy, marketing is often the thing that gets pushed to "later." And later rarely comes. In this episode, Salena Knight shares three simple strategies to keep your marketing moving when you're already at capacity. 1. Set a sales target and check it every Monday When Q4 gets busy, it's easy to stop looking at the numbers and simply hope sales come in. Instead, Salena recommends setting your target now and checking in on it every Monday. Knowing where you are versus where you need to be gives you a much clearer idea of what action needs to happen that week. 2. Prioritize what actually makes money Not everything on your to-do list is equally important. Salena shares the example of a boutique owner who was overwhelmed with everything she needed to do. When they stripped the list back, it came down to two priorities: find staff and make money. When time is limited, the tasks that directly contribute to revenue need to get a place in the calendar rather than waiting for a gap that may never come. 3. Double dip your marketing You don't need to create brand-new content for every channel. Take the newsletter you've already written and turn it into several social posts. Use the same promotion on your website, in-store signage, text messages, and email. The content you've already created can work harder for you. The bigger takeaway is that busy season isn't the time to try to do everything. It's the time to prioritize the marketing that actually moves the business forward. And if you need help knowing what marketing needs to happen and when, Salena's free 12-week holiday marketing calendar maps out the key marketing activities from October 1 through Christmas.

In this episode, Salena Knight explains why the products you regret buying can be some of the most valuable data in your retail or ecommerce business. It is easy to focus on best sellers, products that sold out, and suppliers that performed well. But your clearance section, old stock, and products that have been sitting in the warehouse can tell you just as much - and sometimes more - about your buying decisions. Salena walks through how to look beyond "it didn't sell" and identify what actually went wrong. Was the product itself the problem? Did you buy too much? Was the colour selection wrong? Was the price too high? Did demand only appear after a significant discount? She also explains why clearing old stock isn't enough. If you don't understand the buying decision that created the excess inventory, you risk making the same decision again with a different product. You'll learn how to: Use old stock as buying data Distinguish between a product problem and an overbuying problem Look at sales performance alongside discounts and timing Identify patterns across seasons and product ranges Recognise assumptions that influence your buying decisions Turn disappointing inventory into a lesson for future buying Ask better questions before repeating a buying decision The key takeaway: You've already paid for the stock. Make sure you get the lesson from it, too.

You found the perfect product. You know your customers will love it. So you buy it. But what if that isn't enough to make it a good buying decision? In this episode, Salena challenges the way retailers think about inventory and explains why buying isn't just about finding products that fit your brand or that you believe will sell. Every dollar you put into stock is a dollar that can't be used somewhere else in your business, which means every product needs to earn its place. Salena walks through how to think about inventory as an investment, why your revenue and profit goals should influence your buying decisions, and why the speed at which a product turns back into cash matters just as much as whether it eventually sells. You'll also hear how one retailer discovered that the brand they thought was performing well wasn't the whole story. Once they looked more closely at the individual products, they found that bright prints were selling much faster than the plains and neutrals. That kind of insight can completely change what you choose to buy next. If you're heading into a major buying season and want to make decisions based on more than instinct, this episode will help you look at your inventory through a much more commercial lens. Register for the free Q3 Masterclass Series here.