Opening Up a Brick and Mortar Store Post-Pandemic

The past year and a half have been extremely detrimental to the vast majority of brick and mortar businesses. The coronavirus and Covid-19 pandemic has spread across the world, leaving havoc, pain and countless issues in its wake. In a bid to slow the spread of the virus from one person to another, governments in the vast majority of countries have implemented all sorts of measures that have been designed to limit our physical contact with one another. Most brick and mortar stores have been forced to close their doors for periods of time, resulting in difficulties generating profits, paying bills and overheads, maintaining staff and generally keeping afloat. If you had any hopes of opening your own store, chances are, these were put on hold. However, with vaccines being rolled out around the world, and with life slowly returning to normal, those business minded amongst us are seeing more opportunities arising in brick and mortar retail and you may be considering getting your store opening set off. Here’s some information that can help you to achieve this!

Choosing the Right Commercial Premises

Where do you want your store to be? Location can make or break a new business, so it’s important to be certain of where you want to be located and how much footfall is in the area. Do you need a prime location with plenty of footfall or will customers travel to you? Do you need to be located somewhere that your target demographic frequents? Next, consider elements such as size. Do you need a large store? Will a smaller store be better suited? Do you need additional space for stock or store rooms? Staff break rooms? Managerial offices? Shop around until you find something that fits perfectly.

Fitting the Premises Out Well

Of course, many premises come completely empty, serving as a blank canvas for you to work with. This is beneficial, as it allows you to create your own branded aesthetic within the store and also allows you to create a layout that works for you, your staff, your stock and your customers. Take every aspect of your space into consideration. Do you want it to be bright and open plan? Do you want high ceilings or low? Do you need the ability to mount shelves or rails? Professionals in retail design solutions will be able to help with any questions you may have and can make recommendations that fit your business well.

Signage

Every store should have a good quality sign. The design of this will depend entirely on your brand, however, it should use branded colours and maybe your logo if you have one. There are great sign designers out there and companies who will craft a sign that will look perfect above your storefront.

Of course, you’re going to face a whole host of focus areas when opening your store up. But some of the questions and options highlighted above should help get your thought process going in the right direction to undertake this tasks successfully!

Create A Productive Home Office By Incorporating Nature Into…

Studies show that being close to nature has a positive impact on our overall wellbeing and can help to increase productivity. People are generally more relaxed and focused when they are exposed to nature, which means that they do better work. This is something you should consider when designing your own home office. 

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Working from home has its benefits but it’s also very difficult for a lot of people to find a good work-life balance because they don’t have a clear separation between their work and personal lives. It’s important that you find ways to manage stress and improve your mental health in your home office, and introducing natural elements is a simple way to help with this. These are some of the easiest ways to incorporate natural design into your home office. 

Use Natural Materials And Textures

When choosing materials to use in your home office, always look for natural options. If you create an office that is all metal and plastic, it feels very clinical and it’s hard to create a relaxing atmosphere that is conducive to productive work. So, look for natural materials and textures like wood and stone. The floor is a great place to start and wooden flooring installation is affordable and simple. Wood is a great material because it’s durable and hard-wearing, but it also looks great and helps you introduce that natural element into the room. 

It’s not just about the big fixtures either, you should also focus on natural materials and textures when adding small accessories and finishing touches. That doesn’t mean everything has to be wooden, but you should always try to use wood and stone over metal and plastic wherever you can. 

Add Nature Inspired Wall Art 

Wall art is the easiest way to brighten up your workspace, and it also gives you another opportunity to bring nature into the space. When choosing wall art, look for designs that are inspired by greenery and nature, or things that use natural colors and tones. If you want a cheap way to make some nice wall art features, buy some wallpaper samples and a few cheap frames and you can get the same effect. If you have a large blank wall in your home office, you could consider creating a feature wall with lots of great nature inspired pieces. 

Let More Natural Light In

Being stuck in a dim room with lots of artificial light is not great if you are trying to stay productive. Natural light, on the other hand, has been shown to increase productivity, so you need as much of it as you can get in your home office. When you are designing the space, look at where the light naturally falls for most of the day and place your desk accordingly. Using glass furnishings in the room is also a good way to reflect light and brighten up a small space. 

Once you’ve got all of these elements right, just top it off with a few plants and you can create a beautiful natural work space. 

Your Entrepreneurial To-Do List – Ways to Make Sure…

Your Entrepreneurial To-Do List  – Ways to Make Sure Your Business is a Success

Let’s say you have started your own business; now comes the hard part, keeping the company going. Aspiring entrepreneurs need to learn as much as possible about everything and anything that has to do with business to really achieve. And there is a to-do list! Of course, this to-do list won’t make your business the most successful out there; that is up to you! But it can help you along the way. 

Step 1: Get a Mentor

A business mentor can help you develop a stronger and more sustainable business. Mentored businesses and organisations report many benefits, including increases in turnover, productivity and employee numbers resulting from working with a mentor. By mentor matching, you can find a mentor to help you with your business and your niche. By providing an impartial view, mentors encourage you to look at your business or organisation with a fresh perspective and a confidential sounding board. The mentor’s role is to support, develop, stimulate and challenge. This could be a very effective tool to help you to achieve your objectives. 

Step 2: Know The Numbers, Yours and Competitors

Numbers are a great and motivating force in your business. They are the language of business, so you need to become fluent in them. In addition, you need to familiarise yourself with several different formulas and key benchmarks if you want your business to be successful. So what are some important numbers you need to learn and know?

Knowing the size of your targeted marketer, the number of companies currently competing in that space, the type of revenues they are generating, and the profit marks they are now running. This helps you assess your business and keeps you on your toes. 

Also, remember that expenses are usually 30 to 35% more than expected in any sort of set-up, and revenues are always less than planned. So, do not panic and adjust accordingly and be prepared to alter your plans if the numbers do not add up. 

Competition breeds the best results. So to be successful, you can’t be afraid to study and learn from your competitors. After all, they may be doing something right that you can implement in your business to make more money.

Step 3: Work More Jobs

Would you open a clothes shop without having to work in one yourself? It is a good idea to work in the type of business that you are hoping to develop. 

Think of it this way, you could bring more experience to this particular expertise, where the person you worked for went wrong or went right, what business models worked! But, on the other hand, who are customers and yourself going to trust, someone who has only worked one job in the industry or someone who has worked twenty? Business at its core, it’s a numbers game and the more you can make the numbers work in your favour, the better your chances at success, so that means covering all of your bases! 

Step 4: Learn the Rules

If you do not know the rules or the objective of a game, you cannot play it. So when developing your business further, you need to learn all of the legal aspects of business, such as local tax codes, licencing requirements and jurisdictions. This is also important for home-based businesses. For example, there may be rules against operating companies out of a home or have special requirements and tests to sell accounting, legal or financial services. 

Step 5: Keep Detailed Records

Accounting records are all of the documentation and books preparing financial statements or records relevant to audits and financial reviews. They include a description of assets and liabilities, monetary transactions, ledgers, journals and any supporting documents such as checks and invoices. So it is obvious that these are very important! 

All successful businesses keep detailed records; by doing so, you are also keeping your businesses in check legally. You also know where the company stands financially and what potential challenges you will be facing. Just knowing this gives you time to create strategies to overcome those challenges. 

Step 6: Learn Systems

Systems are the key to creating better and more profitable businesses. This can take the form of a script for answering phones to overall sales, marketing processes, and phone systems, IT and internet configurations. Learning systems can help you work smarter, not harder!

It is important to systemise fundamental processes, and they are vital and key to success!