Why Successful Businesses Still Need to Up Their Game

I received a message from one of the newest members of Impact Retail Success Club this week.

They’d been a little quiet since joining, and I’d started to wonder whether we were going to lose them.

It turned out there was a much simpler explanation.

They’d been busy.

Very busy.

In his words, he’d spent the summer “running around like a headless chicken”.

I suspect a few butchers and farm shop owners reading this know exactly what that feels like.

He’s got new staff starting soon, which should ease some of the pressure and give him more time to concentrate on actually running and developing the business.

He also asked if I could add his wife to our group, as she’s going to become more involved.

Then came the message that really caught my attention.

After reading just one piece of the material I'd sent them in their Impact Club welcome box, she messaged him:

“Jeez, we need to up our game. I have ideas and I have found issues.”

I loved that.

Successful doesn't mean finished

Here's the important bit.

They already have a very successful business.

This isn't a retailer on its knees asking me how to save it.

They've built something good. They're doing plenty right. And I'm pretty certain they'll continue to succeed whether they're part of Impact Club or not.

So do they really need to up their game?

Maybe not.

But that's not the same as saying they couldn't up their game.

It depends what they want from the business and from life.

Perhaps they want to grow.

Perhaps they want better margins.

Perhaps they want to develop their team so everything doesn't land on their shoulders.

Perhaps they want more time away from the business.

Perhaps there's something completely different they want to achieve.

That's when “we need to up our game” becomes interesting.

It's not necessarily about fixing a failing business.

It's about asking what a good business could become.

Finding issues is good news

I also loved the second part of the message:

“I have found issues.”

Good!

Every business has them.

Turnbulls certainly does.

The danger isn't having issues. The danger is being so busy running the business that you stop noticing them.

When you're dealing with staffing, customers, orders, waste, margins, suppliers and the hundred other things that land on the desk of an independent retailer, it's very easy to become consumed by what's immediately in front of you.

You solve today's problems.

Then tomorrow arrives with a fresh batch.

Weeks become months and things you know could be better simply become “how we do things”.

That's why creating some headspace to look at your business is so important.

You don't need to figure everything out yourself

This is one of the reasons I created Impact Retail Success Club.

It's not a rescue service for failing businesses.

It's a room full of ambitious retailers who want to build better businesses.

We talk about what's working.

We talk about what's not.

We share ideas.

We challenge each other's thinking.

And we hold each other accountable for actually doing something with those ideas.

I can also bring the experience I've gained over many years of building Turnbulls — including plenty of things I've got wrong along the way.

Can these retailers succeed without me?

Absolutely.

My job isn't to take the credit for their success.

If Impact Club can help them spot an opportunity sooner, avoid a mistake I've already made, learn from another retailer or implement a good idea six months earlier than they otherwise would have done, then we've accelerated the journey.

And that's what excites me.

An ambitious business owner has looked at an already successful business and said:

“I've got ideas and I've found issues.”

Perfect.

Now let's see what we can do with them.

If you're running a successful butcher's shop or farm shop but know there are still things you'd like to improve — or bigger things you'd like to achieve — that's exactly the sort of conversation we're having inside Impact Retail Success Club.

We've got room for a couple more around the virtual table. If you'd like to find out whether it's right for you, get in touch and let's have a chat.