“Resolutions of a shopkeeper”

Expert Eye with

John Shepherd

Owner and Managing Director of Partridges

• Is our café a hero or a villain?
• “The battle for optimism and morale in retail”
• “Sustainable confusion”
• “What to do about January?”
• “Is the Christmas boom sustainable?”

The time for new year's resolutions is upon us again. Having discussed the subject already with a random selection of suppliers, customers and market traders, it is very good to note that there is a general air of optimism in circulation

Lets hope nothing will alter this. So as a shopkeeper in 2016, here are my own personal and commercial resolutions based on a heartfelt desire to make improvements.

Please note that this is, of course, the abridged version!

How to deal with so many emails coming in on a daily basis
How to deal with so many cold callers and how to blank out from your memory the following letters in the following order: PPI.
How to politely decline so many very worthy charity requests and how to decide which charities to support.
How to decide which products to list and which products to decline. To list or not to list, that is the question!
How to improve customer service in so many small ways by the miracle cure of common sense.
How to delete as many products as you list otherwise the files on your computer become unmanageable.
How to embrace new ideas without saying “we tried this in 1997 and it was a disaster”.
How to be enthusiastic about products but not raise unreasonable expectations with suppliers. Ditto ideas from staff and customer requests!
How to listen as much as possible and how not to worry too much – which is of no help at all.
How to listen to customers in particular but remember that you can never completely satisfy some.
How to accept public criticism without going into a meltdown or completely ignoring it.
How to know when to completely ignore something.
How to manage time more efficiently without thinking of how much time has been wasted in the past.
How to remember that things are not as bad as you fear nor as good as you hope.
How to roll with the punches and keep a sense of humour which will prove to be your best friend.
How to keep up with the next big trend but remember that a trend is not a tradition.
How to acknowledge that gut feelings may have served you well in the past but they can often be wrong.
How to never forget that to balance the income with the expenditure is what it is all about, apart from one thing.
How to never forget that that one thing is to treat people fairly no matter what (even time wasters)– they will never forget how your business made them feel. This is probably the most important thing on the list!

Finally how to remember two other things in particular:

That no matter how difficult it is working in the speciality food world in 2016, the experiences that you share, the relationships that you build and the lessons that you learn will prove to be a rewarding and enriching life experience. When the time comes to look back on it you will almost certainly feel that you made a great career choice (and enjoyed a lot of food and wine).

And…. The only thing that works is work.

Happy 2016.