Editor's Note

Don’t Swim Up for Air

Sometimes, the counterintuitive approach may be the best one for your business.

Published

4 years ago

January 13, 2019

Trace Shelton Instore January 2019 Issue

DID YOU EVER receive a piece of advice that didn’t make sense on its face, but once you’d put it into action, you realized just how true it was?

When I was a kid and we vacationed at the beach, I remember my parents telling me not to fight against the undertow in the surf. Even so, the first time those waves hurled me down into the hard sand and began to suck me out to sea, panic rose up in me and I tried in vain to swim toward shore before I remembered my parents’ words. Only when I let go and allowed the undertow to cycle me out and up was I able to get above the waves and breathe air again.

Jimmy Degroot

Video: Why You Should Be Turning Over the Sale More Often

Jimmy Degroot

Video: Fix the ‘Glitches’ in Your Jewelry Business

Jimmy Degroot

Video: Everyone in Your Jewelry Store Can Get Along. Here’s How.

Sometimes, following conventional wisdom in retail can be the same as fighting against the undertow, especially when the sea that you occupy is changing rapidly. In this issue, we share a number of business rules (19, in fact) that provide alternative routes to success that just may be more appropriate for the times in which we live.

Ignore terrific opportunities? Yes, if they’re taking time and attention away from even better prospects. Don’t try to fix your weaknesses? Not when it may be more efficient to delegate to others. Don’t promise excellent customer service? Not if it’s going to set you up for failure.

You get the picture. It’s a new year, so it’s a good time to try some new ideas and see if they can catapult your business into greener pastures.

Don’t Swim Up for Air

Trace Shelton

Editor-in-Chief, INSTORE
trace@smartworkmedia.com

It Was Time to Make a Decision. It Was Time to Call Wilkerson.

Except for a few years when he worked as an accountant, Jim Schwartz has always been a jeweler. He grew up in the business and after “counting beans” for a few years, he and his wife, Robin, opened Robin James Jewelers in Cincinnati, Ohio. “We were coming to a stage in our life where we knew we have to make a decision,” says Jim Schwartz. He and Robin wanted to do it right, so they called Wilkerson. The best surprise (besides surpassing sales goals)? “The workers and associations really care about helping us move out own inventory out of the store first. It was very important to us.”