And other lessons learned from this year’s Big Survey
BY DAVID SQUIRES
This article originally appeared in the October 2015 edition of INSTORE.
We’ve now done nine of these Big Survey issues, and it’s long been one of INSTORE readers’ favorite issues of the year.
One reason for the love is that, while INSTORE has always been a collaborative effort between us and you, our October edition is by far our most collaborative issue of the year, packed with your data, your insights and, maybe surprisingly, your feelings.
In these pages, you’ll find lots of useful comparative data on staff salaries, hot-selling products and successful marketing vehicles. And we hope you’ll find a way to put this information to use in a way that helps your store differentiate itself, rather than simply trying to keep up with the Joneses (or, perhaps, with this month’s Cool Store, Jones Bros. Jewelers — see page 126).
But you’ll also find loads of softer-edged inspiration — philosophical approaches to the business that can’t help but inspire.
One of my favorite questions each year is when we ask jewelers, in one form or another, to share the most important lessons that they’ve learned.
This year, we asked survey respondents what lesson they would have most wished to have been able to share with their younger self. A few favorites:
➤ “Other people will try and tell you how to run your business. Follow your gut and ignore their objections.”
➤ “Don’t compare your insides to other people’s outsides.”
➤ And: “Baldness is inevitable.” (I am happy to report that I have a full head of hair. But I like to read this as a motto of acceptance — “Gracefully accept who you are. And build from there.”)
Enjoy the issue!
Wishing you the very best business,
David Squires