This is a contributor’s blogpost …
When it comes to being in business, you’re always going to want things to run as smoothly as possible, especially so because running your own business can be a lot of work. There’s always one more task that you need to stay on top of, and your mind rarely ever switches off. So if you’re able to streamline things, and ensure that all of your store or service needs run smoothly, life will be better all round. Whether you own a restaurant or a holiday operator, if you can smooth things over, you should find that business is easier to conduct, and you’ll be more successful too.
Pick The Right Location
The first thing that’s going to help you here is the right location. If you want your physical store or service to be able to run well, you have to make it easy for yourself. So don’t choose a location that your customers can’t find. That’s ensuring you’re going to fail from the start. Instead, you need to think about choosing a spot that your customers can easily find, and that they’ll be be drawn to – allowing you to make the most of any passing trade. Doing so will make business easier for you.
Photo courtesy of Clem Onojeghuo via Pixabay
Open At The Right Times
And that’s not all. Alongside being in the right spot, you need to be open at the right times. It’s easy to just pluck some opening hours out of your head, or to just stick to a 9-5. But is that really wise? You should consider the opening hours of those around you, and in a way, let your customers decide on your business hours as https://www.zendesk.com/blog/business-hours-whatever-customers-want/ says too. If your neighbors don’t open until 10am and you’re open at 9am, that’s a whole lot of wasted hours each week! But if your customers want to come in at 8am, you may also want to open earlier. So do some research before you decide.
Accept A Range Of Payments
From here, you’re then also going to want to think about how you can make your store or service easier for your customers to shop. By accepting mobile payments like https://squareup.com/guides/mobile-payments as well as cash and card, you will be making your business accessible, as it needs to be easy for your customers to use.
Photo courtesy of Clem Onojeghuo via Pixabay
Know Your Stock
Sitting on too much stock is never a good idea. For one, you never know whether you’re going to sell it. So instead of over ordering or just guesstimating the quantities, you need to really know your stock. Get to know what products sell and how fast. That way, it will make the buying process much more efficient for you.
Staff It Right
And you should look to do the same with your staffing levels. It’s essential that you hire the right amount of staff. Too many can leave you with idle thumbs and unnecessary expenses, but not hiring enough can leave you understaffed and can affect your performance. So be sure to staff your store just right.
