30/03/2020
Coronavirus: Prepare for retail floodgates
Firstly, I hope each and every one of you are staying safe and protecting your families sensibly from the threat of Coronavirus. I also wish to extend my thanks to those who have messaged me, both friends and clients alike to ask ‘the impact on my own start up Congo Sales and Licensing’ in light of the Chancellor’s recent financial support announcement. Whilst we as a business ‘fall through the cracks’ as they eloquently put it, I am one of the fortunate ones to safely say our business will survive over the next 6-8months. Our current projects will be 100% fulfilled once our manufacturing partners can return to production. Now some of you may recall the Autumn of 1990 when the UK was hard hit by a recession. I started my first business Retail Floorplan Shopfitting Ltd the Summer of that year when my biggest client at the time Lewis’s Department Stores went into receivership owing me thousands within months of trading. Ironically 30 years on I feel a real sense of Déjà vu but, only this time we face a bigger threat to our lives not just the economy.
What I’m trying to say is we will once again rise to this challenge if we support each other and that includes ‘your competition’. You may think I’m talking utter rubbish by saying support your competitor however, without giving too much away I myself, have already begun the process by brokering a combined resources plan in readiness for when the retail floodgates reopen. If not, you’ll make it all the more difficult to survive the aftermath of this global commercial disaster without reinventing yourself and finding new ways of working to encourage early sales.
Change
As the owner of Congo Sales and Licensing I have been working extremely hard over the last few months to promote the importance of innovation in-store. Innovation alone however, is simply not enough. Making the right partnership choice of combined expertise and resources will be fundamental to your business survival. Suffice to say, after the financial collapse of 2008 some of the most unlikely Bank and Building Society mergers was born out the crisis so, we need to step out of our own comfort zone and do the same to face the challenges of the coming months and years ahead. While supermarkets and convenience stores have thrived during the Coronavirus pandemic, the non-food retailers and brands manufacturing sectors (excluding hand sanitising products) will need some pretty clever in-store marketing and promotion to entice customer early spending again.
UK Lockdown: Use this time wisely
The recent call from the Government for the entire nation to ‘stay at home’ placing the country in near total lockdown to delay the spread of COVID 19, I believe was the right thing to do. I want to however, focus on us as individuals coping within our respective industries that essentially are all retail linked. We’re all feeling the day-to-day strains on our families, our finances and more importantly our ‘mental health’. I cannot speak for everyone as each of us respond differently to life’s pressures. Whereas I however, have found balance by spending this time of indoor life to focus on what I can bring next to retail marketing once we surpass this period of lockdown.
Some of my clients have already commissioned us to do a number of early design concepts for various upcoming retail furniture projects in the pipeline. It’s not however, just about your design capabilities it’s about each of our individual ‘god given skills’ that lies within all of us to make a difference out there. It will surprise and motivate you during these anxious times, and as philosophical as this sounds; “we can only change what we can control”, so please back yourself. Don’t rely solely on the banks to bail you out. Be innovative in whatever way you choose in order to help you and your family bounce back from all this. I strongly recommend reading self-development books or even begin writing your memoirs when feeling down. You will have off-days, it’s fine to have a wobble. Do try to keep your spirits up with exercise and fun with the household and remember to continue supporting those closest to you with a simple telephone call.
I wish you all the very best of luck and please do stay safe.
