“Too busy” is one of the most common excuses for business people to put off change, enter business improvement schemes or think about the usefulness of a business or personal mentor.

Too busy to hire more help, too busy to evaluate internal systems, too busy to implement a simple process or even something more complex like installing EPOS systems that will pay for itself many times over.

How often do you stop and take a breath, walk to the front of the store, view it from customer’s eyes. How often do you involve frontline staff in sitting down for an afternoon to plan store promotions?
How often do you take the time to dig for information and good ideas from the people at the coal face who actually do the work and want to be part of a smooth efficient running business they can be proud of?

Does un-planned work that seems to arise every day keep you from ticking important items of your list. Do you focus on the small stuff just to get things done in a day or to justify you have achieved a couple of points off your To Do list?

Peter Drucker, management consultant and modern business influencer said “there is nothing quite so useless as doing with great efficiency something that should not be done at all”

But for some retailers, mentoring is one of those things, like exercise and reading that people say they’d love to do if only they had the time.

Yet there are numerous examples of people who have endorsed the value of being a member of a business improvement programme and having a business mentor to take advantage of their experience and wisdom to make good choices and avoid many common mistakes.

They’ve endorsed it because retailing it has proved to be a very expensive exercise if we continue the same practices from the past and we don’t keep pace with the real life world of our customers or the future they are faced with.

We all need to ask ourselves from time to time “Are we doing the right things or just doing things right?”

It’s valuable and helpful to us all if we can tap into:

• Impartial advice and encouragement
• Exposure to new ideas and ways of thinking
• Advice on developing strengths to overcome weaknesses in our business
• Guidance on professional development and advancement
• Help with problem solving, establishing systems and planning.

No matter who you are, where you’ve come from or what you have achieved, a good mentor or business improvement programme is an asset to business beyond price. If it’s something you would like to do if only you had the time, make it a priority. Make contact today.