Some of you have been listening from the beginning, I know, and maybe if you're

somebody who's joined us more recently, I want to reflect back on some of the

key themes that have come up over the last five years.

So because it's five years, I've picked five themes and I'm going to be

going through the key themes that I feel have been the ones that have come

up time and time again in the podcast. And then at the end I'm also

going to share a little bit about what's coming next.

Welcome to the Resilient Retail Game Plan. I'm Catherine Edley and in the

next few minutes you're about to get powerful real world retail retail strategies

from insights shared both from my guests and myself, backed up

by my 25 years in the retail industry. Keep listening to learn

how to grow a thriving, profitable product business. Let's jump

in with this latest episode.

When I realized that it was nearly five years that I've been running the podcast,

I actually had to go back and check my calendar because it just doesn't feel

like it's been that long. But I have been releasing weekly

episodes now since the 30th of June

2020. So the podcast is now officially 5 years old.

So the very first episode and I wanted to start with a bit

of an introduction, tell you more about who I am and

why I'm here talking to you about resilient retail and what that

term even means. And what

I wanted to do in this episode is take a little bit of

a look back because when I first started this podcast I

had absolutely no idea that we'd end up at this point where been going for

five years. I've hit over 155,000 downloads

and spoken to nearly a hundred amazing guests on all kinds

of different aspects of retail. And so I thought it would be a good time

to reflect back on what we've learned together.

So let's get started. So theme number one is,

as I like to say, turnover is vanity and profit is

sanity. And that is the theme that I keep returning to again and

again in the podcast, is that it's all about

not just what your sales are, not just focusing on those top line sales

figures, but actually really driving and understanding the

underlying profitability in your business. And I think

the reason that this is so important is because so much of the information that

is out there for small business owners is really aimed

at service businesses and it's very

difficult for product business owners to get good advice

about the profit in their business from people who are experts as in

service businesses, because quite frankly your

profit, your cost structure is completely different to

other businesses. And understanding that and managing it

and keeping on top of it and pushing your profit is

something that is entirely achievable for people who have a product

business. But it's something you have to watch really closely. Fun fact.

My most listened to episode of all is episode number three

of the podcast. Bearing in mind we're now on number

258, so going back a while

and episode number three is called Healthy Profit

Margins. So let's start off

by talking about why they're so important. Well, if you think about

it as a product based business, there is only

one place in your business that money is coming in

and that is the difference between what you buy something for

and what you sell it for. And we also have episode number six,

which is also highly downloaded, which is called pricing the value triangle.

So talking all about profitability and pricing. So so

when you listen as well to some of the people that we've had on so

we've had lots of experts and we've also had people who have built their own

businesses, have grown and scaled it, you'll also hear them talking

about the importance of profitability because ultimately

if you grow your top line sales without taking care of your

profit, then you just end up spinning your wheels or becoming busy

fools. It's a thread that woven all the way through all of the

episodes. And I know that it's something that people really respond to

and people often mention this to me when they talk to me about listening to

the podcast about how it's really got them to think differently

about their profit and their pricing and

what they're pushing in their business rather than just pushing those top line

sales. If you have got a business that is

profitable that can pay you, it is just so much more of a

comfortable place to be than if you have got a business

that is just bumping along all the

time at the bottom of your overdraft or if you're

having to take out loans repeatedly. And it can be something that feels

very uncomfortable for a lot of people. So focusing on profit as opposed to top

line sales is absolutely crucial.

So theme number two, we are sticking with the numbers

theme and this is all about stuff stock.

So stock is one of my favorite favorite topics

to talk about. I absolutely love talking about stock management

because for me it is literally make

or break for businesses. And often when you see the

headlines behind big retailers going bust, we haven't had

a really High profile one for a little while. But you know the stories when

people like Woolworths go bust or Toys R Us or things like that.

Actually, often when we dig in and we look behind the stories of these big

retailers, what they're actually usually talking about is either profitability,

profit margins, or they're talking about

stock. And both of these issues are

absolutely make or break for retailers. The reason I talk about stock

as much as I talk about profit is because again, there just

isn't that much information out there. And I think for me,

the thing that I hear over and over again from the people I talk to

about their stock is that they think it's simple

or they thought it was simple to start off with. And most people around them

probably think it's simple. They say things like, oh, you just buy

things and sell them, right? It's all pretty straightforward. They don't

realize that they need to have a structure and a system. And often when people

come to me and they're feeling really stressed out or they're feeling just

that the business is growing, but the profit's not growing the way they want it

to, they just don't seem to have enough money to rebuy their best sellers, for

example. We always uncover at the end that stock is the

culprit. So for me, that's why I talk about it in

the podcast so much, because it's a subject that I'm really, really passionate

about. I feel that so many businesses

can benefit from having a better understanding of their stock

and it can really lift the weight of the world.

That can feel like it's sitting on your shoulders when your business isn't making as

much profit as you want. So stock is something that we have

talked about over and over again on the podcast. Most recently

episode 254 was all about your stock system, what that needs to be.

But we've talked about it again in conversations with people who've

grown their businesses. And it's a theme that I like to come back to. I've

done a series on the golden rules of stock. We've talked about seasonal

stock planning, how much to buy for Christmas, and so on and so forth.

And I believe that it's just really such an important

topic. And again, the feedback I get from people who

are fans of the podcast who listen to the podcast regularly, often

saying that they just need to find that information from somewhere. And there is a

real drought of information around stock management in product businesses.

So the third big theme, when I was looking back through all the Archives thinking

about all of the 257 episodes that I've done up

until this time. One thing that pops up again and again,

and each year, it's usually one of the top episodes for the year,

and that is industry trends. So what's ahead for the retail

industry? This is really tied into my work as a Forbes

contributor. So I produce an article

every year around December time, which is looking at the year

ahead and the key trends that are shaping the business. And then usually the

podcast episode is brilliant because I'm able to take all of that research

that I've done and all the conversations I've had with retail experts,

and I'm able to share that with you as a trend episode for the podcast.

And as I said, that is usually one of our top performing episodes of the

year. And from that, what I've taken

is that the retail industry is forever changing and

we're all just trying to keep up. If you think about it, when

I started this podcast in 2020, this was during

lockdown. So it was a lockdown podcast started and then

we moved into retail reopening. So we saw

a huge e commerce boom in 2020 and

2021 to a certain extent. Then we saw

more shifting back to more towards bricks and mortar in

2022, 2023. We've had cost of living

crisis, we've had energy crisis, we've had all of these

different things that have been impacting the way that the customer buys.

On top of that, over the last 18 months, two years, we've had the impact

of generative AI. In fact, I just completed a piece for Forbes

about AI in general and all of the different things that

it can do and the opportunities that there are for small

businesses with AI. So there have been

so many shifts. And I think when I look back, as I said over

the years of the podcast, what we've learned together is that the retail

industry is changing. There is

so much that happens each year, and on

the one hand, it's a really fascinating one because lots and lots of things shift.

So consumers will become more cautious with their money,

or sometimes they're feeling a little bit less cautious. There will be product

areas like, you know, health and wellness has been something that we've seen

for a number of years now sort of top the product

trends charts. We've also seen

things like people really leaning into

hybrid retail, where they're researching online and then coming to buy in store,

or they're looking in store but then want to be able to purchase it online.

So We've seen lots and lots of shifts. We've seen things like

the rise of TikTok shop and people buying through their social media

apps. That's still one of the fastest growth areas of E commerce, for

example, where people are actually

wanting to check out, do their product research,

see product demonstrations, watch reviews from customers, and

then actually purchase through the app. And of course, the apps absolutely want

that, because it's all for them about the eyeballs. The amount of time that people

are spending on those apps, of course they're going to encourage that. So we've seen

this huge shift. So many different new

technologies coming up, so many different shifts. Interestingly,

one of the things that I talked about in my Forbes article on AI

recently is Shopify's latest horizon theme.

And that is all about something they're calling declarative commerce.

And declarative commerce is basically you say what you want to

happen and you watch the technology create it. So instead of

you sitting there and diligently creating a new

template or creating a new collection, that you would be able to

say something like, put all of my scarves into a

collection with a 20% off code, and then watch the technology

do it. Or create me a clean

website which is suitable for an upscale skincare brand. And then

again, watch the technology do it. So again, that's another shift.

That's another way that small businesses, I think, are going to be able

to leverage their opportunities because you no longer have to have deep technical

knowledge when the technology is able to actually produce things for you.

Now, arguably, there's lots that you then need to do to have a point of

view and a point of difference and stand out in a world of sameness if

everyone's got the same capabilities. But I think it's a really

interesting development. So what we can take away from that is

that there's lots of shifts in technology, lots of shift in tactics.

Customer sentiment fluctuates constantly. Ultimately, I

think what the one thing that I've do find interesting is that even though

things are different, even though things shift, there are many, many

fundamentals which are absolutely the same. And they're the same

as they were in the 1950s or even the 1900s.

And that is people want great service.

They want great customer service. They want great communication from the

people that they shop from, and they want great products. They want

to be tempted, they want to be

lured or seduced into spending their money with you. They want

something that really appeals to them, and they want

to know where things are from. They want to know the stories behind

items and they want to feel that connection with

where they're buying from and, and what they're buying. So I

think that we have seen that remain steady. It's just

there's so many things that kind of swirl around it that a lot of

the time it's about you as a business owner, understanding

what that means for your business, what can you take advantage of and frankly,

what can you put aside and shut out some of the noise.

Over the years as well, I've done lots of sort of pet talk type

episodes where UK is going to recession or

what's happening in Covid. I mean Covid is one of those examples where

to begin with. Absolutely everybody was completely

gobsmacked and lots of people felt like, right, well maybe this is it for the

business. And there are many people which now look back on Covid and see it

as almost the peak of their selling for the last few years.

So I think another thing that we've learned from the podcast is that

lots of things can be going on in the outside world and often what we

have to do is focus in on the things that we can control. And over

the years I've talked a lot about your circle of concerns, everything

that bothers you or you're concerned about and then your circle of

influence, the things that you have some influence over but

then really operating from your circle of control. So

instead of getting pulled and distracted by all of the different things happening in

the world and all the different trends that you can really focus in on the

things that you can actually make a difference to, like creating amazing

products that your customers will love and giving great service to your

customers as well. So I think that is a really big theme. As I said,

number three is the industry's forever changing and we're all just trying to

keep up. But I should also add to that that the most

important thing is that in all of that change, you're

focusing on what you as this is not my concept. This is from Stephen

Covey's 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. But really you

focusing on living in your circle of control.

So theme number four, sales and marketing. This

is a topic that is always really well received. People really

enjoy these types of episodes. And over the years I've

spoken to so many different people about

so many different platforms. We've talked about TikTok, we've talked

about Instagram, we've talked about Instagram in many different forms.

We've talked about Pinterest, we've talked about

email marketing on numerous occasions. We've talked about

optimizing your website, so there has been a huge amount of

focus on various different tactics for sales and marketing. And social

media in particular is something that people are always interested in. And

these are very popular episodes as well. So what can we take

away from that? What have we learned in the last five years?

I think probably somewhat similar to the trends, the social media trends

change all the time. Things shift, algorithms

change, and the types of content that

gets noticed has changed. Probably five years ago there was still

some leverage in static images on Instagram and then it went to everything

is video and now we're back to carousels, getting really

great engagement. And I think we've also seen a

shift as well towards the fact that the

people who do really, really well on the video based platforms,

they may well be people who have a real affinity for creating content.

And I think that my opinion about social media has changed over

the last few years as well. And I think what I've learned from

talking to all of these experts is that the biggest issue

sometimes is spreading yourself too thin. Because we've talked to people,

as I said, about every single different tactic or type of marketing that you

can think about. The truth is, is that if you lean really heavily into

almost anything, whether it's SEO or email marketing or

social media marketing, then you will see results.

But the danger comes more from trying to lean into the

wrong place where your customers just aren't. And I also think that's important to

recognize where there's a mismatch between you as a

founder, what you love to do, and what you choose to lean

into. So, for example, if you are painfully

introverted and absolutely do not wish to have your face

on camera, then making a decision that you're really going

to push yourself to show up on Instagram can be really, really draining. And

I have certainly seen people burn out and just generally feel really miserable because

it's something they've been determined to pursue and it just wasn't them. Whereas if

they'd focus, say more on Pinterest, which is a visual search engine as

opposed to a social media platform, then they

would have been much happier because it suited their personality more

equally. So if you love to write, why not lean into writing?

I would say with the exception of email marketing, I feel like everyone needs to

do email marketing. That's something else I've learned over five years. Email

marketing is absolutely, absolutely crucial to most product businesses.

I would say that it's important to choose what

works for you and to really Lean into that and also not to get swayed

by shiny object syndrome. And that is

something that we all need to take into account when we're listening to business advice,

including this podcast. You may hear someone talking about a new

platform or a new tactic that you think sounds really fascinating, but

you have to bring it back to do you have the money to pay someone

else to do it? And if you don't have the money and you don't have

the time and you're not 100% sure that it's really going to make a difference,

is it really something that you want to be focused on? So, as

I said, we have covered every platform, every tactic when it comes to sales and

marketing. And I would say that my big takeaway then

from the last five years is that lean into what you

love to do, be consistent, and make sure you're giving

something a really good go. Trying it before you decide. Right. This isn't for

me. But equally so understanding that you are going to have to test and

learn a lot of different things to really understand what's resonating with your

customer.

And then point number five is mindset is

everything. And this is again, something that

I also feel like I've learned along with you over the last five years.

I personally find this one somewhat frustrating because I think

that wouldn't it be great if our mindset didn't actually impact our businesses as

much as it does? Or maybe I should be positive, have a positive mindset and

say, isn't it great that we have that within our control to really manage our

business? And I think that not only have we had some amazing mindset

experts and coaches on the podcast who've really talked about this

in great, understandable ways, we've had people with sales

mindset coaches and consultants talking

about how important it is for you to really believe in what you're doing and

to really push yourself and your sales and how you have to have

that self belief to do that. So all of those things I

think really, really help. And I think the other thing that really

stands out is when I think back to some of the amazing conversations I've had

with people who've built amazing businesses. So we've spoken

across the years. We've spoken to people like Connie Nam, who started Astrid and mew,

we talked to Claire Burrows who founded Air and Grace, Lucy

Greenwood who founded Lucy and Yak, all of these different people who have founded

these incredible, amazing businesses when you hear them talk about

their businesses, and also, I should say, many, many other people who

Built amazing businesses of various different sizes as well. What you

really hear in the people who are successful in growing their

business is the passion. Definitely 100%.

You hear passion and you also hear

determination. And I remember I interviewed Eleanor

Bowmer, who runs Eleanor Boma, which is an amazing

story of, of Eleanor starting on a marketplace. And she's

now stopped. Her ranges are stopped in everywhere from Sainsbury's to Next.

And she's done some incredible collaborations, like Children in Need

and so much more. She's really somebody who has

elevated her business and grown her brand and

is an inspiration, I know, to a lot of people. And I think

what really struck me was this story about how she'd ordered, I think it

was something like 500 leopard print tea towels. And she was just like, I was

just determined I was going to sell them. I was absolutely determined I had to

sell them. And she found a way. She went out there and she made

it happen. And I think that again, something that when I

think of all the conversations that I've had with people who've grown their

businesses, all of the experts around mindset, self

belief, around sales, what it all comes down to is

you've got to be resilient, emotionally

resilient, I guess. You know, obviously the podcast is all about resilience in

retail, right? And the numbers piece helps you be resilient. So having enough

profit and controlling your stock and that's all really helpful when it comes to

navigating the ups and downs of the retail industry. Understanding what the

trends are, that really helps you be resilient as well. It helps you be

resilient when you understand that social media and marketing, it's about

finding what works for you as opposed to try and force yourself into doing something

that just doesn't work. And then, you know, emotional

resilience is absolutely key as well. You have to have passion for what you do.

Do you have to

have a real love of a challenge? To be honest, I think that's a big

piece of it as well. You have to have this ability to pick yourself up.

It's not about building a business where you never get knocked down, that just

doesn't happen. It's about being able to pick yourself

back up when you do get knocked down and that self belief is key and

having a purpose. So ultimately, what I've

really reflected on is that retail as

an industry is endlessly fascinating. I think the

fact that I've been able to fill five years worth of weekly

podcasts and I feel like I barely scratched the surface of what there is

to talk about when it comes to retail and growing a profitable product business.

It also really makes me feel like the industry is way more complex

than many people realize. And there is also, again,

something else that really struck me when I was going back over the podcast over

the last five years is, but there still isn't a huge amount of information out

there on these key topics, things like your stock management, things like

your sales strategy, your profitability and your

cash flow. Another topic that I'm very, very passionate about

talking about is how do you control your cash flow? It can feel

like money's flying in and out all of the time, and it can feel

really overwhelming. And I think for me, when I reflect back

on my journey, this is my 25th year in the retail industry and I spent

nearly two decades working in big retailers. And frankly, they were very

toxic. A lot of them. I had a lot of toxic work environments

and a lot of businesses that just operated in a very toxic way.

And when I think about what I'm trying to do with the

podcast, really what I want to do is help you. I want to

help you grow a profitable business that flourishes,

that rewards you financially, that doesn't keep you up at night because you're

not really sure how you're going to cover the next bill because you've got this

other bill for your, your stock going out and, and you

just don't feel like you're in control of it. So I want to

help the people who do have that passion and purpose, which I

must admit is most people that I speak to when I talk to them about

why they started their business. Everyone always talks about wanting to do things

better, wanting to make better products, wanting to really help people

and planet, for example. And for me, if I

can, with the podcast, help you understand better how to create

a business that is profitable and thriving, then that for me

is a big part of my mission. I feel like the retail industry is

exciting and vibrant and it deserves to be full of these incredible

independent, small startup, independent retailers and brands

who have got exciting new ideas, who are dedicated to doing things

better and have got the creativity and need that

inspiration and advice to help them understand how those

creative ideas actually make money.

So thank you, A huge thank you. I have to say, a giant thank you

to you for listening. If you've listened since the beginning, then

thank you so much for being with us on this journey. And if you're new

to the podcast, then thank you for joining and coming along for the ride.

So what comes next. Well, as I said, the mission

of the podcast is clear. It's about getting you that information.

It's about giving you tips and ideas and inspiration. And we will

continue to be hearing from from the best experts when it comes

to the sales and marketing tactics that really make the difference,

the mindset that you need to be successful and sharing stories with you

that will inspire you and motivate you and show you the way forward, but always

with that very practical element to it. And I will continue to

share my solo episodes, sharing my thoughts on what's going on in the industry,

those all important trends, what's happening, what you need to be aware of,

as well as the advice that you need to make sure that you are taking

care of your bottom line. You may have noticed as well, we've had a

new intro to celebrate five years. And just definitely with the

podcast, my goal is to make it even more engaging, more

exciting. I would love to hear from you. I would love to hear your questions

that I can answer on the podcast. I would love to hear the kind of

guests that you would like to see on the podcast. I would like

to know what topics you'd like me to cover. So do come over to Instagram.

Instagram at Resilient Retail Club. Say hello. Let me know

what the podcast has meant for you, which episodes you've

enjoyed, and what you'd like to see from me next. I have to say

the number one thing for me about the podcast, which I never really expected,

was when I meet people who tell me that they listen to the podcast. I

can't tell you how much that means to me because I record most of the

episodes in my office where I can reach out my hands and

touch both walls. And it's such an amazing thought to

know that this podcast that I put all of this time and effort into gets

out there and people are listening to it and it's making a difference. So

thank you again for listening. Do come over to Instagram and let me

know what you'd like to hear next.