Ep. 30: Work Less. Profit More.

A while back, I added a wallpaper on my cell phone that said “My intention is my superpower.” This wallpaper has been on my phone for months. I look at it everyday! I have to admit though that I knew the words resonated with me, but I didn’t know why or how to put it into action. 

I am constantly reading, educating myself, and have learned that I ALSO have to invest in myself so that I can learn and grow as an entrepreneur. Not only am I running a brick and mortar store but I’m also running Savvy Shopkeeper, an online service-based business and this is quite different from running a retail store. 

Realizing I Needed a Change

If I tell shopkeepers to invest in themselves, I need to practice what I preach and invest in myself, too. That’s why I joined a business mastermind. It wasn’t until I joined this mastermind that I realized how much mindset work I needed to do. 

During the pandemic and while trying to keep my own store in “survival mode,” shifting to changes in my own home and schedule, and quickly trying to offer helpful resources to shopkeepers during such a crazy time, I realized that I was spread way too thin. 

You see, I left a nearly 20-year career to go ALL IN on entrepreneurship. I jumped in with both feet but never really took the time to get focused. Well, the pandemic hit and for many reasons this broke me down and forced me to take a hard look at both of my businesses. Maybe this happened to you too.

I realized that in my effort to serve all types of shopkeepers (makers, wholesalers, ecommerce business owners, brick and mortar store owners, etc), I wasn’t serving any of you really well. 

My resources have been helpful and I love all of the feedback I have received over the past year or two. But in order to be the most effective educator and consultant I can be—in addition to running a brick and mortar business, savoring my time with family and friends, and taking care of myself—it became necessary for me to get even more focused.

Re-Focusing My Efforts

My intention has always been to help B&M store owners become more efficient with their time and pay themselves. But because I was doing “all the things” and trying to help every type of shopkeeper with EVERY aspect of their businesses, my efforts didn’t match my intention. 

When I finally sat back to think about this, I realized that the one thing shopkeepers in my community often ask me is, “how do you run two businesses—how do you find the time to do it all AND profit/pay yourself at the same time?”

My superpower is setting up systems and processes in a retail business in order to maximize time management all while focusing on financials. To put it simply: “WORK LESS. PROFIT MORE.” It was a huge a-ha moment.

Why am I telling you all of this? Two reasons:

1. I don’t want to mislead anyone about where my focus is now and who I am speaking to. I will say that a lot of the content I will create in the future will probably be helpful to all types of shopkeepers, like the makers, the online boutique owners, the etsy shop owners, but I will be focusing on those who run brick and mortar businesses. Specifically the brick and mortar business owners who want to work less and profit more.
2. The second reason is that I think most business owners can learn from this process I went through. If you are feeling spread too thin and your instinct is telling you that maybe you’re casting too wide of a net in your business, then take the time to do this type of business resetting work. 

Why a Reset Is So Beneficial

Here’s an example of the benefit of doing a business reset: a member of Master Shopkeepers has been doing some amazing work on her own business and mindset. This woman watches all of the lessons in the Shopkeeper’s Academy, she constantly asks questions in the group, she is on a mission to be the best business owner she can be. 

While doing her own “work less, profit more” work, she has identified that offering custom monogramming isn’t a good use of time or profitable enough in her business. So she made the tough decision to cut the service from her business. 

It doesn’t mean that custom monogramming isn’t a good service to offer, but for HER business it just didn’t make sense anymore. I could tell it was a tough decision for her. 

She’s worried about what her customers will say and think. She doesn’t want to upset anyone and she’s not looking forward to explaining it to customers who walk into her store looking for this type of service. She’s doing it anyway because it is the best move for her business. I’m proud of her.

Why Shopkeepers Need to Work Less and Profit More

As business owners, we sometimes want to please and serve everyone. I get it! When you’re spread thin as a business owner, you’re most likely not serving your customers well. You also aren’t serving YOURSELF very well. 

I teach women, and business owners in general, to charge what they are WORTH. I had a client who was taking on custom orders without charging a design fee. I told her that her time designing was WORTH something! She now charges a design fee and realizes the value in teaching customers that her expertise isn’t free and comes with a price. 

Other clients who don’t realize that one of the reasons they aren’t profiting is because they are not marking up their products enough. They are afraid people won’t shop with them if their merchandise isn’t priced low. 

As retailers, we spend a lot of time curating, sourcing, merchandising, providing excellent customer service and creating beautiful spaces and experiences for our customers. This is ALL worth something, so price accordingly.

As women we tend to be givers. I KNOW this but I didn’t realize how much I was giving away with Savvy Shopkeeper. My time, my effort, my energy, my resources, all of it. Ironically, I don’t do this in my brick and mortar business and I certainly don’t teach women business owners to give so much away!

My final message to you as a business owner is that our expertise, our services, our offerings, and our time, our effort is WORTH something. Don’t dismiss it. Don’t devalue it. Don’t give it all away.

I see MANY shopkeepers working way too much and profiting too little. Moving forward my core focus and mission is to teach you how to work less and profit more.

Timestamps

• [1:02] Shopkeeper Shoutout
• [1:56] Realizing I needed a change
• [4:35] Refocusing my efforts
• [8:30] Why a reset is so beneficial
• [10:07] Why shopkeepers need to work less and profit more