Balance Work and Family With a Home-Based Business
Tips on starting your own home based business. Putting your skills and experience to use in your own business can be very rewarding.
Level Up Blog
Helping Brick & Mortar Retail Companies in the 21st Century. Expertise, resources & tools to help tomorrow’s retail.
Get More Done In Less Time
Doesn’t that sound like a great thing? Get more done in less time. We all could use a magic wand that would do that for us. The most successful people write down their goals. They also create action plans, and then they identify the action steps that need to happen. Another step that the most
Planning Your Future Organizational Structure – For the Solopreneur
Very few successful businesses are run entirely by only one person. Many businesses start out as a one-man-show, and many never grow beyond that. But most successful businesses add additional employees as the business grows. It is important to strategically look at all the different areas of the business, the functions, and the various responsibilities.
Two Key Structures Every Business Needs
When launching a new business, there are a lot of growing pains. As the business owner, you are going to be learning a lot of things that you don’t know a lot about, and things you don’t have a great deal of skill in like technology, marketing, legal, employee relations, employee law, accounting, finance, and
Hiring Freelance Professionals Can Help Your Business Reach Its Goals
Retail Level Up welcomes guest contributor: Chelsea Lamb of Business Pop! Learn about the author below, at the bottom of this article. As a retail entrepreneur, you might find that your full-time workforce isn’t enough to achieve your goals. In that case, you need to hire people from outside to help. This article looks into
Proven Marketing Tips for Senior Entrepreneurs
Retail Level Up is thrilled to welcome our guest contributor to our blog: Tina Martin! Check out the info about the author at the bottom of this article. As a small business owner, you’ve probably realized the importance of marketing. You may even already have an overall strategy in place. But since marketing is changing by
Top Qualities of a Great Leader
Most leaders are not necessarily born with great leadership skills. Leadership skills can be learned. But what are the top qualities that people want to see in an effective leader? Surveys of people around the world have been conducted, and these are the most frequent qualities identified. Respect. If a leader does not demonstrate respect,
3 Key Roles of a Business Owner
So you are thinking about starting your own business or maybe you already have started your own business. Business owners of all types of businesses have gone through a very similar kind of emotional rollercoaster. Many new businesses begin with an idea. An idea that an employee has who is working for someone else, doing
5 Signs You Need a Coach
30 years ago the most common place to find a coach was in the locker room, or on a sports field, or in an athletic training facility. Today, a coach can be found in just about every type of business, large and small, and in every type of industry. My dentist has had a coach
Business Survival Linked to Creativity and Innovation
The American Marketing Association recently surveyed 500 CEOs and asked them “What do you need to do to survive in the next five years?” Over 80% of those surveyed said that creativity and vision were most important to their companies’ survival. They were then asked to rate their company’s effectiveness on how well they were
Essential Tech Tools to Organize and Boost Your Solopreneur Success
Retail Level Up welcomes our guest contributor: Courtney Rosenfeld!! The life of a solopreneur can be overwhelming and lonely. Making the transition to investing in yourself and by yourself is a brave move – but it’s also a smart one. According to the Third Annual Independent Workforce Report, 41.8 million individuals identify as a one-person
Secret Solutions to Filling Open Positions
Business is booming! Sales are up double digits, not over just last year, but the year before that. Great, right? Well, maybe, if it is sustainable. Many businesses are experiencing historically high sales, and many of those same businesses are struggling to attract and retain employees. There have been plenty of news stories, articles, and
What Is Your Definition of Failure?
What is your definition of failure? When you make an error, or a mistake how do you feel? Do you feel ashamed? Do you feel foolish? Do you feel like quitting? Do you find yourself looking for who, or what, you can blame for why you make that mistake? We are all human and we
Essential Inventory Management Tips for Growing Businesses
Retail Level Up welcomes our guest blog contributor: ~ Marcus Lansky ~ If your small business is growing rapidly, now is the time to focus on your inventory management needs. Inventory management will ensure your available stock can keep up with customer demand without wasting valuable warehouse space. Most importantly, a good inventory management system
Your Mindset Matters
Your inside voice matters. You know that little voice inside our heads? The one where we carry on a conversation with ourselves. What does yours sound like? Do you speak kindly to yourself? Or are you one of those who says things like “I can’t believe I just did that!” or “I can’t believe how
Invest In Yourself
Once we complete our formal schooling the responsibility of learning, developing, and growing ourselves rests squarely on our own shoulders. No one is going to show up and say “OK class! We’re going to learn some really cool stuff today!” That just doesn’t happen. If you want to reach your goals and reach your full
Shop the Competition
Years ago, when I was a department manager, and a graduate of the management training program at JCPenney, I would take my sales leads with me out in the mall, and we would shop the competition. We would go up and down the mall once a week and take a look at our competition. We
Better Business for Busy Customers
Retail Level Up is pleased to welcome our contributing guest author, Marissa Perez of businesspop.net. When’s the last time you sat down and just relaxed? It’s probably been a while. The same is likely true for the majority of your customers. Time is a commodity that we can all agree is in short supply. Here
Interest vs. Commitment
When we are interested in something, we do it when it is convenient for us. The circumstances have to be just right, we need to have the right setting, all the tools we need. When we are interested, we will do it when it is convenient. When we are committed to something, we will do
Have a Plan? Why Isn’t It Working?
So, you have a plan. You know what you want. You know the steps you need to take to make it happen. Why isn’t it working? At Retail Level Up, we work with clients who are in situations just like this. They have clear goals. Most have figured out the action steps to achieve those
The Importance of Having an Open Mindset
So, what is the difference between an open and a fixed mindset? Let’s start with an example of a fixed mindset. Imagine you are in a new job. You have been on the job for about 3 months. You are really enjoying it. Your boss lets you know that it is time for your 90
The Time Management Myth
How are your time management skills? “Time management” is a myth. There is no such thing. None of us have the superhuman power to manage time. We all get 24 hours in our day, no more no less and none of us has the ability to stretch it out to make it last longer or
Taking Charge of Your Career – Interview with Lynn Whitbeck (Part 2 of 2)
Final part of Retail Level Up’s interview with Lynn Whitbeck, CEO of Petite2Queen and Future Forward Sales, and the co-author of the book Practical Wisdom at Work. Mickey Quinn: You mentioned a phrase I want to explore a little bit more. What do you mean when you say we need to “learn how to manage
The 4 A’s – Awareness, Action, Attraction, Accountability
Do you know what you need to do, in order to do what it is that you really want to do? Most people have a dream. Many people translate those dreams in goals. If you want to move your dreams into goals, and actually achieve those goals, there are 4 simple steps that you can
Miscommunication
I often see articles, books, and training series on how to effectively communicate. Helping my clients develop their skills in effective communication is one of my specialties so my brain is trained to notice this kind of information wherever and whenever it pops up. Most of this information is very instructional (insert bored-out-of-their-minds-students emoji…AKA: classroom
The First Step to Achieving Any Goal
At Retail Level Up, we have a diverse roster of clients. They all have different types of businesses, brands, owners, and personalities. Every business has a different journey, a different need, and different goals. But for this article, we are going to compare and contrast two different business owners to illustrate the first step to
The Universal Steps to Success
We are quickly approaching the end of the year and most of us are probably looking forward to this year-end like we have never looked forward to a year-end before! But before we rush to put this year into the history books, this is the perfect time to take a look at all of the
Be a Leader of Change
There is one thing that is consistent and constant in all businesses. It does not matter how small or big the business. It does not matter what type of industry or what type of business you are in. The one thing that is constant is change. There are tons of examples throughout history, both long
Managing From Afar
A year ago there were probably thousands of people across the US that had a wish, they had a dream: they wanted to be able to work remotely. Some of those people probably went to their managers and made the request that they would like to work from home and a lot of them heard
Attracting and Retaining the Best People
The skills that help someone get promoted to a management role, or the skills that an entrepreneur uses to build and run a successful business, are often skills that are tied specifically to their profession. In the retail industry, people who are great in sales, or have exceptional merchandising skills, often find themselves promoted into
Fill Up Your Tank, or Else
Have you ever felt you were just so busy that you didn’t even have time to stop for gas? And what happens when you fail to do that? You are likely to find yourself stranded, on the side of the road, in the middle of nowhere, very frustrated with yourself, and everybody else is extremely
The 5 Stages of Change
When we decide to make a change, no matter whether in our personal or professional lives, we go through five stages, which can be referred to as an emotional cycle of change*. Stage 1 – Uninformed Optimism The first stage is uninformed optimism. You are just so stoked! You finally decided you are going to
Sustainability and Scalability
When you are building or starting a business, it is best to think in terms of both sustainability and scalability. Sustainability is all about asking “how will the business sustain revenue on an ongoing basis?”. Is there going to be demand for your product or services tomorrow, next week, next month, next year? Scalability is
Creating A Compelling Customer Experience
In today’s world of ever changing landscape for the retail industry, many brick-and-mortar retailers are challenged with how to attract and retain customers. With all of the personalization and customization customers are get with the online version of retail, it can be challenging for a brick-and-mortar retailer to figure out how to deliver a similar
Building Effective Business Systems
The world, as we used to know it, has changed. Businesses have been forced to rethink, regroup, and retool processes that had been working for years, or in some cases, for decades. We are all trying to keep up and get ahead of the latest news, recommendations, and mandates. We have seen an influx of
Trade Secrets
Several years ago, I was the Director of Store Operations for growing retailer that had won an award for great customer service. We had received an invitation to speak at one of our vendor’s user conference. I went to my boss to ask if I would be allowed to present and he said “No, I
Single Point of Failure
Single Point Of Failure Last Summer, pre-pandemic of course, my partner and I were enjoying a refreshment at a lovely little bar and restaurant in Hope, Idaho. The restaurant sits right on the shore of Lake Pend Oreille, the 5th deepest lake in the US. The establishment enjoys a very busy tourist season from May
People & Culture Must Be A Retailer’s Top Priorities
Brick-and-mortar retailers have been challenged over the past decade or so to innovate, adapt, or face the inevitable death of being a dinosaur. As consumers have become comfortable with shopping for their wants and needs online, the fate of brick-and-mortar retailers has been on uncertain ground. With what has been happening in the first half
Innovate, Adapt, Or Die
Just a few months ago I had a calendar full of trips, parties, large group gatherings, live theater/concerts, and a long-anticipated graduation ceremony and celebration for my daughter the law student. My, how things have changed. So many things I never imagined happening, have happened, and not happened. Here we are, in this new reality.
Intentional Communication
Have you ever heard someone say “If people would just listen to me, they would understand what I’m trying to say!” At the very basic level, this comment seems quite reasonable. We make a statement, we are clear with the words that we say, people should understand what we said. If it were only that
Success Lies In Your Daily Schedule
Busy vs. Productive Prioritizing Waiting to “feel” like doing it Schedule yourself with yourself Accountability Results 🚀 As a coach and consultant, I work with many people who have a lot on their plates: business owners, executives, entrepreneurs, managers, sales professionals, and many more. In working with these individuals and their teams, a consistent behavior
What Are You Waiting For?
Challenging Times Moving Forward In A Positive Direction Doing Makes Things Happen Your Life Is Ticking Away Schedule A Call With Retail Level Up 👉🏽 So what are you waiting for? Waiting for the stay-at-home-order to end? Waiting for the right moment? Waiting to see what’s going to happen once we all get back to
What Do You Want?
Such a simple question: What do you want? Should be easy to answer, right? But surprisingly, we know way more about what we don’t want, than what we do want. What, really? Yes, really. As children, we learned about things usually by finding out what not to do, by learning what we didn’t like. Touch
Stupid Brick-and-Mortar Mistakes to Avoid – Discounts and Promotions
Sales and discounts have become so common that some retailers fall into the trap of feeling they have to offering some sort of sale or discount at all times. That can become a vicious cycle of spikes of top-line sales during promotions, long dry spells of very slow business when the store is at regular
Stupid Brick-and-Mortar Mistakes to Avoid – Failing to Invest in Your People
Managing a retail organization is challenging. When looking at the P&L, the eye often gets drawn to those big line items, one of the biggest often being store labor. It’s tempting to set an expectation to save a percent or two on the labor budget. It‘s a big number, so even though the percent is
How Brick-and-Mortar Can Compete Against Amazon
There’s no doubt that online shopping is here to stay, and that Amazon is huge, and that word really isn’t big enough to describe just how massive it is. What’s a small to mid-sized retailer to do? Call it quits? Throw in the towel? How can you possibly compete against Amazon? Well, though Amazon may
The GIFT of Feedback – Getting Some
When we were in school, we were on the receiving end of tons of feedback. We were constantly being measured, tested, and observed. Lots has been written and researched lately about the benefits, and damages, of the methods that are used to teach, test, and measure students, but knowing how we are performing is a