FOCUS

As a small business owner, there are tons of distractions. In our store (liquor store) we have a small section of cups, novelties, books, gag gifts, etc. Ever since I took over the store, it’s been neglected and disorganized. I’ve had on my “list” to attack this area...

But then I realized today, this area makes up about 0.25% of our annual revenue. So, I probably shouldn’t worry too much about it.

I could instead focus on increasing margins by 1% in our core areas and have 10x the impact.

The moral of the story is....

There are hundreds of things you COULD DO. What SHOULD you be doing? What’s the goal? What will make a real impact?

For us the goal is to get a customer in the store and get them to the register with some alcoholic product, then ensure they have a positive interaction with us.

That’s literally it.

If they come in and we are distracted by moving things around, thinking about optimizing some weak selling product, etc. then we failed.

Get the customer in. Serve them positively. Help them find what they want. Get them on their way...

Then they will keep coming back.

Most other things we could do are just distractions from the things we must do.