This week I will keep it short. I will condense 27 years’ experience into one simple sentence that captures everything I know in this one statement:

Find out what he customer wants, and give it to them.

That is it.

I wish I could make eye-contact with you. I wish I could make you think about that. Importantly, I wish I could make you understand that it is not about:

- your product

- staff

- customer service

- prices

- location

All that matters fulfil what the customer wants. That is the starting point. Then you can figure HOW you deliver this - where the retail mix fits into the picture. Then you check again if that is what the customer wants. Because that is what matters.

If you lived by this piece of advice, you will never have to employ a consultant and you will never have to fear going out of business.

Now that I have given you (hopefully) some food for thought, I am wondering if you can return the favour?

I cannot just dispense advice (and free advice is worth what you pay for it) and not embrace it myself. So I am asking YOU:

Will you please tell me what you need? You can do that HERE and it will take 2 minutes to answer 4 questions.

Normal service resumes next week. Thank you in advance.