With retail continuing to undergo a period of slow sales and low consumer confidence, one of the biggest challenges is keeping you and your staff motivated.
Owning your own business can be a gruelling experience at the best of times and this is only compounded when economic conditions are sluggish. So, ensuring that motivation levels remain at a healthy level is important for any retailer in navigating an environment of low consumer spending.
One way to get the team motivated is to get creative and look for new and innovative ways to drive sales. With a large chunk of Aussie shoppers now carrying around a little extra cash in their back pocket following the tax cuts, a sales event is an easy way to entice them into spending more dough at the shops. You can also involve your staff by incentivising them with rewards for those with the best ideas on how to drive up sales.
Moreover, look for opportunities to do activities outside the rigid day-to-day work environment. Social activities are a great way of building camaraderie amongst you and your employees and is a great way to boost motivation. You can also look to hold team meetings away from the workplace – this can be over a quiet drink, coffee or a meal out.
Another measure that can assist in keeping workplace morale high is to make sure that employees take on new and different roles. Having a strict routine is not a bad thing, in fact, some employees need a consistent schedule to stay organised and on top of things. However, there’s a distinction between that and performing the same menial tasks day-in-day-out that fail to challenge either yourself or your staff. An easy way to avoid this is to rotate tasks amongst staff and experiment with the way certain things are done.
None of the above tips are silver bullets that will single-handedly lead to sales sky-rocketing, but keeping all those in your business (including yourself) motivated during a challenging economic period is important to keeping the business ticking along.
As mentioned last week, there is expert opinion that argues that the benefits of the tax cuts will start to slowly kick in between now and Christmas so hopefully you start to see a natural rise in activity through your shop. Having a work environment conducive to bringing the best out of all workers is essential to ensuring your business doesn’t miss out on any uptick in consumer spending.
All the best for the week ahead!