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Championing retail

Shopkeeping is a passion of mine, Theo Paphitis, owner of Rymans, the office supplies company and UK TV star, told an audience of leading retailers last week. The simple act of owning a store provides you with 70% of the skills of running a business, he estimates.

The reason why is that running a local shop requires a huge mix of skills: people skills, stock control, merchandising, and so on. Shopkeeping is also an area where you can join with no qualifications and get to the top.

Cheerleading for the retail sector is important. Retailing done well adds value to the economy. Mr Paphitas is right to say that anyone can open a shop. But to do it well you need to master a broad set of skills. The good news is that there is lots of help easily available to the local retailer prepared to make the effort to seek it out.
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  1. The Village Postmaster13 September 2009 at 20:49

    Hi Nick,

    Back from our travels, more on Village Counter Talk this week on the experience.

    A question cones to mind on this post, which are the more important skills, the 70% that Theo says owning a shop grants one or the other 30%?

    Steve

    ReplyDelete
  2. Unknown13 September 2009 at 22:28

    Hi Steve,

    Welcome back. I think the key is to constantly seek to learn more. Few people are lucky enough to stumble upon a river of cash at the start, and even fewer get to keep the river to themselves as you always get to meet people who are smarter than you and better at exploiting the opportunity you found for them.

    ReplyDelete

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