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Archive for March 2012

Sears and Best Buy: The Beginning Downfall of their Corporations

March 31, 2012 Economy, Retail 2 comments

As I was looking through the LinkedIn articles I had on my iPhone app, I saw THIS article and became interested enough in writing about it.

Basically what the article is saying that Sears is becoming more like Best Buy – a retailer whose been around for a while – and now is in trouble (or, should say, has been for a while) in this shaky economy.

Back a few years ago, in my retailing career, I used to work inside Sears’ Lands End. Let’s just say straight out – I hated Sears. Our Sears was always portrayed the same way – hot, very hot, and slightly uninviting. It was where the “older” crowd went. Sears was the place where the crowd walked through to get to the other side of the mall but never to really stop around and look. It wasn’t hip enough for 2/3rds of the mall goers.

Remember Montgomery Wards? This will be Sears in a couple of years. In my opinion, Sears isn’t making it as a large box store any more. They lack fashion and focus and they just can’t keep up with today’s market.

Now, I must say I haven’t been in a Sears in a while and haven’t even looked online to see what they have to offer — but I am saying this from experienced. As suggested in the article linked above, they should find focus in on their tool and housewares departments. Often when I think about Sears, I think about appliances, so?

Best Buy. Oh boy, Best Buy. Okay, so I admit we go to Best Buy to look around and possibly get something if it’s… NOT *any where else* if we need it like asap or if we come across a great, quick deal.

Best Buy is a repetitive box store that will soon be obsolete. Their prices are way too high and the online retailers are often the competitors (regardless of what people think about this). Do you have a list of electronics to get or dvds or accessories? Well, look online first at Amazon or NewEgg – boom! You’ve found a much better deal about half off or more. Need a computer fixed? Yep. Don’t go to Best Buy’s rip-off Geek Squad, go to someone local for a lower cost or for free. Seriously. If you’ve been going to get your computer fixed (or simply looked at) by Best Buy, you’re soooo getting ripped off.

Prices within retail need to reflect the economy. You’re in competition with a whole lot more companies when people have to scrape by and decide on where to spend. What will YOU do Best Buy or Sears to get customers to walk in and spend their money in YOUR store?

Fix your outdatedness. Change. Make more changes. Turn your companies around because soon.. you probably won’t be around to do much more.

I am now officially back writing on PitchmenEnthusiast.com!

March 31, 2012 General Business No comments

Wow. What a long, long road it has been to get back to writing here.

For those who have kept up with this blog, even while I haven’t written here, bless you. Thank you for staying and thank you for reading. I’m going to certainly try to put out excellent articles from now on.

So, the big question of: where have I been?

I have been busy with working with being a part of a start-up company. I can see you nod your head there, yep! You totally understand why I had to abandon this blog. 

So here goes: I have been a part of the (start up) company I am working for since October. When I came to work with my boss, he wasn’t sure if it was going to be a small or big opportunity. It turned out (very quickly) that it was going to be something big. Lots of bits and pieces came together and fell apart then my husband came to work with us at the latter part Nov/Dec. And, it’s been full blast since.

Patience is a HUGE key part in someone revving up their own business from ground up. And, if you know me, I am not the patient one.

It took forever to find a building. Then, once we did, it took forever to set everything up (offices, rooms, construction on the building, trying to figure out the plans, phone system/Internet, shop and so on.)

While writing this, I have to take a step back to look at where we had been at “point a” and what obstacles we have climbed through just to get to this “point “b”.

Not really in any particular order. My thoughts:

1. First thing is first, if you have all opportunities knocking at your door (and on your side) to start up a business from scratch – IT IS SO WORTH DOING!!!!!!!!!!!!! You do NOT have to go in and clean up after someone, you can do it right the first time (if you do things right, that is) and if something doesn’t get done… guess who there is to blame? That’s when you will figure out what kind of worker you truly are.

2. You get to do things YOUR way. Yes, if you go in and partner with someone or several someones then you have to negotiate whatever it is – but still – you get to do things your way and if you don’t have a way you get to make up things as you go. I remember all of the company policies or having to do something “someone else’s way” and most times, they didn’t allow or acknowledge new creative point of views. It was frustrating as I have too much creativity and business-sense to follow someone else’s bad direction.

3. While looking for a retail/office space, you really need to know what all you are looking for in an office. Such as, we knew about how many offices we wanted, that we needed a huge garage area, showers, place for a retail store in the front and so on. My boss looked at several places before we were able to put bets on this one as “the one”. If you aren’t a tiny ounce sure it’s what you want, it’s not. Playing the waiting game isn’t fun for those involved (especially ME, who wanted to move into an office about 3 months ago). When you find the perfect place, you will know it.

4. When you think that you have the perfect employees, you might — but you might not. Be careful how you get the employees and that you do not destroy bridges that you might need later. Also, the perfect ‘pull in’ employee might not work out instantly but you might find the perfect one thereafter.

5. Have a plan. Then another, then be prepared to scratch that and make another plan. No plan you make will go accordingly to… as planned. You will have to rethink your strategy several times due to bubbles in your timeline of when things are supposed to be completed.

There are several pointers I’ve thought to myself about helping build a business and there’s too many to just include in an ‘welcome back’ – don’t want to overwhelm anyone!

We’re still at the beginning and it’s been a very cool and interesting ride so far. When we finally get our business open, I’ll update more along the way.

Now, I can officially say I helped close down a business (Goodys in 2008) and helped open a business this year.

Very cool!