If you are waiting for legislation to save your business you are missing a MASSIVE trick.  

It’s not long now until the UK government will be delivering their response to the Mary Portas Review. Many in the retail sector are waiting to see how they will respond and if it will provide the much needed relief that the high street is waiting for.

Our view is stop waiting, start doing...

We have to ask the question what is it that retailers are waiting for?

Granted Mary Portas made some great suggestions in her review but ultimately if you are waiting for the government to change the environment in which your business operates, to magically ease your trading position I suggest that you are probably going to go out of business.

For us business is about understanding your markets and meeting their needs whilst operating within the confines of the trading environment. If that is too restrictive or the needs of your market changes then you need to be creative and work out your own solutions quickly, waiting months for someone else to do that with broad strokes of the legislative brush is not the answer.

Waiting for a third party who in this case is the UK the government to improve your situation suggests a lack of flexibility, a loss of creativity and an inability to move forward. These are core skills in the cut and thrust of business and essential whatever sector you are in.

One thing that is a constant regardless of which party is running the UK is that when the government gets involved in the management of a trading environment whatever their approach it is likely to be changed, revised and tweaked.

What this means for the retailers that are hoping that come the spring they are going to have their prayers answered is that some of them will, many won’t and you can put money on the fact that whatever changes occur they will soon be changed again.

The problems that retailers are facing are as wide and varied as the number of shops trading. Of course there are common themes at the moment but there are still businesses that are thriving despite the difficult trading conditions. The reasons that they are doing so are again individual and based on any number of varying reasons but I guarantee that it won’t be because those involved are sat around in anticipation of a bit of government attention and the odd legislative tweak. They will be focused, constantly exploring, testing and developing their offering to meet the challenges they face. They will be innovating and offering better ways for people to become loyal customers but most of all they will be looking to work their way through their challenges themselves.

Here at BeepTreat we cannot stress enough that waiting for things to magically improve through the tinkerings of the incumbent government is never the answer. You are still going to have to compete with those around you, compete with the ever encroaching reach of the internet and the difficulties facing the pockets of the public. Remember this, if the government makes a change that improves your situation, it will be the same for the other shops you are competing with so how is that going to help? The market gets a helping hand, that means both you and your competitors.

These difficult trading conditions are one of the biggest driving factors in what we are doing here at BeepTreat. We didn’t wait for the government to legislate for us to create our shopper marketing system so that the retailers of the UK had a fighting chance to meet the challenge of the internet. We saw a need and just got on and built it, we innovated and were creative constantly pushing forward the boundaries of what is possible with mobile technology, QR codes and the shopping experience. On top of that we even made it free to use for the first 90 days.

So, if you are in the retail or hospitality sector and you are waiting for a magic bullet from the government our advice is don’t because when it arrives it will be too late. Find your own solutions, find them quickly and get on with it meeting the challenges you face because the businesses that are doing this now ahead of the spring are the ones that are going to be around in years to come....