Being a member of the GA has many great benefits, one of my favourites is the GA Members' Day which is held every year in Birmingham and usually has several great speakers as well as one on one surgeries for your business.
One of the speakers at last year's event was a man named Mark Smith, a passionate retailer who shared his fascinating story of how he went from running a market stall to over 1,000 shops. Originally Mark intended to set up a card shop when he moved from his market stall to his first shop. Two weeks before he opened Bow Jangles, another card shop set up across the road that was twice the size and sold discount cards. Mark was very quick to adapt his offering moving into discounted jewellery and accessories and by 1995 had grown Bow Jangles to 72 stores.
In the mid nineties the recession had led to 18% interest rates in the UK. Poor cash flow and a bad financial year led Bow Jangles into administration. There were several offers on the table for the business, including one by an American company called Claire's Accessories who wanted to expand into the UK. Mark says his decision to to sell to Claire's was one of the best he ever made. In February 1996 they bought the assets of his business and made Mark the CEO. Over the next four years they opened a new shop every four days! The chain grew to 450 shops in the UK and began to expand into Europe. Mark took annual sales from £10 million to £70 million with £11 million in profit. In 2002 by the time they reached 650 stores Mark resigned and decided to retire.
Following Claire's acquisition by private equity company Apollo Management in 2007 for $3.2 billion, Mark was enticed back to the business as its Managing Director of European Operations and grew the business to 1,300 stores across Europe. Mark's return was relatively short lived and he decided to move on within two years. He now acts as Chairman for NPW Products, the company founded by the previous GA Chairman, Michael Sweeney.
What seemed to make Mark Smith successful was his ability to adapt quickly to the situations around him. He didn't let bad luck drag him down and out of some his most difficult situations came his greatest successes. It was also interesting to hear him remind us that investing in product and systems is key to success and when you reach a plateau you should invest for the future.
Mark has his own thoughts on the secret's of his success and shared them with us at the end of his entertaining talk:
1. Trust and Respect are earned in inches and lost in miles. Work hard to earn it and keep it.
2. Don't ask anyone to do anything you wouldn't be prepared to do yourself.
3. Buy tomorrow's needs today.
4. When hiring people ask yourself three questions. Can they do the job today? Can they grow? Can they fit into the culture?
5. Winners focus and losers spray. Stay focussed to win.
6. Always do the right thing, even if it's not best for you.
7. If in doubt, throw it out.
8. Penny Wise, pound foolish. ie. Don't focus on minutiae and lose sight of the bigger picture.
9. Recruit great people, let them manage. Just feedback, reward and motivate.
10. Poor performers are like a cancer in your business. It's your business. Cut them out.
11. Happiness is positive cash flow.
12. Smart people hire people smarter than themselves.
13. Everyone is important and relevant.
14. Treat others as you like to be treated.
15. Turnover is vanity. Profit is sanity.
16. Drive for show, putt for dough. Focus on what makes the difference in your business.
17. When recruiting, if you know they're not right fire them quickly.
18. Celebrate your success.
I think the last one on this list is particularly important and can missed by most of us at one point or another. How often in life do you find yourself achieving a goal and almost immediately saying to yourself, "Right what's next?" We must stop and celebrate our achievements. Go out to dinner, take a holiday, buy something nice. I thoroughly enjoyed the talks by all three speakers last year and look forward to speaking at this year's event myself.
This year's GA Members' Day will be held in Birmingham on 23rd May 2013. The theme is 'change to grow'.
Read my other blog posts on last year's GA Members Day talks by clicking on the links below:
10 things to do in the next 10 days to grow your business with Robert Craven
10 ways retailers can appeal to their customers with Henri Davis
