#2 How not to do it – Helping a struggling business

Have you ever had a great idea, a plan or thought that you just ‘know’ will be big but then don’t do anything about it? If so then this is for you.

If you haven't seen it you may want to read my introduction as it gives a bit of a background on what I'm saying. https://steemit.com/business/@realfast8/1-how-not-to-do-it-introduction

This story is about an opportunity I noticed mid-way through college I was young and therefore although I feel I had good ideas I also had alot of doubt. The idea sprouted from a small clothing shop I frequently visited which was based in a wealthy part of the town but not necessarily a very busy area, demand wise, for their products. Think yachts and restaurants everywhere but not much else so it didn’t really fit in but seemed to be doing ok for itself, at the time.

I finished school with fair to good grades but not great. I was pretty much a straight C student. The reason for this was that a C grade was the requirement to get into college and study the courses I wanted so why bust a gut to get A grades when I could enjoy myself with friends and still get where I wanted? Another reason for not doing the extra work was because I really didn’t have a clue at 16 years of age of what I wanted to do for a career. All I wanted to do was to take the courses which gave me the best opportunity to make the most amount of money in the shortest space of time.
I decided to study Business, Psychology and Law. My dad owns a family business (which I will no doubt get onto at a later date) so the first choice made complete sense to me. Law and psychology seemed to go hand in hand and at the time the thought of studying law and becoming a lawyer/solicitor seemed an attractive idea as they can make a lot of money right?

Little did I know how boring I’d find all of it, but mainly law!

During my time at college I would visit this shop, looked at the clothes and shoes then the watches, I teased myself as I couldn’t afford most of it due to being a college student, I'd then leave until next time. As time went on I noticed it got less busy with almost every visit and certain products where going on sale, then the next time I visited I'd see the same thing so I new they must be in a bit of trouble. It was during a drive home from college one day that I had an idea. I thought to myself, this business probably has a catchment of about 1 million potential customers (based on local statistics for businesses). Of that 1 million potential customers only 20-30% would likely visit this small shop just out of town during their opening hours. Based on this they have about 300,000 people to attract, of that number they could maybe expect 25% to walk into the shop, bringing 75,000 potential customers through the door. Of this number 1 in 10 might buy something so now you have 7500 customers in a year. So lets increase that and say they actually get 10,000 paying customers, if they all bought an item for £50 that’s only £500,000, divide that by 365 days in a year and this shop is earning £1370 a day on average. That’s before staff wages, rent, utility bills, taxes and don't forget the stock they had to buy in the first place – None of it added up to me as profitable and I saw an opportunity.

The internet had become quite established at this point and having searched for this shop it had ZERO online presence. My idea was simple, I played the scenario through my head, I was going to walk into the shop, ask to speak to the owner and then tell him that I have an idea that I think could increase his business and earn him more money.

My idea was simple:

First - Build an e-commerce website and get their name online in front of a potential 1 billion plus customers rather than 1 million.

Second - Advertise this shop online in order to be seen.

Third - Have a daily or weekly update aimed specifically at impulse buyers out there (you know who you are!) which would be titled something like ‘Outfit of the week’ or whatever else that might sound catchy, I hadn’t thought of specifics, just the overall idea. This outfit would be worn by someone willing to model it, a male and female version would be posted, and every item of clothing would look great together! There would be an option to buy each item, maybe even offering a discount for multi purchases to encourage people to buy the whole outfit! – In my head this would keep customers coming back every day or week to see the pic of the day/week and prompt people to buy more of their products.

My pitch was to be to convince the owner that rather than reaching a potential 1 million customers as they had been, his shop could reach 1000 times that amount instantly if they go online.

I didn’t do it… that voice in my head convinced me otherwise, I felt the fear of being rejected and didn’t want to be shot down. ‘Why would a grown business owner listen to an 18 year old?’ I told myself. I regret not biting the bullet and doing it, he may not have listened but at least I would have tried, and if he did take me on he would have only had the cost of setting a website up to lose. I was willing to do this free of charge as I had the idea in my head to ask to be paid what he felt it was worth after 6 months because I really believed that my idea would work for his shop. But the fact is that I didn’t allow myself the opportunity.

No one is to know whether it would have succeeded or failed or whether I would have even had the opportunity! But by not approaching the owner I failed anyway and didn’t learn any lessons at the same time because I hadn’t allowed myself the opportunity to make the mistakes and learn those valuable lessons. THIS IS HOW NOT TO DO IT... If you ever find yourself with a moment of inspiration, a great idea, even if it is to help someone else, then do it! Listen to that doubt and cast it aside, what would you really have to lose? The worst that could happen is you're asked to leave and that'll be their loss.

I'm finding the positives from these experiences and still learning from them, hopefully this helps someone commit to a decision that they know will work but are too scared to take action on... as the Nike slogan goes... Just do it!