Hey, it’s Bob Negen. And in this episode of Real Retail TV, we’re going to explore working in your business and working on your business.

So recently, I have had a couple of conversations about people wanting to know how I felt about how important is it to work in your business and how important is it to work on your business And what is the correct ratio?

And the answer is it depends on where you are in your retail journey.

You see, in the beginning of your retail journey, it is really important that you work in your business.

When you work in your business, you learn your business.

Being on the floor is where you learn what your customers want is when you start to hone in on who is your ideal customer. Is where you learn how to be an effective leader. It’s where you learn the hot spots in your store. You know, at the Mackinaw Kite Company, of course, we hung kites from the ceiling and on the walls.

But after about five years, we learned that there was one spot And whatever you hung in that one spot to the right right there, that kite would sell like crazy. What did we do? That information taught us to put a high margin, expensive, not too expensive, but, you know, high priced kite right there. We sold tons of white bird double French militaries at seventy nine ninety nine in that spot.

We never would have noticed that particular hot spot if I hadn’t been working the floor all the time. So all of these little things that make you a great merchant can only be learned when you’re on the floor.

So in the beginning of your business, the more you do, the more you make. In that particular statement is a quote from our friend Chris Knight who once shared with me, Bob, In the beginning of a business, the more you do, the more you make, but there comes a time in your business where the more you think the more you make. And so since you can’t do and think at the same time, the challenge and the opportunity is to do less and think more. And thinking more is working on the business. Thinking more is when do you spend time with your retail mastery system. Thinking more is when you work on your marketing plan. When you build out your training program, when you listen to podcasts, when you read books, when you do the things that are going to make your business grow faster.

Be better, will increase your skills, will increase your knowledge, will increase your wisdom. So a lot of people want to get out of their business and they want to spend time either taking time off or spend time out of their business working on their business. And you certainly should aspire to that. Long times being able to leave your store whether you’re working remotely or whether you’re entirely not working at all.

You have to earn that time. Right? In the beginning, the more you do, the more you make, the more you do, the more you learn, the more you do the more mistakes you make and the more mistakes you make, the smarter and wiser you’re gonna be. But then there needs to be that transition where you start to think more where you start to invest in yourself, in your knowledge, in your ills develop that deep wisdom that allows you to go on those long trips that allow you to open more stores or do whatever your vision, you know, sort of calls for.

So that conversation, I really, really enjoyed it because really that is the essence of the Ann start by working in your business and give yourself some time to work on your business. But as your business grows, as you build the processes and procedures, as you build out a great team and a great culture, then start to transition into more time away from your business, more time for yourself, and more time to work on your business so that you can build an even better business.

This is the nature of retail growth. This is the business the nature of business growth. Learn it, do it, be it. So, if you have any thought on that. I would love to see your comments. Put them in down below. I’m Bob Negen, and we’ll see you next week.