John’s Blog

There is a lot of new ideas happening around the world. National Children’s Garden Week Congratulations to Neil Grant on launching the National Children’s Garden Week in the UK, let’s hope this is successful and other countries also pick up the idea. For more details contact Neil. Women lead the way in France Winners of […]

This newsletter starts with some PR on our business. Linda and I are finalists in two categories of the Australian Small Business Champions Awards, the Oscars for small business in Australia. We are finalists in Business Service and I am a finalist in Small Business Champion Entrepreneur. The finals are announced at an awards dinner

There are many books and articles written on retailing being theatre and that the retail floor is the stage where you can entertain your customers. The challenge is how do you keep them entertained and stop them getting bored. Plus how long can you keep them entertained before they get bored. The last thing any

I recently presented a workshop in Mandurah and visited the local coffee shop. They are promoting “Suspended Coffee.” This is something other organisations could develop. The concept comes from Italy, the idea is that a customer who purchases a coffee has the option of purchasing a second cup and donating it to someone in need

Martins Family fruit farm is located in Ontario, Canada. A number of the family have been on my workshops and attended my conference sessions. These guys are real innovators. Once you have watched this video I think you will understand why. Congratulations to the Martin family and team.

Switzerland is famous for its chocolate and chocolate shops and therefore a visit to Zurich was an opportunity to look at the chocolate shops and what can be la earned from these retailers. Chocolate is either a commodity purchase or an experience and this is as true in Switzerland as it is anywhere else. The

Field Visual Merchandising Strategy: Developing a national in-store strategy using a merchandising service organisation, by Paul J Russell, is a brand new book focused on merchandising strategies for the field visual merchandisers to the apparel industry. I enjoyed this book for two reasons. Firstly it is focused on the clothing retail sector, but the ideas can be

A few years ago retailers discovered the value of wooden boxes as a merchandising tool. Now it is pallets that are becoming more familiar as a merchandising prop. Last month my village of Nannup held a brilliant music festival. This is put together by a group of dedicated volunteers. Apart from the excellent artists, the

Article by John Denton on preparing businesses ‘ready for sale’ because a business that’s ready for sale, is well worth keeping! As much as we would like to sometimes, we just cannot change history. Although, some business owners still try to turn the clock back! What do I mean by that? Well, every day in business

Jim Bradley contacted me and suggested I should read a book on coffee shops written by two authors from Northern Ireland. “Wake up and Smell the Profit…to Make More Money in your Coffee Business” by John Richardson and Hugh Gilmartin is a one of the most practical books I have read in a long time.