We discovered that getting our message out to our customers has really helped us build our turnover. In 1996 when I went to a seminar on marketing for independent retailers. Though I wouldn’t say we necessarily learnt anything new, we certainly got a great push to do something to move our business forward.

I came away with three lessons:

1. Make sure the shop is inviting to customers.

2. Don’t get worried about the effect your actions may have on your nearby shops.

3. Do start advertising your business.

Armed with a computer and a photocopier I am able to produce leaflets on Fridays and distribute them with our newspapers on Saturdays. Depending on the message we tend to send a leaflet out every other week, but when we started changing our business we sometimes did two a week. With a scanner and a digital camera we can put pictures on to the leaflet, but mostly it’s just text. After the interest in last weeks post, I thought it would be nice to show you what we do.

Click on the below thumbnails to see our latest flyer. The key is that once you start just keep going.