Almost half of the women surveyed by RN earlier this year said they aren’t confident approaching external organisations – such as banks – for business support.

We also know that a lack of confidence is often given as a reason for a lack of representation on industry panels and at events. As the number of women owning or managing a convenience store continues to increase year on year – up from 33% in 2022 to 39% in 2023 – improving confidence and helping women understand their full potential must be made a priority.

When asked what would help increase their confidence and ability to tackle unfair treatment, respondents cited greater visibility of successful female retailers, business skills training and sharing experiences with other retailers.

Newtrade Media’s second Women in Convenience event, held in Birmingham on 5 October, aimed to better equip retailers with the tools to help build their confidence, and, most importantly help them find their voice, through a series of discussions and practical workshops.

Believing in yourself

So often as individuals, we lack the confidence in ourselves and our own abilities, and replace our ideas with unhelpful beliefs, such as ‘I can’t do this’ or ‘I don’t deserve this’.

Women have consistently proven their capabilities, but we often face unique challenges when it comes to believing in ourselves.

Two concepts have helped me. Bravery: I take a long hard look at some of the choices that I’ve made, and if that decision was made based on fear, I change it. While it’s difficult, it has led to some of my biggest professional and personal accomplishments.

The second concept is self-compassion. We need to learn to talk to ourselves with empathy, understanding and self-love, and we need to stop judging ourselves.

Consider whether fear is holding you back, and what you can do to change it. Listen and develop an awareness of the way you speak and act towards yourself. Is this the way you would speak and act towards a loved one? If it’s not, again, perhaps this needs a tweak.

When women can live and work without fear, we become unstoppable forces of innovation and progress.

Working together for a more inclusive and profitable future

Panel

To build a profitable future in convenience means to nurture an environment that is inclusive of women – but to achieve true inclusivity means to include voices from all backgrounds, races and ethnicities in important conversations, and then use the outcomes to campaign for change in the industry.

Nicola Walters, BAT UK’s area sales manager, said one of the things the supplier has been working on is creating a panel where they can collaborate closer with retailers to help them increase profits, all while making sure all voices – particularly female voices – are heard.

“We also now make sure that our field force and new recruits undertake diversity and inclusion training,” she said.

“We’re also promoting women within BAT massively – from tobacco leaf producers to sales teams – and ensuring that the male population within the company understand how certain things may make their female colleagues feel – this isn’t just internally, but also among our convenience partners.”

Similarly, Samantha Walker, director of field sales at Coca-Cola Europacific Partners, said one of the things that resonated with her from last year’s inaugural Women in Convenience event was hearing that some reps had a habit of asking women in store ‘is your husband here?’, while completely ignoring female staff members.

“Because of this, we have put a bigger focus on diversity and inclusion training, which includes training on unconscious bias, so our reps aren’t asking questions like that. There has been a positive response to this, and we now have a better balance of women and men on our salesforce,” she added.

Julia Glanville, area sales manager at JTI UK, said when she first started in the industry, she also faced gender discrimination, with a lot of people referring to her male colleagues, so she understands the position that some female convenience retailers are in.

“In the past three years, JTI has made a lot of changes with retailer engagement events – whereas it used to be mainly men who brought their wives as a plus one, we now have a female retailer broadcast list, and we actively invite more women to events personally to help build their confidence in the trade.

“We also have our ‘TogetHER’ programme, which provides training for our female employees to help them develop leadership skills. And, for the first time, we also have a female sales director – which was unheard of before,” she said.

From a retailer perspective, Julie Kaur Duhra, owner of Premier Jules Convenience in Telford, said after attending Women in Convenience last year, she undertook private coaching sessions to help build confidence. “In January this year, I presented a trophy at an event for the first time, and at the end of June, I started to look at political and digital marketing courses, so I can jump on TikTok and utilise its platform more efficiently.”

Duhra said through this, she also now has more confidence in speaking with suppliers. “We give a lot of time and effort to reps, and we get to know people personally, so we want to be equally valued in this channel.

“When women see other women doing well, it empowers them and gives them confidence,” she said.

While it is important that women rally together for change, having male allyship is also necessary to enact change.

Dave Hiscutt, operations manager at Bassetts Retail, said 75% of his leadership team is made up of women.

“We know that, as men, we can be quite opinionated, so we consciously take a step back and listen to concerns by our female colleagues properly, and this has made the business much stronger. Even if we don’t always agree, it’s about creating a dialogue and not shutting anyone off, and this empowers our staff.

“As an industry, its easy for men to override women by talking over them, but we need to better listen to our female staff members. Whenever I’m now talking to a supplier, I make sure that our female colleagues are just as involved if they are the store manager.”

Hiscutt acknowledged that it can be sometimes tricky convincing men to pay attention to issues like this as they have enjoyed a position of power for so long, but he encourages others to lead by example. “It is about opening up conversations and admitting there is a problem,” he added.

Judith Smitham

Retailer spotlight

Judith Smitham, owner of Trelander Stores and The Old Dairy – Pydar Stores in Truro, began her retail career in 1994, where she worked as a part-time sales assistant with no prior retail experience. Since then, Smitham has managed to establish herself in the industry as an award-winning multiple store owner.

“I fell into the industry by chance, and I fell in love with it,” said Smitham.

Smitham recalled the importance of having a support network and accredited the people who have inspired her, including her former mentor, throughout her career. With their support, Smitham gathered the confidence to break into the retail industry as a store owner.

She recalled the difficulties that she has overcome and the inequalities she has faced as a woman in the field. “Keep your head down and focus on building from the ground up,” Smitham advised.

Getting business-plan buy-in

Workshop

Speaking to a symbol group boss recently, Parin Gohil, managing director of Newtrade Media, the publisher of Better Retailing and RN, said the number-one gripe is that retailers dislike doing a business plan or do not know how to create one.

He said a business plan not only helps to win buy-in or investment from lenders, symbol groups and suppliers, it tells a shop owner how they get to their dream, whether that’s hitting an annual turnover target, doing the most for their community or simply selling up for the best price to retire to somewhere with better weather.

Having a business plan gives confidence and can be referred to when either a decision needs making, from ranging new products or categories to budgeting. Asking ‘does this support our vision, values, goals and objectives?’ can help in finding the right answer.

Gohil explained: “We are planning every single day, whether it’s about our kids going into university, your next property, going shopping, or even if you are just driving from A to B. You need to plan your route. If we plan for ourselves and our family, don’t our businesses deserve the same respect?”

Gohil revealed what he considers to be the most basic components of a business plan. “This starts with a mission statement – what your business does today, such as ‘we are a proudly independent shop looking after the community’s everyday and emergency purchasing needs at fair prices’,” he said. “The next part is the ‘vision’ statement – what you want the business to be in the future. They often start with ‘to be’ – for instance, ‘to be the bestknown shop in the local area’. Next come the ‘company values’ – virtues matching with the vision that all team members support.”

Gohil said stores can then generate objectives – how you plan to get to your vision, and goals – the targets that track and push performance towards the objectives. These should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and timely. For instance, ‘to interact with more shoppers and potential shoppers in the local area per day than any other nearby shop by April 2024, as measured by footfall, social media reach and new customers achieved’.

Once a store has its plan, making sure the whole team understands and supports it is a crucial next step. He advised: “You’ve got to put the people at the heart of your business planning… have your business plan up in your store room, staff room or behind the counter, where all the team can see it.”

He added that it’s also important to measure progress regularly, with six-month reviews and more regular meetings with team members to discuss it.

Speaking with confidence

Workshop

Newtrade Media’s head of commercial, Natalie Reeve, discussed coping mechanisms that can be used to process fears and help identify them as irrational.

One of the tools she highlighted was the model of False Evidence Appearing Real (FEAR). This acronym is intended to help women recondition their thought process to avoid assumptions of negativity which prevent you from considering a positive result from your performance.

Reeve revealed that in her own team, she encourages people to speak up about what they admire about one another, what they think each other are doing well, because she has seen so many people automatically assume the worst about what other people think of them.

When wanting to challenge that inner critic, Reeve suggested: “If you are going to look for evidence, look for that when something positive happens, rather than negative. It’s all about building up the muscles in your brain to make yourself realise you are capable, and the more you do that, the stronger it will become.

“When you start building self-confidence, amazing things happen.” Her tips for building that confidence ranged from changing your environment – such as listening to music that gives you the right energy, encouraging members of your team to discuss what they admire about one another, practising in front of the mirror in a safe space – to building personal confidence through assertive body language, eye contact and positive tone of speech.

“When you feel more confident, you’ll start to positively influence others and build your assertiveness,” Reeve added. “This helps you when it comes to dealing with more difficult situations, like attending a bank meeting. In turn, this creates opportunities and open doors.”

Reeve discussed the importance of body language. She explained how 70% of body language is nonverbal, and by practising this in a positive way, your mind will receive signals from your body that you are confident, and believe it.

“Sometimes I speak to myself in the mirror using positive affirmations” Reeve said. “This reinforces my positive thoughts and makes me feel capable of anything.” She shared body-language tips, including smiling, making eye contact to show you are paying attention, standing up straight with an open stance to show you are approachable, and mirroring, as it helps people bond with you more naturally.

Register to attend this year’s Women in Convenience event