I am a retailer, not a nerd. Help!

Dear Aunty B,

I am experiencing my worst Christmas ever as a retailer. I am paying huge rents to a landlord and not making ends meet. I have a small website that brings in a little traffic but I know it needs a major overhaul. But I am a retailer not a nerd. I can participate in my landlord’s giant website but he wants to clip the ticket (of course.)

What do I do?

Help!
Sydney

Dear Help!

Every now and then in business we get a bolt out of the blue. Here is yours. You are not a retailer. You run a retail technology company. That is your new identity because that is the new reality of your marketplace. It is global, it is online and it has arrived. So you either quickly adjust or slowly go out of business.

I know it is hard to take on board. I remember the bolt hitting me when I realised one day that I didn’t just run a media company but a media technology company. I quickly sacked most of our external IT providers and brought the whole lot in-house. (I also asked staff to buy some fit balls in order to make our messy media office look more nerdy but the staff refused to order them.)

You need to bring in a specialist to help you assess your IT options. Urgently. You need to rethink your strategy so you have a great online presence and can be found on Google quickly. You need to see your landlord as just one place to put your goods: there are many others.

Open your eyes. Change always brings opportunity, painful as that may be.

Good luck,
Your Aunty B

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