Health & Fitness
Shrink Or Be Sunk
Sarah of www.localoakpark.com says it's important as a business to have a plan on how to shrink back or close up shop gracefully.
Sarah says in this economy, maybe it's time to consolidate as a business. Shrink back or be sunk.
Recently, Bright Ideas, a store that has been in Oak Park for 30-plus years, closed. I had been worried about them for a couple of years. I had been frustrated with some things I saw happening there. I had people calling me to help them out. And this is one of the businesses who was so obviously struggling that it drove me to start writing advisory content.
I think there was and is still a "space" for a BRIGHT IDEAS in our community - just not that big of a retail space. I hadn't remembered that they opened those many years ago as a single store front and then expanded. A lease with a five-year extension is pretty standard. So deciding to shrink back to one store front five years ago might have really saved them and us from losing a community business leader. I recognize that it's easy in the present to notice something that we could have changed in the past. BUT GET BETTER ADVICE.
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Business isn't always going to grow. Sometimes it's going to shrink or not support your projections. It's important to know when to go, when to cut back, when to close up shop gracefully. I nearly screamed when I read that Lido's had gotten a loan to stay open longer. NOOOOooooo - why is it that we like to surround ourselves with optimists when sometimes a friendly dose of reasoned pessimism is in order. Why as a community were we pushing them forward into further financial trouble when we should have been saying, "We love what you wanted to do but that retail space was too big - could you be that shop in an itty bitty store front instead? And then actually make a bit of money instead of making money for your landlord?"
Businesses that are struggling PLEASE HEAR ME: Don't struggle any longer. Don't guess at what you need to do to be successful. FIND a reasoned and seasoned (often pessimistic) outsider who will put together a STRATEGIC PLAN WITH YOU. Even if that plan is how you are going to close up shop. When you don't do it right - it leaves a bad taste in everybody's mouth and it leaves you feeling bitter.
