Expert advice

In these straitened times it is very possible that your skills as a retailer will be tested well beyond their normal range. It is not something that you should give yourself a bad time over, rather you should consider a review of your business with a view to making the best of the opportunities that will be confronting you and minimising the threats that will jus as assuredly be coming along.

Welbeck's advice is to make use of those funded opportunities that are available - speak to Business Link in your region or ask the local Chamber of Commerce about other agencies who might help. If you are lucky enough to obtain funding for your business review or your development idea, that you insist on a specialist retail adviser to help you - all too many advisers are generalist business advisers and the needs of the retailer are often too specialist to be dealt with by them, although they are really useful if you want generalist advice such as 'how to develop a business plan' or 'how to develop your IT skills'.


These times will present peculiar circumstances, specialist retailers with success in steering businesses through previous fiscally doubtful periods will probably have the skills that you need to bolster your own. Don't be embarrased about asking - no-one can be an expert in everything, and yet most SME (small to mediun sized enterprises) seem to believe that others will judge them harshly if they admit to not having a particular skill - nonsense, you just ask. It is those who do not ask that will probably not survive.