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4 reasons you should care about the closure of one of the UK’s biggest toy stores

I had totally planned to write something different for you this week, but my plans took a turn after being alerted to one of the UK’s biggest toys stores going into administration. Because I’m obsessed with all things biz of course one of the first questions I asked myself was, Yes… but why?

What went wrong? And as I had a dig around, to see what had been going on, it soon became super clear that the lessons were not just for biz geeks or product based businesses, they are for you too. You win some and you learn some and here’s what we can learn from Toys R Us.

1 Visibility is Everything
In this increasingly competitive marketplace, where people are not just competing for your hard earned cash, but for your time and attention too, the key to staying relevant and front of mind is to be seen. Toys R Us were mainly situated in out of town locations, with great off street parking. Whilst this worked like a treat in the seventies, when people would spend time and energy to make the whole trip an ‘experience’, in this day and age, with Amazon and regular supermarkets, out of sight is often out of mind.

Learn their Lesson 1
Get honest with yourself: are you expecting people to come to you, or are you going to them? Are you being so present they can’t possibly forget you? If not…..it’s time to get busy.

2 Innovate
A lack of vision when it came to identifying where children were spending their time and attention meant that even though most young kids are obsessed with iPads, VR headsets and various forms of technology, Toys R Us didn’t really capitalise on how things were changing in kiddy land.

Learn their Lesson 2
If business is slow for you, take a look at what you’re doing. Are you doing what you’ve always done? If so, where can you look to switch things up a bit? One of my online biz crushes announced last week that she was going to create a new Facebook group for paid members of her subscription service. While the FB itself isn’t innovative, she changed her offering and by default attracted a whole new bunch of people to her subscription service.

3 Value
There’s no way I can beat around the bush with this one. Toys ‘R’ Us were ultimately priced out of the market. They couldn’t compete on price when it came to online. Now, I know acknowledging this may send shock waves around your body, if you’re still in the process of kicking your money blocks to the curb. How could I have even dreamed about acknowledging this, when you have said time and time again it doesn’t matter what price I offer my service at? Well that’s one big thing a product based business that is selling other people’s kit does have: more ‘rules’ to follow when it comes to pricing goods, because two products that are exactly the same can’t be priced at different levels and have the premium product expected to sell at the same rate as the low cost one.

Learn their lesson 3
This is the benefit of having a service or a product that YOU manufacture: not all products or services need to be created equally. So while price doesn’t not matter, VALUE does. So make sure that you are clear on the value of the product you are offering, so you can’t be priced out of the market.

 4 Create an experience
If you’re in the UK right now, I want to ask yourself when you last visited a Toys ‘R’ us store and what was it like for you. Probably pretty drab.  The reality is that when it came thinking about what might draw people into their stores again, Toys missed a trick, in not putting the store experience at the heart of what they were doing.

Learn their lesson 4
How can you make your class, service or product more of an experience for your clients? So, they’re not just getting more stuff. By focusing on experience rather than things you can create USPs that truly are unique to your brand. Giving people even more of a reason to go with you then the lady down the street. Go beyond the basics and create experiences for your clients and watch them rave about you.

When reading about all of the reasons Toys failed I got so many light bulbs – and honestly a little kick up the backside, which is another reason I’ll be breathing life back into my 5 day Challenge… I’m SUPER excited about that, so do me a favour and keep your eyes peeled. It’s totally free and for this one time only it’s specifically for all of you gorgeous baby business owners. It’s going to be fun.

In the meantime, what can you do to really put some of these learnings into action for you and your business? And if you’ve already got them covered, how can you go even deeper?

#Nextlevelexpansion. #Always

Have a beautiful Sunday.

All the love,

Suzy

FAITH + ACTION = MIRACLES

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