I Own A Supermarket - I need help...

[100ToOne]

Hey everyone

I joined recently to this forum after reading the book by MJ DeMarco.
What he discusses in the book is what I should of read way before reading Rich Dad Poor Dad, E-Myth, Jim Rohn videos and all the other stuff.

Yes, they are GREAT book, but man this book made me hit a wall that I didn't see coming - it was just in time I guess. It's the five commandments of the fastlane business.

ANYWAY

We own a small local supermarket. Thank God we run it in a good way, we have a good cloud POS system, security systems and just recently we got employees that we can depend on doing the cash register and keeping the place clean.

However, I started thinking:
Where do I go from here?

I mean we have this supermarket, we are two brothers plus our parents and it JUST pays the bills.
After long thought, I have two options to scale:

Franchising - I live in the Middle East - Jordan. Franchising a local supermarket is like a dream. Over here, no one franchises supermarkets, they just open them and run themselves or they're big time corporations. So Franchising is usually for restaurants etc. but not grocery/convenience stores.
So that is not an option.

Store Chain - You need big time investment which is IMPOSSIBLE to save it up from my first store profits.
If you open another store, you need a manager to run the first.
If you think you can run two stores at once, you're dreaming or you're a zombie. really.
So if I get a manager, I will have to pay him a good salary and then that will affect me paying the bills.

So now I'm thinking about letting my brother run it by himself and the help of the employees and I do something online to make money until I can get more money than just paying the bills.

Now please help me on the previous topic and on this new topic:
- I don't have any money to start an online business like dropshipping/amazon fba (already lost like 6k dollars on them before)
- I don't know any online skill like copywriting/programming etc. but I'm willing to learn anything right now and I do put my full energy in it so I won't quit

so since this is entrepreneurship forum, please advise me on both the supermarket and the next step.

thanks


@MJ DeMarco
tldr;
i have a supermarket and its not a fastlane business in jordan
i want advise on what to do next - preferably online
no money
no programming/copy etc. skills

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[ZF Lee]

@MidwestLandlord

 

[jon.a]

Why can't you split the team? Your parents run store one, you and your brother open one or two more.

 

[100ToOne]

Why can't you split the team? Your parents run store one, you and your brother open one or two more.

You'll need another 50 thousand US dollars to open another store which we don't have. Not to forget, the first year of our supermarket I didn't get one dollar as profits. just recently we started getting some fruits.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[jon.a]

You'll need another 50 thousand US dollars to open another store which we don't have. Not to forget, the first year of our supermarket I didn't get one dollar as profits. just recently we started getting some fruits.

Please describe the growth of the store.

 

[100ToOne]

Please describe the growth of the store.

Of our existing store?

If so, to begin with we don't know crap about opening any store or any business. We found some free stores in an area where there wasn't many people - maybe just around 100 families. After we signed a 5 year contract to renting the stores we got shocked that our sales were just covering the costs of the rent and electricity with nothing to re invest or to take home. even when we are always working in the supermarket since we can't afford employees.

we stayed like that for 4 months, which then we decided we are going to sell it or get rid of it.

thank God there was plans by the government to open military accommodation area which was delayed for like 2 years already, and then that month it was handed and militants came and started living in the apartments.

sales jumped straight in one day to double and then we started re investing the profits in new products to accommodate the needs of those new customers. we did that for another 4 months then eventually that was a stable capital that was cycling monthly in the supermarket - and then we started reaping profits.

with too much work taking our lives away like never before, we started putting systems in place to have employees do the routine daily jobs while we take care of the managerial stuff which we still do.

however since they lived in those apartments, the sales have been the same since they were fully occupied, obviously with months more and some months less depending on different times of the year.

it showed me that the ONLY way as a local supermarket for me to grow is to be exposed to more customers - which means people will need to come and live in that area which isn't going to happen as it happened the last time, for at least another couple of years. or if it does it won't be anything big.

 

[Adeoluwa Adejumo]

Hey everyone

I joined recently to this forum after reading the book by MJ DeMarco.
What he discusses in the book is what I should of read way before reading Rich Dad Poor Dad, E-Myth, Jim Rohn videos and all the other stuff.

Yes, they are GREAT book, but man this book made me hit a wall that I didn't see coming - it was just in time I guess. It's the five commandments of the fastlane business.

ANYWAY

We own a small local supermarket. Thank God we run it in a good way, we have a good cloud POS system, security systems and just recently we got employees that we can depend on doing the cash register and keeping the place clean.

However, I started thinking:
Where do I go from here?

I mean we have this supermarket, we are two brothers plus our parents and it JUST pays the bills.
After long thought, I have two options to scale:

Franchising - I live in the Middle East - Jordan. Franchising a local supermarket is like a dream. Over here, no one franchises supermarkets, they just open them and run themselves or they're big time corporations. So Franchising is usually for restaurants etc. but not grocery/convenience stores.
So that is not an option.

Store Chain - You need big time investment which is IMPOSSIBLE to save it up from my first store profits.
If you open another store, you need a manager to run the first.
If you think you can run two stores at once, you're dreaming or you're a zombie. really.
So if I get a manager, I will have to pay him a good salary and then that will affect me paying the bills.

So now I'm thinking about letting my brother run it by himself and the help of the employees and I do something online to make money until I can get more money than just paying the bills.

Now please help me on the previous topic and on this new topic:
- I don't have any money to start an online business like dropshipping/amazon fba (already lost like 6k dollars on them before)
- I don't know any online skill like copywriting/programming etc. but I'm willing to learn anything right now and I do put my full energy in it so I won't quit

so since this is entrepreneurship forum, please advise me on both the supermarket and the next step.

thanks



tldr;
i have a supermarket and its not a fastlane business in jordan
i want advise on what to do next - preferably online
no money
no programming/copy etc. skills

you literally are sitting on a gold mine ... you have already list of good that sell the most

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Kung Fu Steve]

We own a small local supermarket. Thank God we run it in a good way, we have a good cloud POS system, security systems and just recently we got employees that we can depend on doing the cash register and keeping the place clean.

However, I started thinking:
Where do I go from here?

I mean we have this supermarket, we are two brothers plus our parents and it JUST pays the bills.
After long thought, I have two options to scale:

First off, congratulations on your success. Most people never get this far. And to be able to bring your family with you? Amazing.

Franchising a local supermarket is like a dream.

Over here, no one franchises supermarkets, they just open them and run themselves

they're big time corporations.

So Franchising is usually for restaurants etc. but not grocery/convenience stores.
So that is not an option.

Store Chain - You need big time investment which is IMPOSSIBLE to save it up from my first store profits.

If you open another store, you need a manager to run the first.

If you think you can run two stores at once, you're dreaming or you're a zombie. really.

So if I get a manager, I will have to pay him a good salary and then that will affect me paying the bills.

Nothing is possible with a limiting mindset.

You just listed a LONG list of limiting beliefs.

They are all true... to you, at least...

My suggestion would be to start focusing on what you CAN do instead of what you can't.

You can live the story you're telling yourself -- or you can live your life.

You have 4 people to run your store... why in the world would you even consider paying an outside manager?

Someone in the family can easily step up to help the business thrive -- why are you not using them?

So now I'm thinking about letting my brother run it by himself and the help of the employees and I do something online to make money until I can get more money than just paying the bills.

So you're finally starting to win -- and that's uncomfortable so you're choosing to leave the playing field and hopefully somebody else makes it work while you go "do something online to make money"?

The logic here doesn't fit, brother.

Think about it -- you just told us after all this time you finally are starting to make it work... and NOW you want to quit?

- I don't have any money to start an online business like dropshipping/amazon fba (already lost like 6k dollars on them before)

You have no money to expand your store and make it better... but you do have money to throw away 6k on something untested?

One thing is tested and working... the other thing you've never done before, nor do you have any experience in that field... what was your logic in spending $6,000?

Hope? Hope is not a business strategy.

- I don't know any online skill like copywriting/programming etc. but I'm willing to learn anything right now and I do put my full energy in it so I won't quit

So you don't know any of those skills but you think learning those you'll become rich?

... I've got news for you...

tldr;
i have a supermarket and its not a fastlane business in jordan
i want advise on what to do next - preferably online
no money
no programming/copy etc. skills

If you got passed my bashing up top... here is some actual advice to grow your store.

There's only 3 ways to grow any business:

1.) Get more customers.
2.) Raise the average transaction (in increased spend -OR- margins)
3.) Find ways to get your current clientele to come back more often.

Answer some questions if you would:

• What is your best selling product?
• What is your margin on said product?
• What is the 20% of products that make up 80% of your revenue?
• How much profit is in those sales? Are you making any money with them?
• What is the reason people come to your store instead of another?
• What kind of promotions do you run throughout the week to entice people to come in?
• What kind of offerings do you have that would entice people to come in daily?
• What incentive do people have to keep shopping at your store?
• How much time and effort have you put into the layout of your store?
• Is the staff (i.e. your family) trained to upsell, downsell, cross-sell?
• How many people visit your store per day, per week, per month?
• What is the average spend per customer?
• How many times can you expect to see someone per year?

You may think I'm beating you over the head -- but this is business. You have to know this stuff especially in a business that has low margins, high competition, and there are people like Wal-Mart who figured out the formula only some 50-60 years ago to make it explode.

Is your store good enough to be a Wal-Mart in 50 years? 20 years?

 

[Raoul Duke]

Wal-Mart Founder: 'Most Everything I've Done I've Copied From Someone Else'

 

[Tom.V]

@Kung Fu Steve killed it. Since your immediately accessible market is finite and seemingly stagnant in regards to population growth, your best bet seems to be increasing profit. Do you have upsells (gum, cigarettes, candy, soda, etc) at the checkout? Would your market be receptive and open to a delivery service?

If your market isn't growing, the goal of course is to reduce costs, increase efficiency, and increase avg. cart value. Grocery shopping is a habitual process because we all need food to live, but as Steve outlined, more deals + marketing could increase the frequency. Higher cart values + more frequency could be a good combo for your business and help you towards the goal of scaling to additional locations.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[million$$$smile]

+1 what @Kung Fu Steve said. He nailed it.
The only thing I would add is what is your competition doing that you are not?

What differentiates you from them? How can you pull customers away from your competition?
What new product(s) can you bring in that would make you the go-to place to shop?

Have you asked your customers what they are looking for that you don't carry?

How do you create a destination store rather than just convenience?

How can you be different and better than your competition? What are they selling that you're not?

I believe if you find the answers laid out by others in this thread, and work on your store rather than only in it, you will figure out needs that are not met elsewhere.

Good luck. You have a lead-up more than most.

Create the need for customers to come farther to purchase what you have.

Be different.

 

[Adeoluwa Adejumo]

you literally are sitting on a gold mine ... you have already list of good that sell the most

if you still don't what to do with what i just said....

SELL IT ONLINE
(no skills? give a decent ecommerce folk that data he sells you take a cut...that simple)

 

[100ToOne]

First off, congratulations on your success. Most people never get this far. And to be able to bring your family with you? Amazing.

















Nothing is possible with a limiting mindset.

You just listed a LONG list of limiting beliefs.

They are all true... to you, at least...

My suggestion would be to start focusing on what you CAN do instead of what you can't.

You can live the story you're telling yourself -- or you can live your life.

You have 4 people to run your store... why in the world would you even consider paying an outside manager?

Someone in the family can easily step up to help the business thrive -- why are you not using them?



So you're finally starting to win -- and that's uncomfortable so you're choosing to leave the playing field and hopefully somebody else makes it work while you go "do something online to make money"?

The logic here doesn't fit, brother.

Think about it -- you just told us after all this time you finally are starting to make it work... and NOW you want to quit?



You have no money to expand your store and make it better... but you do have money to throw away 6k on something untested?

One thing is tested and working... the other thing you've never done before, nor do you have any experience in that field... what was your logic in spending $6,000?

Hope? Hope is not a business strategy.



So you don't know any of those skills but you think learning those you'll become rich?

... I've got news for you...



If you got passed my bashing up top... here is some actual advice to grow your store.

There's only 3 ways to grow any business:

1.) Get more customers.
2.) Raise the average transaction (in increased spend -OR- margins)
3.) Find ways to get your current clientele to come back more often.

Answer some questions if you would:

• What is your best selling product?
• What is your margin on said product?
• What is the 20% of products that make up 80% of your revenue?
• How much profit is in those sales? Are you making any money with them?
• What is the reason people come to your store instead of another?
• What kind of promotions do you run throughout the week to entice people to come in?
• What kind of offerings do you have that would entice people to come in daily?
• What incentive do people have to keep shopping at your store?
• How much time and effort have you put into the layout of your store?
• Is the staff (i.e. your family) trained to upsell, downsell, cross-sell?
• How many people visit your store per day, per week, per month?
• What is the average spend per customer?
• How many times can you expect to see someone per year?

You may think I'm beating you over the head -- but this is business. You have to know this stuff especially in a business that has low margins, high competition, and there are people like Wal-Mart who figured out the formula only some 50-60 years ago to make it explode.

Is your store good enough to be a Wal-Mart in 50 years? 20 years?

@Kung Fu Steve
Thanks a lot for your replies man.
I guess your questions are in place and are very accurate.

I believe when I made this topic I was surrounded by a lot of family members and friends who brought me down big time and de-motivated me in the past month even though I'm usually way more positive than the tone you heard in my first post.

That's why I believe this forum is super important to be honest because of people like @Kung Fu Steve where even though I didn't get the answer that I wanted, he gave me the super motivation to go back at it and search for answers from people who have business experience and eventually I did find it.

So I guess I would like to thank all of you have taken the time to reply to my thread and provide help!

I would like to share something that I heard that helped me come up with my next plans and take me out of my 'phase depression' which might be useful for people who might be in my shoes:

DELEGATE
"An entrepreneur is NOT a manager"
"Once you got to a profitable level, you need to find someone to take care of your daily job tasks to focus on the bigger plan"

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[msufan]

you literally are sitting on a gold mine ... you have already list of good that sell the most

This exactly. Find a high-margin, easily-shippable product that you already sell but which you could also sell online for a premium.

 

[Kung Fu Steve]

@Kung Fu Steve
Thanks a lot for your replies man.
I guess your questions are in place and are very accurate.

My pleasure!

I believe when I made this topic I was surrounded by a lot of family members and friends who brought me down big time and de-motivated me in the past month even though I'm usually way more positive than the tone you heard in my first post.

No one can hurt you without your permission.

It's not what others say or do that will make you upset... it's how you respond to what they say or do...

Your job as the leader of the family now is to step up and take charge. Set the standard for how you'll behave and how to react to challenges!

DELEGATE
"An entrepreneur is NOT a manager"
"Once you got to a profitable level, you need to find someone to take care of your daily job tasks to focus on the bigger plan"

This is great.

The only thing I might say is timing is everything.

You might hit a profitable level but the business may not be prepared to run without you due to a lack of systems. (Books like the E-Myth will really help with that)

You're right that an entrepreneur is not a manager... but you may be forced to learn the skills of a manager to keep the business going (at least until you can find a better manager!)