How Was Your First Fiscal Quarter of 2016?

The First Quarter is Closed: Now is the Time for Reflection to See How Business is Going and to Set New Goals and Plan Successful Results

At the time of writing, the first quarter of the fiscal year is closing on December 31st—right on time for New Year’s resolutions. In the pet franchise, business moves fast and as a shop owner, it is always important to take a step back, reflect, and make improvements.

 

You will need to figure out how your business plan is coming along, what goals came to fruition, and if any alterations need to be made.

 

The criteria to make these inspections boils down to improvements and goal-setting in marketing, finances, and technology. See where your holes are, then strategize filling these holes in the latter two-quarters.

 

This pet franchise article acts as a guideline to help new shop owners and veteran shop owners alike make reflective decisions to continue the pathway of a strong pet franchise unit.

Marketing Goals

 

Ask yourself, what goals did I set for my shop, and did these goals get accomplished? Goals are circumstantial and contingent on a shop’s territory, local demographic, and strategy, but are the important part in identifying your shop’s strengths and weaknesses.  

 

Did your community outreach yield the results you wanted for back-to-school, holiday seasons, and if so, how will you continue these effective strategies into the slow retail season?

 

Since Splash and Dash Groomerie & Boutique is retail and service based, recurring revenue streams will bolster the slow retail season. If a shop did strong marketing during the holidays the slow inevitable retail season will not be an issue.

 

If you did observe problems in your marketing or did not quite reach the goals you set for your shop, what changes can you make?

 

Is more research in customer appeal needed in your area? Do you need to tweak numbers to make promotions more enticing? What reasons would prospective customers have for patronizing a competitor over your shop? How can you calibrate for a consumer’s reasons and counteract this reasoning to attract more patronage?

 

Even when Splash and Dash Groomerie & Boutique are breaking records in sales, there is always room to improve.

 

Technology

 

Splash and Dash Groomerie & Boutique is fortunate enough to have state of the art terminal software which allows shop owners and managers to track point of sales and employee goals easily.

 

Take at a look at your numbers in the terminal system. Are you seeing the results you want?

 

For example, a shop owner might want to improve in shampoo ad-ons like the Pinkberry and Blueberry facials. If you see that these ad-ons are not happening in sales, what can you do to change this?

 

Another way to use the terminal software to make business decisions is to analyze the Key Performance Indicators (KPI). Work with your staff to make improvements that are quantifiable. When employees can see the numbers in front of them they are more able to make improvements to boost their KPI. This can help incentivize employees which leads mutually beneficial expansion.

 

The terminal software technology allows each unit in pet franchise to make personal goals, and see goals reached in real time.

 

If improvements need to be made, shop owners can see the numbers needed to make comprehensive changes for staff that are less abstract and more helpful than general suggestions.

 

Financial

 

One of the most active places to make pragmatic change is  in your back-office financial division. This is where the first assessments on profitability take place in a pet franchise. Calculating your initial net profit, overhead, and inventory costs will help shop owners move forward, keener to what works and what doesn’t.

 

Observing this before the books close may help you to avoid a potential surplus in inventory, make adjustments in training, or up the ante in your local marketing.

 

Close your books in a timely manner to help forecast the last two-quarters of the fiscal year. Even before the books are closed shop owners can review the reports in the terminal software to closely monitor how their shop is doing.

 

As part of the Splash and Dash Groomerie & Boutique pet franchise, this is all at a shop owner’s disposal is part of the many tools provided for financial success.

 

Goals; Moving Forward

Whether you are a seasoned veteran of the Splash and Dash family or just opened your doors, it is important to be proactive on all fronts of your shop’s business.

 

Understandably, being a small business owner is a balance between daily, monthly, and annual tasks. A good way to achieve this balance between big picture tasks and daily tasks is to set goals.

 

Goals help define problems and arrange solutions both in short and long-term ways and are imperative for the success of any pet franchise.

 

Happy New years!