Are You Fixing The Right Problem?
Sears started as a mail order catalog in 1892 and became a major market disruptor to local general stores.
The general stores had a very small selection and sold high priced goods on credit to local farmers.
By 1894 the Sears Catalog was up to 322 pages carrying everything from bicycles to sporting goods.
They continued to see rapid growth and by 1895 their catalog was up to 532 pages with sales of over $750,000!
1925 saw the opening of the first Sears retail store and by 1989 Sears was the largest retailer in the US.
In 2010 that number grew to 3,555 stores, despite financial troubles. Today as I write this Sears has 594 stores with plans to close at least 39 in 2018.
The former retail power house has seen 24 quarters of comparable sales declines in a row and is currently losing over 1 billion a year.
They’ve sold lots of real estate and major brands, like Craftsman, to keep the company alive but it’s clear, they’re on life support.
Last summer they made a deal to sell Kenmore appliances and DieHard batteries on Amazon, a true sign of the times.
..so.. what happened?
Like playing a bad game of Monopoly Sears has been selling their best assets for years without addressing the real problem.
They sold the retail credit card operation to Citibank, spun off Orchard Supply Hardware and even sold their ticker symbol (the letter S) to Sprint, that they held since 1910.
Building a business is not a straight line, you’re always going to have ups and downs. When you have downs it’s important to know how to identify them so you can fix the right problem.
Tomorrow at 1PM Pacific, 4PM Eastern, I’m going to show you the framework for understanding how to properly grow your business.
It’s a quick presentation followed by an open Q&A.
This isn’t your standard 1 hour webinar ( “Ain’t nobody got time for that!” ) we’ll likely be done in 30 minutes but I’ll stay and answer questions as long as people have them.
Want to join me? Just say the word.