Retail entrepreneur

Retail entrepreneurs organise business processes and concepts in his/her personally owned business.

The duties of a retail entrepreneur include, but are nit limited to:

• Managing the store staff and their scheduling
• Managing relationships with suppliers
• Product sourcing and building a product assortment
• Merchandising the store
• Managing the store’s profits and losses
• Paying the bills and managing cash flow
• Driving traffic to the store through partnerships and marketing efforts
• Managing inventory levels and taking corrective actions when needed
• Growing the business and managing its expansion
• Reading and analyzing the different retail reports

Retail entrepreneurs typically work long hours, often more than 50 hours per week. They may travel to meet with clients or suppliers, or to attend trade shows or conferences. Because they are responsible for the overall operation of their business, they may have to work on evenings and weekends to complete paperwork or catch up on work that they were unable to do during regular business hours.

Retail entrepreneurs often have a great deal of stress in their work, as they are constantly trying to meet deadlines, make a profit, and keep their employees happy.

The following job titles also refer to retail entrepreneur:

retail business developer
retail business entrepreneur
shop keeper
retail trade entrepreneur
retail product developer
retailer
retail business transformer
shopping entrepreneur
retail innovator
retail experience entrepreneur
entrepreneur
retail sales entrepreneur

Although there is no specific educational or experiential requirement to become a retail entrepreneur, a high school diploma is highly recommended as a minimum. Course work in business administration is helpful, as is previous experience in the retail trade.

As the business environment gets more and more competitive, many people are opting for an academic degree in order to get more training. A bachelor’s program emphasizing business communications, marketing, business law, business management, and accounting should be pursued. Some people choose to get a master’s in business administration or another related graduate degree. There are also special business schools that offer a one- or two-year program in business management. Some correspondence schools also offer courses on how to plan and run a business.

Many retail entrepreneurs have extensive experience in their industry. Retail entrepreneurs can also receive training through seminars and conferences.

ISCO skill level is defined as a function of the complexity and range of tasks and duties to be performed in an occupation. It is measured on a scale from 1 to 4, with 1 the lowest level and 4 the highest, by considering:

• the nature of the work performed in an occupation in relation to the characteristic tasks and duties
• the level of formal education required for competent performance of the tasks and duties involved and
• the amount of informal on-the-job training and/or previous experience in a related occupation required for competent performance of these tasks and duties.

Retail entrepreneur is a Skill level 2 occupation.

These occupations, although different, require a lot of knowledge and skills similar to retail entrepreneur.

shop supervisor
sales assistant
shop assistant
checkout supervisor
hotel butler

These occupations require some skills and knowledge of retail entrepreneur. They also require other skills and knowledge, but at a higher ISCO skill level, meaning these occupations are accessible from a position of retail entrepreneur with a significant experience and/or extensive training.

trade regional manager
department store manager
supermarket manager
shop manager
accommodation manager

This knowledge should be acquired through learning to fulfill the role of retail entrepreneur.

• Commercial law: The legal regulations that govern a specific commercial activity.
• Law of obligation: The legal procedures that regulate the rights and duties arising between individuals.

These skills are necessary for the role of retail entrepreneur.

• Guarantee customer satisfaction: Handle customer expectations in a professional manner, anticipating and addressing their needs and desires. Provide flexible customer service to ensure customer satisfaction and loyalty.
• Identify suppliers: Determine potential suppliers for further negotiation. Take into consideration aspects such as product quality, sustainability, local sourcing, seasonality and coverage of the area. Evaluate the likelihood of obtaining beneficial contracts and agreements with them.
• Implement marketing strategies: Implement strategies which aim to promote a specific product or service, using the developed marketing strategies.
• Study sales levels of products: Collect and analyse sales levels of products and services in order to use this information for determining the quantities to be produced in the following batches, customer feedback, price trends, and the efficiency of sales methods.
• Set up pricing strategies: Apply methods used for setting product value taking into consideration market conditions, competitor actions, input costs, and others.
• Analyse data for policy decisions in trade: Analyse data about a specific company, retailer, market or store formula. Process all gathered information into a corporate plan, and use it to prepare upcoming policy decisions.
• Perform customers’ needs analysis: Analyse the habits and needs of customers and target groups in order to devise and apply new marketing strategies and to sell more goods in a more effective way.
• Manage staff: Manage employees and subordinates, working in a team or individually, to maximise their performance and contribution. Schedule their work and activities, give instructions, motivate and direct the workers to meet the company objectives. Monitor and measure how an employee undertakes their responsibilities and how well these activities are executed. Identify areas for improvement and make suggestions to achieve this. Lead a group of people to help them achieve goals and maintain an effective working relationship among staff.
• Recruit employees: Hire new employees by scoping the job role, advertising, performing interviews and selecting staff in line with company policy and legislation.
• Monitor company policy: Monitor the company’s policy and propose improvements to the company.
• Negotiate sales contracts: Come to an agreement between commercial partners with a focus on terms and conditions, specifications, delivery time, price etc.
• Organise product display: Arrange goods in attractive and safe way. Set up a counter or other display area where demonstrations take place in order to attract the attention of prospective customers. Organise and maintain stands for merchandise display. Create and assemble sales spot and product displays for sales process.
• Manage financial risk: Predict and manage financial risks, and identify procedures to avoid or minimise their impact.
• Plan marketing campaign: Develop a method to promote a product through different channels, such as television, radio, print and online platforms, social media with the aim to communicate and deliver value to customers.
• Develop business case: Gather relevant information in order to come up with a well-written and well-structured document that provides the trajectory of a given project.
• Handle financial overviews of the store: Monitor the financial situation, analyse the store’s sales figures.
• Ensure compliance with purchasing and contracting regulations: Implement and monitor company activities in compliance with legal contracting and purchasing legislations.
• Implement sales strategies: Carry out the plan to gain competitive advantage on the market by positioning the company’s brand or product and by targeting the right audience to sell this brand or product to.
• Perform project management: Manage and plan various resources, such as human resources, budget, deadline, results, and quality necessary for a specific project, and monitor the project’s progress in order to achieve a specific goal within a set time and budget.
• Supervise sales activities: Monitor and oversee the activities related to the ongoing sales in the shop to ensure that sales goals are met, assess areas for improvement, and identify or solve problems that customers could encounter.
• Build business relationships: Establish a positive, long-term relationship between organisations and interested third parties such as suppliers, distributors, shareholders and other stakeholders in order to inform them of the organisation and its objectives.
• Provide customer follow-up services: Register, follow-up, solve and respond to customer requests, complaints and after-sales services.
• Control of expenses: Monitoring and maintaining effective cost controls, in regards to efficiencies, waste, overtime and staffing. Assessing excesses and strives for efficiency and productivity.

This knowledge is sometimes, but not always, required for the role of retail entrepreneur. However, mastering this knowledge allows you to have more opportunities for career development.

• Accounting techniques: The techniques of recording and summarising business and financial transactions and analysing, verifying, and reporting the results.
• E-commerce systems: Basic digital architecture and commercial transactions for trading products or services conducted via Internet, e-mail, mobile devices, social media, etc.
• Competition law: The legal regulations that maintain market competition by regulating anti-competitive behaviour of companies and organisations.
• Market pricing: Price volatility according to market and price elasticity, and the factors which influence pricing trends and changes in the market in the long and short term.

These skills and competences are sometimes, but not always, required for the role of retail entrepreneur. However, mastering these skills and competences allows you to have more opportunities for career development.

• Maintain relationship with customers: Build a lasting and meaningful relationship with customers in order to ensure satisfaction and fidelity by providing accurate and friendly advice and support, by delivering quality products and services and by supplying after-sales information and service.
• Examine merchandise: Control that items put up for sale are correctly priced and displayed and that they function as advertised.
• Operate cash point: Count the money; balance cash drawer at the end of the shift; receive payments and process payment information; use scanning equipment.
• Carry out cross merchandising: Place a particular item in more than one location within the store, in order to attract customer attention and increase sales.
• Order products: Order products from suppliers after deciding on the required amount of stock needed.
• Maintain relationship with suppliers: Build a lasting and meaningful relationship with suppliers and service providers in order to establish a positive, profitable and enduring collaboration, co-operation and contract negotiation.
• Create annual marketing budget: Make the calculation of both the income and expenditures that are expected to be paid over the coming year concerning the marketing related activities such as advertising, selling and delivering products to people.
• Comprehend financial business terminology: Grasp the meaning of basic financial concepts and terms used in businesses and financial institutions or organisations.
• Keep records of merchandise delivery: Keep records of goods deliveries; report discrepancies to control costs in order to maintain correct inventory levels.
• Ensure point of sale material availability: implement and monitor all activities related to the equipment and materials available at point of sale.
• Check deliveries on receipt: Control that all order details are recorded, that faulty items are reported and returned and that all paperwork is received and processed, according to the purchasing procedures.
• Maintain financial records: Keep track of and finalise all formal documents representing the financial transactions of a business or project.

5221 – Shop keepers

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References

1. Retail entrepreneur – ESCO
2. Store Owner: Duties, Salaries & Advantages – Retail Dogma
3. Business Owner Job Description: Salary, Duties & More – Climb the Ladder
4. Retail Business Owners – Firsthand.co
5. Featured image: Photo by Microsoft Edge on Unsplash