Let’s say your store is a sail boat. Once you have it completely decked out and set your destination, would it be OK to enjoy a glass of wine and take a nap? While the nap might be enjoyable, not paying attention while guiding your store will leave you in areas you didn’t want to go to.
Obviously, sailing a boat requires constant updates to the steering and the sails to compensate for the wind and currents if you want to actually arrive at your planned destination. These course corrections will insure that you wind up in the right place rather than trying to figure out how you wound up where you did.
Retailing is very much like sailing a ship. The only thing you can be sure of is that everything will constantly change. Having a solid open to buy plan is a great first step, but your open to buy must allow you to evaluate what has happened each month and allow you to make revisions as you go forward. Only then can you expect to actually reach your desired goals.
A month is the best unit of time for making management decisions. Anything less is not long enough to generate real information, and anything longer gives you a great chance of getting in trouble. So, at the end of each month, your open to buy system should show you the results of the past month in terms of sales, beginning inventory and turnover (actual vs. projected) and allow you to make revisions based on the trends you’re seeing. If your open to buy system will not make these revisions or if you ignore your opportunity to do so, you will not get to your intended goals.
MYOTBPLAN.COM is built around making these revisions to keep your buying right on target, raise your turnover, reduce your markdowns and improve you cash flow. Keeping your boat spic and span won’t get you to your destination and keeping your store neat, with great displays and terrific personnel won’t grow your bottom line. Buying that is on target by responding to your open to buy plan will keep you on a direct course to achieve your intended financial goals.