Analyze From the Inside

In looking to where your business needs to go (and grow), outside factors like the economy can have an impact, but you also have to look within. As we've noted earlier, identifying your strengths and weaknesses is a critical component of success. David Peters, Jewelers of America’s resident education and management expert, says you must put your business under a microscope.

Peters recommends taking the following steps to analyze your business:

1. Identify the factors that give you a competitive edge -- and be honest and realistic about it.
2. Consider the abilities of your current staff in relationship to meeting future goals, not just maintaining current status quo.
3. Examine all business relationships -- landlord, security, insurance, merchandise vendors -- and determine if different agreements or new providers would strengthen your business position.
4. Evaluate your current strategies toward buying, pricing, marketing, advertising and merchandising for effectiveness.