Search me Brian. No idea. She cannot renegotiate rents, or cost of goods, or minimum wage, or store refurbishment costs. She cannot set retail prices or margins. She cannot force customers to go and spend money in certain establishments. So indeed - what exactly can she do? If I had anything to do with it, I would consider the following: 1. Take a look at long standing and successful businesses around the Chiswick High Road (there are a few, including some independents). Ask them if they would share their operating principles with other (newer) retailers. Maybe the way they manage cashflow, or negotiate rents, or control stock, or do local marketing. Maybe there are things that the newcomers can learn from the old boys. 2. Get a couple of local banks (business accounts) to host a monthly workshop for small businesses, going through the principles of forecasting, stock management, factoring, debt structuring, accounting... 3. Find a local brand / retail marketing expert and see if they might give some coaching to local businesses on how to raise their profile a bit. 4. Enlist the help of local forums like this one to see if there is anyway they can help local business. 5. We have a lot of very successful / experienced business people living in Chiswick. Maybe the local trade association could convene monthly dinners / round tables, and get some of these residents to share their experience of how successful small businesses have done it. 6. Would such people consider joining a local "Trade Association" as advisors, on a "Non Executive" basis? I'm sure a lot of people would be willing to give some time pro bono to help advise small local businesses. A bit like School Governors, for example. 7. Do we have representation for local business at our Chiswick Local Area Forum? People like Sam Hearn and John Todd are very active  in helping and supporting local people and I am sure they would be willing to explore possible ways the our local Councillors might be able to offer help or support. 8. And so on. These are just of the top of my head. Maybe the Town Centre manager is already working on a list of ideas like this, and we will all find out about it soon.

Entire Thread

Topic	Date Posted	Posted By
Rachel Victor-Sampson	20/03/15 12:24:00	Brian Coyle
Re:Rachel Victor-Sampson	20/03/15 12:37:00	Dan Murphy
Re:Re:Rachel Victor-Sampson	20/03/15 15:02:00	Ken Munn
Re:Re:Re:Rachel Victor-Sampson	20/03/15 15:06:00	Anita Blake
Re:Re:Re:Re:Rachel Victor-Sampson	21/03/15 08:07:00	Ken Munn
Re:Re:Rachel Victor-Sampson	20/03/15 15:03:00	Brian Coyle
Re:Re:Re:Rachel Victor-Sampson	20/03/15 15:28:00	Dan Murphy
Re:Re:Re:Re:Rachel Victor-Sampson	20/03/15 16:23:00	Colin Jordan
Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Rachel Victor-Sampson	20/03/15 16:39:00	Elizabeth Jane Daley

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