FROM THE EDITOR: Growing & Change

Hey everyone!

Happy Spring! Can you believe it’s FINALLY here?! Being Chicago-area based, I can tell you that this felt like the longest winter ever… and literally, I think it may have been. So happy the sun is out and flowers are beginning to bloom!

Speaking of things blooming, how is your business growing lately? As a small business owner, I think it’s so important to constantly challenge ourselves to do more and change as necessary… aka grow. While this is just my humble opinion, I have found it to help me over the years and I continue to push myself to think of new ways to grow and bloom among the world of retail. Like most of my readers, I am also a small business owner – which means my work, dedication and efforts have to extend very far to find even a little success. It’s competitive out there, after all! But you know this already… I don’t need to remind you of competition!

Among the ways I have challenged myself to grow this year is to extend the Independent Retailer Conference – a Retail Minded event – to new cities, new places and new retailers. My team and I achieved this recently, having brought the Independent Retailer Conference to the show floors of the ASD Show in Las Vegas this past March. Nearly a month behind us now, I am still feeling the excitement of bringing this event to the show floors of one of the countries top trade shows. We had some great retail supporters join us, including SnapRetail, Vend POS, Shopify, ShoppinPal, Constant Contact, Independent Retailer Month, Retail Studio Effects, Tripar Displays, TradeMarks the Spot and many more. It was such a great experience! But what  I’m most excited about is the fact that we delivered over 55 educational sessions over the course of 4 days to ASD Show attendees! And possibly even more exciting is that thanks to ASD and our great sponsors, the IRC experience was totally FREE to registered ASD  attendees! A nice change from our flagship event, huh? After all, what retailer doesn’t like to save money?

We’re super excited to have successfully delivered this experience to a new audience of independent retailers, and are looking forward to doing it again this upcoming August at the summer ASD Show. Held in Las Vegas, the ASD Show will open it’s doors August 3-6, 2014 at the Las Vegas Convention Center, where I will also be on-site searching for great products and inventory for YOU to sell in your stores. Stay tune for more details about our upcoming IRC at ASD event, as well as a few other IRC events we have in the works that will be announced soon!

In the meantime, I hope you’re getting excited for the spring issue of Retail Minded Magazine, which comes out next week. Be sure to get on our digital or print subscription list to ensure you never miss a copy here!

And on a totally different change of tunes… life as usual remains busy on the home front. My son is 4 and my daughter is 5, so we essentially live with lots of noise, chaos and love all day long! The kids are super excited for summer, and who can blame them? I’m also looking forward to slowing down a bit come June and July to embrace some kiddo time, but naturally I’ll still work way more than anyone who has a traditional 9 to 5  job (only a fellow entrepreneur will get that!).  As for my mom – whom many of you have so kindly asked about lately – she is keeping strong and fighting hard against her battle with appendix cancer. She’s 4 weeks out since her last radiation treatment and while she is still on a feeding tube for nutrition, we are seeing some strength and lifted spirit in her. What a journey it’s been… just so fortunate I live close enough that I can be with her. We’re an hour away, but that’s nothing compared to states away… as I know many people have to deal with.

Finally, I look forward to staying connected in between issues and events via Twitter and Facebook! Be sure to check us out and more importantly, be sure to say hello! I always love chatting retail and hearing about what unique stores everywhere are up to or what they want to learn more about. We’re here to help, so just let us know!

Happy Retailing!

Photo Details: Here’s an overhead look at the Independent Retailer Conference space at the ASD Show from above. Our pop up stage had mini educational sessions every half hour, with break out sessions taking place just up the stairs, as well. Total, we delivered over 55 sessions in 4 days!