Over The Counter

The Home Straight?

Pride, worry, hope, uncertainty, anger, belief and tiredness are just a few of the words that come to mind as I write this. It does feel though that we are taking a bit of a kicking. Whether it be about Christmas cards being printed in China, the Royal Mail strikes or the common thread from people like Martin Lewis questioning whether folk need to buy that card or present.

This is normally the home straight. This is normally when we are always a little worried that the tills will ring, but secretly at the back of our minds we know that it always comes.

There is always that ‘switch’ when people say, “It’s Christmas” and the cards get bought, the gifts get bought and they will worry about paying for it all in the New Year. This year however it is different. I have heard lots of discussions among families, mine included, saying that we won’t do this or that. Obviously, Santa needs to come and the food needs to be bought but token gifts and more sensible purchases may be the order of the day.

We are all tired of hearing about energy costs, interest rates, recession, taxes and a million other negative things. We couldn’t even enjoy celebs in the jungle eating animal parts without being reminded of how out of touch with reality our politicians are. Yet somehow through all this mess we are supposed to run a business, pay staff, pay our suppliers and hope that there is something left for us.

Indeed, all of the above was born out by questions a new staff member asked customers in our recently opened dedicated Christmas shop this past weekend.

Off her own back she wanted to see why the spend was not as we hoped.

Some of the answers she heard were “it doesn’t feel like Christmas”, “we can’t believe it’s November already”, “we don’t have the money this year but love looking at what you have” and “the shop is beautiful, but I wouldn’t pay £5 for a card or bauble.” Our new building on the beach should have been built and open by now. We bought Christmas stock in January and February with the belief it would be and instead we had to do a ‘Matt Hancock Pivot’ and convert the front area of our beauty business back into a retail space, resulting in the opening of our dedicated Christmas shop.

When I look at all the stock we have selected from companies both old and new quite simply I love it. The way that we have merchandised it in all our stores is as good as we ever have done in what is our 34th year of selling Christmas. I have never been more proud of the work my mum and our team have done to get the shops looking as they do and now.

I love our Christmas windows, the sugar canes, sweet tree, the soft pastel pink and gold angels, the dark navy colourway and of course the Gonks. I especially love the Belly Button wrap, the Five Dollar vintage range, The Art File charity collection and Woodmansterne relations cards.

We just have to hope that members of the public will venture out and spend as quite simply the High Streets across the land need it.

As well as the general economic challenges, we also have those associated with being located in the town centre with car park charges, empty buildings, business rates and even distance from car to store in bad weather all influencing resultant sales.

Destination retail, where you park for free at the door, seems to get stronger all the time and I have yet to hear any politician showing that they really understand or care

Above: Bijou’s new dedicated Christmas shop. Left: Giant candy canes add to the Christmas feeling in Bijou. Below: The Art File’s charity Christmas boxes are a standout for David.

about the challenges that we face in the high street.

In a column written by Michael Glakin on 20 November in The Sunday Times, our First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon and her deputy John Swinney were described as ‘despising wealth creators’. Now those are strong words but in many respects that is how it feels. I am angry at politicians and the way that they constantly are changing things, leaving us to pick up the pieces. It feels that they think business can just absorb everything.

I feel like I have been on my soapbox for months now. I have almost made it a personal crusade to highlight the issues facing small business in as many ways as I can. This has included meeting with my

MP, speaking to our Chamber of Commerce and a few weeks ago I got to meet Louise Macdonald OBE, the interim Director-General of Economy for the Scottish Government.

Having the opportunity to sit in a room with the main lady shaping economic development in Scotland was something I could not turn down and I found her a very engaging and understanding person. She came from a modest background like most of us and had actual real world experience, unlike the vast majority of politicians.

I asked all kinds of questions about banks, the differences in the support between Scotland and the rest of the UK, business rates, sustainability and many other things. She answered what she could and promised to go back to speak to banks about points I raised around furlough money, loans and availability of funds. She also wanted to feed back the input I and others gave directly to the First Minister. My fear is that she is only in post for 11 months and we will then have the previous person back, who came straight from University, to the role with little real world learning.

Louise Macdonald insisted on going out and meeting business people across Scotland, doing a mini tour of each region. This went against the grain of civil servants wanting her to simply look at questionaires/data collected. Thank goodness she realised the only way to hear the reality was to get out there.

A bit like our impromptu survey, sometimes things are difficult to hear, but hear them you must.

It is also difficult to shake the idea from friends and family that actually owning your own business does not mean you can create your own schedule, tailor work around your life and have lots of cash. Quite the opposite. Recently I have been leaving early and getting back late sometimes not seeing my six month old son. That is the reality of just now and I speak to so many business people who are simply tired. It has been a hard three years with little respite.

As small business owners we want to achieve. This year it would be easy to focus on our building project that didn’t happen, but looking to the positives, we have completed the building works in our other Pozzis, revamped the store next to Bijou Elgin to make it into our seasonal space and are steadily rebuilding the trade after Covid.

We have continued to develop our offerings and I can see clear things that need to improve next year with the website, staff training as well as purchasing and stock holding.

In Jake Humphrey’s High Performance Podcast series that I listen to as motivation, each episode always ends with the three non-negotiable things that you need for a high performance life.

I have never put mine down on paper before, but here they are…

My first is to be dedicated. I class this as what I do best. I turn up every day with the mindset to work hard. Sometimes this is to my detriment, but I will always lead by example, answer that message, try to help and if I have said I will do something my commitment will always be there. The problem is that I expect that from those around me as well and not everyone is as committed, as to them, it is a job whereas with mum and I these businesses are our life. I have to accept that. Secondly, I am honest to the point that it can hurt me. I don’t shy away from saying how I feel and I would never say anything about someone that I would not say to their face. Honesty allows you to build respect, trust and it encourages people to come with you on the journey.

Thirdly, I believe I will always find a way. My mum has said I am like a dog with a bone and have been since I was a child. No matter how many times things look like they may not work, I keep going and going until I get there. It may take longer, it may be a different outcome, it may mean some hard choices, but I will always find a solution of some sort.

So, in summary hard work, honesty and resilience. If I had a fourth it would be to always listen to some Bruce Springsteen every day while walking the dog. Both of which are keeping me sane right about now…

I hope everyone has a fantastic Christmas with friends and family and that the tills ring long and loud!

To contact David email: jppozzi@btconnect.com

Left: David’s bonnie wee bairn, Hudson. Below left: Louise Macdonald (second left), Director-General of Economy for the Scottish Government is keen to hear how it is. Below right: Some festive messaging from Bijou. Bottom: One of the podcast series which motivates David.