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40 www.thejewelrybook.com M A K E I T C O U N T I N D U S T RY N E W S As you read this, I hope you are doing so, having enjoyed a successful holiday season. The indicators through mid- December—as I write this—look positive: more than 800 retailers (according to data from the Edge Retail Academy) show a 6-percent increase over the same peri- od last year. Even as we see less of our annual sales coming from the fourth quarter, there is still a heavy reliance on those fi nal weeks to make the year's numbers shine. Under- standably, that has a way of focusing minds, but it also heightens anxiety levels and imparts unintended nega- tive consequences on business. For as long as I can remember, retailers go into a no-new- initiative mode from September through the end of the year. Despite the many aspects of the business that need to be rethought, the obsession with bringing the year to a successful conclusion puts everything else on hold. While somewhat of a moratorium is understandable in the year's fi nal weeks, it can also serve as a psychological path- way to procrastination. What you may actually be saying is you'd rather not deal with necessary changes, seeing the holiday season an excuse for inaction. The beginning of a new year is the best time to identify and target an important change you have been delaying. It is also the best time to work on your business instead of just working in it. Maybe this is the year you seriously rethink hiring prac- tices. You can, it should be said, make a hugely important transformation with just one single new hire by using that person as a stepping-off point toward reshaping your team. This might be the year that you rethink your approach to marketing. Perhaps you need to move a few more steps away from traditional media toward social media. Maybe you've been meaning to assign someone to drive this tran- sition, but just haven't gotten around to it. If you put off making tough decisions in a misguided effort to rid yourself of the albatross of carrying nonperforming inventory through yet another Christmas, hoping it would correct itself, this could be the time to act defi nitively and turn it into cash. Whatever tops your to-do list, the time has never been better than right now to take action. The longer you wait, the more you risk it being placed on the back burner yet again as the end-of-year cycle draws near once more. Robert Cialdini wrote in Infl uence, The Psychology of Persuasion, "Our best evidence of what people truly feel and believe comes less from their words and more from their deeds." It's easy to become overwhelmed when considering long to-do lists, but selecting just one important initiative and making a solid plan to address it can be a terrifi c way to break out of the malaise and make a real difference in your business. Happy New Year! Peter Smith Peter Smith is an industry veteran with more than thirty years in both retail and wholesale. The Irish native is the author of two books, Hiring Squirrels, 12-Essential Interview Questions To Uncover Great Retail Sales Talent and Sell Something, Principles and Perspectives for Engaged Retail Salespeople. Smith is a columnist for National Jeweler, where he writes on the retail experience, and a contributing columnist for Centurion Sales Newsletter and World Diamond Magazine. His column on the Future of Retail Stores was named by National Jeweler and JCK Online as one of the best articles of 2016. Smith is president of VIBHOR, a US. manufacturer of high-quality private-label core diamond essentials. He previously spent 11 years as executive vice president of Hearts On Fire and 8 years in sales and opera- tions management with Tiffany & Co. He has a BA from Boston College and he is a graduate of the Key Executives Program at the Harvard Business School. It's the Beginning of the Year – Make it Count BY PETER SMITH

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