Boosting the bottom line through workshops

With the retail trade being one of the sectors that has been hit hardest by the downturn in the economy, ACIST Skillnet and Ennis Chamber are providing a workshop series entitled Boost the Bottom Line – A Profit Margin Workshop Series.
The series will take place on four consecutive Wednesdays in May from 6.30pm-9.30pm in the Temple Gate Hotel.
The aim of the workshop series is to assist business owner/managers to protect and increase profit margins and to create awareness of areas that profit margins may be lost.  The workshop series will cover profit margins within a business that has employees, products and a premises such as any form of retail business. However, many of the principles of profit margin will apply to all businesses.  The series is targeted at owner/managers, supervisors and decision makers within a business.
The first workshop will take place on Wednesday, May 9 on the subject of increasing sales.  On Wednesday, May 16, the workshop will cover how to reduce expected costs with the third workshop on Wednesday, May 23 dealing with how to reduce unexpected costs.  The final workshop on Wednesday, May 30 will deal with managing and maintaining margins. 
The workshop series will be delivered by Cryptic Retial, a newly established Clare-based business that provides a one-stop shop for all retail support, services and training to small and medium retailers.  Training will be provided by the founders of Cryptic Retail Ireland, Ian and Jennifer Brennan, who have over 20 years of experience in the retail trade in various senior positions with a range of national and international operations.
Speaking about to the workshops, CEO of Ennis Chamber, Rita McInerney said, “There are over 20,000 food and non-food retail businesses in Ireland employing 240,000 people. 
“The majority of these are small-to-medium-sized enterprises who have invested heavily in their businesses in recent years.  Retailers make up a high proportion of the businesses in Clare and Ennis and have responded to the decrease in consumer spend by cutting prices where they can while the retail market has shrunk by over one fifth in value terms since 2007. 
“However, the cost of running a retail business has not fallen to the same extent due to uncontrollable overheads.  Therefore, the retail sector must be assisted and supported in order to survive and we believe this workshop is an ideal opportunity for retailers to gain this guidance.”
There is a subsidy towards the cost of the workshop and owners/managers, supervisors and/or decision makers can attend one, two, three or all four workshops.
To book a place, contact Ennis Chamber on 065 684 2988 or info@ennischamber.ie.