Let Me Introduce Myself.
I’m Kath Stonehouse, the founder of The Retail Toolkit.
I’ve had over 25 years experience in small business and the retail sector, and have spent my career building and scaling my own businesses, both retail and wholesale, as well as working with and heading up national retail franchises as a Marketing and Brand Manager and, most recently, General Manager. This background has given me a deep understanding of the retail industry and small businesses from all angles and I know what it takes to succeed. I’ve built my skills and knowledge on experience and I’m equipped to help others navigate their own business challenges as well.
I love the strategic challenge of small business. To me, it’s a bit like a chess match. Just like the game, the business needs to keep advancing so you take time to plan a move, making sure to know the objectives and predict the likely outcome. Only then do you take action to see what happens and from that move, you decide on the next.
In working with small business owners, and from my own experience, I’ve developed an approach of ensuring that change and growth is undertaken in a controlled and manageable way. This reduces risk and maximises success and importantly, ensures that continuous improvement is achieved without putting undue demands on the owner and their resources.
My aim in founding The Retail Toolkit is to build a valuable resource that small business owners can tap into as they need. When you’re in business, you don’t have time to waste and so you need the tools at your fingertips so that you can move on to whatever is next.
The Retail Toolkit will continue to grow as we keep adding more resources, templates and strategies and advice. If you subscribe to our fortnightly email, you can stay up to date as we keep adding tools to The Retail Toolkit.
Have fun in your business!
Kathy
Find out more about my business career on Linkedin.
Have you wondered why you’re not seeing lots of images of me all over this website?
It’s not because I’m hideously ugly or that I’m a dentist so I can’t show my face on tv. Are you old enough to remember that ad?
It’s for two reasons really.
You don’t need to see photos of me pretending to point at things or leaning up on something totally irrelevant wearing an outfit that colour coordinates with the brand. That’s not my vision for The Retail Toolkit. Anyway, it’s not about me, it’s about you!
When you jump on to The Retail Toolkit, I want you to see practical business tools, tips and advice. I want you to learn new things, have a chuckle at something I’ve said, and be inspired to consider new ideas. It’s what my business brain can offer that’s of value, not whether I am good at photoshoots (which I’m not).
The second reason is that, one of my favourite services to offer to business owners in Perth and the south-west of Western Australia is a Strategic Mystery Shop. It’s incredibly valuable, but not much good if the people in the store can recognise me when I go in undercover. I really don’t want to have to wear dark glasses and a fake moustache. So, I’m trying to stay incognito…at least for the moment.
Since I’m not going to show you photos of me quite yet, I will share some of the beautiful south-west region of Western Australia. And, just for my own self-indulgence, I’ve included Shelby, my four-legged shadow. She’s the ‘life’ in my work-life balance.
