Thieving Kea is a small, family-owned gift store in Wānaka. We have owned the business since 2018 and, during that time, like so many independent retailers, we have experienced our fair share of challenges.
In December 2019, Lake Wānaka flooded, significantly affecting our town and local businesses. Only a few months later came the COVID-19 pandemic and everything that followed – closed borders, disruption to tourism, difficulties accessing products, staffing pressures and the many other challenges that are simply part of running a small business.
Our approach to these challenges has always been relatively simple:
Embrace the reality, assess the risk and then pivot.
But importantly, we don’t believe a pivot needs to mean turning your business completely upside down.
We call our approach the 5% Pivot.
Change doesn’t always require massive movement. Sometimes the most effective changes are small, considered adjustments – perhaps just 5%. Make the change, review it, measure the result and then decide whether to keep moving in that direction.
In business, it is very easy to become stuck in the “this is what has always worked” mindset. Sometimes you need to look sideways, turn your thinking upside down and challenge what you’ve always done. You’d be surprised at the ideas that can come from simply looking at your business differently.
Serving People Is Our Business
We believe one of the biggest reasons Thieving Kea has successfully navigated the challenges of small business is our business model and, in particular, our approach to service. Our philosophy is that we are only able to operate a successful business, earn a good living and employ other people because we serve others. And we take that responsibility seriously. We serve with happiness, positivity and confidence.
When employing our team, our decision is based roughly 90% on attitude and 10% on experience.
We can teach someone our systems. We can teach product knowledge, merchandising, stock management and the day-to-day operations of retail. What we cannot teach someone is how to be a good human. We look for people who are naturally warm, interested in others, positive and genuinely enjoy helping people. Those qualities are at the heart of the experience we want to create at Thieving Kea.
Creating the “Wow”
We genuinely care about the people who walk through our doors. We think of them as our shop guests rather than simply customers. We welcome them, invite them to browse and let them know we are there if they need us. We don’t want people to feel pressured into making a purchase.
When someone does choose to buy something from us, whether it is a small item or a significant purchase, we treat that purchase as special. We offer complimentary gift wrapping using carefully selected papers and beautiful packaging. There is no charge. It is simply part of the experience.
Our aim is to create a little “wow” moment.
We don’t rely on constant discounts or special deals to bring people through our doors. Instead, we invest in the experience we give them. Because ultimately, people remember how you made them feel.
Our People
Staffing is one of the greatest challenges facing any small business, and we certainly haven’t escaped those challenges. However, we have also had the privilege of employing a team whose members have historically stayed with us for a minimum of two years or more. In an industry where staff turnover can be high, we are particularly proud of that. We believe it says something about our company philosophy, our culture and the way we treat the people who work with us. That doesn’t mean everything has always been easy.
We have experienced some very challenging staffing situations, and this is an area where Retail NZ has
been invaluable to our business.
Our Retail NZ membership has genuinely been one of the best investments we have made.
On two particularly difficult occasions, we accessed their HR support and received practical advice and guidance that helped us navigate situations we would have found extremely difficult to manage alone. More importantly, we didn’t simply use that advice to solve the immediate problem. We took the tools and processes Retail NZ gave us and incorporated them into the way we operate our business. We continue to use them today.
We cannot speak highly enough of this service and the reassurance of knowing that, as a small retailer, expert advice is there when you need it.
Small Changes Can Create Big Results
Eight years of owning Thieving Kea has taught us that small business will never be without challenges. There will always be something – economic conditions, weather events, staffing, product supply, changing tourism patterns, increasing costs or challenges we haven’t even thought of yet.
We can’t control all of those things. What we can control is how we respond.
For us, that means refusing to become stuck in “this is how we’ve always done it.”Instead, we ask: What happens if we change this by 5%? Then we make the change, measure it, learn from it and decide where to go next.
Sometimes that 5% doesn’t work. Sometimes it leads us somewhere completely unexpected. And sometimes a very small change becomes the beginning of significant growth.
Our experience has taught us that you don’t necessarily need to reinvent your business to move it
forward.
Sometimes you just need to pivot 5%
Rebecca Roberts
Thieving Kea
Wānaka, New Zealand
A big thanks to Rebecca for sharing Thieving Kea’s story!
