The Gray Cat Blog
A comprehensive collection of blogs designed to assist small business owners and multi-unit operators.
As you have probably gathered from reading my other articles, I am a firm believer in planning for success. Whether it is operational excellence, de-branding a store or outlining your procedures and p...
There comes a time in every multi-unit retailer’s business cycle that they want to launch a new product that requires a reconfiguration to their store. I am not talking about a raze-and-rebuild, but r...
Whether this is your first industry convention or you are a seasoned pro, I am a firm believer that establishing a well-thought out plan in advance of attending an industry convention is key for optim...
Evaluating new sites for the multi-unit operator can be a daunting task.  The operator is constantly chasing a number of potential opportunities only to have a few select sites come to fruition.  Comp...
Come on, admit it. You wish you were a better networker. Fear not, it is time to unleash your inner networker.
Networking is one part art and one part discipline and while there is more than one way ...
Convenience store operators continue to plunge into foodservice with the hopes of stemming the tide of lower margins with high-margin foodservice offerings. While the degrees of foodservice can vary g...
Recently, I spoke at the Florida Petroleum Marketers Association on Developing a Winning Foodservice Strategy and the same holds true – foodservice is where it’s at in the convenience store industry. ...
With every passing day, month and year, better for you foodservice options continue to infiltrate the convenience store industry.  Slowly but surely, the convenience store industry is broadening its f...
Over my career I have worked with a number of organizations where making inroads into certain verticals (industries) was critical for our success. Whether you target the banking, healthcare, automoti...
In honor of “Emily the Cat” (the original gray cat from which the company name was created), Gray Cat Enterprises (along with new puppy, Bogey, in picture) makes its annual holiday donation to two non...
The movie industry has been doing this for years. Â With a screenplay in hand, a movie production house pulls together a team of production specialists including grips, gaffers, boom operators, etc. t...
Raise your hand if you had the word “pandemic” in your strategic plans – and like that, the world quickly changed. While convenience stores were spared total closure during the lockdowns and volumes w...
