By Harry J. Friedman Founder/CEO, The Friedman Group

Owen Owner has a dream. He wants to start his own business and has given it much thought. He decides to take the plunge. He refinances his home and opens a retail store. His confidence in the potential success of his dream store outweighs his anxiety. He is a man on a mission. If he fails, he has a great deal to lose. If he succeeds, he has a great deal to gain. His very survival, and the survival of his family, is at stake.

Owen's enthusiasm and drive are contagious. He's in the store every day working twice as hard as everyone else and his dedication is inspiring. He insists that customers be served expertly and he is committed to doing everything in his power to make sales. The business booms. It's magic. Ten years later, Owen has 20 stores and two supervisors. But the magic is gone. Owen's personal influence doesn't reach every store manager and every salesperson as it did in the past. Owen's desire to bring back the magic is overwhelming. He wants desperately to duplicate the success of his very first store.

Owen's tale is not unique. Owners and supervisors can easily get caught up in chasing what was instead of recognizing what is and what can be. The factors that build a company are not necessarily the things that sustain it.

Unfortunately, you can't duplicate magic. You have to create new magic each time you pursue success in retailing. Just as Owen looked back fondly on the success of his first store, a supervisor often thinks about the good old days when they were a highly successful store manager. The advice and guidance they give to the managers they presently supervise is often based on the techniques they used to achieve success in the store they managed.

While much of your experience as a manager will be useful to you in supervising your managers, it's extremely important to remember that what worked for you as a manager then-in a particular location, with specific circumstances, in a certain economic climate, with a particular group of salespeople, during a certain growth phase in your industry-may not work in all of your stores now.

As a supervisor, you must recognize the unique factors that may affect a particular situation and open your mind to many options.

Think about parenting. One (brave) couple can have five children, but no two children are alike. Each child will require special attention based upon their personality, their health, and their rate of development. If one child is ill, the whole clan doesn't get medicated. If one child is musically inclined, the whole family doesn't get piano lessons.

Stores can be like children in a family. They're all related, yet they have particular needs and personalities based on a myriad of factors. To raise your stores to reach their greatest potential, they must also be assessed, nurtured and disciplined as individuals. With a little magic and a lot of attention to each store's unique attributes and needs, you can look forward to generations of success in all of your stores.