For most businesses, closing all of its stores and making more than 200 redundancies would be a sign of irreversible decline and systemic problems at the heart of the organisation.
However, Greater Manchester's musicMagpie defied convention in 2018, which its chief executive and co-founder has branded the "most emotionally difficult but easiest commercial decision" he has ever had to make, and has recently completed a float on the London Stock Exchange's AIM market and is worth more than £200m.
Steve Oliver, who set up the Stockport firm with Walter Gleeson, has spoken exclusively to BusinessLive about the company's journey from closing its stores, focusing on sustainability, the reasons for going public and how that happened through to his plans for the future and adding hundreds of jobs over the next three years.
Coming off the back of the IPO, Mr Oliver is keen to "get back to the day job" of running the company he helped start in his Hazel Grove garage in 2007.
"It's been an incredibly intense process over the last six months and I'm just waiting for a lull in the business to catch my breath but that hasn't seemed to happen just yet.
"We've been thinking about floating for about three years now but when we originally talked to investors, they were worried about the retail estate and where that sat in our business model.
"We realised that in order to grow the company we needed to get rid of that element so I took the most emotionally difficult but easiest commercial decision to close all of our stores."
The move in 2018 saw more than 30 shops disappear from the High Street and in excess of 200 employees leave the business.
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"Some dear friends and people who had been with me since day one left at that point but if we did not make that move then, we would be in a very different position now", Mr Oliver added.
Moving solely online and focusing on increasing the sustainability aspects of the business, musicMagpie started to edge closer to the IPO, with Mr Oliver's personal and professional confidant Andy Westbrook, practice senior partner for Deloitte in Manchester, advising that 2020 was the year to take the plunge and go public.
"The process started in about September/October time last year when brokers came and pitched their services to us and we had to make a very difficult decision about which firm to go with."
Choosing Peel Hunt and Shore Capital, the firm announced its intensions in April and completed the move later that month.
Speaking about why going public was the right move for the company, Mr Oliver said: "It's all about the ability to raise growth capital.
"I know there are many different ways to do it but for us, an IPO seemed to be the best way to do that.
"Our plans for the future require us to raise growth capital and now that we are listed, that will be easier for us to do."
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One of the reasons why the company needs additional funds is its new subscription service which sees customers rent phones directly from musicMagpie instead of from a mobile network provider.
Another is to tackle what Mr Oliver calls the company's "biggest competitor": leaving old devices in draws".
"Expanding the business and getting our name out there costs money and we are battling against people's habits of leaving old tech in a draw and forgetting about it.
"That's why we have partnered with the Co-op and Asda and rolled out easy-to-use kiosks where you can drop your old tech off instead of having to post it.
"It's about making the process as easy for the customer as possible."
One of the new kiosks is based at a small Co-op store in the Heaton Moor area of Stockport where Mr Oliver lived until he was ten.
The family then moved to nearby Heaton Mersey where his dad ran the local Post Office.
"Partnering with Asda and the Co-op was a very important move for us.
"Young people now have a better understanding of where their local supermarket is than their Post Office.
"Our plan is to continue to expand this service to more locations across the country."
musicMagpie is part of a trend, sped up by the Covid-19 pandemic, of retailers ditching their own High Street stores and partnering up with supermarkets to share space and save money.
Timpson, the family-owned shoe repairs, key cutting and locksmith company headquartered in Manchester, has been partnered with Tesco for many years while Pret a Manger recently announced it will trial opening its concessions in Tesco supermarkets after seeing a drop in demand as more people work from home.
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"It's a fascinating market dynamic which has definitely been sped up by the pandemic.
"People enjoy shopping online but there is still that massive demand of shopping in person so we need to be where is most convenient for our customers", Mr Oliver said.
Now that the IPO is completed, Mr Oliver's eyes have turned to the future and where he sees the business in the next few years.
As well as growing the 海角视频 business, its US operations, which currently account for 30% of group revenue is high on the agenda.
Branded Decluttr in the US on account of many US states not having any magpies, the arm is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia,.
"The market is absolutely massive over there and if we can get the same market share in the US as we do in the 海角视频, it would be transformational for us."
Mr Oliver also outlined plans to increase the company's headcount from c.750 to more than 1,000 over the next three years.
The group's financial situation is also very healthy, after it raised more than £100m in its IPO.
Its revenue surged 16.7% to £153.4m in its most recent financial year while its gross profit jumped 47.3% to £44.8m and its adjusted EBITDA more than trebled to £13.9m.
"It's a really exciting time for the company and this IPO has really set us in good stead to realise these growth ambitions."
But it's not just about being financially successful that Mr Oliver is focused on.
"It's really important that we keep sustainability at the heart of what we do.
"We have found that this issue is really important to our customers and by us recycling old tech, refurbishing it and then selling it on, we are recycling a product which otherwise would have just on into landfill.
"The company is trying to do everything it can to make a positive impact on the environment and focusing on sustainability is one of those ways."