As we approach the second anniversary in our new location
and four years of being in a new state, it was a good time to look at what we’ve
accomplished. Mind you, I did not just
come up with the idea of doing this; quite the opposite.
I am a therapist by profession. I have spent many years working in direct
client contact, managing programs, managing people and training others on how
to deal with problem employees, how to assess clients, how to deal with crises,
how to prevent suicide, and many more topics.
I delved into the retail world about five years ago when I met my
husband and he had a retail store in Tracy, CA.
Things evolved and we decided to add e-commerce to his
business in preparation of moving the business to my home state of Oklahoma,
which we did, about four years ago. I
had never run a business before. He had
the knowledge of our products: Vacuum
Cleaners, Floor Cleaning Machines and Cleaning Supplies (although we took a
turn toward Natural & Sustainable after I came on board), so we decided my
contribution would be managing the business side of it. OK, less decided and more just evolved.
All this is to say I was immersed in a world I was really
not prepared for. Running a retail
business is hard. Expanding into
e-commerce is harder. Moving to a new
state and having the economy take a big downward spiral just a few months after
we opened in OK was nearly more than we could tolerate. I could go through many scenarios of things
that went wrong, including once when our website quit working for several
weeks, but the specifics are not as important and it is to say, many things can
happen when you are running a business and many of those things happened to us.
At this point in our business we were struggling to have
enthusiasm, even though we were planning to have an anniversary celebration at
our store. Then, I came across Liz Strauss’s
http://www.lizstrauss.com/2010/10/10/everyones-business/when-will-you-stop-to-claim-all-you-already-own/
Wow! Did I need to
hear that! I immediately sent a copy of
the blog post with a note, to the other staff members at our company and said, “Wednesday
will review. What has VacShack.com, Inc.
accomplished in the last 24 months?”
It was a very productive meeting and all staff members
were able to list some accomplishments, including:
o Moved
to a better location
o Added
Kitchen Product Lines
o Added
two new Vacuum Cleaner Product Lines
o Up-graded
our Point of Sale Software
o Started
a second website, highlighting our local store www.acleanerplace.com
o Up-graded
our e-commerce website-to-shipping software
o Began
a television ad campaign
After we went through the exercise of looking where we
had been, we decided to bring back a technique we had used when we first opened
in OK. We keep a whiteboard “Wish List”
for the company. This includes
short-term and long-term goals for equipment, benefits, directions that we
would like to see for the company. We
would periodically review it; see what we accomplished, what we want to keep
and what we want to add. It helps to
have a visual aid, to let employees know their voices are being heard and for
them to think they have a part in deciding in which direction the business is
going.
Having a retail business is a struggle every day, especially
for the small business owner. We feel
fortunate every month that we are able to pay our bills and keep our doors
open. It is hard to remember that and
hard to remember to see what we have accomplished and celebrate our
success. I believe people are put in my
life for a reason and I believe being pointed to Liz Strauss’s blog was no
accident, but something I needed to read and put into practice. Thank you Liz and thank you Twitter!
In the Oklahoma City area shop www.acleanerplace.com
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