Here’s a Teeny Tip from Too Good to be Threw, Products for the Professional Resaler Snow still eating into your shop’s traffic?
Great!
Here’s a task you can do, on and off, until you have a finished
Policies and Procedures Manual
for your current or potential staff. As you do (or run through, in your mind, if the weather’s keeping everyone away today!) each task, write it down, step by step, in detail. Such as
- Greet incoming supplier
- Take items from her/him
- Remark on how good she/he must feel to have sorted out some underused possessions
- Verify consignor’s number. Double-check that all groupings are clearly labeled with correct number…
and so on. This is a good start on your policies and procedures manual.
Next, you might want to work on your employee manual, where you set down your expectations and duties of staff. Resources for this: Some generic information is linked on the TGtbT Links Page.
If the whole issue of managing, training, and overseeing staff is something you could use some help on,
TGtbT has two Products for the Professional Resaler to help.
Team Work: Staffing your Store We took the out-of-print Staffing your Store, we added triple the information you need to run a shop with the help of staffers or volunteers, and we made it all easily-accessible and easy to implement. 34 pages of information for the new-to-being Boss to the old pro who wonders why the shop’s employees are not as thrilled to be at work … nor as productive… as she is. If there’s ever anyone helping in your shop besides you…this book will help them, you, and your business become better!
Resalers’ Resource List: Your Employee Handbook This list of Internet resources will guide you in creating your Employee Handbook, where you can formalize your expectations for your employees and what they can expect from you. An employee handbook covers such things as perks, hours, business mission and professional deportment. An Employee Handbook is not a store policies handbook nor a job description resource (Note: This Resource List is FREE to HowToConsign.com Treasured Sponsors. Please email me directly if you don’t have this yet!)
Not in the mood to do this Teeny Tip?Choose another! More Teeny Tips for consignment, resale, and thrift shops. Or add YOUR Teeny Tip here by commenting!
OMG, I have been struggling with this for so many years. It’s so much in my head, and I keep writing it into all these documents, I have about 10 of them, all unfinished. Last year my goal was to have a rough draft before Dec. 31, 2010. Well, in December I started to write a few more things down…!!! Then I had a staff meeting on Sunday, and was completely paralyzed by my employees…telling me that I under value them, etc. AND I WAS IN SHOCK…
let me tell you, the last thing I would think is that I undervalue my employees….but you know what? It is in the absense of written expectations and documentation of how to complete a task that this all arises. I am madly writing now, and trying to get the most basic of drafts out, and continue to expand and grow the documents. New hire today, she is getting a package of handbook, training phases, wage structure, etc. I feel good.
Please, Please, Please do this before you fall into a desparate situation as I have.