emsbronco
Member
- Reaction score
- 12
- Location
- Wayland, NY
Last year was absolutely crazy. Overall increase in sales and was doing great until my mother feel ill and passed away. I spent the last two and a half months of 2014 going back and forth to NYC (5 and a half hour drive) and spent more time there than home. Needless to say, as a one person shop, it had a dramatic impact on sales. Despite that, my overall gross sales for the year was up 19%. My shop was open during that time - the arrangement I have with my in-laws (who run the neighboring embroidery shop) is to help cover each other's counter as needed. I was home working on systems on the bench for 2 days and spending the other 4-5 days down in the city.
That was my wake up call - I needed to hire someone. I was burning out all year to begin with, then to see the huge drop in sales when I was unable to be in the shop drove it home. The business was at a point where I needed to expand. So, I hired a entry level bench tech that started Jan 1st for 16 hours a week. I was surprised at the fact that I only got 2 resumes for the job posting. But, the lady that I brought on has retail management experience and passed the A+ a few years ago, but no real documented current experience. That is OK, since I was able to show her my processes and she handles all the repetitive jobs and can talk to the customers properly while I work on the more complicated tickets and do more on-site work now.
One side effect of having my new employee is that I not only do not have to deal with the basic cleanups that I have been swamped with, I have been able to spend time cleaning up the shop, getting better organized, and I redid my retail space. My shop is the cleanest it's been in 3 years and I have already received compliments on how much nicer my retail space looks. I have also reduced the turnaround time on in-shop tickets to 1-2 days down from 4-5+ days.
Due to my free time, I decided to purchase a new set of counters. My old counters were dark wood and hobbled together (trying to save money). I did some shopping and found this set of counters on ebay for $679 shipped. It included a 4' cash wrap, 4' display case, corner display, and 2' POS station. I did have to spend 4 hours assembling them, but it was about $300 cheaper than anywhere else, not counting the freight shipping costs. I had an old black pegboard square rack that was in the middle of the space that I moved to a wall with new white pegboard (to go with the color scheme). I painted the retail space 2 years ago to brighten things up, but just didn't have the capital or time to redo everything else. Now, the counters match the paint scheme and it looks much brighter and better organized.
I still have to clean up a few things behind the counter, but that won't take me long, now that I have time to work on the business instead of in the business.
Here's some pics of how it looks after the new counters are in:
Front counter - as you walk in the door. the low shelves have marketing materials - data sheets on Ricoh printers, Lenovo data sheets, etc. The pole in the center is structural, so I had to work around it.
Cash Wrap, Corner and glass display case:
The new pegboard wall for parts and wires, from behind the back counter. Yes, we have a couch for customers to use ;-)
The ink and toner section. These shelves are great for what I need, just wish they were white. For now, this will do since it is neat and organized. Changing them over to white or green will be down the road.
The shelves behind the counter are for finished tickets. I have a counter in back by the work area for intake and my workbench itself has 12 stations that we rotate around. I am thinking of painting the finished ticket counters either green or white to match the rest of the shop, but that will wait until it's warmer out, so I can spray them outside.
What changes has anybody else done for the new year?
That was my wake up call - I needed to hire someone. I was burning out all year to begin with, then to see the huge drop in sales when I was unable to be in the shop drove it home. The business was at a point where I needed to expand. So, I hired a entry level bench tech that started Jan 1st for 16 hours a week. I was surprised at the fact that I only got 2 resumes for the job posting. But, the lady that I brought on has retail management experience and passed the A+ a few years ago, but no real documented current experience. That is OK, since I was able to show her my processes and she handles all the repetitive jobs and can talk to the customers properly while I work on the more complicated tickets and do more on-site work now.
One side effect of having my new employee is that I not only do not have to deal with the basic cleanups that I have been swamped with, I have been able to spend time cleaning up the shop, getting better organized, and I redid my retail space. My shop is the cleanest it's been in 3 years and I have already received compliments on how much nicer my retail space looks. I have also reduced the turnaround time on in-shop tickets to 1-2 days down from 4-5+ days.
Due to my free time, I decided to purchase a new set of counters. My old counters were dark wood and hobbled together (trying to save money). I did some shopping and found this set of counters on ebay for $679 shipped. It included a 4' cash wrap, 4' display case, corner display, and 2' POS station. I did have to spend 4 hours assembling them, but it was about $300 cheaper than anywhere else, not counting the freight shipping costs. I had an old black pegboard square rack that was in the middle of the space that I moved to a wall with new white pegboard (to go with the color scheme). I painted the retail space 2 years ago to brighten things up, but just didn't have the capital or time to redo everything else. Now, the counters match the paint scheme and it looks much brighter and better organized.
I still have to clean up a few things behind the counter, but that won't take me long, now that I have time to work on the business instead of in the business.
Here's some pics of how it looks after the new counters are in:
Front counter - as you walk in the door. the low shelves have marketing materials - data sheets on Ricoh printers, Lenovo data sheets, etc. The pole in the center is structural, so I had to work around it.
Cash Wrap, Corner and glass display case:
The new pegboard wall for parts and wires, from behind the back counter. Yes, we have a couch for customers to use ;-)
The ink and toner section. These shelves are great for what I need, just wish they were white. For now, this will do since it is neat and organized. Changing them over to white or green will be down the road.
The shelves behind the counter are for finished tickets. I have a counter in back by the work area for intake and my workbench itself has 12 stations that we rotate around. I am thinking of painting the finished ticket counters either green or white to match the rest of the shop, but that will wait until it's warmer out, so I can spray them outside.
What changes has anybody else done for the new year?
