Our beloved Fast Track Girl returns with more tales from her business...
Holiday Season
We began to prepare for the holiday season. Prior to opening we found a specialty bag business who helped us create custom bags with our store name on them and matching tissue paper. We needed to place a re-order for the busy season. Normally we need to allow 5 weeks for delivery but for the holidays they needed up to 2 months and they wanted half down up front. We were still "chasing our tail" and this was a huge expense for something we wouldn't have for another 2 months, nor was it product we could sell. But it was good marketing (we thought anyway) because customers love our name and save our bags, so it gets our name out there. We placed the order.
Our two main vendors informed us that we would need to place a manufacturing order for all product that we might want for the entire holiday season....immediately. It takes two months to get orders back from overseas manufactures and they close for the holidays. AND we had to pay for it all up front! If we didn't, they couldn't guarantee that they could keep up with our orders. Usually we order weekly or every other week and it arrives within a few days. I expected UPS delays but not product shortage! We negotiated a compromise of half down and borrowed money from a friend...at the buzzer....and agreed to pay him back, with interest at the end of Dec.
We weren't sure how much product to order because we've never done this concept before, nor have we had a store. Cart/kiosk concepts are more specialized and your vendor's stock up their own warehouses to accomodate you, it's a more seasonal type of business. But there's a formula for figuring out what you'll need based on your normal sales and we winged it from there. In the end it turned out we estimated it very well. I remember reading an article once that said never depend on one vendor for your entire product line because if they can't supply you you're in big trouble. I now have MANY vendors but that makes ordering lots of fun...NOT...being a store "buyer" is a lot of work. Laurin does it, she loves it.
Then we had to figure out how many employees we would need and start working on holiday schedules. The malls have extended hours during the holidays and we needed to to consider shift changes and breaks. We hired our crew and they turned out to be pretty great. We had a few bad ones but we got them out and replaced them quickly. We got the staff all trained and comfortable before it became busy. Also, had to write a few policies and procedures (rules) as problems would arise. It's pretty easy to get applicants in a mall at this time of year, so we had quite a few to choose from. We try to stay away from those under 18 though, the young ones never worked out too well for us overall.
As for payroll, we didn't want to do EVERYTHING ourselves, I was feeling pretty overwhelmed as it was, so we contracted out to ADP. I process payroll every 2 weeks for about $40-50 a payroll. They take care of all employee tax filings and take the money each payroll, so I never have it to use when things are tight and then end up in BIG trouble with the IRS. Also, ADP handled my worker's comp. insurance for just a few dollars a payroll depending on the amount of that payroll. Then they do W2's at end of year and make sure I'm compliant with relevant laws. When I had a cart someone referred me to a smaller payroll company who didn't pay my taxes for a quarter, they did eventually but I didn't want to risk it again. ADP and Paychecks (sp) are the two biggies and they didn't cost me anymore than the smaller guys.
We don't have a back room in the store, so we rented a small storage room in the mall and set up a workspace for receiving new inventory and storage of back stock. This way we were able to get price tags on items and inventory them in without customers trying to buy it before you even have it opened! It can be a real frenzy! I definitely didn't want to be hauling stuff back and forth from my home. That doesn't work too well during the holidays.
We worked out a lot of problems we had with our POS cash register system and with the way we had our understock organized. With some team brainstorming we came up with a way to re-organize understock that involved buying ring trays from a local jeweler's supply house and our employees did all the work for us. They did an awesome job and it's still organized the same way today.
More from Fast Track Girl tomorrow...
Fast Track Girl Part 1
Fast Track Girl Part 2
Fast Track Girl Part 3
Fast Track Girl Part 4