by Stacey Carroll, Contributing Writer

I worked in retail for about 10 years. Five of that I’ve spent as an assistant manager. Managing retail employees brings with it its own challenges and rewards, and it takes a specific skill set to be successful as a retail manager. Here are the five most important skills of a retail manager:


1. Listen

The most important skill a retail manager can bring to the table is the ability to listen. Retail employees come from a variety of backgrounds; poor, middle class, educated, uneducated. As a manager, you have to be able to listen to all of their stories, ideas, issues, and complaints without being judgmental. You have to be able to offer advice and consolation. You have to be able to detox them from their home lives and focus them on the tasks at hand.


2. Communicate

The second most important skill a retail manager can bring to the table is communication. With communication comes motivation. You have to be able to speak positively and clearly, provide guidance and instruction. These things are paramount to getting the job done. An employee many not understand why a specific shelf needs reset. It is the manager’s job to explain why the shelf is being reset, how it will be reset, and what the end goals are.


3. Be Visible and Approachable

A retail manager must also be visible and approachable. This means being out on the sales floor. If an associate has a question or concern, they need to be able to find the manager without searching the entire store. Most of the questions a retail manager receives are time sensitive.


4. Be Knowledgeable

A retail manager must also be knowledgeable. They have to know their job, but they must also know every other job in the store and be able to explain it, train it, and troubleshoot it. At my last position, we often had problems with the photo software and printer. Assessing the situation quickly was paramount. We always had a long line of customers waiting to see their photos. A paper jam had to be fixed within a matter of minutes. A missing photo had to be found within the same timeframe. Since I was the manager, it was my job to fix it as quickly as possible.


5. Be Helpful

Finally, a retail manager must be willing to help with any task. My own personal motto has always been “I will not ask an employee to do anything that I would not be willing to do myself.” This includes taking out the trash, cleaning bathrooms, resetting and stocking shelves, and running cash registers during times of high customer volume. It speaks volumes to both employees and customers when a manager is willing to do even the most remedial of tasks.

Author Bio:

Stacey Carroll is the author of the thriller series - Avia.  She also authors the paranormal erotica series - The Blooddoll Factory. Stacey grew up in Indianapolis, Indiana. she went to college at Indiana State University (ISU) and graduated with a Bachelor's degree in aerospace in the professional pilot program. She has flown Cessna 152s, Cessna 172s, the Pipe Seneca and the King Air. She also graduated with a minor in computer science that specialized in web design.

She has always been interested in reading and writing, and the first book she was ever read was the Grimms Brother's Fairy tales. From the ages of 6 to 11, she read the Nancy Drew series. By the age of 11, she had graduated to Stephen King novels. A few of her favorites include Carrie, Tommyknockers, The Dark Tower Series up to book 3 (That's where it stopped in the late 80s/ early 90s), Pet Semetary, The Shining, Night Shift, The Stand, It, Cujo, Christine, The Eyes of the Dragon and Thinner (Richard Bachman). In her teen years, she moved on to Anne Rice and got through about four of those books before they degraded. If you've ever read Anne Rice, you know book 5 isn't readable. Stacey has read a couple Harry Potter books as she was introduced to them in the early 2000s, and she's never read or watched anything Twilight or 50 Shades. Sorry. I'm a vampire purist, and nothing needs to be said about the latter. You already know.

She is currently an author and freelance writer. She received an honorable mention in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine in 2008 for a short story entitled The Field. In 2014, she was published in 13 Stories by Us by MacKenzie Publishing.

Other books by Stacey

• AVIA II
• AVIA Memories

by Stacey Carroll, Contributing Writer

There are numerous ways to start and run a business. Some ways cost more than others. For my own business, I had no budget and no money. This meant that I had to be very creative when it came to start up costs.

No Outside Office

While I would love my own office in an office building, typical rates for a small office in my area are $18 a square foot. That's $5400 dollars a month for office space not including furniture or equipment. Instead of renting an office, I looked at my living room, rearranged the furniture, took the dining room table out to the storage closet, and made due with the space I had in my home.

No Employees

I am my only employee at the moment. That doesn't mean I won't need an employee in the future, but until I have more income than I need and more work than I can handle, I don't need an employee. The lack of an employee saves me $290 dollars a month at minimum wage, not counting the employment taxes I would spend if I hired an employee.

Office Furniture

When I decided to start my business, I had one computer desk and my computer took up the entire desk. I went out and bought another small computer desk for $40 dollars so that I would have a place to spread out and organize my papers.

Backup Computer

Six months into my business, I realized that I need a new computer, but instead of buying a new computer at a retail store, I enlisted the help of my father who can build computers. Instead of spending $600 on a new computer, he built me one for $200 which is a savings of $400.

Existing Website

Prior to starting my business, I had a website, domain name, and hosting account that wasn't doing anything productive. In fact, I had barely set the pages up. Upon starting my business, I took the existing website and changed it to meet my business needs.

In the first six months of my new business, I spent exactly $240 dollars. Since I earned more than that, my business was profitable already. It's entirely due to the fact that I decided on a home office with my existing furniture and no employees other than myself. By doing those things, I have saved myself thousands of dollars in start up costs.

Author Bio:

Stacey Carroll is the author of the thriller series - Avia.  She also authors the paranormal erotica series - The Blooddoll Factory. Stacey grew up in Indianapolis, Indiana. she went to college at Indiana State University (ISU) and graduated with a Bachelor's degree in aerospace in the professional pilot program. She has flown Cessna 152s, Cessna 172s, the Pipe Seneca and the King Air. She also graduated with a minor in computer science that specialized in web design.

She has always been interested in reading and writing, and the first book she was ever read was the Grimms Brother's Fairy tales. From the ages of 6 to 11, she read the Nancy Drew series. By the age of 11, she had graduated to Stephen King novels. A few of her favorites include Carrie, Tommyknockers, The Dark Tower Series up to book 3 (That's where it stopped in the late 80s/ early 90s), Pet Semetary, The Shining, Night Shift, The Stand, It, Cujo, Christine, The Eyes of the Dragon and Thinner (Richard Bachman). In her teen years, she moved on to Anne Rice and got through about four of those books before they degraded. If you've ever read Anne Rice, you know book 5 isn't readable. Stacey has read a couple Harry Potter books as she was introduced to them in the early 2000s, and she's never read or watched anything Twilight or 50 Shades. Sorry. I'm a vampire purist, and nothing needs to be said about the latter. You already know.

She is currently an author and freelance writer. She received an honorable mention in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine in 2008 for a short story entitled The Field. In 2014, she was published in 13 Stories by Us by MacKenzie Publishing.

Other books by Stacey

• AVIA II
• AVIA Memories

by Stacey Carroll, Contributing Writer

Being self-employed has its rewards. I can sleep as late as I want. I can go to the gym when and how often I want, and I can take care of family obligations on the fly. Doing those things means a lot to me, but since I am self-employed, I have to be careful with my budget. This means that I have to plan ahead for equipment failures, and the most important piece of equipment in my office is my computer. Unfortunately, I only have one desktop computer. If it breaks, I can’t earn any money.


Plan ahead for equipment failures

Once I ordered a refurbished computer from Staples. It was exactly what I needed for a backup computer; full sized case, expansion slots, 1gigabyte of ram, 250 gigs of hard drive space, and a Pentium 4 processor. I ordered it Monday night. It arrived Friday which was perfect. I had scheduled my main computer to go to my brother for the weekend for a total refurb.

I pull the refurbished computer out of the box. I plugged it in, connected the keyboard, mouse, and my extra monitor. I turned it on. The fan started spinning immediately. I noticed right away that it sounded like a 737. If I had a TV, I would not have been able to hear it over the sound of the fan. Strike one against the refurbished computer.

I waited for the computer to boot and tell me something, but the monitor reflected nothing and went to sleep. I turned off the monitor and turned it back on. No signal. I put the XP disk in the computer drive and rebooted. I waited. The refurbished computer never booted, and due to the noise of the fan, I couldn’t tell if the hard drive was working at all. I doubted it was since it had been clanking around in the case during shipment.

I had to take the computer back to Staples. It didn’t work. Had I needed that computer right then, I would have been running to Walmart to buy their cheapest desktop which runs around $298.00. The price difference between the refurb and the cheapest computer at Walmart is over $100 dollars. That’s $100 wasted.


Find someone who can fix it

If my computer were to break, I could take it to my brother and he can fix it. However, it might take him a week to diagnose the problem, fix the computer, and get it back to me. I can’t wait a week for a new computer, but it’s nice to know that my brother can fix it, and he’d do it for the cost of parts and lunch.


Find someone who can build it

Since I didn’t need the backup computer right then, I called my dad who can build computers. We’re estimating the costs at $250 - $300 dollars. It’s still a significant savings considering my dad can build me a computer with more power than the cheapest computer at Walmart for about the same price. Since my main computer is still functioning, I’m not in a rush to get the second computer. I can wait for my dad to build me a custom computer.

By planning ahead and buying an extra computer now, I am saving myself time and money. I won’t lose money due to loss of income, and I won’t be forced to buy the first computer I come across if my main computer breaks.

In short, I’m saving money by thinking ahead. I know my main computer is three years old. I have noticed that it takes longer and longer to reboot it. Eventually, it’s going to break. Sudden breakages are time consuming and result in the loss of productivity. Plus, if you’re in a bind, you’ll be tempted to pay more for the item you need. I’m taking the initiative and planning for future breakages buy buying an extra computer now.

Author Bio:

Stacey Carroll is the author of the thriller series - Avia.  She also authors the paranormal erotica series - The Blooddoll Factory. Stacey grew up in Indianapolis, Indiana. she went to college at Indiana State University (ISU) and graduated with a Bachelor's degree in aerospace in the professional pilot program. She has flown Cessna 152s, Cessna 172s, the Pipe Seneca and the King Air. She also graduated with a minor in computer science that specialized in web design.

She has always been interested in reading and writing, and the first book she was ever read was the Grimms Brother's Fairy tales. From the ages of 6 to 11, she read the Nancy Drew series. By the age of 11, she had graduated to Stephen King novels. A few of her favorites include Carrie, Tommyknockers, The Dark Tower Series up to book 3 (That's where it stopped in the late 80s/ early 90s), Pet Semetary, The Shining, Night Shift, The Stand, It, Cujo, Christine, The Eyes of the Dragon and Thinner (Richard Bachman). In her teen years, she moved on to Anne Rice and got through about four of those books before they degraded. If you've ever read Anne Rice, you know book 5 isn't readable. Stacey has read a couple Harry Potter books as she was introduced to them in the early 2000s, and she's never read or watched anything Twilight or 50 Shades. Sorry. I'm a vampire purist, and nothing needs to be said about the latter. You already know.

She is currently an author and freelance writer. She received an honorable mention in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine in 2008 for a short story entitled The Field. In 2014, she was published in 13 Stories by Us by MacKenzie Publishing.

Other books by Stacey

• AVIA II
• AVIA Memories

by Stacey Carroll, Contributing Writer

Profitability is a big issue when it comes to small businesses. On average, it takes five years for a small business to turn a profit. That’s a long time to run in the red. It’s also a long time to go without a paycheck. When I started my small business, I needed it to be profitable from the very beginning. What I didn’t need was for it to pay all my bills immediately. It simply needed to not cost me anything or at least not cost me more than anything else I buy.


Home Office

Most small businesses start in home offices or in the garage. It’s space that’s already being paid for through rent or a mortgage. Cars can be parked outside. The space inside the home can be rearranged to accommodate a home office. In contrast, an outside office can cost as much or more than a rent or mortgage payment. Using a home office is an immediate savings of $500 or more. Since I don’t have an extra bedroom, my living room is set up as an office. My other option was setting up my bedroom as an office and my living room as a bedroom. Since I don’t want clients or guests walking through my bedroom to get to my office, I didn’t set it up that way.


Business Website

There are still free websites out there. However, all of them include ads in some form whether they are on the right side of the page or delivered as popups. Those ads can be annoying to potential customers, but as a small business, free is free.

I used an existing personal web account and changed the page and website link to reflect my business instead of my personal hobbies. Since I was already paying for the website, I incurred no extra costs.


Business Cards And Flyers

I print my own business cards and flyers. A pack of business cards from Walmart or Office Depot cost between $5 and $14. A pack of brochure paper costs about the same. In contrast, paying a business to print them can cost upwards of $150 and typically require a minimum amount to be purchased. I print mine at home so that I can control how many blank sheets I buy and how many I print off at a time.


Advertising

Since I had no money for advertising, I use word of mouth and social networking to find clients. Facebook, Twitter, and Craigslist are awesome for finding clients who need my services and skills. Not to mention, they are all free.

Another way to advertise is through business cards and flyers. Business cards and flyers can be hung anywhere there’s a corkboard. Apartment complexes usually have them near the mailboxes. Certain restaurants such as Jimmy Johns and various coffee houses have them on the walls. All you have to do is visit the establishments and tack your card or flyer to the wall. I do recommend bringing push pins as there are always more pages stuck to the corkboard than available push pins.

A second way to get your business cards and flyers out is to visit neighborhoods. Anything put in a mailbox has to have a stamp, but flyers and cards can be put in the newspaper boxes or hung on the doors of homes. It takes more time to hang the flyers than it does to mail them, but at .50 cents a stamp, it’s worth it to make the drive into a neighborhood and hang flyers for a couple hours.

I spend about four hours a week canvassing neighborhoods for new business, and I almost always receive four or five calls for my efforts.

Author Bio:

Stacey Carroll is the author of the thriller series - Avia.  She also authors the paranormal erotica series - The Blooddoll Factory. Stacey grew up in Indianapolis, Indiana. she went to college at Indiana State University (ISU) and graduated with a Bachelor's degree in aerospace in the professional pilot program. She has flown Cessna 152s, Cessna 172s, the Pipe Seneca and the King Air. She also graduated with a minor in computer science that specialized in web design.

She has always been interested in reading and writing, and the first book she was ever read was the Grimms Brother's Fairy tales. From the ages of 6 to 11, she read the Nancy Drew series. By the age of 11, she had graduated to Stephen King novels. A few of her favorites include Carrie, Tommyknockers, The Dark Tower Series up to book 3 (That's where it stopped in the late 80s/ early 90s), Pet Semetary, The Shining, Night Shift, The Stand, It, Cujo, Christine, The Eyes of the Dragon and Thinner (Richard Bachman). In her teen years, she moved on to Anne Rice and got through about four of those books before they degraded. If you've ever read Anne Rice, you know book 5 isn't readable. Stacey has read a couple Harry Potter books as she was introduced to them in the early 2000s, and she's never read or watched anything Twilight or 50 Shades. Sorry. I'm a vampire purist, and nothing needs to be said about the latter. You already know.

She is currently an author and freelance writer. She received an honorable mention in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine in 2008 for a short story entitled The Field. In 2014, she was published in 13 Stories by Us by MacKenzie Publishing.

Other books by Stacey

• AVIA II
• AVIA Memories

by Stacey Carroll, Contributing Writer

Finding affordable phone service for a small office can be a daunting task. The first choice is to decide how many phone lines your office will need. If the need is less than 10 lines, chances are you can order your phone service over the internet. If it’s more than 10, you’ll have to call the phone company. I recommend calling the phone company either way. Sometimes, they have better deals over the phone than on-line.


Determine the phone service provider.

There are two main phone service providers: AT&T and Verizon. For land lines, only one provider will be available for an area. For internet phone lines, several providers may be available. I recommend calling several area phone companies and making a list of the available providers and services offered. From there, determine which providers you’d like to do business with and narrow the list.


Which type of phone system does your office need?

There are two main types of phone systems VoIP (Voice over the Internet Protocol) and POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service). POTS systems tend to be more reliable than VoIP systems or internet phone lines. The typical features of a POTS system include call waiting, voicemail, three way calling, 911, and speed dial. POTS lines can also be used to send and receive faxes.

A VoIP system uses the internet to make calls. They require a broadband internet service, computer, adapter or special type of phone, and may not be available in the event of a power outage. The types pf phone calls that can be made may also be limited by the service provider. Some only allow you to call other VoIP phones and computers or make local calls. Others allow calls to unlimited places and phone numbers. It is always best to check with the VoIP provider to determine who you can call.


To Bundle or Not to Bundle.

Depending on your office requirements and the cost, it might be cheaper to bundle the phone service with internet. When I called AT&T to determine prices for a 12 line office, the woman answering my questions stated that for just local and long distance the price would be $50 per line. If I bundled the lines with the internet, the price would be $40 per line. The cheapest internet package was $40. Since I needed 12 lines, it was cheaper for me to purchase the bundled package for a savings of $80 dollars per month.

Finding a small business phone provider can be a time consuming task. When I looked for providers, it took me four hours to determine which phone companies provided service to my area, another two hours to narrow my list, and 20 minutes on the phone with a customer service rep determining which plan would be right for my business. In the end I chose 12 phone lines with a bundled internet service for $520 dollars a month.

Author Bio:

Stacey Carroll is the author of the thriller series - Avia.  She also authors the paranormal erotica series - The Blooddoll Factory. Stacey grew up in Indianapolis, Indiana. she went to college at Indiana State University (ISU) and graduated with a Bachelor's degree in aerospace in the professional pilot program. She has flown Cessna 152s, Cessna 172s, the Pipe Seneca and the King Air. She also graduated with a minor in computer science that specialized in web design.

She has always been interested in reading and writing, and the first book she was ever read was the Grimms Brother's Fairy tales. From the ages of 6 to 11, she read the Nancy Drew series. By the age of 11, she had graduated to Stephen King novels. A few of her favorites include Carrie, Tommyknockers, The Dark Tower Series up to book 3 (That's where it stopped in the late 80s/ early 90s), Pet Semetary, The Shining, Night Shift, The Stand, It, Cujo, Christine, The Eyes of the Dragon and Thinner (Richard Bachman). In her teen years, she moved on to Anne Rice and got through about four of those books before they degraded. If you've ever read Anne Rice, you know book 5 isn't readable. Stacey has read a couple Harry Potter books as she was introduced to them in the early 2000s, and she's never read or watched anything Twilight or 50 Shades. Sorry. I'm a vampire purist, and nothing needs to be said about the latter. You already know.

She is currently an author and freelance writer. She received an honorable mention in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine in 2008 for a short story entitled The Field. In 2014, she was published in 13 Stories by Us by MacKenzie Publishing.

Other books by Stacey

• AVIA II
• AVIA Memories