Auntie Kate The Resale Expert

Have trouble keeping track of unusual happenings in your shop?

I am the world’s worst filer but I’ve figured out where to put all those exceptions to regular business (the woman who talked you into a refund then never stopped in to pick up her check, the man who swore he was going to pick up that sectional tomorrow three months ago, the customer who’d be perfect for the first weekend job opening you have):

The Exceptions File!

Oh I know, that’s probably not worth a big bold headline, but believe me my Exceptions File now allows me to have what seems to strangers “a great memory”…when really I can’t remember my own phone number.

Other indispensable files: Pending (but only is it’s gone through and acted on/ refiled/ tossed at least once a week) and of course the omnipresent Receipts for Tax Purposes.

Not files, but organizational tips to save time and sanity:

* Business check stubs hold ALL important info. For example, my stub to SleezySam’s Wholesale Hosiery has the invoice number and the stuff I bought and his address, web site, address the check was mailed to.

* A daily journal (see more about this indispensable aid to business in the Manual) that includes all sorts of things. Not just the daily figures and the weather and whatever promo I’m running, but the fact that Mrs. Olympio’s birthday is May 3 (until I can enter it into my mailing list for the monthly birthday card mailing) and that Consignor #3244 is the s-in-law of #1288 (seemed important at the time. Hmm.)

* Markdown chart. Have the shirts been marked down this week? Why is everyone skipping marking down the belts? And why doesn’t Cyndy ever seem to do her share of the marking down?

* Shopping list. So when I go to the warehouse club I can make it worthwhile. If staff takes the second-to-last red pental out to do those markdowns, they add red pentels to the shopping list.

* Time to Get More sheets: in the stack of quick-copied consignment agreements, the box of How To Consign brochures, and rubber-banded around the third-to-last box of pricetags, a brightly-colored sheet reminding us that it’s time to reorder that item.

Little tee-tiny tips, but ones that might just help you work more smoothly and enjoyably.