If ever there was a business where the need to be organized was paramount, it’s the consignment, resale, and thrift industry.
So getting and staying organized is a hot topic amongst resale shopkeepers. To give you some insight, we’ve gathered
How some Professional Resalers keep organized:
Peggy: I email the store from home with to do lists.
Deb McD: I call and leave myself a message!! I’m also an avid list maker-even if I forget the list, I can kinda visualize what I wrote down.
Jessica: If a lot of what you need is on a computer, PCAnywhere by Symantec is a life saver! It allows you to operate your store computer from home and vice versa.
Kate: A square-bottomed canvas tote plus a clipboard or plastic see-thru envelope for notes. That way, physical things and lists get where they are going. My staff knew to clip (with spring clothes pins) notes to me or to the tote rather than rely upon my remembering it in the middle of a hectic day. The tote’s square bottom meant it sat upright, easy to toss things in, obvious to remove and do something WITH whatever was in it.
Add a yearly diary. In it, record when you started planning your St Pat’s event, when you called Yellow Pages to change your ad, daily/ weekly/ monthly/ YTD sales figures, exceptional happenings (even name and phone of a customer who offered to help, had an in with a specific group, etc.) This diary functioned as a “Beat Last Year”, scheduling reminder, and contact database. I remember and think about things a lot better if I write them down rather than keyboard them.
Bonnie: Like Kate, I use a big tote bag back and forth from home to the store everyday. It usually goes full both ways – clothes that need washing, bills, notes get put in the bag all day. Then I deal with it when I get home, and start filling it up with stuff to go back to the store. My daytimer lives in the tote unless I am using it. Still, I always manage to forget something!
Janis: A “phone message book” that is in duplicate with a post-it note feature. I or employees write notes & phone numbers and take/send them home so I can remember to do stuff … and the copy is there at the store in case I forgot! I also keep old books to keep track of things. I have a tote bag/brief case that I carry the papers & bills back & forth. I use vinyl pencil cases for each day of the week – whoever closes will put the daily reports, receipts, messages and backup disk in them. Usually, it’s me who closes, but the idea is that anyone can keep up with all the daily stuff. I keep the past couple days at home and rotate them – each day has a backup disk, so I actually have 6 historical backups.
Connie: Go with a voice recorder. You can buy those for around $30. Also you could leave yourself or employees a voice memo on the answering machine. (That is, if your machine has this feature)
MarKay: My method is kind of primitive, but effective. I tape or staple a Post-It note around the handle of my purse.
My personal 2 Best Tips: Use a clear over-the-door shoe organizer bag to hold tagging and other back-room supplies.
And (promise you won’t laugh) I use clothes pins to clip notes to myself (well, my clothes, really) as I gallivant around the store.
Tip #2 1/2: Call yourself: when you think of something super-important, leave a message for yourself on your phone. Just don’t let anyone catch you doing it or you’ll feel really silly. Trust me. —Kate
These suggestions were taken from an older “survey” we did. Share YOUR stay-organized-in-your-resale-shop tips by commenting!
Auntie Kate The Resale Expert 
If you use gmail, create a google document with your usernames and passwords. Then they are available whether you are at home or at work. Bonus: If something happens to you, your family can access your accounts too.
Hey, thanks Your Stuff! Tell me why I never thought of this, I who juggles 4 different online identities every day! I’m gonna do this TODAY!
I love my phone to keep up with emails, receive texts from my staff, and post new items to Facebook. I can also make to-do lists on it.
http://www.logmein.com is awesome for logging into my store computer from any other computer away from the shop and it’s free!!
Neat Desk is also a cool prgram to scan ANY type of paper; business cards, receipts, etc to maintain paper messes.
I use You Need A Budget for budgeting-business and personal. Still trying to stay on top of this one!
I use binders to organize promotions and marketing information.
I also have a similar system to the yearly diary.
Organized is a life saver for me. I use my iPhone to keep track of appointments, quick reminders and phone numbers and email addresses. I can also answer emails from my phone and that is a huge time saver (anytime I have to wait in line at the bank or store) because I can preview furniture and answer questions. Two small white boards (like you would use in a locker) are next to my desk. I have one to list items to do in the month. The second is for daily to do lists. I try not to carry items home, unless it is critical. I find that I don’t do what I take home, probably because my brain is fried and I need the down time.
Because the weather is such a factor in our part of the country I use LogMeIn (It is free) to connect with my pc at the shop. That way if I can’t get in I can still access my desk pc and the shop pc from home. It has saved us more that once.
That locker white board idea is a great one, Ruth… I just started using one. It doesn’t get lost in the mess like a slip of paper would, and it’s only “so” big, so before I can add ANOTHER task, I have to DO one! My little dollar-store-made-in-China nag.