Work Smarter

What are some of the best ways to stay organized – and sane?

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Juggling time, always a fun thing to do and never more so than when you’re taking on so many different tasks at once. All the people I know who study or work from home and have small children are very organised. One friend actually sells a product called Mayhem Manager which helps you to organise yourself, your house and your kids. It’s an awesome product but I’m not here to talk about this except in how it can help me manage my life.

I’ve just taken on the task of studying English Literature. I was hoping for a daytime class but that was cancelled as they didn’t have enough enrolments so I had to switch to Wednesday nights. For most Wednesday nights during the year I’m going to be leaving the house and travelling into the CBD to study. The course I’m doing is English Literature Units 3 and 4, this means I’m doing Year 12 or the last year at school before going onto University. I’m going to have a three hour class each week and around six hours of homework/study/research per week. The only thing it’ll qualify me for is being irritating about literature and maybe for writing better articles about books.

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Hiring Staff for the Bookshop

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Hiring is that time of incredible potential; gazing into the unknown sea of resumes and plucking out the chosen few who might just take your bookstore to a whole new level, or alternately, have you pulling out your hair and wondering why on earth someone would alphabetize the whole store by title while you’re on vacation (yes, I have heard of this happening to an unfortunate colleague years ago).

Dear "customer"- you're fired!

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Everyone has difficult customers. Everyone has bad days where the next customer that asks for “that book, the new one, I think’s it’s red” is going to make you scream.  Everyone has transactions that are just one problem after another.

This is not about those customers.  Nor is it about the looky-loos that never buy anything. They aren’t customers at all.

customer your fired!This is about people who you’re better off not taking their money at all.  In down times it’s often tempting to hang onto anyone that gives you money… but these customers are such trouble that they end up COSTING you more than you make from them. You’re afraid to say anything about their bad behavior because of the fear of losing them.  They chew up time that you could be spending on other more productive parts of your business, they scare other customers, or they make your staff quit so you have to train new ones.  So if you call them on the bad behavior and they leave, it’s actually a win for you!

How can you tell if a customer should be fired, rather than that are just difficult?

Keep in mind, this is a PATTERN, not a single day.  You can have bad days with good customers.  You can  have difficult customers that are worth the time and effort to satisfy them. There are GOOD DAYS with that customer. It’s not overwhelmingly bad. The key with bad customers is that they are such a drain on you that they take more than they give back in business.

Sometimes simply telling people you aren’t putting up with this behavior may mean they change it and will stick around anyway… but be easier to deal with. They may just need a firm “no” to get them to stop the behavior that’s making them such a drain.  Sometimes it means they take their business elsewhere.  But for truly odious individuals, they may have already exhausted other businesses that will put up with this behavior. You may be the last remaining sucker that puts up with them.

Do you recognize these people?

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Bookstores: Some ideas to get customers in and keep them coming back

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Every now and then, businesses fall asleep – especially the book- business, where store-frequentation just spontaneously lessens. Sometimes, there’s never really a reason. Other times, frequency is altered by the changing seasons, the various social events or lack thereof. During those times though, there’s always that extra edge you can have by pushing those slow-moving titles along, … Read more