Planning To Win

How much do you value your time?  The easy answer to that question can be found in observing how you spend it.  As retailers, we spend a lot of time working in our stores instead of on them. Consequently, the things that need to happen don’t because they are sacrificed for the “now” at the expense of the future. The reason we tend to find ourselves so wrapped up in so many time-draining works is because we really never started with some type of a plan.  So what was the first thing you did?  You started doing. Doing this and doing that, researching this, finding a vendor for that, trying to please and/or appease people.  Instantly, everyone and everything needed your attention. What you needed was a plan.

Every successful store owner or manager must have a plan.  A plan that identifies where you are going, how you will get there and the resources it will take to do it. Unfortunately, this is the number one thing I see lacking in so many stores.  By the way, just because you are a church store doesn’t mean you do not need a plan.  In fact, that is the very reason you do.  Being a church store manager often means you are wearing multiple hats.  I used to oversee a wholesale team, speaking engagement sales, convention product sales and was heavily involved in other areas related to product like marketing and production.  As a church store manager you are buyer, seller, inventory manager, customer service specialist, trainer, office manager, banker, volunteer coordinator, motivator, runner around-er, problem solver, etc.  With all this going on it should be obvious that you need a plan.

A plan will help you:

1.      Create purposeful progress. You will spend less time with hit-or-miss activities and more time moving toward specific, achievable goals.

2.      Think long-term about your store. This brings the “now” to an end (well, to a degree anyway. We are in the ministry and sometimes that can be the picture of change).  Long-term thinking also helps you to prioritize and truly consider what is reasonably do-able now vs. what needs to have more time, thought and buy-in put into it.

3.      Better manage your time. Once you have an idea of where you are going, you will need to determine approximately how much time will need to be invested to make it happen?  This is a really important thought as some of you are volunteer leaders and others are on staff but carrying multiple responsibilities. The time investment is only going to be truly seen through planning and experience.  The flip-side is that you will find that more time becomes available because you are not spinning your wheels as you once were.

4.      Spend more efficiently and effectively. No more buying on a whim.  You are buying purposefully now, with your budget in mind and your merchandising plans and core inventory in hand.

5.      Get smarter about your store and its operation. Month after month and year after year, you will grow to know your store intimately; its ebbs and flows, what works and what doesn’t work. You’ll know when to hold em’ and when to fold’em (okay, I’m just kidding here, but there is some truth to that statement).

I could go on and on about the benefits, but I think you get the point.

Ultimately, my desire is to see you stop for a moment before the year is out and ask yourself the three questions I mentioned above:

1.      Where are we going in 2009?

2.      How will we get there? and

3.      What will it take to do it?

It bears noting (and you will hear me say this repeatedly), It is very important that you have the vision of your Pastor and the church at heart and in mind at all times and know that you should only move forward with the blessing and support of your pastor and/or those that have been placed in authority over you.

Oh and one more thing…if the plan is all in your head and not on paper where others can see it and run with it, then you don’t have a plan.  Write it down and make it plain.
David McIntyre, KVI Consulting