Articles
Ms. Valas has written numerous management feature articles for Dealerscope, Custom Retailer, TWICE, The Independent Retailer, CraftTrends, Independent Thinking, NSGA Retail Focus, and Visions.
She has received the American Society of Business Press Editors (ASBPE) Editorial Excellence Award. She is co-author of Guerrilla Retailing and Lesson From The Back Nine, due out in 2008.
Articles made available here may be re-printed with permission from the author, copyright retention and by-line. Contact info@ellyvalas.com for authorization.
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Customer Service
How Much Service Is Too Much?
Financial Management
By The Numbers
General Management
The Whole Experience
Human Capital
Winning
Leadership
Good Coaching
Leadership in Uncertain Times
Sales
Time Share Hustle
Case Study:
One client, a small kayak store owner, was having difficulty getting everything completed that he needed to accomplish. He often felt paralyzed and unable to to prioritize his "to-do" list. He knew that he couldn't grow his business while only working "in" it. He needed to find some time to work "on" his business.
First we carved out two hours each day for him to work on his management priorities. We taught his staff how to take telephone calls and handle all requests for him from 9 to 11 each morning. We developed a schedule so that on Monday he places orders, Tuesday he pays his bills and does other accounting, Wednesday he works on his marketing, Thursday he works on his class and lesson schedule and on Friday he trains his team members.
Together we set short term and long term benchmarks to measure progress.
In a few months, he has developed a marketing plan, increased store traffic, added bicycle rentals to his services and reduced his inventory. He's more confident and sees a much brighter future.
