Retail Taught Me These Five Things. I Wish I'd Learned Them Sooner.

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Working in retail means amassing a broad skill set. As store leaders, we do everything from budgets, schedules, and merchandising, to loss prevention and accounting. It's a ton of stuff.

In most jobs, you become an expert in an area or two. In retail, you specialize in many things to run a business largely on your own.

After twenty-four years on a sales floor and leading thousands of people over my career, here are five things I wish I learned sooner in my retail career.

1. Corporate doesn't always know what's best for your building. You do. If you're there 40+ hrs/week, talking to customers, - you do.

The leaders at HQ need to make rules to accommodate every store in the company. That's cool; that's their job. However, understand that they don't know your building as well as you do.

When you're in your building five days a week, opening and closing, and talking to customers all day long, you know what's up. You understand the staff better than anyone else, too.

As new directives come down, communicate with the corporate office. Let them know what's working and not working. Maybe an initiative can be tweaked to fit your building better. Maybe it can't. But when you ask and talk about it, your leaders will know you're invested.

2.?Not sure you're going to make payroll? Thinking about cutting hours? Sometimes, gambling on it and selling with your team is worth the risk.

Nobody likes to head into a Saturday with a massive sales goal hanging over their heads. So, do your due diligence before you hog all those hours.

Look at the weather forecast. See what the mall has going on. Talk to the kids in high school about what schools have going on. It may be worth the risk.

Refer back to number one here. You know your store better than anyone else. So, be realistic with your payroll. If your store has been hitting your goals and the traffic is there, go all in. Make sure you're on the floor on Saturday and have fun.

Selling with the team and chasing a sales goal can be really fun. My teams usually knew where we stood with payroll, so they were there to put in the work if we needed to dig deep.

3.?Order more shopping bags. Right now.

If you know, you know.

If you have any doubts, order more.

Running out of shopping bags is the worst. It's not only bad for customer service; it's bad for employee morale, too.

I once had a sales associate get frustrated because we were out of medium size shopping bags. For some reason, they were on backorder. But one day, she let her frustrations slip, "Why are we still out of these bags?!" She asked exasperatedly.

When I told her that I'd been trying to order them but couldn't, she admitted that school was getting to her and the absence of the bags had gotten on her nerves.

Wow. Think how many associates were annoyed and didn't say anything.

When basic stuff in the store doesn't work, it affects everyone - not only the customers.

4. Teach your managers how to handle operational tasks. They're more capable than you think.

I taught everyone everything. If they showed me they were uninterested or couldn't follow through very well, then I handed over tasks to other people.

Every leader in the store should know how to set up maintenance for the store and order supplies. Every manager should feel comfortable calling IT if a register breaks or the internet goes out.

If you're doing everything, you're doing too much.

Your team may be more capable than you think. They want to help. Being involved keeps people invested.

5. Stop and socialize with your staff.

Yes, this is work, but it can also be amusing. Have fun. Listen to your associates and have a laugh. Remember, if you're a retail leader, you run a business where people go not only when they need something but also to get away. They go to have some fun and to get a break.

So, keep it light.

I know that's a massive ask because you're super busy, but fast-paced environments can be really fun to work in.

Go, have some fun.

Retail leaders are the unsung heroes of the business world.

They keep it together no matter what is going on. They accomplished ten jobs in one day - sometimes in one hour. They understand the flow of the floor, the product, and the staff better than anyone.

If you're a retail leader, stop for a minute and think about all you do. It's a lot, and I want you to be proud.

When in doubt, go back to these five things. You know what's best for your building, you understand your payroll, teach everyone everything, order more shopping bags, and have fun.

What I know for sure is that retail leaders are the most fun people to be around—no doubt about that.

Based in Southern California, Kit Campoy is a former retail leader turned freelance writer. She covers Retail, Leadership, and Business.

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