Real Deals On Home Decor - Colorado Springs

Does that include you? No. So, three other than me. I have one that merchandises and then she works the store on Thursdays with me. I have one that does the unpacking and pricing. And she's available and gotten into merchandising a little. If we're doing a major change in the store, she'll help. And she'starting to cross train on the front. So with vacations, she can rotate through a register. And then I have my son that helps and all the ladies love for him to carry things out. And he can unpack and help too. And he is great at the front desk. He's quite the salesman. It's a family business. Absolutely. How long have you been open? It'll be coming up on three years. Okay, so looking back, what would you do differently knowing what And advice to someone who might open a franchise? I think the economy scared us a little bit to be honest. Thinking that people don't have money to spend. And so we tended to probably give discounts a little bit too deep. And now you can't get people off those discounts. So you trained them the wrong way to begin with. And now they come in expecting that as the norm. That's probably the first thing that I would change. And I am going to change as we move to our new store. The product and the price speaks for itself. Talk about following the system. What is, A franchise is a system. It's a brand. It's a way of doing business. How closely would you suggest following the guidelines? Why recreate the wheel? Because it's a matter of with this many stores on board and the profitability. And you don't really realize this as a brand new owner until you sit at convention the first year and you start hearing the dollars that other stores are pulling in and Wow. What are they doing? And you talk to those owners. What are they doing to get that dollar amount? They're following the system. And you can't dispute it because their money talks. So tell me about the cost effectiveness that's involved with that. Now granted, we're there more than two days a week because we do merchandising on another day. But the freedom to allow your own hours in how you want to do that. If I need to get up super early in the morning because I've got something else planned the rest of the day, get there early, do it, go about my day, what else I need to do. Kind of thing. So it gives me the freedom, not just that eight to five job, and structured in with a 45 minute lunch hour. I know it's two days a week, so how long are you there? How many days a week? I'm there three days a week. I do typically our merchandising on Tuesday and then the store open Thursday and Saturday. I do have somebody that helps unpack. And again, she may go in at six o'clock in the morning and do pricing and unpack. And she may be done by 10 in the morning and then leave. So she knows what she needs to get done and she'll do it. And that's it. I don't have to be there for that. Sometimes I'll join her if we've got something, a really big shipment and we need to get it out. I'll join her at that. So basically the three days, I will work some from home, placing orders. It's very easy through the suggested orders. So I can go on the computer, orders from home or receipt things from home or do book work from home. Maybe I'll work for an hour, then go out and work in the garden and come back in or whatever. So it allows me the flexibility that way. How many employees do you have? Right now I have three employees. Do you include you? No. So three other than me. I have one that merchandises and then she works the store on Thursdays with me. I have one that does the unpacking and pricing and she's available and gotten into merchandising a little. If we're doing a major change in the store, she'll help. And she'starting to cross train on the front. So with vacations, she can rotate through and register. And then I have my son that helps and all the ladies love for him to carry things out. And he can unpack and help too. And he is great at the front desk. He's quite the salesman. It's a family business. Absolutely. How long have you been open? It'll be coming up on three years. Okay, so looking back, what would you do differently knowing what And advice to someone who might open a franchise? I think the economy scared us a little bit to be honest, to be thinking that people don't have money to spend. And so we tended to probably give discounts a little bit too deep. And now you can't get people off those discounts. So you trained them the wrong way to begin with. And now they come in expecting that as the norm. That's probably the first thing that I would change. And I am going to change as we move to our new store. The product and the price speaks for itself. Tell me about following the system. What is, A franchise is a system. It's a brand. It's a way of doing business. How closely would you suggest following the guidelines? Why recreate the wheel? Because it's a matter of with this many stores on board and the profitability. And you don't really realize this as a brand new owner until you sit at convention the first year and you start hearing the dollars that other stores are pulling in and Wow. What are they doing? And you talk to those owners. What are they doing to get that dollar amount? They're following the system. And you can't dispute it because they're money talks. So tell me about convention. You've been to how many now? This is my third one. Okay. So this year is different and I looked forward to it a lot. Because at this point, the other two have been fun and energizing and rah. And we learned a lot, but I needed to really sit down and say, okay, I want to take the store to the next level. I want to j I want to make some serious changes. I need to sit down and have a conversation as to how to make that happen. And specifically for me and moving the store right now, great opportunity to make those changes. So what would you say is the most important thing in the system that makes real deals work? Well, my customers tell me it's the feeling they get when they walk in. If you're warm, you create the atmosphere. The people in the room warm, the people are friendly, helpful. You don't have to oversell things. Things are going to sell themselves. But be there, be personable, be willing to talk to them. If you see them struggling or kind of lost, you can step in and offer assistance. Then I hear from a lot of customers that have maybe been to other stores. They love coming to our store because of that personal touch. I know about my customers. I know what's going on in their personal lives. Or if they look This is their fun time. And They can share what's going on in their life. It's We call it retail therapy. Well, and it absolutely is. Because I have ladies come in and instead of wanting to look at the product first, they'll want to tell me what something bad has happened in their life or something I should know. And then we proceed on and looking through and it lightens up. And I always have cookies or goodies, brownies, something punch. Because Lord knows they're going to walk around the store for how many hours they need some refreshments and nourishment in that time. My name is Janet Jordan and I own the Real Deal store in Pueblo, Colorado.