Secrets to our ReStore Success – The Business Philosophy

The next series of articles will outline the details of our successful ReStore business system.  For a frame of reference, our 4000sf ReStore has grossed about $190,000.00 over the past two years in a county population of about 23,000 people (this is our service area).  If you have a ReStore and are reading this, simply ask yourself if your store is grossing about $200,000.00 for every 4000sf of floor space, or per 25,000 people in your service area.  My intention with this series of articles is to hit on all the major areas which contribute to the business system we’ve built to include: 

The Business Philosophy

 Supply/Demand and Demographics

 Location and the Building

 Quality Staff and Continuing Education

 Management Style

 Advertising, Product Acquisition and Sales

My take on why many ReStores fail to maximize their potential

 

The Business Philosophy

Let’s get started.  I treat our ReStore as a genuine for-profit business venture (yes, I know we’re a nonprofit).  I have put aside all notions relative to the nonprofit world with regard to our ReStore.  In other words, we don’t necessarily do things on the cheap, although we did start our ReStore with a mere $5000.00, which was about a third of our total liquid assets at the time.  I believe that to make money, you have to continue to invest in your business.  You have to invest in location, staff, advertising, etc…  The building should look and feel like a genuine retail operation and represent Habitat for Humanity well.  Customer service should be important, but no more so than any other mom and pop type store in which you would shop.  I simply won’t allow our bottom line to be damaged by a nonprofit mentality.

As the executive director, I play the role of a passive-income business owner.  This means that I should be able to leave my office for weeks at a time, and the ReStore will continue to make money for the affiliate.  My philosophy is simply to allow the ReStore to run like any other retail operation and whatever profit it spins off is used towards our mission.  This doesn’t mean that I don’t play a role, but my role is not critical to the day to day operations of the store.  Further, while there was a ReStore committee formed to get the ReStore started, this committee was disbanded very soon after we opened.  There aren’t too many small retail operations run by a committee of very part-time volunteers, right?  No, a manager who lives and breathes the venture every day must be empowered to run the store and not be micromanaged by the executive director, a subcommittee, or the board of directors. 

Finally, my management style allows me to learn, to move, and to flow as needed; and it allows for my staff to do the same.  We had to write the book on how to build a successful ReStore in a very rural, northern climate community.  There was no detailed manual available for us and no other ReStores like ours to steal ideas from.  I had no illusions that the road was going to be easy.  I knew that we were going to have a learning curve which would be vertical for the foreseeable future.  I knew that neither I nor my staff would have the answers to every situation that would arise.  Mistakes were (and are) an acceptable part of the process.  An example of this fluid style of management can be demonstrated in our search for the best hours of operation, the number of employees needed and the hours they worked, and appliance testing.  We fumbled around with a lot of things until we found what worked.  I am a firm believer that we learn far more from our mistakes than from our successes.  I believe this style of management encourages creative thinking and allows for a much less stressful environment than is found in many corporations, and our results speak for themselves. 

In the end, the most important element to a successful ReStore is not to treat it as a glorified yard sale.  It’s a business, and you have to nurture it to make it grow.  Keep micromanaging out of the equation on all levels, and allow staff the flexibility to learn and make mistakes.  In the end, ReStores are not complex (get stuff and sell it), but maximizing their potential does take a real strategy and the proper skill and attitude to make it happen. 

 

 

Explore posts in the same categories: Habitat ReStores

Tags: Business, Habtiat for Humanity, Managment, Michigan, Recycling, ReStores

You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.