Here at Working Person’s Store, we are always looking for effective ways to reward our team and provide meaningful incentives. Why? Because while pay is important to all of us, most of us also want to recognized as individuals – to know that our contributions and achievements, large and small, are appreciated by both the organization and its individual members. While a pay raise tells an employee that she or he is valuable to the organization, an incentive personally acknowledges individual achievements and demonstrates the organization’s commitment to each person that makes up the whole.

While job-related incentives have long been tied to workplace performance issues such as production, safety, and customer service, employers today recognize the tremendous benefits of providing employee incentives tied to personal health and wellness. Continue Reading…

Rumors – little snippets of unconfirmed information, usually of unclear origin, and usually spread by e-mail or word of mouth. We’ve all heard rumors and may have either inadvertently or purposely helped to spread them. Rumors are born out of and thrive on uncertainty, insecurity, and dissatisfaction. Left unchecked in an organization, the spread of rumors can be destructive to morale, productivity, and ultimately, to the overall health of the enterprise. Effectively circumventing the spread of rumors can mean the difference between an organization’s survival and failure in a crisis.

Here are some key practices we employ at Working Person’s Store to minimize the destructive effects of rumor-mongering. Continue Reading…

Working Person’s Store PLAN 2001-2005

Working Person’s Store business plan for the years 2001-2005 is intended to become the official document used by company leaders to understand the business, manage the business, develop new company policy and update existing materials. Attempting a macro reading of the entire plan can be overwhelming.  Each section is intentionally comprehensive and written to be stand-alone.

Frequent plan updates are recommended. Updates make it easier through time to identify areas of strength, spot signs of weakness, pinpoint needs which might otherwise be overlooked, identify opportunities early and most importantly, set a workable strategy to achieve the necessary business goals.

As we enter our second five-year business cycle, we do so with the need to continually develop new ideas, try new ways to do things and test new services and products.  Unlike the first five years, this business plan is based on hard earned knowledge and experience.

The original V&J shoe repair and new footwear sales business was purchased by Denmar in July 1995 from Virgil and Joanne (V&J) Waltz whose business was located within the Broadmore Shopping Center located at Ireland and Miami roads in South Bend, IN.

At the time, Denmar leadership wanted to cross-sell between V&J and the other Denmar based businesses: Mary’s Resale, Mary’s Furniture Stripping Co. and to share existing leadership and back office functions and overheads. Continue Reading…

Helping Teammates With Their Life Purpose

Life Purpose

Leaders can assist those within the organization to commit to the Company’s mission as well as to their own through an understanding of their life purpose. This is critically important since for people to serve well most often depends upon their ability to find purpose in their work. We know people need life purpose. They also want to know their life has value. The result of this is the desire to be treated with dignity by those who care about them. In fact, the need for life purpose is so strong that when not provided by leadership, teammates will create their own meaning. The result of this may not necessarily be complimentary to the Company’s goals.

To assist our teammates in reaching maximum personal job satisfaction requires of us as leaders to implement specific philosophies and practices which make your company different from other companies. It requires of us to view work as a unique opportunity to serve others, make a personal contribution and to personally grow and develop. It also requires of us to carefully plan for the future.

2002 was a challenging year for WPS.  Our team managed through changes in key leadership positions.  Retail sales increased 29% despite depressed consumer and commercial markets.  Customers were earned and maintained despite the continuous changes brought about by global manufacturing.

Tonight I am going to talk about key events from 2002, Sales, Inventory and ventures for 2003 and our people.

2002 Highlights

1. Launching of WorkingPerson.com.  Putting this site together was one of the most challenging projects I have ever participated in to date.  The detail.  Working with a programmer and a designer through a project manager was a unique experience.  We were 90% completed with the project and 7 months behind schedule when the project manager shut her business down and went to work for a tanning salon.
2. The loss of Howmet.  At last year’s dinner we celebrated serving an 800 pair account.  This was an account that any industrial shoe mobile company would be proud of and one that we lost not because of our service, but because of a global contract.
3. Globalization.  Manufacturing continues to move abroad.  Our footwear vendors continue to move more of their production abroad.  This creates problems with inventory management, return on investment, supply and brand positioning.
4. Two things happen in the footwear business when more work product is made abroad.  First initial margins suffer…we make less per pair.  Then what will happen, or what is starting to happen, better import product will rival domestic product in price.  The only people making out on this deal are the manufacturers and freight carriers.
5. WAOR Ultimate Garage.  The best promotion we participated in this year was headlining the WAOR Ultimate Garage.  The WPS logo was displayed at UP Mall for over a month and WPS was mentioned over 50 times per day.

People

WPS has always been blessed with good people.  The loss of Chad, Trisha and Monique brought us CJ, Aubrey, Tina and Chris in key operational positions.  CJ has assumed responsibility for managing the footwear department, Aubrey the clothing department, Tina as the internal bookkeeper and Chris will lead the Industrial business segment.  We are a young team and Working Person’s Store and are positioned to find opportunity.

Working Person’s Enterprises, Inc.

Total sales for the store, truck and web increased over 2001 sales by $201,000.

The sales projection for all business units in 2003 is twice that.   Look around the table because these are the people that are going to make it happen.  Whether you are the one that comes into the store every day or you are the “better half”, it will take all of us to make it happen in this challenging market.  With the amount of inventory stocked, we have no other option but to grow.

We are going to accomplish this the same way we have done it in the past:

• Make people’s lives better by providing them the very best product at a fair price.

We are also going to

• Strengthen each of our channels of distribution- store, truck, web, catalog
• Improve our presence on the web
• More aggressive/persuasive television commercials
• Train our people better through better training materials, tests, mystery shoppers
• Improve on inefficiencies in the clothing department which Aubrey will elaborate on
• Grow the footwear sections
• Tina is going to manage inventory levels, margins and turns for each product category.

Retail Performance

2002 retail sales rose 29% compared to 2001 sales.  However, our gross margin dollars fell as a result of:

• The shift in price points from our increased inventory of globally sourced product
• Deeper discounts given on outerwear during the 4^th Quarter
• More aggressive clearance strategies during the 4^th Quarter

WPS cash position has suffered due to a surplus of outerwear inventories created by a distinct decline in sales to industrial accounts.  This inventory surplus will consume any profit earned in 2002 and will require a cash infusion.  Although we have much to be thankful for, our aggressive inventory levels continue to be a considerable source of liability and risk.

Business To Business Sales 

2002 industrial sales fell 6% compared to 2001 sales.  Dennis did a fantastic job of keeping the truck business going despite the dismal sales at once booming accounts.  A special thanks to him for keeping that business unit alive during these challenging economic conditions.

Dennis’s successor on the truck is Chris who has assumed all responsibility for truck operations in 2003 so Dennis can be available to put together some exciting ventures in 2003 which he will share with us tonight.

Virgil has done a fantastic job building the truck business.  His new challenge is to make up for the loss in business from existing customers by acquiring new, more profitable customers and increasing business at existing customers though mail order business from new employees and employees needing safety footwear in the time the truck is not there.  Virgil and I work well as a team and I look forward to working with him in the revitalization of this business unit.

Ventures/Projects 

Nobody at Working Person’s Store sits still.  Customers are always amazed at the changes they see at the store and feel proud of the growth experienced at Working Person’s Store.  2003 will be no different.

The site will undergo total reconstructive surgery this summer.  The strategic objective is to add more legitimacy to the site by enhancing the visitor’s experience through:

• A better look
• Improved graphical design
• Improved graphical elements
• A look that will tie into all other media
• Improved Features
• Better search feature
• Search by brand feature
• Cross referencing inventory

We began the creation of a full color catalog and an interactive DVD.  These will be packaged in a DVD case and will directly tie into workingperson.com.  This marketing tool will be used in Chris and Virgil’s effort to acquire bigger truck accounts, police departments, and larger commercial contractors.

Thank you for coming tonight.

Thanks to CJ for coordinating this event.

Thanks to Caesar and the Summit Club team.

Thanks to the WPS team and their significant others, friends and family that support them as we continue to work to make Working Person’s Store the very best at serving the needs of working people.

Focus On What Matters Most

Focus- A Way Of Life

1+1+1+1=4

2X2=4

8/2=4

8-4=4

Monthly Objectives:

Weekly Objectives:

Obstacles incurred this week:

Success incurred this week: