One of the little unexpected consequences encountered when you open a dollar store is the need to continually monitor for and then eliminate all non-value-added tasks. It’s amazing how these small, odd jobs can seem so important at one point in time and yet soon after that appear to provide no worthwhile benefit to your business. Soon you find employees are spending considerable time dealing with all of these insignificant jobs on a daily basis. And as your dollar store costs build, these become the very tasks that must be eliminated from your dollar store business. Make it your goal to get rid of these non-mission critical tasks.
Examine the work you and your employees are doing on a monthly basis. You will be amazed at how various tasks can somehow go from being a one-time action to becoming a daily expectation. In many cases there isn’t even a need for the task to be performed again, yet as if by magic employees feel they are being expected to continue performing them. By taking a monthly look, you’ll be able to redirect efforts and eliminate these tasks.
Ask for employee input. Your employees know better than anyone what they are being asked to do. Often they also know the true value of the tasks they perform. All it takes is a few minutes to uncover tasks that are unimportant to your dollar store business; all you need to do is ask for inputs, listen and then take action to eliminate the truly needless work being done in your store. You will be amazed by the dollar store costs you can eliminate with this action.
Look for opportunities to combine or consolidate tasks when you open a dollar store. Often there will be tasks that simply must be performed to keep your business running smoothly. However you should still focus on these tasks. Look for ways to combine like-tasks and then assign all of them to a single employee. Not only will you likely gain some speed since the tasks are all being performed by one ‘expert’, but you will also likely eliminate some redundancies and the associated dollar store costs by using this strategy.
Eliminating time-wasting tasks is best to do before you actual even open a dollar store and then periodically thereafter. Every one of these needless tasks increases you dollar store costs without adding anything to sales or profits for your dollar store business. Become a cost-cutter by never allowing them to go unnoticed in your store.
To your dollar store business success!
