Home Decoration Fabrics Business Plan

Judy Williams oversees all store operations. This includes buying, financial dealings, merchandising, and interfacing with the bookkeeper and the CPA. She delegates marketing and in-store construction projects to Doug Williams. Julie is taking on more of a management role and the goal is to increase her responsibilities. Solid job descriptions and direction applies to the other positions, all of which are part-time, approximately 20 hours each week.

7.1 Organizational Structure

The organizational structure is simple. Judy manages all employees and professional contacts, as well as interfacing with more than 12 account executives/vendors. She determines staffing requirements, assigns and delegates responsibilities, and reviews employee performance on an annual basis.

7.2 Management Team

Judy Williams, the owner, is responsible for all managerial functions within the organization. She also oversees all buying activities. Judy delegates responsibilities to Julie Hanson to assist with television advertising. Julie and the other staff members are also responsible for at least one special event throughout the year. Doug takes on all marketing efforts including creation of the newsletter, placing television ads, store signage, and coordinating public relations activities. 

7.3 Management Team Gaps

The team is working well at this point. It has reached a balance between covering the necessary bases within the limitations that the payroll budget imposes. The long term goal is to have Julie take on increasing responsibilities and enable more freedom for Judy.

7.4 Personnel Plan

The personnel plan consists of Judy’s schedule complemented by four part-time positions. Julie (24 hours per week), Kandi (20 hours per week), Cheryl (18 hours per week) and Pharis (32 hours per week) fill the six-day work week. The goal is to continue to control payroll expenses through efficient use of the staff and provide a quality customer-oriented focus in the store.

The revamp of the website and addition of the eBay store will present a new layer of challenges to the existing staff. The people involved will need to go through training to become familiar with their roles, and the existing consultant, Jim Franns, will play a key role in establishing the new website, and providing ongoing support as needed.

The following outlines the general roles and activities the consultant and staff will support:

• Jim – Site design, configuration.
• Doug – Implementation of online marketing strategy.
• Robin – Bookkeeping and monitoring sales activities.
• Pharis – Sales fulfillment.

All these folks, aside from Jim, divide their time between the retail store and the eBay store. If sales increase at the rate hoped, we will look at hiring an eBay fulfillment employee.

Jim Franns is a consultant, and his expenses appear in the P&L table.