This week in continuing my interviews with my family, I sat down with my brother Tanner Robinson! Tanner joins us to talk about his career in small business, how small businesses can help others, and how you can support small businesses.
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Working For A Small Business
My little brother, Tanner Robinson, has worked for a local hardware shop in Tennessee since he was 16 years old. Eleven years later, Tanner is a manager for the hardware shop and loves serving the community through his work. He joined me on the podcast this week and I wanted to change the direction of today’s conversation to focus less on entrepreneurship and instead discuss the small businesses.
For Tanner, his day-to-day as a hardware store manager consists of helping customers, managing employees, and keeping the store tidy. Within the last two years, the impact of COVID has made this job a little bit more challenging. Keeping shelves stocked and receiving products has become much more difficult. Business never slowed down for hardware stores during the pandemic, but the shipping impacts have created some challenges.
Fulfillment in Small Business
As a child, Tanner aspired to be the President of the United States (really.) He worked up until college with this as his end goal. Overall, Tanner wanted to help people and his community. He realized as he worked toward elected offices, that the goals he wanted to achieve weren’t as likely to happen due to the massive amounts of red tape you have to go through in government. All through this time, he was still working a the hardware store.
Tanner realized that the job at the hardware store was providing help to his community in more ways than he might have been able to in elected office. While the victories accomplished in elected office may be massive, in his small business job he was able to provide hundreds of little victories daily.
Now, Tanner is able to find fulfillment within his small business job by helping people each day. Because of the nature of small business, when you as an employee want to get something accomplished, there is not nearly as much red tape and overhead involved. To make a difference within the culture of a small business is more achievable than in a larger position such as an elected office. In this way, employees like Tanner are able to give more input and provide more to their customers.
Growing Your Team in Your Small Business
As your small business grows, it is so important to make sure your team feels a part of the business. When employees are able to provide input and take on more responsibility, they will feel like they have a role within the small business. As your business grows, they can grow with you.
Within Tanner’s small business, leaders in every aspect of the business come together to form one team that has the ability to build and improve other stores. By allowing this involvement, employees are included and heard within their company.
Building Up Other Small Businesses
Businesses like the one Tanner works for have been able to scale their small business to include multiple stores. Your small business has the potential to scale and grow in ways that you might not imagine yet. No matter the size, as you remain the mind and owner behind the business, you still are a small business.
Tanner’s Advice
Tanner began his job within the hardware store as a 16-year-old. This is the age most teens enter into their first job and often do not see the growth opportunities that come with it. Your first job may seem like a part-time only to make a little cash, but it can be so much more.
From Tanner’s experience, this first job can be such an opportunity. Use it as one. Look into your future and see how this first job can teach you the skills necessary for the goals you hope to achieve.
You may not be entering your first job but interested in beginning a retail management job. One thing Tanner has learned through his eleven-year experience is that it is so necessary to simply talk to people. Make sure you know how to take care of a customer. You also want to look for a company where every employee has the power and trust to make decisions. It’s important to know that you’re trusted and free at your workplace is so important.
As small business owners and entrepreneurs, looking at your business from the perspective of an employee can be so helpful. Any team members you bring on should feel seen, trusted, and heard. When this happens, they feel more passionate about helping your business grow and grow right along with you!
Small businesses thrive when teams work together, share ideas, and feel supported—and the same goes for podcasters! If you’re ready to grow your podcast and create a thriving community around your show, Mic Check Society is here to help.
Join a collaborative space where podcasters like you learn to scale their shows, improve workflows, and connect with industry experts. With exclusive trainings, Q&A calls, and a private Facebook group, you’ll have everything you need to take your podcast to the next level.
Ready to grow your podcast and make an impact? Join Mic Check Society today!
Time-stamps:
Get to Know My Brother- Tanner Robinson (1:12)
Covid’s Impact on Small Business (2:40)
What Did Tanner Want to be as a Kid (5:35)
Fulfillment in Tanner’s Career Now (9:50)
Benefit of Small Business (11:15)
Growing a Small Business with a Team (12:50)
Scaling Your Small Business (15:47)
Building up Other Small Businesses (17:55)
Advice for Young People Starting A First Job (22:49)
Advice for Those Wanting to Go into Management (29:15)
Surprise Question (36:12)
Review the Transcript:
Haylee Gaffin
Today’s guest is my little brother Tanner, which sometimes to me, he’s still 13 years old. But now he’s 27. So it’s weird to think about now Tanner is a manager at a local hardware store in Tennessee, which he’s actually worked at since he was 16. So on today’s podcast, I want to take this conversation in a little different direction than the normal entrepreneurship and owning a small business or even podcasting topics. I want this really to focus on the small business aspect because I do feel like these conversations are not necessarily highlighting the small business or the person working for the small business.
Haylee Gaffin
Hey, y’all, welcome to the clocking in Podcast, the podcast for entrepreneurs and professionals making their way in the working world. I’m your host Haylee Gaffin. This podcast is produced and brought to you by Gaffin. Creative, a podcast production company for creative entrepreneurs. Learn more about our services at Gaffin creative comm plus you’ll also find resources, show notes and more for the clocking in podcast. So let’s clock in and get to work.
Haylee Gaffin
Tanner, thanks for joining me for this episode of clocking in. Now, I’d love to have you share a little bit more about yourself and your job.
Tanner Robinson
Yeah. So like Haylee said, my name is Tanner 27. And I’ve worked for the same small business since I was 16 years old, I absolutely love my job, I manage a hardware store, there is a lot more to it meets the eye. So there is you know, helping the customers on a daily basis. As well as just managing all of your employees, making sure everybody stays busy making sure that the the store itself stays clean. But the last two years have actually been probably the most challenging, because something that you don’t think you have to worry about as much is just making sure that your shelves are stocked. And whether it’s you know, a product that’s sitting back in the warehouse that an employee can go back and get as one thing, but now you’re having to worry about, you know, when can you actually get the product into your store to get it on the shelf? And that’s something for the first nine years, you never really had to worry about. And now you do.
Haylee Gaffin
Yeah. And is that a direct result of COVID? Yes,
Tanner Robinson
yes. And unfortunately, it’s it’s one of those things that the virus hopefully won’t be around for too much longer. But at the same time, it’s, it’s one of those things, it’s, it’s gonna take a while for everything to catch up. So that made there’s some things that we experienced it starting March of 2020, that we still have, it still has not gotten any better.
Haylee Gaffin
Yeah. Well, I actually I didn’t have this plan to ask you. But since you brought it up, one thing that I know, just from talking to you that was so different than so many other businesses is because you are a hardware store, right after COVID timeframe was some of the best your store has seen, right? Because of what you sell.
Tanner Robinson
Absolutely. We we had no idea what to expect. We we talked and had discussions about, you know, whenever they were talking about closing down businesses and shutting everything down, that’s considered non essential, you know, we at least figured we would be in that essential category. And so we knew that we would stay open. But we didn’t know what limitations would be put on us. So we were we were going as far as thinking am I going to be the only employee that’s going to be able to be in the store. And, you know, that’s what I was mentally preparing myself for, and to have a discussion with employees, because we had no idea what was going to happen. And it went in the exact opposite direction. And, you know, instead of there being one person in here, we had to get officers to stand out front just to form a line. Because there were so many people that were wanting to come in the store. And we have I’ve never seen us be that busy at any small stores that we’ve got. So yeah,
Haylee Gaffin
and that’s because people were improving their houses during that time.
Tanner Robinson
Oh, yeah. I mean, nobody was going out to work. They were doing work from home. And so while they were there, they figured, you know, why not improve it? Why not paying it? Why not redo the yard. And so that’s kind of what it turned into was everybody let’s let’s go to the hardware store.
Haylee Gaffin
I mean, we did that we at the start of the pandemic, we decided to remodel our kitchen. And it was, in my mind, I looked at it as if I’m going to be home, why not enjoy the home I’m in. And I mean, at the time, we all thought like this is gonna last for a week or two weeks or a month. And here we are two years later. So it’s really interesting to me to see that there are companies that thrived during the pandemic because I mean, you know, I lost hours at my corporate job I was at and like immediately, like when the pandemic started, I didn’t, but a few months later I did because like they had prepared for me to be there. Marketing was really needed during that time so that it just worked out that I didn’t lose it immediately. But later I did. And then that’s where, like, I saw the effects of COVID impacting small businesses because I too, was working at a small business. So yeah, I’m thank you for sharing that I’m really I like being able to see inside other businesses, especially with businesses that are so different and vast in the creative industry just did not see that explosion of profit, I guess, or explosion of business during that time. So it’s kind of nice to see that there were businesses that did. Now we know that you are a manager at a hardware store. But tell us from well, this is a question I’m going to be asking all of my guests because you are one of my first interview. So I haven’t asked too many people this, but in your childhood, and when you were growing up, what did you think that you were going to be as a kid? And I know the answer to this, but I’d love to hear, like what it was that you wanted to be as a kid and what kind of ultimately navigated you away from that.
Tanner Robinson
And I took a hard right turn from where I wanted to be I so for those listening, I wanted to be the President of the United States, you know,
Haylee Gaffin
it’s not a joke, like, you kids say that they’re gonna do this. And you’re you took years all the way into college, right? Yeah,
Tanner Robinson
yes. So all the way up until probably about my junior year of college, I was like, that’s, that’s what I’m dead set on this, what I’m going to do. And it just, you know, I, at the same time I was in college still worked for this business that I’m currently at. And I just fell in love with it, it was one of those things where, you know, the ultimate goal to be President of the United States was to, you know, help help people. And it’s like, as you get older and older, you realize, you know, the, the the more opportunities that you get to be in a position to help people, the less you actually feel like you’re helping them, whenever you get into, you know, a authority figure position of, you know, whether it’s Congress, whether it’s Senate, whether it’s a local representative, there’s so much you start to realize all the red tape that you have to cut through to be able to try and get things done. And you can’t help people as much as you’d like to help people. And, you know, to the average person, it might not always come across like that. And I slowly started to realize that, you know, as I was in college and OSI, it was just, it’s kind of a smack in the face of man. I want to help people, but at the same time, I feel like, I can’t, yeah, because in order to get one thing done, you might have to get 2030 people to agree to it. Yeah. And at the same time, I was working at this hardware store, and I was helping people every day, you know, it might not be something that’s going on, that they’re having to deal with, for, you know, their entire lives, that they’re having to deal with it. But at the same time, if I can help them out for that specific day to fix a problem that they’re having, you know, that’s just as good to me. And, you know, I realized just sitting down and thinking about it, you know, I was doing that every single day for nine years before I became a manager. And so once I realized that I was like, Man, this is kind of an opportunity that I want to, like, if there’s an opportunity to move up within this company, I want to be able to do that, because I love what I do. I love the people that I help. And I get to help them every day. It’s not I don’t have to go through a bunch of red tape to be able to take care of this person is standing right in front of me.
Haylee Gaffin
Right. So you were like, 2425 when you got your first store, right? 23 I was 2323. So when you were 16 to do ever imagine that the next now 11 years would be spent at the same company?
Tanner Robinson
Absolutely not. No, I knew that. I mean, I love 16. I loved my job. I loved the people that I worked for. But I did not think that 11 years later, I would still be there because of the dreams that I had the goals that I had and wanted to achieve. I actually did not think but at the same time, if I could go back, I wouldn’t change it.
Haylee Gaffin
Yeah, seeing the impact that you’ve had on customers every day, and the small changes that you can make in their life’s like, I know, for example, if I go into the hardware store that you work at, and you’re not there, I call you and I’m like, hey, where can I find this? I need this. Like, it just makes it so much easier to know. If I have a home problem. I just call Tanner and ask him. What do I need for this? If Steven doesn’t know it? I’m like, no call Tanner. He probably knows what it is that we need. With that being said. Do you feel like the impact you’re making on these everyday lives is the same fulfillment that you imagined you would have gotten? Had you taken the career path? Because obviously you’re 27, you wouldn’t be president by now. Right. But do you feel that same fulfillment in helping people in that sense?
Tanner Robinson
Yeah, I think I think, you know, if if I was, you know, able to get to an elected position or an elected office, you know, I think that that fulfillment would come in the sense of, I feel like you would have almost more losses than victories. And you know, that one victory might feel absolutely amazing. But because of all the red tape or just getting, you know, everybody to agree on something, it’s so hard to get stuff done. And the victories that I get now, and helping helping my customers, it’s, it’s one of those things where, you know, it might not be as amazing as that one victory that I would have in an elected position. But all of I might have 100 victories a day, at my store, as opposed to one a year in an elected position, I just think that those those 100 a day is way going to outweigh the the one win that I might get in elected office.
Haylee Gaffin
Yeah, so with that red tape that you kind of wanted to avoid in that other career path that you wanted to take originally? Do you feel like you have red tape now? Or do you feel like you’re hurt in the small business that you’re actually working in?
Tanner Robinson
I mean, there’s a little bit of both, I mean, just like any business, if you don’t own it, you know, you’re gonna have, there’s gonna be times where you got to get approval for something. Yeah. And I mean, that’s gonna come with just about any business, especially, even if you go into a business where you’re part owner, you know, there’s still somebody else that you’re going to have to communicate with. And so I mean, there’s always going to be some form of red tape. But when it comes to working for a small business, you know, I have direct communication with the owner, if I want to get something done, I can lay out, Hey, this is what I want to do. This is why I want to do it, this is how I want to do it. And I can have an answer in five minutes, whether or not it can happen. And I think, just as a manager of the store that I’m at, and the company that I work for, you know, we have so much freedoms as a manager, whether it is you know, new products that we want to bring in, that we want to test out, that might not be available in our warehouse. But even if it’s a local product, I mean, I have the authority to bring that in. There are times where if it is, you know, over a certain dollar amount, you might ask to get approval. But if it’s, you know, if it’s not anywhere close to, you know, $10,000, something like that, then yeah, they’re gonna they’re gonna let you at least try it out.
Haylee Gaffin
Yeah, I like that. That mindset, especially with my business, and I mean, I’ve been doing the solo thing for, I’ve always side hustled, with the solo business where it was just me. And last year, I brought on a, what I call a marketing assistant, she’s helping with my podcast, she’s helping with all of my marketing. I love her to death. But I’m this new, you know, in 2022, I’ve added two more small team members, like they are very part time, my goal is to eventually grow that and I want my business to feel like they are part of it. Like I want my employees to feel like they’re part of it. Even if they’re just contractors, even if they’re just working two to five hours a week, I want them to feel like they can be a part of it, and grow with me. And so I find that refreshing that a small business employee feels that way. Especially, you know, I just really want I want to take that mindset and that concept of, we are a team. And yes, this is my business, but I want to bring you in, and I want you to have control of some things and bring value to the business because otherwise I wouldn’t be hiring you. Like, I feel like that’s really important. And I I want to take that mindset with me. Throughout this new year as I am growing this team and hopefully growing this business into more than just one person. Like I do want to have a team of people who are helping others produce podcasts and, and market their podcasts and really, essentially grow their business overall with that podcast.
Tanner Robinson
Right. And like, I mean, one thing that our company does very well is, you know, we take different people from different stores. And you know, there might be somebody that is the best and most knowledgeable person within our company in paint, or even, you know, pet and bird or the grill section, and we’ve taken them a week put them all on a team. And so any store that we want to read Model, any store that we want to try and build from the ground up or even just open in a shopping center or anything like that, as we continue to grow as a small business, we take that team, and they essentially design the entire store. And you know, that team, and I’m on that team, but I am one of maybe two managers on that team. And there’s probably 10 people on it. And so we have two managers on it. But the other eight people are team leaders, they’re assistant managers, they’re people that we see as, as people that want to grow within the company in a very strong within their category. And so we want to make sure that they are included, and that they felt heard and that they have a voice within the company. I love
Haylee Gaffin
that and, and to clarify for listeners, when you talk about different stores like you are, the company you work for is a small business, it’s locally owned, but there are multiple stores. So it’s a bigger, small business. And I think that’s something to clarify with all entrepreneurs and small business owners is like, you can have a small business and scale it. And I like that is a huge thing that I’m trying to learn more about and scaling my business because, like, I’ll get inquiries for for projects that I can’t take on because I’m only one person, if I can scale this business, or I can grow it in a way that not only supports me and my family, but supports every employee that I have, like that is still a small business, if I scaled this business to a million dollars a year or $2 million a year, praise the Lord. Like I’m still a small business, I am the sole owner of this company. So I think that’s well and I say sole owner, but you can have multiple partners in a business too. So I think that’s really important to clarify for listeners who are like, well, he’s talking about multiple stores. So
Tanner Robinson
and the other thing to clarify too is this. It’s not a business that was you know, started, like two years ago, three years ago. I mean, this business has been around for over 50 years.
Haylee Gaffin
Yeah, so and that’s true, too, because, like a lot of us, were looking at our small businesses. And while I started, whatever my photography business was 10 Yeah, 1011 years ago, it morphed into this other business, but I didn’t really start start Gaffin great have until 2018. And then I didn’t go full time until 2021 was my first year like, Okay, I I’m responsible for my paycheck, like, I started growing it in 2020, when I lost my hours at my corporate job, but I was like, Okay, I don’t have a single commitment of someone of a big brand, that is paying me a paycheck. So I am full time. So that’s kind of where I do want to jump into something you mentioned earlier about bringing in products to your stores, and how your small business that you work for, is building up other small businesses through wholesale in your store by stocking their products. And I’m specifically interested in your home goods section. So tell me a little bit about what that’s like, and what is like working with those other small businesses, whether it’s through the warehouse, or it’s you individually pulling them in.
Tanner Robinson
So there are a couple different ways to that this can all play out in a sense. So when it comes specifically to the home goods, that is an area within our stores that, you know, we have over the last probably four to five years, we’ve really taken a look at it and wanted to completely change the model of it. And they’ve done a really good job with it. And with how our company has grown, we’ve been able to have members pretty much become buyers for that area. Now, for that specific department, you know, for the most part, they will go out and they will they will, whether it’s searching online, go into some sort of like trade show. They’ll go out looking for different products. And I mean, they’ll travel across the country to try and find some of these products just to bring into the stores. But at the same time, I mean, where I’m located at. There’s a coffee company that is you know, 25 minutes away. And we decided, hey, why not give them a shot, like, let’s serve coffee every morning and let’s make it be their coffee. And so it gives a local business the opportunity to put their product on our shelves, and we can sample it for him. And so not only is it helping us grow, but it’s helping that small business grow. And so that’s that’s kind of how the the Home Goods portion of it works. There’s other sections, whether it’s, you know, the grill section, or even apparel. That’s what As a manager, I have more of a niche at just because I’m not a very decorative person. So the whole section I leave, I leave that to the team. But when it comes to the grill section, or apparel, that’s where I like to try and bring in different stuff just to try out. And I mean, we’ve we’ve had hats that we brought in that it’s just started off as a small mom and pop shop out of a garage. And now it is turned into something huge, because it is going into multiples of multiple locations that we have, they’ve been able to expand their business a lot more, but at the same time, they had to deal with shortages too. And I think that’s one thing that makes it a little bit tough, especially whenever you bring in local products is that there’s a better understanding, at least between myself and the owners of those local businesses. Because, you know, if you try and go into a huge corporation, and try and get your product in there, and you can’t deliver, because of a shortage, they’re just gonna kick you out. It’s like, you know, they were able to communicate with me and communicate with the, with the other stores that they’re in and say, hey, you know, we’re experiencing the same shortages that you guys are there any way that you can just like, you know, cut us a break, in a sense, and it’s it’s one of those things where you know, that shelf space might be taken up by something else for a little bit. But as soon as their product comes back in, it’s going to be front and center. Because it’s it’s a brand that we really care about. It’s people that we really care about, we want to support them just as much as they support us.
Haylee Gaffin
Yeah, that relationship is really important, too. I, I worked on a t shirt shop for a little bit back during the pandemic. And one thing that we ran into was shirt shortages. And it was almost to the point where we we ended up having to buy all of the inventory before we listed anything because of shortages, where people would order and then it was like, Oh no, there’s no more of that color, like everywhere is out of that color. We’d even get halfway through the ordering process. And it was like a day went by, and the product sold out. So those shortages are important. And luckily we were working with small, small business to actually produce the product. And it was easy communication made it super simple. But I couldn’t imagine doing that with like a whole store. Like this was a teeny tiny little online fun project we were working on not not like a big business that we were reliant upon, you know, yeah. So one question I had, that I did not prepare you for? This is not your surprise question. But one question I had for you that I thought of while we were talking was if someone was a 16 year old, or even an 18 year old who is starting their first job. Like, I feel like there’s this ideal of this isn’t a real job, you know, it’s not your first job. It’s just a part time to get by make a little cash. But what advice would you give them as far as like taking this job seriously. Because as someone who has worked at the same company, since you were 16, the owner knows you from your 16 year old self. So what advice do you have for someone that’s that young, if they were listening, or their mom or dad was listening and sent this to them,
Tanner Robinson
If I had to, you know, give a 16 year old advice, you know, especially to work at a hardware store anything even remotely similar, you know, use it as an opportunity, you know, don’t just see it as a job to make some extra money, to pay for gas or to go hang out with your friends. I mean, I know, I was 16 Once, I know I want to go hang out with my friends as much as possible. But at the same time, look into what you’re going to be doing with your life, whether it is if you want to go to college, if you want to go to trade school, this is an opportunity, this is a route for you to not just bring in an extra paycheck, but actually to learn a lot about whether it is communicating with people or just how to fix your own house. That’s one thing that like we try, especially when during the interview process with new applicants, you know, some of them have worked with their parents on whether it is different projects around the house. They’ve been doing that stuff for years, and might come in with a ton of knowledge. And then there’s other people like myself, whenever I first started I, I couldn’t tell you, I mean, I could probably tell you the difference between a screw and a nail. But like, I had no idea they were different thread patterns, all of this stuff. Like there’s so much to learn. And it’s one of those things that you know, even if you don’t stick with the business for, you know, 11 years or plus like I did You know, you can learn so much just from taking the job seriously. And using it as an opportunity to learn. I mean, we’ve had people, I’ve had employees that you know, will come and work for me for two or three months at a time leave for school, and come back during their breaks, because all they want to do is they just want to continue learning. Because in the long run, whenever, you know, you do turn 2526 27, and you do buy your own house, it’s gonna be a lot cheaper for you to fix something yourself, than it’s gonna be to call somebody out and do it. And that’s just the opportunities that you have working in a in a business like ours. You’ve learned how to fix a lot of things on your own. I mean, like you said earlier, if Steven doesn’t know how to do it, you call me. Yeah, and I might not know the answer, but I can find the answer. And I can tell you what products you’re going to need to use. So I just think that if people really take it seriously, they can learn a lot from and it that doesn’t necessarily have to be, you know, a hardware store. It can be anything, whether it is you know, photography, if they start photography, I mean, take it seriously see it as an opportunity to grow it into something that that, you know, like you said, you started it 1011 years ago, and it’s completely changed into something completely, like not completely different. But it’s, it’s evolved, yeah, evolved. And it’s, it’s 11 years ago, you would have never realized it, but you took that opportunity seriously. And you just let it mold over time. That’s, I guess that would be my advice for somebody that is 16. You know, just whatever your first job is. Second job is, use it as an opportunity. Don’t just see it as a form of income, even though it is because just use it as an opportunity.
Haylee Gaffin
Yeah, I love that answer. And I’m going to piggyback off of it and bring up someone that you love. I actually started photography as a 16 year old as well. And I started it in a photography class with Mr. Dom at Central. And that’s one of Tanner’s favorite teacher. And it’s so funny, because when I had him, I like as a teacher, he started a photography club. So after school, we meet like, once every two weeks, I think it was something I don’t remember exactly. But we just go around the school and take pictures and like these were the silliest pictures, if I could go back and find these, like, they were not great. But anyway, so I, you know, that was when you were in middle school. And you had not met him yet? Well, a few years later, you were in his class. So he got to know you. And I ran into him at the mall. And because I was working at the mall at the time, I was in college, and he was like, Haylee, how’s photography going? And I was like, I just shot my first wedding. Like, in the shock on his face where I took this silly photography club and turned it into I just made money from shooting a wedding. Yeah, was it to him, it was so cool. And now I look back and I’m like, you know, run my business part of my income and how I provide for my family is from photography. And had I not taken that class or, you know, been part of that club. All those years ago, I may have not seen myself in it as a photographer. And it did take me a long time to like say, Yeah, my name is Haylee, and I’m a photographer. And like now I don’t shoot weddings. It’s headshots. Really, that’s all I do. But it is a big piece of my business that I’m really proud of. And I have that studio and taking that opportunity back then, like I never would have imagined that doing what I do now would have been an option and, and I’m just really grateful for that opportunity that I had as a 16 year old. So for anyone that’s listening, and you’re like, I’m 16 or my kids only 16 Whatever job they have doesn’t matter. It does, it makes a huge impact on the long term. And whatever they’re into at the time, that they are 16 they could turn that into a career. So thank you for that. Now, when it comes to someone who is like looking to get into a management position in a retail store of some sort, what piece of advice do you have for them in order to like take that first step to going there? Or maybe it’s just like a piece of advice you’ve learned in your 11 years as in retail?
Tanner Robinson
Well, the first thing I would say is definitely make sure you don’t have to talk to people. Because that is a huge part of the job is just taking care of the customer. And at the end of the day, you know there’s there is companies out there that will you know In order for you to make a decision, you have to whether it’s a decision regarding, you know, a return for a customer, you might have to get approval for through two to three different people. And one thing that I would look for if I were transitioning into a retail job is look for those companies that especially ones that you might shop at, that you’ve never really had to deal with that issue. And it’s like, where somebody can just make a decision right there. And, you know, it is a, it’s something that you don’t think about very often. But, you know, even if it’s somebody that might be 19, or 20 years old, making that decision, they might have that same power that somebody who’s been working for the company for 20 years, might have. And it’s, it’s one of those things that they give you, that company gives you the freedom to be able to make some of those tours. And I know that that is a very small detail. But it’s something people don’t necessarily think about. But if you really start to pay attention, whenever you go into stores, and especially whether it’s a return or like a price discrepancy, you start to realize, hey, these people have a little bit more freedom than some of these people over here. And, like this person can can make that judgment call for me, you know, this, like, to me, that is just a good company to work for, because they are saying, Hey, we trust our employees, we trust our employees to make the decision. If they make the wrong one, they’re going to learn from it, they’ll make the right one the next time. But 99% of the time, they make the right choice right then in there, as and ultimately, if you ask the owner, he’s gonna say was did the customer leave happy. And if the customer left happy, you made the right choice.
Haylee Gaffin
That’s, that’s such a good a good piece of advice. Because like, even in my own business, like there are times that I, I struggle with making the customer happy if I screw up. So I mean, we are human. And if you make a mistake, you learn from it. And I’ve had, I have a good example the other day, I, I don’t think I’ve shared this on the podcast. But I made a mistake on one of my clients, podcasts, and it went live. But it was big enough for me to like, feel like absolute crap the rest of the day. And what I loved about this one client is that she came to me told me I made the mistake and was like, she, she wanted to make sure that I didn’t feel bad for it. And she was like, I just want to make you aware of it and see if you could fix it. And it humbled me so much. Because I get into situations where like, if I’m paying someone to do a job, and they don’t do it the way I want, I get so irritated. And like we have to realize that not that that’s happened anytime lately. But we have to realize that people make mistakes, and you have to be open to trusting and allowing someone to grow and allowing yourself to grow too. So
Tanner Robinson
kind of piggybacking off of what you just said about trusting is something that like our business has is you know, we have a mission statement. And I won’t say the full thing. But there’s a portion of it about being the most trusted retail team, for our community. And one aspect of that is in order for our customers to trust us, we have to trust them. And whether it is, you know, like I mentioned earlier, whether it’s a price discrepancy, or whether it is a return, or just an issue that they’ve had, you know, take their word, just listen to them. And, you know, do what you can to solve the issue. I mean, we we had an issue the other day where a customer called me and we accidentally that we sold them one type of mulch. They drove around, and we loaded up the wrong type of mulch. And she had somebody in her neighborhood come over and put it down for and so she didn’t realize until after it was already done that it was the wrong kind. And so she called us and, you know, we want to do what we can to make that customer happy. So we actually sent somebody out, raked out all that old mulch, and they put the new mulch in there. That was the correct one. And oh my gosh, yeah. And so like, and we gave her the most for free. I mean, we gave her her money back for for the most that she paid for. I mean, it’s one of those things you know, we might have lost. I don’t know 1010 bucks in mulch from what we gave back and then maybe Another 10 for going and put it out in her yard. But we gained a customer for a lifetime. Yeah. And it’s like, and that’s the thing is we’re willing to lose money to be able to make that customer happy. Because we know at the end of the day, that customer is going to come back to us. Yes, if we make a mistake, they know that we’re gonna fix it.
Haylee Gaffin
Yeah, that’s, I mean, that’s really valuable. And it speaks a lot to the the company work for because, like, you know that she’s not, she may go share that experience. But it’s not. It didn’t leave her with a bad taste in her mouth. It you left her with, while they went above and beyond what they could have, they should have done like you could have offered Oh, let me just reimburse you for the mulch and be done with it. And you just live with that mulch you didn’t want. And she could have been happy with that. But the fact that y’all went above and beyond is, is just such a great way to approach business as a as a small business, especially because big businesses, they can get away with selling you the wrong molds. They don’t care, like, whatever, it’s no sweat off their back. But yeah, I really, I think that’s such a cool way to to approach, you know, refunding and making things right when you do something wrong. So thank you for that. Now, I have one question that I did not prepare you for it is a surprise question. And it’s one that I am asking my family members specifically, it was inspired by a tick tock trend. And I know how much you love tick tock.
Tanner Robinson
So you got me hooked on it. And you
Haylee Gaffin
should have a better answer than you did probably two months ago, because we’ve talked a little bit more about it. But when someone asks you what Haylee does for a living? What do you say? She
Tanner Robinson
creates podcasts as well as a dang it. There’s so much that you do. And it’s like you always anytime I asked you, you use lingo that I don’t know about because I hate computers. I do not do computers, the the most technology I use is my phone, and that is it. But Haylee edits podcasts and produce it proof produces the podcast my bet she produces the podcast. Um, I really she has a few editors. And then she publishes them on a scheduled time for her customers. Is
Haylee Gaffin
that what you would say to someone that asked you to explain every step of my production? No,
Tanner Robinson
no, she does so much more. But but at the end of the day, your business is doing pretty good. So yeah, as long as it does good. That works, right? Yeah. I
Haylee Gaffin
mean, as long as it pays my bills, that’s all Yeah. Yeah. No, I take that back. As long as my customers are happy. That’s what I learned from today’s episode.
Tanner Robinson
Hey, you know, it wasn’t the perfect answer. But it was still a lot better two months ago.
Haylee Gaffin
Yeah, yeah, two months ago, you would have been like, you own your own business. Business. Awesome. Well, thank you so much for chatting today. And, and just kind of sharing about small business as an employee of a small business versus like the owner, because I think there’s, there’s such a negative connotation to going into, like, what we as you know, our creative entrepreneur space that I work in, we all look at as corporate world. But I think there’s there’s a distinction between corporate world, but then also working for a business that supports you and support small businesses and actually cares about you. So I just really appreciate you coming on and talking about this, and hopefully changing the mindsets of some people that are scared of that, like, not working for themselves anymore. Because, I mean, I definitely I enjoyed my time in the corporate world. And, you know, when I decided to go out on my own, it was somewhat out of necessity, because of COVID. But then also because I I started to learn and love the the flexibility of this job and what I could do in my own business and growing this so I just really appreciate you coming on Tanner.
Tanner Robinson
Yeah, I was glad glad that you invited me.
Haylee Gaffin
Awesome. See ya. So yeah, this has been another episode of The clocking in podcast. You can find the show notes for this episode and more at Gaffin creative.com. Thank you so much for your listenership and support. If you love this episode, I’d be so honored if you leave me a review in Apple podcasts app. Until next time, I’m your host Haylee Gaffin clocking out
