I have never really had a store manager. Its always just been me. I am in the market for one however. What do you pay your managers and what are the duties that you expect them to do? salary or hourly? I know j_rock posted something about along these lines about a year ago but i cant find it in the archive. Thanks a lot
I didn’t have managers as I did not trust anyone’s ability compared to mine. It’s the nature of a “sort” of owner that will not entrust this “sort” of business to anyone.
IMO, a good manager would have the work ethic of an owner; probably a former owner. A person with a background involving managment in retail/finance and restaurant management.
I paid my top guys (the ones who could get a perfectly spun pizza from the tray to the oven in 15 seconds) TOP dollar. They were my partners without it being official. Everyone else that managed their positions got paid top dollar as well. The investment in high performing employees does not always constitute manangement in this industry. It returns high performance, volume and low turn around.
Unless you’ve worked with someone a very long time that understands you and your work ethic, don’t go for a manager. Invest in your business with your time and your management.
PD
Whats top dollar?
If you want to have a hole in the wall place and micro manage every detail and stay small forever, don’t hire a manager.
If you want time to pay attention to growing and directing your business, hire a manager to run the aspects of the business that are eating up your day.
My manager handles scheduling, food buying and is responsible for training, quality, cash handling and keeping the place clean the equipment maintained. he is paid a combination of hourly plus bonus. The minimum he makes is about $14 per hour. For the last few weeks when we are really busy he has been making $18-$20 per hour. In addition to that he gets paid vacation, retirement benefit and a season pass to the local ski area.
My most recent manager made more. I paid him 36K per year plus bonuses amounting to another 6-8K. When the new gets up to speed and I don’t have to look over his shoulder, I will switch him to salary as well.
How does that work out in % of gross sales? % of labor costs. We gots to remember that bodegahwy runs a high grossing business up there, and sometimes that needs to be in perspective.
The old manager costs between 7% and 8% of sales or almost 20% of labor. The new guy, right now is running more like 6% of sales. I am not in the labor cost and do not work day to day in the business.
first off call them supervisors, you can pay them less per hour than a manager but expect them to do the same job just with less pay. everyone is all about having a title so give them one that costs you less money.
If you go down that road make sure you check that they are not closet drinkers.
You may remember about 2 years ago I posted about my manager falling down a seaside cliff and being out of work for 17 weeks. I had suspicions he would have been drinking at the time but couldn’t prove it so I couldn’t say anything.
Well this low piece of dried out mouldy dough dropped a bombshell last November and left without notice. I was getting to be suspicious of him bringing his drinking to work the nights I wasn’t there and I think he was not liking my intrusions when he went outside to have a “smoke” / rest break.
Since he has left a few of the staff have now recently reflected back on his demeanour and behaviour and now say that they smelt alcohol on him the nights I wasn’t there. Hey they are mostly young people and didn’t think it right to “dob” on him.
This gutless piece of excrement placed everyone in danger by his alcohol abuse, especially knowing I wasn’t around to check on him. If I would have found him out it would have been out the door by the ear and the seat of his pants, face first in the street where he belongs.
The thing with this guy is that he is an alcoholic in denial and these types are clever in masking their sickness to the point that they can drink during the day, have a power nap and get to work clean and showered and seemingly in control without showing any visible effects.
Looking back in retrospect I see a lot of various things that I missed then but are now blazingly obvious. Guess I was too reliant on him to give me time away from the shop and probably (being honest, definitely) overlooked some things that I should have jumped on because I was affraid he would walk and I would be without a manager.
Well in the end he decided it was time to move on so I promoted my manager in training (18 year old) to manager. He was great, no hang ups, great work ethic, honest etc. Problem is he resigned and left me last Friday to commence a trade job as a telecommunications and power supply cable layer (Big, big money paid). He is coming back to cover for me in a couple of weeks as I have to attend my nephew’s wedding. How’s that for a nice young guy?
Now I’m left with no manager or 2 IC, but have re-employed a 19 year old female pizza maker who worked for me 12 months ago. She returned to England for 12 months but has come bak to Australia and asked if she can work for me again. Hopefully she can step up to the plate within the next few months.
To round off my bleatings I would say having a manager is big gamble and involves a lot of trust from both sides.
Would I hire one again? Definitely.
Would I do differently next time? Most definitely
Will it be difficult for me to hire someone? Most definitely impossibly so in our current 3% unemployment scenario. But I will continue to try and get someone.
Dave