Pre-Training Resources and Materials

This article provides a collection of essential training materials and resources designed to help your team stay organized, improve workflow efficiency, and foster alignment across departments. Each resource covers a crucial aspect of running a furniture retail business—from managing receipts and operations to setting up commission structures and organizing weekly team meetings. These documents will serve as valuable tools for enhancing team performance and driving business success.

1. Paper Flow of Receipts

• The paper flow for receipts and memos involves organizing sales, payments, and other transaction records by date and number, maintaining customer copies and signed receipts for verification, and securely storing them for future reference and emergency reproduction.
• Link to KnowledgeBase article: [Click Here]

2. Operations Paper Flow

• The Shipping Paper Flow Process outlines a method for organizing and confirming shipping memos, including customer contact, scheduling, printing memos, and managing receipts and signed copies for deliveries, pickups, backorders, repairs, and services, with a focus on maintaining accurate records and ensuring all transactions are properly verified and filed.
• Link to KnowledgeBase article: [Click Here]

3. Commission Structure

• Setting up a commission structure is important because it motivates sales staff, aligns their goals with business objectives, and helps ensure consistent revenue growth while rewarding performance.
• Link to eBook "Mastering Commission Structure: A Blueprint for Furniture Store Success": [Click Here]
• Link to KnowledgeBase article: [Click Here]

4. Department and Duties

• This document outlines the daily, weekly, and monthly duties and responsibilities across various departments in a furniture retail business, including operations, warehouse management, sales, bookkeeping, and finance, to ensure smooth workflows, accurate inventory management, and effective customer service.
• Link to KnowledgeBase article: [Click Here]

5. Weekly Team Meetings

The Weekly Team Meeting Template is designed to ensure your team stays aligned, tracks progress, and addresses key priorities every week. This template organizes your meeting to facilitate clear communication, goal tracking, and problem-solving, ensuring that everyone leaves the meeting with a clear understanding of their responsibilities and the next steps.

How to Use the Weekly Team Meeting Template:

1. Meeting Introduction & Mission Statement:

   • Begin your meeting by reminding the team of your company’s mission statement to reinforce the larger purpose of the work being done. You can personalize this section by replacing the default company name with your own.

2. Good News & Wins:

   • Ask each team member to share their "WIN" from the past week. This section encourages positivity and celebrates both individual and team achievements. Fill in each team member’s name and their notable accomplishments.

3. Scorecard (KPIs):

   • Link to your team’s scorecard, which should highlight your key performance indicators (KPIs) or any relevant metrics that track the progress of your business or team goals. This is where you review critical numbers and assess how well the team is meeting targets.

4. Rock Review (Goals):

   • Link to the goal sheet or specific objectives (often referred to as "Rocks") that are being worked on. Use this section to review both short-term and long-term goals, check the status, and make any adjustments if needed.

5. Customer/Employee Headlines:

   • Capture important customer feedback or internal employee updates. This section ensures that everyone is aware of any key developments, issues, or milestones from either customer interactions or team dynamics.

6. To-Do List:

   • Create and update a list of actionable items that need to be addressed during the week. Each item should be assigned to a team member for accountability. Make sure these tasks align with the goals discussed during the meeting.

7. IDS (Identify, Discuss, Solve):

   • Use the IDS framework to address any key issues the team is facing.
     • Identify: Recognize the most pressing problems or challenges.
     • Discuss: Collaborate to discuss solutions or obstacles that need further clarification.
     • Solve: Work together to find actionable solutions to these challenges and assign them as action items.

8. Conclude & Recap To-Do List:

   • At the end of the meeting, recap the to-do list and confirm that all team members are clear on their responsibilities. This ensures accountability and that nothing falls through the cracks.

9. Cascading Messages:

   • Ensure that any key messages or information from the meeting are passed on to other relevant teams or individuals who couldn’t attend. This is vital to maintain alignment across departments or groups.

10. Rating:

    • Optionally, rate the meeting’s effectiveness (using a scale of your choice) to help assess how well the meeting served its purpose and what improvements can be made for next time.

Download the Weekly Team Meeting Template

To help you get started with your own weekly meetings, you can download the Weekly Team Meeting Template here: Download Weekly Team Meeting Template

By using this template each week, you can ensure that your team stays focused on the right priorities, communicates effectively, and drives progress toward shared goals.

6. The Eisenhower Matrix

• The Eisenhower Matrix is a task management tool that helps prioritize tasks by urgency and importance, dividing them into four categories: tasks to do immediately, tasks to schedule, tasks to delegate, and tasks to eliminate.
• Link to KnowledgeBase article: [Click Here]

7. How to Analyze Your Team

• This matrix helps determine whether current or potential team members align with your organization's core values by scoring them as positive (+), neutral, or negative (-), and based on their scores, decisions are made on whether they are a good fit, need replacing, or should not be hired.
• Link to KnowledgeBase article: [Click Here]