Kylie Watts, owner Mainly Toys, the toy and game store in Mt Eden
What is your business all about and who are your customers?
We are a 25 year old, independent bricks and mortar educational toy shop with an online presence. Our customers include discerning parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles who are looking for top quality yet affordable toys for the precious littlepeople in their lives.
Is Christmas your busiest time of the year?
As for most retailers, Christmas is the busiest time of year for us with around 50 to 60 per cent of annual revenues generated from Christmas trading. We have customers shopping as early as late August/early September for Christmas but these are in the minority and mostly for gifts to send to family overseas. We see a true seasonal uplift from October.
How much do you increase your staff by at this time?
Our staffing almost doubles for the Christmas period with most of these staff members either school or university students or our existing part-time staff who pick up extra hours in the holiday period.
Some retailers are not increasing their staff this Christmas. How would your business cope if you didn't boost numbers?
Our business would simply not be able to meet its full potential at Christmas if we didn't take on extra staff. We pride ourselves on our expertise and exceptional customer service and we simply couldn't deliver on these if we didn't lift our staffing levels at this time.
Our existing, long-serving and experienced staff play an integral role in uplifting our new starts' capabilities and on-the-job training is best for this.
Next week: A number of enterprising companies are creating apps for their own purposes and for others. There are also a number of apps being developed for small businesses to help them manage their businesses better. I'd like to hear from all of you who are particularly proud of your app especially if it can be used by others too.
