After reading Chapter 3 on Project Management, the first thing that came to my mind was my job. I have been working at Tino’s Menswear for almost seven years now. Tino’s Menswear is a small business located inside Discount Mall in Little Village. There is a lot of competition in the mall since there are a lot of other men stores around us. We focus on selling men dress suits for special occasions such as proms, graduations, weddings, and cotillions in the spring, but in fall we focus on casual apparel. We sell the most during spring because since the weather is nice, people plan their weddings and cotillions.
Every year around this time we start planning on what tactic we are going to use for next spring. We set our goals and plan on how we are going to attract customers to the store. During this time we also plan on how many people we are going to have to hire for the next season since we have gotten really busy for the past two years. We have a lot of customers that have been coming to buy suits from us for years. These customers recommend other people to come and purchase suits for whatever they may need. Tino’s Menswear relies a lot on our long-time customers because they are what keep our business alive. This past spring, my boss and I decided that in order to set ourselves apart from the other small businesses in the mall, we were going to offer free socks and belt when they would purchase suits for wedding or cotillion parties. We also gave customers a special discount if someone had recommended us to them. One of our biggest competitors would always give dress suits cheaper and we agreed that this incentive would attract more customers.
My job relates to project management because we plan, schedule, and control how much we are going to buy for next season. Since I am the manager at my workplace, I have to help my boss choose what suits are going to be sold the most and have to be organized with our inventory. I give my boss my ideas in order to increase our sales and how we should save money when sales do not go as expected. Our main focus is giving great customer service because that is what keeps customers coming back.
My question to you is what keeps you going back to stores to buy clothing? Is it the customer service or the prices? Any ideas on what we can offer our customers for next season?