b'Managers have a million things to do and must learn how to prioritize and delegate, inspecting to ensure proper execution, and working with their people to ensure everyone is focused on the overall goal. Rusty Parrishour day-to-day work is having for the missions weValuable data to collect includes sales, number support, we can recruit and maintain a better team.of customers, types of items sold, donations As managers build their teams, delegation iscollected, and the average price per piece of sold an important skill for them to possess. items. Technology can be a useful tool to track Managers have a million things to do andinformation to help positively direct the operation must learn how to prioritize and delegate, inspect- for the future.ing to ensure proper execution, and workingOne example is the SMCo-designed ThriftTrac, with their people to ensure everyone is focuseda program that all employees at a ministry would on the overall goal, Rusty said. use at the end of the work day. Hope House is look-At Hope Houses Community Store, Bryan hasing into using ThriftTrac to increase its impact with found that its critical to ensure employees area better grasp on data.skilled at equipping and empowering the volun- The data inputted by dozens, if not hundreds, teers to serve the needs of the store and shoppers.of employees rolls up to a dashboard that everyone, Volunteers at Rockford Rescue Mission in Illinois,from frontline associates to executive leadership, for example, sort and process donations, workcan look at on a daily basis, Steve said. You cant with merchandising, and assist customers at itsmanage what you dont measure. thrift store. OnTrac, also created by SMCo, is a point-of-A donation coordinator is also a strong asset,sale system that feeds data into ThriftTrac.Bryan has learned, to be the best steward of thatThe dashboards created inside the system give donation given. us real-time data that allow us to make decisions that affect the success of the stores in real-time, Pursuing the processSteve said. W ith a strong team in place, Steve saidRusty advised thrift-store managers to ensure that making sure everyone under- that technology doesnt obscure a stores goals, stands the store process and keepsnoting hes worked with some stores that have everything moving in the right direction will helpcollected too much data.set the retail establishment on the path to success.Technology these days can become absolutely [A critical first step] is an outlined systemoverwhelming if youre not careful, he said. Our of operations from the start, which can align fornumber-one goal is helping organizations make future expansions, Rusty said. You always needmore profit, as dollars staying in the bank is really to be aware of where youre at, where youre going,what counts. Money in the bank to drive the and how to get there.ministrythats what were after. \x02 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2022 WWW.CITYGATENETWORK.ORG 15'