ONCE UPON A CHILD: ROCHESTER, NY (Henrietta, Webster, Victor)
Owner, Shannon Lopoukhine, shares a glimpse into her Winmark journey.
How did you come to own a Winmark franchise?
My aunt owned the local Plato’s Closet and brought the OUAC concept to me. There were no OUAC stores in the area at the time and based upon the success of her Plato’s she thought it was a great fit for our area. My kids were small at the time, and I was between careers--my professional background is Corporate Sales and HR Management. Owning my own business was something I had always thought about and OUAC just seemed like the perfect fit at the time. My father was also retiring and looking for something to do in retirement, so after much consideration, we decided to become business partners. It’s been a great opportunity, and one I am thankful for even on its hardest days.
What is one thing you know now that you wish you had known when you first opened your store?
Owning your own business is challenging every day, but also wonderfully rewarding. It is an eyes open to eyes shut job that requires a commitment I can only liken to parenthood. There is no “work life balance” and you need to be ok with that. Life interrupts work, work interrupts life, it is all one. You need to be able to organize, appreciate and respect your time differently than you would with a 9-5 type career. If you can accept that as part of this lifestyle, it becomes wonderfully freeing as you are able to work it to a point that you are truly needed less and less and able to manage your schedule and how you use your time. To be able to get to this point takes a lot of work, and getting a competent team in place that you trust is critically important. It is also important to be flexible and willing to learn new things every day. It’s like that saying “Jack of all trades, master of none.” You have to learn all aspects of business from marketing to accounts payable, inventory management to HR, customer service to being a trusted confidant. Don’t be afraid to try new things, ask questions of other business owners, read journals, listen to podcasts. You can’t get complacent. The retail landscape changes quickly, the exciting part of this job is learning new ways to approach and improve things.
2020 was, without a doubt, a challenging year. What was one way you evolved your business that you will keep utilizing in 2021?
My staff, especially my management teams, have worked hard on improving our efficiencies and managing labor hours. With the downturn due to Covid, associated staffing shortages and also the rising minimum wage in NY, we had to learn how to become more creative, and to work smarter with fewer resources. We have implemented new processes, spent the time to better educate our customers on how our process works, and changed some of our daily procedures to help us run more efficiently each day. Having been in business for about 10 years, we had hit a level of comfort with how we were operating. When we re-opened after our Covid lock down, we realized that we stopped evaluating and evolving our processes and procedures to fit how we needed to operate to remain profitable. We have a renewed focus on the workings of our business and recognize that the small changes all add up. We continue to evaluate and look for ways that we can improve our operations and also our customer service in each area of the business. We have learned to be able to pivot as the situation requires and are less afraid to try new ways of doing things to see what works. I guess you can say that Covid renewed that entrepreneurial, nose to the grindstone spirit a bit! We also have a renewed appreciation for our staff who have worked amazingly hard in a less than ideal circumstance. We have learned to be kinder and more patient with each other, we have had to be flexible and considerate of each person’s situation, and grateful for the work and opportunities we are given to serve our community and each other every day.
