Managing Holiday Season Stress In Your Business

Managing Holiday Season Stress In Your Business

By Tally Mack

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This blog post is part of Bravo’s 90 Days of Retail Marketing Guide for Specialty Retailers. To see more content like this and to follow along on our calendar, visit our 90 Days of Retail webpage.

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Who is someone in your life who taught and inspired you to become a leader in your business or your community? Growing up, I had the privilege of watching my father, Steve Mack, lead the growth of multiple businesses from the ground up—including SuperPawn and Bravo. What I learned watching him and many other experienced pawnbrokers and business owners cannot be found in any textbooks, but those lessons are a fundamental part of how I balance life as a CEO, mother and friend.  

As busy holiday and retail seasons approach, it’s particularly easy to get lost in the stress and mayhem and forget those fundamental life lessons we’ve all learned from our mentors. Here are a few lessons that no storeowner or business leader should ever forget:

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1. There is no business without you. What that means is that you need to take care of yourself the way that you take care of your business. You keep the shelves stocked, the lights on and you are always wiping down the glass cases... but when it comes to your personal health and wellness, are you doing the same? Are you remembering to eat, sleep, drink water and spend time with your family? If you are burned out, then your employees will probably be burning out too. Set the example for your team and remember that there is no business without you or your people.  
   

2. Delegating is an important aspect of good leadership. Leading by example can often be taken to the extreme - as if you need to be seen doing everything to be considered a good, hardworking leader. That is not the case and it’s a quick way to burn out (see above!). Delegating tasks to employees helps train and retain talent, because they will get to learn and grow on the job. Developing trust in your employees can help develop and identify future leaders on your team. Don’t forget that you can also delegate tasks to Bravo! We designed Bravo to automate many of the mundane administrative tasks (like advertising promotions, running reports, and sending payment reminders) that can prevent you and your employees from doing more fulfilling work, such as building relationships with your customers.
   

3. Remember to say “thank you.” It’s easy to overlook the regular day-to-day activities when you’re busy—like saying “thank you”! And I don’t mean just to your customers. Saying “thank you,” out loud or in writing or with a gift to your employees – even if all they did was their job – is a critical piece of promoting a resilient and positive workplace culture during stressful times. It shows your employees that you’re paying attention to what they’re doing well, not just when they make mistakes.  

At the end of the day, however much you love what you do, your work is a means to an end. That’s why my father started Bravo—to make loaning, buying and selling easier, more stable, and more profitable so he and the other hardworking small business owners in our industry could go home at the end of the day with more money and more time to spend with the people they love and the life goals they’re trying to achieve.  

What other tips or advice do you have to help other business leaders succeed? Share it with me on Facebook or LinkedIn.

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About the Author:

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Tally Mack is a fifth-generation pawnbroker and eCommerce enthusiast. She loves traveling, being outside and working out.

Before taking the reins as CEO, Tally served as Bravo's Vice President of Business Development, leading the company's sales and marketing organization. She's been instrumental in leading and executing many of the company's strategic shifts, including the acquisition of CompuPawn and the recent launch of UsedGuns.com.

Tally earned her Doctorate of Law (J.D.) from DePaul University College of Law in 2013 after attending the University of Colorado at Boulder, where she earned her B.A. in Communication Studies. She also completed the Key Executives Program from Harvard Business School in 2013.

Tally is a pawnshop lover and eCommerce enthusiast—dedicated to the success of both her employees and customers!

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