Case study: Managing employees

Flex time

by Carla Waldemar   Margaret McDonald had held top marketing positions with several companies before deciding to put her MBA to work for her own enterprise.

Abandoning the board room in favor of her favorite room — the kitchen — she opened Let’s Cook, a cookware store plus cooking classroom in Northeast Minneapolis in October 2004.

In the process, she tossed out the gospel preached by some of her business profs. She chose to staff her enterprise in an egalitarian fashion, drawing on her earlier degree in social work. Those choices have proved to be successful.

While McDonald herself works around the clock, her nine-person sales force is exclusively part-time, logging the days and hours that suit them. “The associates tell me when they’d like to work; they actually determine their own time here. That way, I know they’re here when they want to be,” she says. “I realize they have other concerns in their lives.”

Despite dire warnings from other employers, she says, “We’ve never been faced with ‘What if no one wants to work this weekend?’ ”

Staffers sign on for many reasons: paycheck, socialization, love of cooking. One is a stay-at-home dad; another, a theater designer. Several college students work evenings. Others work full-time elsewhere, yet value the spending money, camaraderie or chance to feed their passion.

Case in point: One woman’s goal, says McDonald, 48, was to work for the city of Minneapolis. “I encouraged her, and she got the job. But then she told me, ‘I really would like to continue working here some Saturdays.’ People don’t really leave.

“The benefit for me,” she says, “is that each one is multi-dimensional and brings something new to our business from other parts of their lives.”

For instance, the dad on the sales floor is also a computer geek whom she can call on to solve technical problems. The theater designer brings an eye for merchandising. “Those combinations take the value up a level. They’re here to add to their world in a different way, and I get the benefit of their skill set: frosting on the cake,” she says.

‘Take care of customer’
“They’re loyal because I have such a high degree of respect for what they bring. Plus, I acknowledge and compensate them for it,” McDonald says. It’s a safe place to be, in the reality of life. I acknowledge they have other things going on and am accepting of different lifestyles.”

McDonald offers formal staff training once a month (at several flexible sessions), but her most effective training method is to set a great example of the customer service she expects, “and then empower them. It’s a natural thing for people to want to be at the top of their game, so I encourage them to handle anything that may arise as they see fit.

“There’s really nothing that’s not fixable, I tell them, so trust your instincts and respond as if it were your own store. In the heat of the moment, just take care of the customer, and I will never fault you or undermine you.

“They learn by observing me. I learned that in my sales years; I always picked up something when I listened to someone else selling something.

“Another thing l learned: When my boss would leave, I became a much better person, and a better manager. So to let my associates actually experience what I say I want to happen, I need to leave: Let them get thrown into it without turning to me.”

More formally, she says, “Listen to the customer and keep a running list of requests. At staff meetings, we do things to get people thinking, like write down who is 'our' customer.”

McDonald’s chosen teachers don’t fit the cooking-school norm, either. She uses none of the usual celebrity chefs well-known in the Twin Cities. “The store has to emulate my own personality,” she says, “and arrogance is not in my world. I never felt I needed the top names; instead, I bring in up-and-coming people, not necessarily established, but with great culinary skills.

Enlisting volunteers
To perform the duties of teacher’s assistant for the cooking classes, McDonald has hit upon another out-of-the-box solution. She calls on a list of 60 unpaid volunteers — customers, cooking students — who learned of the opportunity by word of mouth and sign on for five-hour prep-to-cleanup stints. “They do it because they love it,” McDonald says.

Michael McKay, chef of the nearby Sample Room, brims with enthusiasm about teaching at Let’s Cook. “I was thrilled when I saw her shop open — there was nothing around here, and I live, eat and breathe Northeast. I’m teaching my kind of customer.”

Let’s Cook is a “good fit for this redeveloping neighborhood,” says Donna Aldama, senior vice president, Northeast Bank, who granted McDonald a loan when other bankers refused.

“We granted 80 percent of her start-up costs, based on her excellent business plan, credit history, and her past business experience in sales and marketing for corporations that could transfer to herself and retail selling,” she says.

These methods have paid off. Business is up 30 percent from her initial year, with 25 percent of revenue derived from classes, 30 percent from retail sales, and the biggest chunk from a facet that didn’t even rate an asterisk on her business plan.

That 40 percent comes from hosting cooking classes as team-building events for corporations, including Target, Medtronic, Room & Board, Dorsey & Whitney and Wells Fargo, who came to her with their request: “They came out of the woodwork,” she says.

“I stumbled upon Let’s Cook when my boss bestowed a lovely cooking basket on me at Christmastime,” says Mary McLean-Olson, administrative assistant at Fridley-based Medtronic Inc.

“The staff at Let’s Cook makes you feel like you are kings and queens in the kitchen. They also send a very nice letter of thanks and an in-store certificate after your event is completed. They actually thank you for using them! That type of customer service is usually unheard-of today,” she says.

As McDonald approaches her second anniversary, she notes: “A business plan is just that: a plan. There are too many variables, so you’ve got to be flexible and adapt. My goal is simply this: to create the absolutely best store for this area.”

[contact] Donna Aldama, Northeast Bank, 612.379.8811; www.northeastbank-mn.com. Margaret McDonald, Let’s Cook: 612.623.9700; in**@******ok.cc; www.letscook.cc. Mark McKay, The Sample Room: 612.789.0333. Mary McLean-Olson, Medtronic Inc.: 763.514.4283; www.medtronic.com