The shop floor is immaculate. The stockroom, on the other hand, built up on its own: deliveries put down wherever there was space, last season's unsold items behind the new ones, supplies mixed in with packaging. You know everything is in there — but you are the only one who knows where.
What a disorganised stockroom costs
Time taken away from selling, on every search. Reorders placed twice because the existing stock is invisible. A new member of staff who takes weeks to become independent. And, at the end of the season, unsold items found too late to shift.
How we go about it
1. Watch before moving anything
We start by looking at how you actually work: what you fetch ten times a day, what you only touch when a delivery arrives, what has not moved at all. The organisation follows your movements, not a theory.
2. Zone the space
Fast-moving stock at hand height and near the door, seasonal items high up, supplies and packaging kept apart from merchandise. Each zone has one function, and only one.
3. Make it readable without you
Labelling, consistent containers, fixed locations: the aim is that a stand-in or a seasonal worker can find things alone, from day one, without calling you.
4. Deal with the dead stock
Whatever will not sell is identified and taken out of the working space — clearance, donation, recycling — instead of occupying shelf metres you are paying rent on.
5. A system that holds
We finish with the restocking rule: where a delivery goes when it arrives, who puts away what, and what gets checked once a month. An organisation that does not survive the first delivery is not one.
Other professional spaces
The same method applies to an office store, a preparation room, a workshop, a community venue or the back of a salon: anywhere the working space is not seen by the customer but determines the quality of the service.
In practice
The work is scheduled around your hours — early morning, closing day, low season — so that trading is not affected. It is invoiced as a professional service, against a quote issued after a visit or a video call. The French "services à la personne" tax credit does not apply to work carried out in business premises.