Note: This article gives great advice to make you a better employee and in the end a better person. It explains that if you think of your job as just a way to pay your bills and you put only minimum effort into your job then you and your boss will feel it. However, if you come to your job everyday thinking “I am going to do the best job that I can today” you will be happy and your boss will eventually notice. It just may help you to get a promotion or better job in the company.

Retail Employees, Make a Difference Today in Your Retail Store
By Mark T Fletcher

A job in a retail store can be just that, a job, a paycheck, a means to an end. It can also be an opportunity seized, for you and the business, to make a difference.

Too often, retail employees, their managers and employers expect nothing more from a retail employee than the minimum - a smile, attention to customers, honesty and punctuality.

In today's retail climate, the retail employees of most value are those who go the extra mile and deliver excellent commercial value to the retail business every day. This ought to be the goal of everyone working in retail today no matter whether it is for a few hours or full time, in a candy store or a national clothing store.

Taking a job and working it just for the money and doing the bare minimum fails the business and you. Sure you solve your money problem but do you advance and does the business genuinely benefit? Remember, the business owes you nothing. Make yourself valuable and the business owes you more than nothing.

When you walk into your retail store, walk in with a commitment to make a difference for the business and for yourself. In doing this you ensure that you are more valuable to the business than an average employee, you also enhance your self esteem.

Here are some tips to help you make a measurable difference in your retail job every day:

1. Before you start work, acknowledge to yourself that it is your choice to go to work there today. This makes your success and your happiness your obligation.
2. Embrace genuine happiness. Since it is your choice to go to work today, do so with good cheer. On the way in embrace what makes you happy, music, a particular garment, a coffee. Treat yourself each day in some way and enjoy this.
3. Set yourself a goal for the day. Keep it to yourself. The goal could be to sell a certain value of products, a quantity of some particular line or to achieve some change of your own accord in the business. Set a goal, keep it private and take every opportunity possible to work toward the goal.
4. Assess yourself and how you are working toward the goals you have set. Be honest in your assessment.
5. Be in the moment with your customers. Great feedback about you to a colleague or a manager shows you are going above and beyond in your role and propels you toward your goal.

Of course, there will be a question of why, why go the extra mile when I am paid an hourly rate? Besides the opportunity for promotion or a bonus of some kind, the most important reason why if for yourself. Achieving the goals you set and doing better than average in your job will help you feel better about the job and its contribution to you as a person.

So, when you head to work in your retail job, make a commitment to make a difference today for you. Do this consistently and the difference you make will be noticed and benefits will be unlocked, sometimes in ways you had not expected.

Mark Fletcher is a retailer, business advisor and author writing at http://www.kickstartretail.com.

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