Team building

In my years of running the pastry business, I have learned how to lead people. Starting from around five employees, I now have around 20 people working in the three branches. Although I do not find it hard to relate with people and build relationships with them, leading them to help run a business is an entirely different thing. This got extra difficult when I set up the additional branches. I had new employees who were working in a different area. Although I took time to orient all of them, I was often worried about how they were handling the new shops.

I took frequent visits to the new branches to help them get accustomed faster to how the pastry shop works. However, I did not want to spend so much time traveling from one place to another just to check on what is happening. I slowly eased away and let the two branches run independently even without my frequent personal visits.

To help me keep everyone in check and on the same page, I rely on RingCentral Online. Through a toll free number, the whole team can reach each other any time. Through extensions set up in the different branches, we can easily ring each other for concerns and questions without having to pay for long distance charges.

Through answering rules and call forwarding options, I can call any of my employees even after shop hours. In the same way, I can easily be reached for any urgent concern or issue. RingCentral has greatly increased out productivity and our relationship among the team as well. It unifies the whole team even if we are located in different areas. To me, this is very crucial, since I want all the branches to be on the same page, from the taste and quality of the pastries, to how the shop operates.