I believe that one of the best ways to improve work ethic and connections with employee's is if we use a Human Relations Management. I know it sounds cheesy but if we get to know each other like "family" we can have a more laidback and relaxed work environment, this can help get a "work hard, play hard" mentality going for all employee's of the company. Also as a bonus, the casualness of our work environment can rub off on customers. This will give more incentive to purchase shoes from us. It will also allow us to build a relationship with our customer so they will keep coming back for more shoes!

We want to offer a wide variety of quality shoes at an affordable price!

What general environment components do we need to look out for? The easy answer would be to say all of them, which is true. It is good to be on the look out for all components. But the main two are Technological and Economical. We need to keep track of the economy to know what to charge for our shoes. We also need to keep track of technology to help us manufacture shoes more efficiently.

A good way to keep track of costumers is by sales. It is simple but effective! We need to know what sells well and what doesn't, also to see if we have returning customers. To manage customer satisfaction I would like to have some sort of survey or feedback system. But I want to make it simple so it won't intervene with everyday life, an incentive will also be a good idea, maybe a $5 gift card or something. This quick feedback system would be able to be proactive, by being able to stamp out problems either before they happen, or right when they start.

This should be part of our HR department. To ensure proper reporting and prevent suppression, we should offer complete anonymity. A third-party review by someone outside the company can eliminate bias and favoritism.

External HR departments can be good for small businesses as they won't take as many resources away from your business to have an allocated HR department.

Variety is the first pillar in our competitive strengths, we plan to have huge variety of shoes that can tend to all needs and wants.

We want a quality shoe, no matter which one you purchase, we want it to be a worthwhile investment.

Affordability is also a valuable advantage to have. We want people to actually be able to purchase our shoes.

For staff to perform functions to cover for this. They would need to be cross-trained. Say someone's job is to run our social media and answer phones. We could take them and put them on phones and front desk. Just as an example.

A problem I would want to prevent in this situation is work-overload. I don't want employee's to become unhappy because they are doing 87 jobs at once. That is why shutting down parts of the department is much better, we won't need to worry about emails and social media. We can prioritize more important aspects like answering the phone and working in the physical customer service.

I feel that this will fit in with my management style of Human Relations. Having people become naturally motivated is a good thing. Using a Distributive Method will ensure that people who are motivated will be rewarded fairly for their efforts. It makes employees more happy, and in turn customers more happy.

The book defines it as "leader is friendly and approachable to employees, shows concern for employees and their welfare, treats them as equals, and creates a friendly climate" (Chapter 14, book)

This style of leadership will also facilitate our getting to know each other when we first begin our journey together.

This could be in the form of an online survey, suggestion box, etc.

I feel that the most important part of this feedback would be to make it anonymous, this will incentives more people to give 100% honest feedback. And give more transparency into what stakeholders are feeling. You can't keep everyone happy, but if you can keep everyone on the same page (or in the same book even) you will have less of a chance of sub-optimization.

I don't really want to have too many meetings, they waste time. Not that they aren't necessary, you need some. But I don't want to take valuable work time to have a meeting.