Michael Burpoe sat down with William Jones IV, the newly appointed President of Sissy's Log Cabin, to discuss the changes coming to his business. A perennial powerhouse of a retail jewelry store, Sissy’s Log Cabin has long been viewed as a leader for multi-store independent jewelers.
William opens up about his unique journey from the store floor to the executive office and shares the challenges and triumphs that come with guiding one of the most beloved jewelry stores in Arkansas and Tennessee.
Below is a small snippet of the episode transcript. Listen to the full episode here.
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Michael Burpoe:
So big news just came out. I mean this is on National Jeweler and in a lot of different locations, because Sissy's is definitely considered one of those front-running companies. That is kind of pushing things forward. You were recently promoted or announced as the next president and you are the grandson of the original founder. Can you talk to me about what led to this moment and kind of what you're feeling around now?
William Jones:
Yeah, absolutely. I mean. First off, I'll just say this is a lifelong dream. I've worked at Sissy's my entire life. You know we were fortunate enough and unfortunate enough to where it was. We all had to work. There was no other.
Arkansas has kind of like a farming culture to it, and so I always compared it to Sissy's Log Cabin, like our farm, and if you've ever been around people on the farm, there's no “hey” when it's harvest. You're out there like there's no question of what you're doing this weekend or anything else like that. And so where we are in South Arkansas, the economy really took a downturn about 20 years ago, 25 years ago and so it was never a hey, do you want to come work or would you like to come up to the store? It was hey, what time are you going to be there tomorrow? Or anything like that. So I've worked at the store my entire life.
I've got a good team of guys that I work with that we do the majority of the things and then over the last three or four years myself and the previous person it's just been kind of like a transition period going through there too.
MB:
So yeah, I was going to say so. I do hear that rather frequently. The COO and the CEO work in lockstep together and then the president is essentially kind of the acting coordinator or voice to the rest of the company and public facing figure. Can you share what kind of additional responsibilities come on when you step in as president? Is it essentially, like you know, business as usual as COO, working and doing everything day to day, and then one day you become president? Or is there an additional responsibility that comes along with that role and then one day you become President? Or is there an additional responsibility that comes along with that role?
WJ:
Yeah, so in most companies, like larger companies, President and COO are about the same title. Previously, I started a finance company, I worked in operations, and I had a really heavy operations background and so basically the day-to-day workings of the company… everything except for being the front guy.
So the biggest transition was going from you know, when you're in that COO position and there's a president position, is that it really gives a good opportunity to build a team operationally. Being president of the company, it's mainly just sporting overall culture, internal marketing, working with people, driving sales and driving sales is the biggest difference there. It's focused from operational efficiency to driving sales and hitting sales goals.
MB:
So the original location, I assume, was a log cabin. But now you guys have six storefronts. A lot of our listeners are owners of single storefronts or maybe even two locations. But we do have a couple that have many locations, I think up to six or seven. Can you talk to me about the challenges that you might face as COO and now President of a company that has six locations, especially across state?
WJ:
The hardest challenge is that every single store you open, every single person you hire, it takes you that much further away from the front door, and the basics of jewelry is trying to understand a customer at the front door. So the further you are away from that, the harder it is to do that, because you have less input onto it, and so it was really cool to be able to see the transition there. Early on, you could see the front door, making sure every person's getting waited on. You can be in every single presentation.
And then once you're open six days a week, it gets a little bit harder. And then once you open that second door, you really can't be there. And so from the second to third store, you really have to evolve from like a player to kind of like a coach. And then the best advice I ever got was from a buddy in health insurance and he said you know you can be the most hyper-efficient, hardest working person ever. You can do the job of two or three people, but you can still only be in one place at one time.
And you can do the job of two or three people, but you can still only be in one place at one time. And so with a family experience-based business, that's a very difficult thing to do is trying to offer that same level of experience and expertise and product knowledge and all these other things in multiple locations.
Now we have 145 associates or employees total, and so you're talking about the phones have to be answered in a similar fashion, the doors have to be greeted in a similar fashion, every person has to know the story of sissies, the products, the knowledge, the manager presentations have to be the same. So you really have to go from you know understanding what it is a customer wants and then trying to replicate that, and especially in today's age, it changes every year and a half or two years too, so it's constantly evolving and trying to get that experience refined and make it more consistent.
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Learn more about Sissy’s Log Cabin: sissyslogcabin.com
Listen to the full In the Loupe episode here.