MINUTE WITH A MANAGER
Q. How do you start your day? A. I start my day around 6 a.m., sitting in bed with my cat, General, on my shoulder and my iPad in my lap. I check gold and silver prices and my emails. Then I say a prayer, get up and get the day rolling. Q. What is your best workday? A. When I get to see and hear firsthand the joy our customers feel when celebrating a 50th anniversary, a brand-new engagement or just getting to treat themselves with a new piece of jewelry. Making people happy, whether it is through our sales or the customer service we offer, always makes my best workday. Q. What is your worst workday? A. When I just want to go to work and sell jewelry and make people happy but then find out I have a great many clerical type things to do instead. But that is part of owning a small business. Q. What are your company’s best attributes? A. Our main goal is to provide overthe-top customer service. We keep track of what customers love, we make deliveries, [schedule private] appointments and offer free gift wrap. We offer a special discount and gift during a customer’s birthday month through our Birthday Club. We also offer free layaway and in-store financing. Q. Why I love working for my business: A. I enjoy getting to use my creative side to work on jewelry designs; getting to see vintage and very special pieces and hearing the stories behind them when I do a jewelry appraisal; meeting people from all over the world through the designer jewelry-buying aspect; and, most of all, being instantly rewarded by the smiles on satisfied customers’ faces. Q. What is one thing people don’t know about the company you work for? A. Our store got its name from my late father, Francis Marion Hudson (he actually went by Frank). So with my name being Cindy, I think that gets confusing sometimes. Q. What is the best business advice you have ever received, and from whom? A. The very best advice I have ever gotten, which applies not only to business but in any endeavor you attempt, was from my father, Frank Hudson. “Don’t ever wait for people to encourage or push you to do anything because most people won’t. Just believe in yourself, and do it!”