Store Owner - Local At The Palace

Zara Thomas is the owner of 'Local at the Palace,' a local eatery serving coffee, artisan cheese, wine, fresh juices, smoothies, and pastries.

• Zara grew up surrounded by the industry through her father, working for him during her youth, which fostered a genuine love for the work.
• After exploring other jobs in London, she returned to hospitality, progressing from basic roles to management, where she discovered a fondness for responsibility.
• Now as a shop owner, Zara values teamwork and prioritizes training and hiring individuals who are "people lovers," emphasizing the importance of excellent customer service.

Zara's dad has been in the industry for as long as she can remember, and she worked for him during weekends and holidays. Without even realising, she fell in love with the job.

Zara started to do something else and then found herself doing this job. She moved into London and did other jobs such as waitressing, shop assistant, supervisor, assistant manager, and manger roles. It got to the point where she could do all the jobs, but she would enjoy having a place of her own.

At the beginning when she started in hospitality, she had experience but had not had much responsibility at her workplace. After being a supervisor and then subsequently a manager, she found that she enjoyed the extra responsibility.

Now being a shop owner, Zara can do all the roles but work with her team, but she is also their boss, even though there is a fine line. It is a beautiful position to find herself in.

You may not need many big qualifications to own a shop but if you did want to go for something then GSCE's, A-Levels are useful.

Zara now says to people that she hires that she does not hire CV's, she hires people.

Her main responsibility as an owner and a manager is to make sure that people are trained. In every single level of hospitality, this needs to be top notch. What she expects from people who work for her is to be people lovers. This can be quite difficult at times, but she is looking for people to treat people nicely and to smile. Hospitality is all about treating people well.

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Tags Business Studies Catering Customer Service Hospitality