Position: General Manager

Employment Type: Full-Time, Salaried

Compensation: Negotiable based on relevant experience and qualifications

Schedule: Minimum 40 hours per week; typically 40+ hours, with potential for up to 50+ hours during high-volume periods, major events, releases, holidays, projects, or as business needs dictate.

Requirements: To be considered for the General Manager position, candidates should meet the following requirements:

• 5+ years of management experience, preferably in retail, hospitality, entertainment, specialty retail, or another fast-paced customer-facing environment
• 3+ years directly managing a team, including responsibility for scheduling, coaching, performance management, and accountability
• Demonstrated experience building, improving, or repairing operational systems and processes
• Experience managing payroll, labor budgets, staffing levels, and employee scheduling
• Experience working with sales goals, KPIs, budgets, margins, inventory, and other business performance metrics
• Strong understanding of inventory control, shrink prevention, receiving, merchandising, and operational accuracy
• Proven ability to identify recurring problems, determine root causes, and implement long-term solutions
• Experience documenting procedures, creating workflows, and turning informal practices into repeatable systems
• Strong written and verbal communication skills
• Ability to give clear direction, provide constructive feedback, and address performance issues directly and professionally
• Strong organizational and time-management skills
• Ability to manage multiple departments, priorities, deadlines, and projects at the same time
• Ability to work independently and make sound decisions without constant owner involvement
• Willingness to be hands-on and assist with any area of the business when needed
• Ability to work a flexible schedule, including evenings, weekends, holidays, major releases, and special events
• Ability to consistently work 40+ hours per week, with the understanding that some periods may require 50–60 hours
• Reliable transportation and consistent attendance
• Ability to work on-site at State of Comics in Plymouth, Michigan

Preferred Qualifications: The following are not required, but would be considered a strong advantage:

• Previous experience as a General Manager, Store Manager, District Manager, Operations Manager, or similar senior leadership role
• Experience managing a retail operation with multiple departments or revenue streams
• Experience in hobby retail, comics, trading card games, collectibles, tabletop gaming, bookstores, or specialty retail
• Experience with e-commerce or omnichannel retail operations
• Experience using Shopify or similar retail/e-commerce platforms
• Experience with POS systems, inventory systems, scheduling software, and business reporting tools
• Experience developing supervisors, managers, or department leads
• Experience opening, expanding, restructuring, or scaling a retail operation
• Experience creating SOPs and implementing new operational procedures
• Experience managing events, organized play, or community-driven retail programs
• Experience working directly with business owners in an entrepreneurial or independently owned company

Leadership Expectations: This role requires more than previous management experience. The General Manager must be someone who can:

• Make decisions
• Create structure where structure is missing
• Hold people accountable
• Develop employees instead of simply completing their work for them
• Recognize when a process is broken
• Build a better process
• Follow through until the solution is actually implemented
• Communicate problems before they become emergencies
• Balance customer service, employee needs, and the financial needs of the business
• Understand when to act independently and when ownership needs to be involved

We are looking for someone who is comfortable being responsible for results. This is not a position where success is measured by simply being present or completing a shift. The General Manager will be expected to make State of Comics operate better because they are here.

About State of Comics

State of Comics is an established, fast-paced, growing comic book and hobby retailer specializing in comics, graphic novels, manga, trading card games, tabletop games, collectibles, organized play, events, e-commerce, and more.

We are not a traditional retail environment where managers simply supervise a shift.

State of Comics is constantly moving, changing, and growing. Our leadership team is expected to be hands-on, solve problems, develop people, improve systems, create accountability, and take ownership of the business every day.

We have built a strong business with an established customer base, active departments, experienced employees, multiple product categories, a growing online presence, and a significant amount of day-to-day activity already in motion.

At the same time, we are very aware that parts of the internal operating system behind the business are not where they need to be.

That is a major reason this position exists.

Position Overview

The General Manager is responsible for the overall day-to-day operation and performance of State of Comics.

This is a senior leadership position responsible for ensuring that the store operates efficiently, employees are productive and accountable, customers receive exceptional service, company standards are consistently executed, and problems are addressed before they become larger issues.

The General Manager will work closely with ownership to help build the operational infrastructure State of Comics needs for its next stage of growth.

There are areas of the business that are too dependent on ownership, processes that are inconsistent, responsibilities that are not always clearly defined, departments that need stronger structure, and systems that have grown organically rather than intentionally.

We are hiring a General Manager in large part to help build and repair that operating system.

This is not a role for someone who expects to inherit a perfectly organized company and simply maintain it.

We need someone who can walk into an active, fast-moving business, understand what is happening, identify where systems are breaking down, and help build the structure necessary for the company to operate more consistently and scale successfully.

The General Manager will work with ownership to:

• Identify broken or inconsistent processes
• Establish clear ownership and accountability
• Build repeatable systems and procedures
• Improve communication between departments
• Develop managers and department leaders
• Create stronger follow-through and reporting
• Reduce unnecessary dependence on ownership
• Turn developing areas of the business into reliable, functioning departments
• Help create an operation that can continue to grow without becoming increasingly chaotic

We are not expecting the General Manager to personally do everything.

We are expecting them to help create a system where the right people know what they own, have what they need to succeed, are held accountable for results, and can operate effectively without constant intervention from ownership.

The General Manager should be able to operate the store independently and make sound decisions without requiring constant direction.

This position requires someone who is comfortable balancing leadership, systems-building, and hands-on work.

There will be days spent coaching employees, reviewing performance, planning schedules, analyzing results, documenting processes, or improving workflows.

There will also be days where the General Manager needs to jump onto a register, receive inventory, clean the store, help fulfill orders, solve a customer problem, merchandise product, support an event, or handle whatever else the business requires.

No task is beneath the General Manager.

Primary Responsibilities

Store Operations: Oversee the daily operation of State of Comics and ensure the store is organized, productive, properly staffed, and prepared for business.

• Maintain high standards for cleanliness, merchandising, organization, inventory handling, opening and closing procedures, cash controls, safety, and overall store presentation.
• Identify operational problems and implement solutions rather than waiting for ownership to discover or resolve them.
• Ensure company policies, procedures, and expectations are being followed consistently.
• Ensure responsibilities are clearly assigned and completed.
• Develop processes where processes do not currently exist or where existing processes are not producing consistent results.
• Recognize recurring problems and address the underlying cause rather than repeatedly treating the symptoms.

Team Leadership & Accountability: Lead, coach, develop, and hold employees accountable to State of Comics standards.

• Set clear expectations and follow up to ensure assigned work is completed correctly and on time.
• Manage employee performance, including coaching, documentation, corrective action, recognition, and development.
• Help create a culture where employees take ownership of their responsibilities rather than waiting to be told what to do.
• Ensure managers, department leads, and employees communicate effectively across departments and shifts.
• Develop employees who demonstrate leadership ability and help them take on greater responsibility.
• Address poor performance, missed expectations, attendance issues, lack of follow-through, and behavioral concerns promptly and professionally.

The General Manager should create clarity around a simple question: Who owns this? Every important responsibility should have a clear answer.

Scheduling & Labor Management: Create and maintain employee schedules based on business needs, employee availability, events, workload, expected sales volume, major releases, and company priorities.

• Monitor payroll and scheduled labor to ensure staffing levels are appropriate for the needs of the business.
• Make adjustments when necessary to maintain both customer service standards and responsible labor spending.
• Ensure appropriate management coverage and staffing for major releases, events, weekends, holidays, and other high-volume periods.
• Monitor scheduled hours versus actual hours worked.
• Identify unnecessary overtime, inefficient scheduling, underutilized labor, and coverage gaps.
• Labor should be treated as an investment that must produce appropriate results—not simply a fixed schedule repeated every week regardless of business needs.

Customer Experience Maintain an exceptional standard of customer service throughout the store.

• Handle escalated customer concerns professionally and work toward solutions that protect both the customer relationship and the business.
• Coach employees on customer interactions and ensure customers are acknowledged, assisted, and treated with respect.
• Ensure customer concerns are not ignored, passed around indefinitely, or unnecessarily escalated to ownership.
• Identify recurring customer service problems and address their underlying causes.
• Build long-term customer relationships and help maintain State of Comics as a welcoming destination for experienced hobbyists, families, collectors, gamers, and customers completely new to comics and gaming.

Sales & Business Performance: Understand store sales performance and work with ownership to achieve company goals.

• Regularly review sales results and understand where the business is ahead of or behind expectations.
• Ensure employees understand current promotions, products, events, major releases, and company priorities.
• Take ownership of store performance rather than viewing individual departments or problems as someone else's responsibility.
• When a category, department, or initiative is underperforming, the General Manager should work with ownership and the appropriate employee or department lead to determine why and develop a plan to improve it.

Identify opportunities to:

• Increase sales
• Improve merchandising
• Increase employee productivity
• Improve conversion
• Strengthen underperforming departments
• Reduce unnecessary expenses
• Improve the overall customer experience

Inventory & Merchandising: Ensure incoming inventory is received, processed, priced, merchandised, and made available for sale accurately and efficiently.

• Maintain high standards for product organization and presentation throughout the store.
• Work with department leads and ownership to identify inventory issues, shrink, discrepancies, slow-moving merchandise, and merchandising opportunities.
• Ensure receiving procedures are consistently followed.
• Help ensure high-demand releases and major product launches are properly planned and executed.
• Identify recurring inventory errors and implement systems, training, or accountability necessary to prevent them.
• Ensure inventory backlogs do not become accepted as normal operations.

Events & Community: The General Manager is responsible for supporting and developing the Events Coordinator and ensuring they have the resources, staffing, information, training, structure, and management support necessary to succeed.

The Events Coordinator manages the planning and execution of State of Comics' organized play, tournaments, prereleases, community events, and other gaming programs. The General Manager's responsibility is to create an environment where the Events Coordinator can successfully own that role.

This includes:

• Maintaining regular communication regarding upcoming events, priorities, challenges, and deadlines
• Ensuring appropriate staffing and store coverage are available for events
• Removing operational roadblocks
• Ensuring access to necessary information, tools, supplies, prize support, space, and other resources
• Establishing clear expectations and accountability
• Providing coaching, feedback, training, and support when needed
• Coordinating event needs with the overall store schedule and business priorities
• Ensuring clear communication between the Events Coordinator, management, employees, and ownership
• Reviewing event performance and identifying opportunities to improve attendance, customer experience, execution, and profitability
• Helping build repeatable systems around event planning and execution
• Stepping in when necessary to resolve problems or ensure successful execution

The General Manager is not expected to personally perform every responsibility of the Events Coordinator. Their responsibility is to manage, support, develop, and hold the Events Coordinator accountable while giving them what they need to successfully own their department. The goal should be to make the Events Coordinator increasingly successful and independent—not to continually take responsibilities away from them.

Growth, Systems & Business Development: A central responsibility of this role is helping State of Comics build the operational infrastructure necessary for its next stage of growth.The General Manager will be expected to evaluate areas of the business that are incomplete, inconsistent, inefficient, or overly dependent on ownership and help turn them into structured, repeatable, accountable parts of the company.

This may include:

• Building or rebuilding operational procedures
• Clarifying roles, responsibilities, and decision-making authority
• Creating workflows that reduce mistakes and missed deadlines
• Establishing measurable standards for departments and employees
• Developing reporting and accountability systems
• Improving delegation and follow-through
• Building management routines and communication structures
• Training employees and department leads to operate more independently
• Identifying where additional staffing, technology, or resources are needed
• Eliminating unnecessary bottlenecks
• Improving how departments communicate with one another
• Turning informal practices into documented, repeatable systems
• Helping developing revenue streams become organized, measurable, and profitable
• Building departments that currently exist but are not yet functioning at their full potential
• Creating systems that can continue working as State of Comics grows

The General Manager should expect to encounter areas where the answer is not already written down. They should be capable of helping create the answer. We want someone who can look at a recurring problem and ask:

Why does this keep happening?

Then build the process, accountability, training, staffing, technology, or structure necessary to prevent it from continuing. The goal is not bureaucracy for the sake of bureaucracy. Systems should make the business easier to operate, easier to understand, easier to measure, and easier to grow.

Measurable Accountability & Performance Standards: The General Manager will be evaluated not only on effort, but on the measurable performance and operational health of State of Comics. Specific numerical targets may be established or adjusted by ownership based on seasonality, business conditions, company growth, and current priorities.

Sales Performance:

• Meet or exceed company-established sales goals
• Review sales performance regularly
• Understand where the store is ahead of or behind expectations
• Identify declining categories, missed opportunities, and areas of growth
• Develop and execute plans with ownership and department leaders to improve underperforming areas
• Ensure promotions, new releases, major product launches, and sales initiatives are properly executed
• Identify measurable opportunities to increase revenue and profitability

Payroll & Labor:

• Maintain payroll within company-established labor targets
• Build schedules based on projected sales, workload, events, and actual business needs
• Monitor scheduled versus actual labor
• Address unnecessary overtime
• Address inefficient scheduling
• Address attendance and punctuality issues
• Address unproductive labor
• Ensure appropriate management coverage
• Ensure reducing payroll does not come at the expense of customer service or critical operational needs

Employee Performance:

• Ensure every employee has clearly defined responsibilities and expectations
• Conduct regular employee coaching and performance conversations
• Complete formal employee reviews according to company-established schedules
• Address performance and behavioral issues promptly rather than allowing problems to continue
• Document corrective action when appropriate
• Develop employees who demonstrate the ability and desire to take on additional responsibility
• Hold managers and department leaders accountable for the performance of their areas
• Improve overall employee productivity and accountability
• Reduce the amount of owner intervention required to manage routine employee issues

Inventory Accuracy & Loss Prevention:

• Maintain accurate inventory
• Investigate significant discrepancies
• Reduce preventable shrink, loss, damage, and inventory handling errors
• Ensure receiving and inventory procedures are consistently followed
• Identify recurring inventory problems and implement corrective procedures
• Escalate significant inventory discrepancies or suspected theft immediately
• Measure whether inventory-related mistakes are decreasing over time

Receiving & Product Processing:

• Ensure incoming product is received and processed within company-established deadlines
• Ensure new releases and high-demand products are ready for sale by their scheduled release dates
• Prevent unnecessary backlogs of unprocessed inventory
• Ensure pricing, quantities, product placement, and merchandising are accurate
• Identify why recurring receiving delays occur and correct the underlying problem

Customer Service

• Maintain State of Comics' customer service standards across all employees and departments
• Resolve escalated customer issues promptly
• Identify recurring customer complaints and correct the underlying operational problem
• Coach employees when customer service expectations are not being met
• Ensure customer issues requiring ownership involvement are escalated appropriately rather than ignored
• Reduce recurring customer service failures

Store Standards:

• Maintain consistent standards for cleanliness, organization, merchandising, safety, and presentation
• Complete regular walkthroughs of the store
• Address deficiencies when they are identified
• Ensure opening, closing, cash-handling, cleaning, and operational procedures are consistently followed
• Maintain a store that is customer-ready throughout the business day—not only at opening

Events:

The General Manager will be measured on their ability to create the conditions necessary for the Events Coordinator to succeed. This includes ensuring:

• Event staffing needs are addressed in advance
• Necessary resources and operational support are available
• Problems brought to management's attention are addressed promptly
• Event-related deadlines and responsibilities are clearly assigned
• The Events Coordinator receives regular communication, coaching, and feedback
• Recurring execution problems are addressed rather than repeatedly accepted
• Event performance and opportunities for improvement are reviewed
• Systems are developed to make event execution more consistent and predictable

The General Manager is accountable for supporting the Events Coordinator's success without unnecessarily taking over the Events Coordinator's responsibilities.

Systems & Operational Improvement: The General Manager will be evaluated on whether the business becomes easier to operate, more predictable, and less dependent on ownership over time.

Examples of measurable progress include:

• Recurring operational problems decrease
• Fewer responsibilities require repeated owner follow-up
• Department responsibilities become clearly defined
• Employees understand who owns specific tasks and decisions
• Deadlines are consistently met
• Managers and department leads provide updates without being chased
• Key processes become documented and consistently followed
• Inventory and operational errors decrease
• Staffing and scheduling become more predictable
• Problems are escalated earlier
• Projects move from discussion to implementation and completion
• Developing departments become increasingly self-sufficient
• Ownership spends less time resolving routine operational issues
• Employees and managers demonstrate greater accountability
• Business performance can be tracked through reliable metrics rather than guesswork

Business Development: The General Manager will also be evaluated on their ability to help strengthen and grow developing areas of the company. Success may include:

• Previously inconsistent processes becoming reliable and repeatable
• Clear ownership being established for responsibilities that previously required frequent intervention
• Departments operating with greater independence
• Improved employee capabilities and leadership
• New systems being implemented and followed
• Fewer recurring operational problems
• Reduced dependency on ownership for routine decisions
• New or developing revenue streams becoming organized and measurable
• Identified opportunities being converted into actionable plans
• Projects moving from discussion to implementation and completion

Not every initiative will succeed.

The expectation is that opportunities are evaluated intelligently, results are measured, lessons are applied, and unsuccessful initiatives are adjusted or discontinued rather than allowed to consume resources indefinitely.

Communication & Reporting:

• Maintain regular communication with ownership regarding store performance, staffing, significant customer issues, inventory concerns, upcoming events, and operational challenges
• Communicate significant problems early rather than after they have become emergencies
• Provide requested sales, payroll, staffing, inventory, and operational information accurately and on time
• Come to ownership with potential solutions—not simply a list of problems
• Ensure information from ownership is communicated to the appropriate managers and employees
• Establish reporting systems where necessary so important information does not depend on ownership asking for it

Execution & Follow-Through: One of the most important measures of success in this position is follow-through.When a task, project, problem, or responsibility is assigned:

• There is a clear owner
• There is a clear deadline
• Progress is followed up on
• Problems are communicated
• The responsibility is completed
• Completion is verified

Ownership should not need to repeatedly ask whether something was completed. The General Manager should establish a culture where responsibilities move from discussion to execution.

What We're Looking For

The ideal candidate is an experienced leader who is organized, accountable, decisive, adaptable, and comfortable operating in a rapidly changing environment. Candidates should possess:

• Previous management experience, preferably in retail or another high-volume customer-facing business
• Experience directly managing and developing employees
• Experience building or improving operational systems and processes
• Strong leadership and communication skills
• Excellent organizational and time-management abilities
• Ability to prioritize multiple responsibilities simultaneously
• Strong problem-solving and decision-making skills
• Experience working with sales goals, payroll budgets, inventory, and business metrics
• Ability to identify root causes rather than repeatedly solving the same problem
• Ability to create processes where structure is lacking
• Ability to give and receive direct feedback professionally
• Willingness to work alongside the team and perform any task necessary to keep the business operating
• Dependability and the ability to work independently without constant supervision
• Availability to work evenings, weekends, holidays, major releases, and special events when required

Experience with comics, trading card games, tabletop gaming, collectibles, or hobby retail is beneficial, but strong management and operational experience is more important than simply being knowledgeable about the products we sell.

We can teach someone about comics.

We need someone who already knows how to lead, build systems, and develop people.

Schedule & Expectations: This is a full-time salaried leadership position.

A minimum of 40 hours per week is expected. Depending on business needs, the General Manager should expect to work approximately 40–50 hours per week, with periods potentially reaching 50–60 hours, particularly during major releases, events, holidays, staffing shortages, major projects, or other high-volume periods.

The General Manager must have scheduling flexibility. This is not a Monday-through-Friday office position. The schedule will vary based on the needs of the business. Must be available Nights and Weekends.

Compensation: Salary is negotiable and will be determined based on the candidate's management experience, retail experience, industry knowledge, systems-building experience, leadership background, and overall qualifications.

What Success Looks Like: A successful General Manager helps create a business that does not require ownership to personally manage every daily detail.

Employees know what is expected of them. Managers and department leaders have what they need to succeed. Responsibilities have clear owners. Schedules make sense for the business. Payroll is controlled. Inventory gets processed. Customers are taken care of. Events are supported. Developing areas of the business become functioning departments and processes. Broken systems are identified and rebuilt. Recurring problems become less frequent. Deadlines are met. The store is clean, organized, merchandised, and ready for customers. Employees are held accountable. Managers communicate. Projects get completed. Ownership knows what is happening without needing to chase down information. The business becomes more organized, more predictable, more scalable, and less dependent on ownership for routine operation. Most importantly, the General Manager takes ownership. When something isn't working, they don't simply identify the problem. They make sure it gets fixed.