Am I ready to be a manager?

1. Ask yourself these questions: Do I want to be leader? Am I ready to accept the tasks and challenges others are not? Am I willing to pay the price for excellence? Am I willing to dedicate time and energy to work beyond what I am paid? Unless you can answer "yes" to these questions, you aren't yet ready. 
Yes, I want to be a leader. I was a leader/director at a church camp this past summer. I feel I can do it. Yes, I am ready to accept the tasks and challenges others are not because I tend to do what others dont get done plus my tasks that need completed. What is the price for excellence? Hopefully, soon, I will be paid salary but that wont matter if I am under 40 hours or overtime. So, in a way, yes I am willing to dedicate that time and energy because in my mind, it will help further my career and make me a stronger and better person. I answered yes to pretty much all of them so I guess that means I am ready!

2. Map your journey. Create a detailed written statement of your current work responsibilities. Map out your career path, complete with benchmarks and milestones.
My current work responsibilities include typing up the weekly schedule, write out when invoices/bills are due, make sure product is scanned into the computer and the labels are the correct price, and make sure any other and all other paperwork is completed. I would not like to remain in retail the rest of my life but if I went from part time sales associate to manager over night than I think I can make a career out of doing something with retail.

3. Write out a professional operating system. A professional operating system is a detailed list of ongoing actions you regularly execute to be the best at your job.
Arrive 15 min before the store is to open to open the register and answer voice mails. Set up meetings with other stores to cross advertise. Talk to churches and mothers-day-out groups to promote our store. Keeping everything including the back stock room in order. Making a filing system of important paperwork and such. Responding to emails and voicemail in a timely manner.

4. Write a personal operating system. A personal operating system is a detailed list of ongoing actions you adopt to take extremely good care of yourself as a human being. This includes identifying your personal values, such as integrity or respect.
*This will take a while to write out*

5. Create a professional growth system. Identify and execute the steps to further your technical knowledge and industry related expertise. There's always more to read, listen and study, and in a year's time you'll be ahead of your peers. 
6. Create a personal growth system. Understanding human communication, leadership and relationships is vital to the success of any manager. In addition to studying others, the study of yourself will expand insight, understanding and wisdom that are second to none.
7. Learn from life. Seek out to exploit every possible experience, whether it's good or bad, to extract learning and wisdom. Document your insights and lessons learned, and write a plan on how to do things better next time.
8. Find a running partner. Develop a partnership with another person to whom you can be accountable. When you have a partner who is pursuing a parallel path, you are more likely to do what you've set out to do. Schedule weekly meetings to share your experiences, get new ideas, and stay focused and on track. 
I have one other lady that works with me and she is better at product knowledge and selling that managerial aspects and we all have our set skills but to me she is my "partner in crime" as she has been with the company over 8-9 yrs and knows all the product and the systems more than I do but as just a "sales associate" I am considering her my Assistant Manager as she knows the store like the back of her hand.