Rita Wade
Marketing/Events/Business Consulting for Retailers * Owner, Wade Designs & RWC * Social Media & E-mail Marketing
- Role
- President CEO at Wade Designs
- Location
- Rocky Mount, NC, US
- LinkedIn followers
- 500 followers
About Rita Wade
High energy, self-motivated experienced broad spectrum professional with almost 30 years…
Experience
President CEO
Aug 1996 — Present · Rocky Mount, NC, US
1996 – Present Wade Designs, Inc. Rocky Mount, NCWade Designs was established as a wholesale to the industry jewelry design and hand engraving operation and in 1996 opened their first retail store at The Shoppes at Stoney Creek in 2005 and in 2009 added a fine gift and paper store creating that one-stop shop from the engagement ring to the invitations and bridal registry. Owner/CFO• Managed start up of a wholesale jewelry design and hand engraving business to retail stores and strategically grew business into a thriving retail operation. • Increased sales from $200K to over $1.35M.• Liaison between designer and approximately 200 jewelry stores.• Increased customer base from less than 100 retail clients to over Partnered with over 300 charitable organizations to generate brand awareness, also assisted and supported 100 special non-profit events.• Negotiated inventory purchases, managed stock-balancing with vendors, monitored fast sellers for re-orders and analyzed inventory categories for new fall and spring buying.• Traveled globally to personally meet with vendors to purchase all raw and finished inventories from gifts and fine jewelry to loose diamonds and gemstones.• Managed daily business operations, including sales, marketing, brand growth and financials.• Collaborate with jeweler to provide design inspiration for new lines of fine jewelry.• Led daily sales huddles before opening every day, weekly strategic sales meetings and sales training for entire staff.• Collaborated with merchandising team on all displays, web design team to create a marketing campaign for the new website launch.• Designed, created and led marketing and branding campaigns with in-house graphic designers on daily, weekly, and monthly marketing through social media.• Created and implemented sales incentive campaigns to achieve sales goals.
Education
Mt. Pleasant High School
High School Diploma, General Studies
1982 — 1985
GIA (Gemological Institute of America)
Certificate of Completion, Graduate Diamonds Course
2012 — 2012
Iowa Wesleyan College
Bachelor's degree, Business, Management, Marketing, and Related Support Services
1987 — 1995
Skills
- Social Networking
- Social Media Marketing
- Time Management
- Organizational Development
- Social Media
- Advertising
- Nonprofits
- Public Relations
- Financial Accounting
- Jewelry Design
- Retail
- Small Business
- Diamonds
- Customer Retention
- Jewelry
- Customer Service
- Accounting
- Sales Management
- Marketing Strategy
- Event Planning
- Event Management
- Gifts
- Marketing
- Cost Accounting
- Strategic Planning
- Employee Relations
- Team Building
- Management
- Leadership Development
- Public Speaking
- Customer Satisfaction
- Training
- Inventory Management
- Microsoft Office
- Sales
- Coaching
- Leadership
- Budgets
- Team Leadership
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