About the Advantage Program

The Advantage Program has been developed for people directly responsible for hospital gift shops. Whether planning for a successful new gift shop or turning an under-performing shop into a success story, The Advantage Program will help you make it happen!

Advantage Program President, Linda Williams, has over twenty years experience with retail buying, merchandising, and operations management positions with mainstream department and specialty store chains. She entered hospital gift shop management as director of retail shops for a major medical center in Boston. There, she successfully introduced mainstream retail practices to the non-profit environment. Linda and her team increased sales for her hospital gift shop by 350%, and profits by 700%.

Linda subsequently moved into healthcare gift shop consulting and design. She developed the Advantage Program to help gift shop operators become more efficient and customer-friendly while producing more profitable bottom line results. Linda developed a Training Manual, "7 Steps to a Highly Effective Gift Shop," which spells out how to achieve a more efficient healthcare or retail gift shop.

As a result of working with many hospital gift shops, Linda discovered a need for back end financial software. She then designed software based on easy-to-use spreadsheets. Advantage Program currently offers a training and installation program for the software. The core of Linda's program remains consulting services.

Linda Williams and the Advantage Program are committed to guiding hospital auxiliaries in their efforts to revitalize their healthcare gift shops. We help hospital administrators see opportunities to turn sluggish retail operations into success stories by achieving new financial goals. Most important of all, the Advantage Program works with staff, volunteers, and auxiliaries to bring enthusiasm back to the good work they do.