Boost Your Boutique with Emily Benson

Your Boutique Can Be Profitable: Everything You Need to Know About Profit Power Tools Big news! Today, I'm sharing my excitement about my new Profit Power Tools program and its why it's a game changing program for boutique owners, wholesalers and independent retailers. ➡️ Get all the details and add your name to the waitlist here! • Introduction to Profit Power Tools program: Are you a product business that makes sales but is struggling to become profitable? Profit Power Tools is the solution to help businesses understand their financial data and make strategic decisions to improve profitability. • I share my own experience honing my financial capabilities and the impact of generational attitudes towards women and money. I highlight the significance of financial literacy for women and the different challenges they may face in managing finances. • I provide a detailed overview of the launch plan for the upcoming program, with the opening and closing dates, the live teaching schedule, and the availability of waitlist bonuses. ➡️ Get all the details and add your name to the waitlist here!

11:45.1 We did what we wanted. We did it pretty professionally and we did it with like a level of class and style where people took us seriously. 11:58.2 We had access to these amazing creative tools, professors who really pushed us, who gave us Tons of access and free time to play and explore with our art. And like our minds were just so rich. And I think you and I, and our whole friend group, we were all just like reveling in this. 18:36.7 I need to get in to see a client. I need to convince them that what I have to offer is a value. I need to find out how to make it a value to them because Sometimes they're not advertising in with my brands or sometimes they don't believe in the types of things I'm talking about. 18:52.4 So it's a process of getting in, building awareness, making sure they understand what I'm offering, and then trying to find those fits, you know, trying to find that right fit for my clients are all for it. 21:51.0 One of the reasons I want to have you on is because you and I are the type of people were just like, we have this idea and we're going to go for it and we're going to put the blinders on. We're not going to ask for permission. In fact, like we didn't even think that we needed to ask for permission, let alone even like, you know, skip that part. It was just like, no, we're going to do this and we're going to do this. 28:00.4 follow that gut, follow your intuition, follow your thought, follow your, you know, and there's so much of that that like, that's where the magic comes out of. 31:17.6 There's so much heaviness, I think that women are still carrying and processing just from that, that you need good girlfriends, sisterhood. You need that so bad to be able to function, to be able to function and come out of this with any kind of head on your shoulders to get through any sort of day to day functionality. 33:29.9 Owning those choices, you know, as a woman and being informed and being involved in guiding those choices gives you so much agency and so much more freedom than I think it allows. It also allows me as a business woman to operate with a lot more levity. 34:31.0 Our dynamics and the systemic structures that have been built are not really afforded the luxuries to women that may have been afforded to men in the past when they were the breadwinner, right? 35:12.5 Because you are commission based in your ad sales, right? So very, very similar to a boutique in that you kind of never know what's coming, but you kind of do, but like one day you're making a ton the next day you're like, Darn that deal fell through. Very dry seasons. And then there's like Q4, which is bananas, right? Which is very similar to how retail works, right? 36.24.7 there's so many things right that'll pull you off track so many little stressors so many flare ups, whether it's a, you know, client you didn't close or it's a sale you see walk out the door, you know, It can be, it can be really demoralizing. 37:18.0 Go back to your toolkit and what works for you instead of going down the, let me beat myself up over what a loser I am because that sale didn't close. 38:30.2 If you can master a rebound, you can master the game. And that's what it's all about is not letting that little ops offset 40:35.0 The reality of us sitting here is we are very powerful women. We have created a lot of wonderful things in our life. What's to say that cannot continue. 43:25.6 Iowa didn't win because Caitlin Clark was the Michael Jordan of that team. Michael Jordan had to learn. He needed Scotty Pippen. He needed Dennis...

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0:54.6 If you're an influencer or if you are in a position where you are ready to start manufacturing your own clothing and accessories or you already do and you want a different take on it and you want to hear from people who are really in the day to day of what's coming next, they're a little bit right ahead of the curve, you're going to want to listen to this episode. 4:24.3 We're now working with influencers, which is super fun and exciting and new. And I think that's the greatest part about the business side that I'm on now is every day is different. Every day we have different products that we're touching, different customers we're working with and really getting to adapt and continue to grow and evolve our business as our customer base changes. 5:59.5 It feels like a lot of people who want to sell don't understand that a retail industry. 7:15.9 I think when you're talking about selling to the masses and especially for what we're doing with these influencers, you know, it is about mass appeal still. And so you have to be really conscious on that trend curve to not push too fast, too forward, unless again, That is your customer. 9:36.9 I've been saying for a long time, I think wholesale is the biggest opportunity right now. 11:15.5 I think the biggest thing when you're starting this out is. It's okay not to know. You're not going to know. So finding a trusted partner that can help take you through that process. 12:33.2 And the other part of it is selling, you know, and you know, it is, you can have a huge following and a bunch of eyeballs, but if you don't really like to sell, then You're going to have a problem. 13:36.3 We don't want to ever push a customer into overbuying something and then have them fail. Like that's not a win for anybody. 14:23.0 if you don't launch the right product at the right time, at the right price point. Well, guess what? You're not going to sell it. 15:52.4 I think it really all starts with that concept piece of starting to think of what kind of items could be right for you and your audience. 16:40.8 We don't want to overwhelm. We don't want to bring too much to market. Let's start with one drop. Let's figure out your customer, figure out your quantity, figure out your buy, and then. Put together a strategy and scale plan from there. 21:05.5 I do think engagement is what's important. To be honest, I think you could have 10, 000 followers. And if you have Super high engagement. I don't think you have an issue selling 500 t shirts. 21:26.6 Just like when you're shopping in a boutique, right? I mean, I love boutique shopping because it's unique stuff. It's different. You can't find it anywhere else. So it's taking all those exact same concepts, you know, to your own personal product and say, what is unique about this? 24:27.0 I think we also saw a lot of business where, but in really fun ways, I think women are absolutely dominating the world right now, which is super exciting. And I think they're doing it in style. So as you're going back to the office, as you're going to these events, having fun, fashionable stuff, trousers and blazers and all that kind of stuff. 27:17.1 And as a boutique owner, again, it's like making it accessible to your girl and finding the way that makes sense for your customer. I don't think it always needs to be this pushed fashion forward thing, but like, how do you bring that one piece in to incorporate and make it feel new? ➡️Check out ATRIUM...

0:51.0 Our promise to you today is that we hope you will open your mind to adding more plus size to your retail store as a vendor and how to do it in a way that's going to make you money. 3:08.6 I think sizing is one of the most challenging aspects of the plus size and extended market. 3:36.7 Extra large is not plus size. No. So there's a different size grade to the plus size demographic. So a 1x is not the same as an extra large and that's a huge misconception. 6:33.4 Size grading is crucial. 7:26.7 If you are offering plus size, don't charge me extra. You don't charge the customer that's buying from extra small to extra large any different when she buys that size wrap. 8:42.5 I think as a retail community, we really need to push vendors to take more risks in the plus size community. 10:56.4 I hear these questions all the time. So, I brought plus size into my store, Ashley. It's not selling. Why isn't it selling? Because the plus size girl is not going into your store because you've excluded her for so long. 17:55.0 We also had true representation of sizes for our models and just everybody. Cause even though the vendors will send us different photos, a lot of the time plus size is shot on like a size eight. Which then it really doesn't depict what it's going to look like. 21:20.0 Quality is key. And to help mitigate those returns, we offer the styling. So, because we carry about 65 different brands, it's kind of a wide range, so we want to make sure that you get exactly what you're looking for. So we'll set up a styling appointment with you. 22:21.2 So what are your big top three tips? So for stores, I think not excluding plus size in your size run when you're merchandising it. 23:26.6 Number two, quality. Number three is having fashion. We do not want. something fuddy duddy. We want really cool stuff. 25:27.8 Because there's nothing better than having that relatability as, as women, as we go into a fitting room, we're vulnerable, or even when you're buying something online, and you take it home, and you're in the privacy of your own home, and you can put something on, and we're, we're the most critical of ourselves. 25:58.0 That's the number one selling thing is feeling good about what you wear. 27:15.0 to be honest with you, I think all of us, retailers, vendors, we started our business because we want to make people feel good for our products, right? Like, that's easy. And I think what we're up to today is there's a huge population of women, and probably men, You don't feel good enough, though. And we have the opportunity to help them. We have the opportunity to say, you know what? We're going to solve the problem. Resources: Visit Boutique Training Academy - If you want to make more money in your boutique or retail business you're in the right place. We'll guide you step by step in your journey through Boutiqueland. 🛍️ NEW BOOK #TheRetailMindset available on Amazon Let’s be friends! 😊 Facebook

1:04.0 My name is Darlene Mitchell and I am a retail business strategist. And my strength really is around inventory and profitability. So I help business boutique owners. Understanding inventory strategies so they can have legacy, not just so they can have a business, but they can have a legacy business, a business that stays around. 1:32.8 I was in corporate retail for 25 plus years. And what I do now is exactly what I did in corporate retail 1:51.4 I'm teaching my clients what I learned in big retail and fortune 500 retail. 2:12.7 There's a lot of money. There's a lot of trajectory. Like it's a great career, I think for anyone interested in fashion or selling or like how products get to the floor. 2:29.8 You are not born with this knowledge. Retail math is very different math than math. 5:43.5 So like a buyer or a merchant, like depending on what the company kind of called it, that's like the lead business person now who I think is like the most similar to like a boutique owner. 11:06.2 I don't care what your markup is. Any of that, you're pricing yourself out of the business. If you don't get that, what are you doing to get that track again? 12:17.3 We planned out every promotion. We knew post promotions would happen. They rarely were reactionary. 12:45.5 I think that a lot of people in the boutique space think that it's okay. To constantly run reactive sales because they're like, well, they're running it. The big companies are running it, but we're not seeing again behind the scenes, the look that Darlene and I are always going to give you is like, that is planned. 13:39.7 It's heavy duty math. And a lot of people are just not getting that. And to your point, they're running these reactionary sales. I'm like, well, you plan to run that sale? Do you need to run that sale? Or are you just doing it because someone else is doing it? Does your business require that? 15:25.4 We let a competitor dictate our business. No, that's awful. Yeah, that was awful. It was awful. And imagine the buyers and everyone who put all this work in to develop this product line and we were discounting it like crazy because we were watching what a competitor was doing. 16:13.8 I think most boutique owners, most, you know, I wouldn't say retail businesses doing under 5 million. They're a little messy behind the scenes. They're a little weird. Like I think until people start to make real money, do they think of investing in someone like a planner? 17:04.8 financial planning and your profit and loss statement is really different from your inventory management. 17:33.2 Every quarter we look at what's our intention for this next quarter. What's our sales intention? What's our profit intention? Before we place product before we buy product, what's our intention first? 18:03.0 Understand how you show value to that customer. 18:22.4 There are a couple of things you do before you even get to the product. Because all those things, everything has to mix for your product mix and your position, right? Because if you just go in and buy products at the right, wrong margin, and it's, and by the way, everyone, it's not find a cost times four to get a four times markup. That is not, that's not a strategy. That's just, that's reckless, right? That's a little reckless. So you want to do all those other things to understand before you buy the product. Yeah. Right. I love it. So position. Person. Pricing. Product. And then the fifth and bonus is...

1:22.0 I use retail as a sort of the stepping stone to gain awareness about myself and to build capital. 2:58.1 It's very important that I feel that the clothes that we make are just made for a woman's body, not a specific woman's body, but like just the woman's body. So I pay a lot of attention to where themes are and how long certain sleeves are to make it to make everybody feel like they can wear it and not be self conscious. 4:06.1 I do think that the clothes you put on your body have a lot to do with how you leave your house. 4:22.6 it's really hard for boutique owners to find Quote unquote, cute clothes in curvy sizes. 9:03.0 no matter how big or small can they know, well, hopefully they know, or are starting to at least learn what sizes sell best for their particular demographics. 11:01.3 We're not going to sacrifice style quality or anything like that, but I am willing to kind of do what needs to be done to stay relevant in whatever changing market is happening or doesn't happen. 13:10.7 That's all I think most boutique owners want. They want to know that like someone cares about them from the wholesale side 19:10.6 There's a big piece of feeling represented in clothing and clothing manufacturing. 26:15.3 The best way, in my opinion, to get started is two things. Reach out to a vendor that you trust and ask if they would be willing to work with you, um, with custom designs. 26:43.4 that is a great way to get your feet wet in my opinion is go to someone that you like their style already You've already built a relationship with them Ask them if they'd be willing to do custom pieces for you um and Kind of learn about the process that way, not asking them, you know, and taking all their trade secrets, but just getting your feet wet into that. 30:01.8 that is a great way to get your feet wet in my opinion is go to someone that you like their style already You've already built a relationship with them Ask them if they'd be willing to do custom pieces for you um and Kind of learn about the process that way, not asking them, you know, and taking all their trade secrets, but just getting your feet wet into that. 35:08.2 you're talking about building more income because you have that unique stuff. 37:24.4 in the course that I took with you, when we worked one on one and looked at Um, the timing of when I was launching things and we learned that I was kind of a step behind. So when I, it wasn't that what I was launching wasn't good and people didn't want it. It's just that I was bringing them in a little too late, which made me not sell as much as I could because for a lot of my customers, the time had already passed for them to successfully bring in that style. 44:21.2 you want to be basic, but you don't want to be too basic. I think that's a big piece of it. And at the same time, the hardest part about being a fashion forward, bold dresser is. The basics always sell. That's why I'm like, how much, you know, if someone says, Oh, I did a t- shirt and it did so well in, in black, I'm like, did you do it in white? 46:26.9 If you're starting in April, you're going to want to be working out winter, for sure, as someone who's just starting, because there's no way in hell that your first samples are going to come and you'd be like, yep, perfect, love it. 50:03.4 You probably aren't seeing fully or like making the connections and you know, I just remember our calls, like I would get on and I was just like, Oh, this is the...

1:27.0 So when should you start an email list? Like Day one. Okay. If you don't have an email list or you only have a list of people who purchase from your boutique business, that's fine. 1:38.4 Even if it's 20 people on your list, even if it's five, get signed up with an email service and get going. 1:54.7 What are we doing with email? Why are we doing it? One, we're staying top of mind with customers. 2:01.5 Email has the highest return on investment, somewhere like 38 for every email you have, like you get in return every time you send an email. 2:20.0 Most people aren't going to unsubscribe. So don't feel ashamed or bad or whatever about sending emails. 2:26.8 They signed up with you. Okay. And you're just communicating with them. You're saying, Hey, this is what's going on in my store. This is what you should know about. 2:43.4 Now, how often should you be sending? I say at least once a week and please don't call this a newsletter. 3:15.5 Can't tell you how many emails I've gotten that have this title that I'm so excited about and then I open the email and it's like, it's not even in the email 3:24.2 I'm sure that increases their click rate, but it doesn't actually make me click. It makes me annoyed. 3:47.5 So at the baseline, we're sending one email a week. At the most, we're sending three to four 3:52.3 On a busy sale week, on a Black Friday weekend, like any big promotion weekends, we're probably sending a lot more 3:59.8 Also, what time of day is best? It doesn't matter. Test all the different times. 4:17.9 So even just that your name pops up, whether or not they open it, You're there, you're in their inbox. That's what's most important. 4:42.2 You want to make sure that you have a general list with everybody on it. Then you want to separate into three different categories. 4:48.4 You want abandoned cart emails. You want. customers like people that have actually bought because you're going to have people on your list that haven't bought. And that's going to be the third one never purchased or haven't purchased within the past 30 to 60, 90 days. 5:31.1 If they haven't purchased yet, the best way to communicate with them about you and, and warm them up to a purchase is going to be. Informative things. So how to shop with us? Why we started? Um, what are great styling tips? 5:50.6 It is part of your content strategy So you should and could have an email Sequence where when new people sign up for your list, they go through a sequence. 6:40.2 ​​Next, we're going to talk about how to shop with you, uh, where can they shop, what nights do you launch, like what credit cards do you take, the questions that people have. 9:21.5 You release it to them and it's like everything's 5 off automatically applied. Something like that. That's going to give you number one, a quick boost in sales. Number two, an urgency to buy because their discount goes away at noon, let's say, right? And then when it's released to the public, it's a full price item. 10:16.6 Social media is great and we love it and it's great and it's going to get us out there. It's going to help build that email list. Resources: Visit Boutique Training Academy - If you want to make more money in your boutique or retail business you're in the right place. We'll guide you step by step in your journey...

Mentioned in this episode: Sky's the Limit Boutique Business Accelerator in 2024 Sky's Boutique Business Accelerator teaches a proven, professional level framework that has been revolutionizing how boutiques scale. What if in 3-4 months you could reduce your inventory liability, become more profitable and start making passive income? Sky's the Limit Boutique Business Accelerator

0:24.5 You don't need a lot of money to start a boutique business. 0:36.6 Let's say that the first way is through dropshipping. There are lots of dropshippers that are now connected through Shopify. So all you have to do is have a Shopify website. 0:55.4 You pay for the good as the person buys for it, but it's a really nice way to start a business with very little money. You will have to pay the Shopify fee and sometimes drop shippers do have initial setup. 1:08.6 Then you don't have a whole shipping station in your house. You don't have to worry about getting inventory shipped to a warehouse or storing anything. 1:22.4 Another easy way to start a boutique business with almost no money is to do it with your own clothing. 1:28.6 Start a consignment store. If you can source really beautiful stuff from your own closet, from other people's closets, and leverage that to start a business, then you can start to make money. 2:19.8 You do need to design the merchandise that you are selling and you actually really need to make it cute because everyone thinks they can do print on demand now, but you have to make sure it's great. 2:31.6 The cool thing about print on demand is you can do apparel. You could do notebooks. You can do mugs. You can do. Bags. You can do so many different things now. 2:53.6 It's a nice way to add income streams to your business and it's a great way to start. Resources: Visit Boutique Training Academy - If you want to make more money in your boutique or retail business you're in the right place. We'll guide you step by step in your journey through Boutiqueland. 🛍️ NEW BOOK #TheRetailMindset available on Amazon Let’s be friends! 😊 Facebook Instagram Have questions? I'd love to hear from you! Email me at hello@boutiquetrainingacademy.com.

0:41.2 One of the things that I know for sure across all of my clients that I work with as a boutique consultant is I want them all to relax. 1:18.4 I think we need to set much better boundaries than we have in the past. And I think a lot of people just were hustling and that's like how they were raised. And that's what patriarchy tells us to do. 2:25.4 So every time you expand, every time you make more money, you're going to have to put more support systems in place. 3:47.8 So in for 2024 is relaxing and out is hustle. 4:32.4 You've got to have a basic plan for your business. 4:50.0 You need to be examining your business at a really granular level. 5:47.0 A plan safeguards you against these feelings of things aren't going well. 6:28.6 If you've been in business for a few years, you've got to stop looking all over the place at what you should be doing. 7:01.7 What is out right now is looking at anyone else in boutique land, anyone else, what they're doing and trying to copy it. 7:39.5 We have to stop looking outside. We have to go within. 8:30.6 you're going to sell more when you are excited about the stuff that you're selling. 10:04.3 I've always internally had a problem with a dupe because you're just copying someone else you're literally copying and Selling it and then saying you're doing it like it's very strange to me that anyone would think that this is okay not to mention it's just like It's not original. 11:20.0 I think graphic tees are good on their way out I think everyone is doing them and I don't know who's wearing them 13:47.7 I think what's in this year for 2024 is being super specialized, like being a beach shop, being a really boho shop, being like really leaning in like to what makes you feel good. 14:29.0 Your marketing will be that much easier and like you'll have something to be known for. Resources: Visit Boutique Training Academy - If you want to make more money in your boutique or retail business you're in the right place. We'll guide you step by step in your journey through Boutiqueland. 🛍️ NEW BOOK #TheRetailMindset available on Amazon Let’s be friends! 😊 Facebook

1:30.6 Pop ups are anything that are temporary or semi permanent. And the idea is that you're going there, you're testing the location, you're testing the audience, and you're seeing if it works for you. 2:25.8 You've got to figure out what the vibe of your customer is going to be so that you know where they're going to be. 2:48.6 You want to study the other vendors that are there. You want to study the ones that look busy. You want to see what they're doing. 3:50.2 If you have good product and good branding, you should be okay at these events. So pop ups are really important. 4:44.4 So understand that getting out and doing these collaborative events with business owners could be so good for you now 5:55.4 I put on a food truck festival in my town where my store was with my truck and I was like, you know what? I'm gonna do an event for the town. 6:19.5 I will say just the goodwill, the knowledge, the talking about my business, because I was a running, it was so good for me. 6:27.1 So don't hesitate to be the leader in your area and bring together other people. Bring together other pop-ups. 6:41.3 if you don't have the opportunity to do what you need to do to run your business, you have to create the opportunity. 7:03.3 Get yourself out there. Get talking to people. Pop ups are so, so good and you should be doing them this year. Resources: Visit Boutique Training Academy - If you want to make more money in your boutique or retail business you're in the right place. We'll guide you step by step in your journey through Boutiqueland. 🛍️ NEW BOOK #TheRetailMindset available on Amazon Let’s be friends! 😊 Facebook Instagram Have questions? I'd love to hear from you! Email me at hello@boutiquetrainingacademy.com.

1:33.0 The thing about having a brick and mortar is you have automatic traffic If you pick a good location, so All the clients that I've ever had open a brick and mortar business, I'm always like pay for traffic, pay for good location, because that's something that you don't automatically get in a mobile business. 1:56.1 If you're in a location that's really rural or has really specific zones where people go to shop, you want to exist in those places as a mobile shop. 2:10.2 I find that when people open mobile boutiques in the middle of nowhere, it's just really hard to find customers. 2:16.1 If you're online now, I think the best way to think about whether or not it's more economical or not is what the traffic situation is. 2:32.9 If you live in a place that's heavily dependent on brick and mortars and you could find a good location in a prime spot, honestly, opening a brick and mortar might be for you. 2:47.2 Now I talked about mine being a 30 foot step van and that was huge. If I were to redo it, I would absolutely make it smaller. 3:31.3 Trailer boutiques are like an elevated version of doing pop ups. 3:37.4 So it's halfway between doing a pop up show, like where you go to a market or you go to an indoor market and set up a booth. And then it's kind of like a brick and mortar too, because obviously it's a more permanent space. 3:55.7 You have to worry about how big this is, especially if you know you're going to do events where the parking lots aren't that huge or like it is a tight spot. 5:09.8 We saw people in New York that had trucks get fully arrested and like taken away and their trucks get towed. So with a grain of salt, I say yes, you do need permission sometimes. 5:20.4 Okay, so most places when we talk about permission, you're going to need permission from the state or local authorities with some kind of hawker or peddler's license. 6:07.0 You will have to provide that insurance at some point and you should have it anyway. 6:14.0 So like don't skimp on insurance, get the best of the best, even if it's a little more expensive. 7:06.7 So no matter what you do, your truck is always your billboard. 7:54.4 The insurance you need, two kinds, collision and comprehensive, and then you need business liability insurance. 8:20.0 I never covered what was in my truck in terms of Merchandise. 8:39.9 I was protected with that liability insurance for my business, for anyone like getting hurt or injured around when it was parked inside and outside that covered me for events. It covered me for shopping. I never had to use it. 10:45.8 So just remember, you can put anything in a truck. I've seen people put shoe stores in trucks, kids stores in trucks, uh, soap shops, flower shops, like we've seen all over the place 11:50.9 I stopped for a couple of reasons. One, I got really sick of driving. I was physically very sore. I did like 200 and something events a year. Sometimes like 245 events a year. Resources: Visit Boutique Training Academy - If you want to make more money in your boutique or retail business you're in the right place. We'll guide you step by step in your journey through Boutiqueland. 🛍️ NEW BOOK #TheRetailMindset available on

0:24.0 I want to show you why your January negative self talk and your negative, in general, self talk about the economy is, it's, it's putting your boutique out of business. 1:24.6 January is a trash month 1:31.8 In the retail world, it is trash, which means you get to take time off. 2:24.9 No, the economy is not bad, your product sucks. You have a bad product. No one wants it. People will buy products that they want. 2:24.1 If there's something you want, you will figure out how to buy it. 2:47.1 So if you have bad product and you're complaining that you don't have sales, you have bad product. Okay. It's not the economy. It's not inflation. 2:55.0 Are people spending less? Yeah. Are they being more thoughtful about their spends? Yeah. Are they going to more events and doing more things outside that are more experience based? Yes. So your product based business has to be. 3:13.3 Let's start to be more creative. Let's start to design our own stuff Let's get together with a friend and start making wholesale and having unique styles for our boutiques Like let's stop just selling bad stuff and wholesalers. 3:28.9 Talk to your customers, talk to boutique owners, do open pack sizing, like, you have to be freaking for real right now in boutique land, okay 4:03.0 I'm sitting here saying you need better products. 4:20.9 You gotta stop blaming the economy because I lived through retail and one of the biggest crashes 4:30.8 The concept still was working right after the 2008 crash. 4:44.8 You're going to feel like crap. You're not going to want to sell stuff. People aren't really going to want to buy stuff unless it's like cozy or candles. 5:45.3 Number one, it's not the economy. It's not inflation. It's that you have product that people don't want. I'm not going to say it's bad. I'm not going to like put too much negative stuff on it, but be serious about your product. 6:01.9 Don't be too cheap. Don't be too high. Be somewhere in the middle. And if you sell a lot of high end stuff, could you bring in lower end stuff, lower price stuff? If you sell lower price stuff, could you bring higher price stuff in? 6:33.7 January is for resting. It is for resting in retail. January is a rest month in retail. 6:45.9 Stop putting pressure on it. Go on vacation. Take times off. Do staycation. Count your inventory. Chill out, okay? You get to have a chill January. And then you can come back and have a Galentine's party for February. 7:16.7 So can we just stop complaining? Can we honestly strategy wise go back and see what were our best sellers last year? How are we going to repeat it this year? What's our sales plan for this year? What's our buying plan? What markets are we going to? What months are we going to be buying at those markets? Let's start to plan the year. 7:38.4 I want to be very clear. You could be flat to last year and that's incredible. Okay. If you want to grow, put in more effort, post more on social media, refine your product assortment, get a buying plan together and stick to the buying plan. 7:55.9 We know all these things that we need to do to grow, but we have to take care of ourselves first. 8:07.2 Right now is your time to ground down and look to the future, work on mindset, work on getting excited about next year coming. 8:15.5 Analyze your sales from last year. See what, what worked, see what didn't...

4:09.0 January gets a bad rap. It really needs to be rebranded into January is rest, relaxation, rejuvenation. It's also like organizing, prepping, planning, and at a pace that feels gentle and tender and kind. 8:27.8 So where I see retail and boutiques being really different is retail feels really big. 9:39.2 People that look like they're big time might not be making the money you think they might not have the influence you think, or they'll have the influence in the wrong space. 11:29.5 And, you know, I do think if you are interested in doing white label product, beauty products, you want to go to a show that has like more stuff, maybe your general merchandise, maybe you have a gift store. This might be something that You want to come and look at, um, I will be on their podcast too, coming up soon here. 12:37.0 I think one of the things that it's really nice to do in January is analyze your routines 13:47.7 So we do talk about my plan and we do talk about Facebook ads, but we also talk about getting a launch schedule down and doing a launch schedule. And because that's going to lead you to being in a position where you have a routine. And so instead of doing tasks in your business, instead of just saying, Oh, I need to schedule out my social media. It's actually your routine. 16:08.3 I need to get more routines in my life so that I can get more tasks done because my brain is not great at task switching, which like whose is if you are like you're a rare bird, I think. 16:21.4 I feel like I was in search for some systems to get these routines down because at the end of the day, if you think of goals at the top of your hierarchy, like you're, so this is Brendon Burchard again, like taking his work. 16:46.8 But one of the things I really have been wrapping my head around, and I think this has gotten me so clear because I love manifesting. I love writing down things. I love journaling. I love burning pieces of paper to get rid of my bad thoughts. You know, I love all that stuff. I love it. Something about this framework, though, just really struck a chord with me. 19:43.7 I think this is how I want to think about it is like once those tasks get put into the routine, then slowly, because the routine is implemented, I'm going to reach my goals. 20:32.9 I think having more discipline, to be honest with you, is going to pull me out of the depression, out of the, you know, a friend said to me, Emily, the reason our bodies get sick and depressed is because like, if we didn't have to slow down, we would just keep going. 20:56.1 Use this time to recoup yourself. You can still sell, you can still do your launches, your live stream, still do it, right? But take the pressure off at least, like give yourself a little bit of a break. 21:13.4 The amount of pressure we put on ourselves to push, push, push, push, push, like. That's not gonna get you anywhere. 22:10.8 I have noticed that we love to work really hard, get really burnt out. And then we have to stop because our bodies just can't take it. 23:03.3 I also think that we need to get out of the thought loop that we need to be working harder, doing more. 23:45.0 What we can do and the action we can take is inside our home, is inside ourselves, is, is, you know, picking and choosing what we're going to go after and what we're going to support and what we're going to pay attention to. 23:59.5 I want to encourage you to double down on loving yourself, being kind to yourself, moving slower, being more...

1:30.1 This is one of the keys to, I think, the problems that happen among so many boutique owners is you just have so much space. 1:45 But It allows you to overbuy and overbuying is one of the quickest ways to not scale your business to become very much unprofitable and to always be struggling to make the revenue that you want. 1:56.9 So first and foremost, the conversation around assortment has to come from the fact that we don't want to overbuy. 2:29.8 If something is really working in your store, you could bring something back in another color, in another print, in another material. 3:31.3 Now as you start to grow and scale, you have to start to get comfortable with your assortment, understanding what is truly working and what is not. 6:21.6 Now, value of items has been so diminished over the years because people are loving to give lots of discounts and have affordable pricing, which is fine, but like, I just don't think it's going to work for much longer. 8:50 The Gucci belt principle is that if you have a higher end brand, adding something that's a lower price, that's more accessible to a new customer, someone who's just trying you out or someone who just really can't afford what you sell, you're giving them a piece of the pie. You're giving them something to love on of your brand because really, brand is everything. 9:34.9 So if you have a business, a retail store, a boutique, where you're selling things for 100 to 200 to 400, I really urge you to consider adding some things that are really special, really cool, really branded, but maybe aren't as tricked out as the more expensive things in this under 100 price point. 10:03.4 But you make it a little bit more accessible to people. They get to wear your brand. They get to like be a part of the mystique. 10:33.6 The biggest mistake I see when people try to scale their boutique and retail businesses is that they expand the wrong way. 11:55.5 But the logical answer to trying to scale your business is not to add department, like not to add categories, genders, gifts, whatever. The logical answer is to expand on what's working. 12:25.6 You expand on what's working. You don't try to go and do something new that you don't know much about. 12:55.8 anyone these days can start a retail business or a boutique, but not everyone can scale and maintain them and stay profitable. Resources: Visit Boutique Training Academy - If you want to make more money in your boutique or retail business you're in the right place. We'll guide you step by step in your journey through Boutiqueland. 🛍️ NEW BOOK #TheRetailMindset available on Amazon Let’s be friends! 😊 Facebook Instagram Have questions? I'd love to hear from you! Email me at hello@boutiquetrainingacademy.com.

1:48.1 With seasonal change, the merchandise has to change. So whether you have clothes, whether you have garden goods, whether you have gifts, it's always going to shift based on the season, right? So that's why January and the J months have this bad rep because they're transition months. 3:53.7 You see really weird activity in January. So you don't want to start your year off that like that. You want to know that January is an extension of the year before. 4:45.2 If December 5th, December 6th, you're like, wow, I have extra money in my bank account. I should buy inventory for spring, for winter, whenever. No, don't do that. 5:07.2 Make sure you're selling down your inventory for the end of the year. You're getting prepped for January to be a bit of a hibernation period for your business. 5:12.6 Do not think the world is ending because the first two weeks of January are slow. 5:34.2 And these first two, three, four weeks in January in the new year to get grounded in what your plan is for the next year. 5:51.1 Number one is You could right now in December, in November, start to offer coupons that are valid only in January and February. 5:04.4 We should be learning from the big people and implementing it in our store. 7:03.3 Remind people all during January. Don't think you emailed them once and they're going to remember. 8:23.7 Too many people are going into January being like, I got to sell, I got to sell. And they're still on that November, December sort of rocket ship that we've been on. 8:46.8 In terms of your marketing plan for January. Okay. Do the discounting, but also think about other events you could host. 9:15 The big thing that I want you to remember with your assortment during January is it's going to be a funny mix. 9:46 You want to have new arrivals by like at least January 15th, even if it's some Valentine's Day stuff, some Galentine's Day stuff, or it's truly like a new assortment of a small collection that are in spring colors. 11:03.2 That burst into spring is what makes you sales. That's what gets people to notice that you even have new merchandise, that visually you're making an impact through color, print, and pattern. 11:49.1 January is going to be a transition month. It's going to be a slowdown month. Don't put pressure and expectations on your business that you don't need to take a break. Send some fun coupons out, maybe bring in some heart things and lavender things. 11:55.1 Allow yourself to enjoy the break that January can give you. Resources: Visit Boutique Training Academy - If you want to make more money in your boutique or retail business you're in the right place. We'll guide you step by step in your journey through Boutiqueland. 🛍️ NEW BOOK #TheRetailMindset available on Amazon Let’s be friends! 😊 Facebook Instagram Have questions? I'd love to hear from you! Email me at

2:17.6 This is the time to talk about it. This is the time to get people behind your cause. 3:06.8 We've got to promote the promotions that we're doing, any sales, discounts, events. events we have to promote, but we also can't forget that we have to educate our customers. 3:36.8 What matters is how you show up for them. What matters is how you present your offer to them. 4:39.6 ​​But the real truth is like we have to be more nuanced with our marketing. We have to be more assertive, but make an offer. 5:26.8 Be clear in your marketing. Be like so clear that it's like, duh. 6:04.7 Let's really advertise what we're doing, what we're selling, making that offer for the product. 9:32.1 Remind people, you're a small business, you're a local business, you're a woman owned business, and with your inventory, reflect that. Talk about how you can't get it anywhere else. 10:34.7 Because people need gifts. They want to shop small. They want to shop local. They want to shop minority, BIPOC, women owned. So show up as that. 11:40.5 You should still make a profit on your inventory if your markups high enough and if you're not marking down too deep and too fast. 14:35.2 Because people need gifts. They want to shop small. They want to shop local. They want to shop minority, BIPOC, women owned. So show up as that. Resources: Visit Boutique Training Academy - If you want to make more money in your boutique or retail business you're in the right place. We'll guide you step by step in your journey through Boutiqueland. 🛍️ NEW BOOK #TheRetailMindset available on Amazon Let’s be friends! 😊 Facebook Instagram Have questions? I'd love to hear from you! Email me at hello@boutiquetrainingacademy.com.

5:28.0: So I want to talk about the big picture that I want to talk about industry and then I want to talk about you, how you're feeling. 7:47.2: From being a boutique owner to you being a human in the world, right? We are managing a lot. 10:54.0: If you can get yourself to 12 to 15K, you're good. You're in good shape. You know, like you're good. You're rocking and rolling. 12:16.1: It does feel like hate and division and the wanting to pit sides against each other and all this kind of like, it just, it's happening again, kind of like during COVID. 13:53.8: That is what we've also been revealed to us is we need to be aware of what's going on. 15:20.2: Your work is going to always affect not only your family. That's the obvious, but your work does have an effect on the world. 16:45.9: I believe so much in every single person who's on the other side of this microphone who is I'm in your ears right now. I believe in you so much. 20:50.9: I want you to feel validated. I want you to feel safe. I want you to feel like other people are feeling this way. And it's okay to feel like this, even though you're a business owner. 22:10.4: It's truly hard to have these two things coexist in our life where we want to be really excited and happy about our business. And we are also like extremely concerned about the world we live in and our family or like other things going on. 23:15.8: A little wild out on the streets, and it would be good for you to protect yourself and to think about what can you actually handle. 23:50.3: I don't know who said it first, but when you get nervous, be of service. That's really where I'm at at this point. 25:15.3: And when we have more bad inventory and less good inventory, it's going to get boring and it's going to get annoying. 26:08.3: The root of what we do is like selling fashion. Like go and look at runway shows, go and like look up like Milan trends, Paris trends, London trends. If you can get yourself to London, you will be so inspired. 28:32.3: We got to figure it out. And like, this is a challenge. This is an opportunity. We have the position now to become more expansive and decide that the indicators of success have changed. 29:09.3: Like that to me, that is success right there in a nutshell, right? If you can pay yourself, go on vacation, have a good life. That's, that's ideal. 29:53.2: You get to make this manageable for you. You don't have to have some kind of like record setting business to be successful and honestly like live an awesome life. I think if you're in that sweet spot of 250 to 1 million. You'll have a really nice life. 30:39.9: Let's be honest. We're just selling cute stuff to other women for fun. That's all we're doing. Like, you know, and so if it's becoming not fun or it's becoming blah, we have to start to examine that. 32:20.2: First of all, I want you to start like doing something that makes you feel good and grounded. This is for everyone. Okay. We have to shift our bodies. We have to shift from where we are to where we want to be. And we have control over that. 34:27.2: Whether it feels blah, whether it feels overwhelmed or whether it feels actually completely uncomfortable, what this situation and these emotions are doing is they're allowing us to. See it. Get curious about it and potentially expand our thoughts around it. 35:15.1: Are you really just bored or are you...

2:03.7: What you're about to listen to is a group coaching call. We include group coaching calls with all of our programs. So, we have three levels of programs. This particular call is for our Boutique Basics Bootcamp course. 7:07.0: If you think you can sell everything to everyone and have something for everyone. I've been preaching this for years. And you're going to see it come true in the next six months, like harder than ever, because you can't just sell something for everyone because everyone is no one. 13:20.5: I am Arianne Braverman. If you don't know who I am, um, I am one of the coaches here at Boutique Training Academy. Emily and I go way back. Uh, but I also have my own boutique. It's an online jewelry and accessories boutique called Arianne's Jewel Box. 15:00.6: The reason why I love fourth quarter so much is because I love the energy. I love the spirit, the hustle bustle. Like it just drives me. 16:15.1: If you ordered anything special for black friday Make sure you know when it's arriving Uh, and anything that you have ordered specifically for holiday, make sure you know when that's arriving. It's really important to check those deliveries because you have a very short window. 20:03.4: I usually try to make it a little bit less than what it would be if you bought three separate bracelets, just so it feels like a deal. Um, there are so many great ideas that you could do. 21:44.7: Customers want things to be really simple right now. And the easier you can make it for yourself and for them, I actually think your sales will be higher. 22:28.5: If you do have a lot of inventory, just use what you have. And like, you're like everything Arianne saying, like making bundles, making packages, making it like gifts giving, like you can do that with the inventory you have. 24:44.2: I think people are a little bit sick of being sold products too. I think they want the experience they want. 27:28.3: We have a lot of people selling cheap stuff online and then we have a lot of people like Nordstrom has gotten like pretty expensive, anthropology has like 300 dresses, 400 dresses. So I think also there's this really special place for boutiques. 29:53.4: It seems like most of the fall things were 20 to 40 percent off. Like there was some good sales to be had. And I was like, well, it's the right time of year to have the sales, you know, it's very busy. 31:21.0: this is where we stay focused and this is where we say, okay, I have six weeks to like go hard in my business. I'm not going to let this stuff distract me. I'm not going to let someone in a Facebook group say, The economy is so bad. I'm not making sales. Like that's their story. 32:30.5: So I already talked about like buttoning up your Black Friday stuff, but you should also be planning out what you're posting. 35:20.4: And one of the big things that keeps coming up in every space I seem to listen to is the more you do, the more you'll make. 36:13.2: How do I attract new customers? You know, the best way to do it is post more and be more clear about your posting. 38:14.9: It's all going to make you money in the end and it's not your job to figure out who's going to buy, what they're going to buy, when they're going to buy, where you're going to ship. 38:50.2: Your effort will eventually. Turn into orders, turn into money. It might not be immediately. It might not be tomorrow. It might not even be next month, but you're going to get...