#1 Key Strategy For Creating A Successful Boutique Business, with Alana Stohr.

It's time for episode number 244, and one of my favorite boutique owners is here today, also a former speaker at the Boutique Summit. Get ready to meet Alaina Storr from Eleven Oak Boutique. Let's talk about your business strategy and the juicy details of what actually works, from mainstream fashion to fashion on Main street and the entire ecosystem behind it. How do we scale your company and do it with the balance and the happiness that we all seek? Let's hear from those insiders, experts and strategists actually make it happen. I'm your host, Ashley Alderson from the Boutique Hub, and I can't wait to chat. Two years ago now, my friend Alaina Storr, the owner and founder of Eleven Oaks Boutique, joined us at one of the first boutique Summits to talk about her business scaling her business online and what it took to run successful Facebook ads. And actually, to date, it is one of the most talked about and most favorite breakout sessions and keynote speakers that we've ever had at the Boutique Summit. So today I invited Elena back to the podcast to talk about her continued growth with Eleven Oaks Boutique, how she views ads today, and really what does it mean to scale your business, what surprises come along the way, and what others need to know about success. You know, I'm really excited to share this candid conversation with you today because Alaina opens up about other people's views of success. You know, sometimes your friends or maybe your family don't understand what it takes to really run and grow a business, looking at it from the outside in. And Alaina talks about this, as do I, about other people's perception of success and what that must mean for you as a business owner. So, Alaina, I know you're going to love her. She is one of the most sweet, genuine boutique owners I know. She has really worked her tail off. She's got two little kids, her husband works in the business with her, and she's really going to open up today about the tips and secrets that have helped her to get where she is right now. So enjoy this conversation with Alena Storr, the founder of Eleven Oaks Boutique.

All right, you guys, you are in for such a treat today. My friend Alaina Storer, the founder of Eleven Oaks Boutique, is with us today. And man, Elena, how many years have you been in business? You've been around this game for a while now.

It's been four years. Four years next month, actually.

Oh, congrats.

Thank you.

I remember watching your boutique for such a long time and watching Your growth and how you've evolved over time. So I'm really excited for everyone to kind of hear your story today. I know you've got so much insight as you've really scaled a business. So I got all kinds of nitty gritty to cover. But to get started, of course I want to hear, you know, kind of how you got into the business and just for context so everyone understands you're an online business and kind of give us the details of how you operate today.

Okay, so yes, we are. The boutique is online only. I really, truly have no interest in opening a storefront. And I started the company again four years ago and really I began it with kind of like, I think a lot of other boutique owners left my full time job just home with my daughter who was two years old at the time. And I really thought that I wanted to just be a stay at home mom. And after one month of being at home, I kind of decided, okay, I could do something. And I've always loved clothes, I've always loved fashion. And I had seen other boutiques pop up and thought, man, that looks just really interesting. I think that that might be something that I could do on a very small scale. I thought that it would be, it would require may like two to three days a week worth of work and I could make just enough money to at least contribute somewhat to my family's finances. So I launched the website and got things rolling. And about three months in, I kind of realized, okay, you, you kind of can't do this halfway. I've got to either like just really start going with this. And if I want to be profitable and make money, I've got to like really put forth a full effort or I need to just give this. And so I decided that I wanted to give it a try. And from that point forward, it just, it really honestly exploded. And now it's totally changed our lives. We have a almost 12,000 square foot warehouse. I employ about 15 people and I work more hours now than I did when I had a, quote, full time job. But the difference is that I love what I do every day. I wake up and I'm just so thankful and so grateful that I have customers who love my style. I have employees who see my vision, who help me carry out this dream. And I love every aspect of the business. I love marketing, I love photography, I love all the creativity, I love selling. And honestly, to just be totally transparent, I love making money. And that's something that I, that I kind of learned about myself when I became a business owner. And I'm not ashamed to say that. I think. I think that's okay. So here we are. Today.

I'm gonna go back to what you just said, because, first of all, women never say that out loud, so I'm so proud that you just did. Thank you for being honest.

You're welcome.

Soapbox moment. But I feel like so many times as women, we sabotage ourselves so fast. We get into business, and we're like, oh, but we're making people feel good. Oh, it's fun. Oh, I'm contributing just enough. But it's, like, taboo for people to say, you know what? I want to have a successful business, too. And don't be ashamed of being successful when you get there.

Right, right. Absolutely. And it took me. It took me a little bit to overcome that, but I sort of realized that I probably sound silly when someone's coming to me and they're asking me, like, how did you do this? And they're so amazed and in awe, and I'm just kind of like, oh, I don't know. Like, no, I realized, like, okay, that's dumb. Like, you do know how you do this, and you should be proud of that. Yeah. And, you know, for my husband and I, even though. And I think he'll be okay with me saying this, even though I am the quot breadwinner now, I could not have done it without him. You know, he. He. I mean, truly, in the beginning, when you are. You're trying to grow and you're trying to spend money on product and spend money on advertising, and you're spending, spending, spending. I mean, it was. It was. I don't want to say his money. It was our money, but he was working at the time that we. We used to. You know, he likes to say bankroll project. We did not take out a loan or anything like that. We used our own personal money. And if I couldn't have done that without him, so, you know, I think he's okay, too, with. With me. Again, going back to that taboo, you know, that I don't feel like I have to say, you know, oh, I have to downplay what I've done.

I totally agree. And hearing you say that our business is similar, where Eric continued to work so that I could start the boutique hub, and, yes, bankroll. Like, he took an employee bonus that he had earned, and, like, that's how he started the business. And then, you know, now, same thing. If people would say, I'm the breadwinner, I just don't understand why that's taboo for some people, like that change in tide. So I think it's a really interesting conversation about how you flip that switch and how you have that conversation with.

People outside of your marriage.

Again, I'm curious from personal experience, have you ever come into a situation where people have made those comments because now your husband works with you in the business, but where people have ever made that comment to your husband, like, oh, it must be nice now you work.

For your wife, like that kind of conversation? No, because he still has. He's a chiropractor and he still has his own practice. But what he's done is he has hired two doctors to work for him. They're there every day. They see majority of his patients. He goes to his office, like, six hours a week, and then the rest of the time he's with me. So I don't think anyone. I don't think he views it that way. I don't view it that way. I don't think anyone else views it as like, oh, for him, for our personal situation, that he works for me. But he does get the comments like, oh, it must be nice, you know, every once in a while. And he totally plays up. He's like, oh, yeah. He's like, I now get in two games of golf a week rather than just one. You know, he. He's just that he has that kind of personality. And so he just kind of plays it up and laughs about it. And, you know, it certainly does not. I don't think it, you know, bothers him for people to say that.

Yeah, that's awesome. I think that sounds like a really good way to handle it, because people. I think sometimes, like, when your family has shifted like that, sometimes people don't know how to have that conversation with you. So I think that's so good that you can kind of put it back and just play on it, but also speak about it like you are today and make it okay for other people to step into that world as well. Being proud of what they.

Absolutely. A whole podcast on just that.

I think we could. I wasn't. This is an interesting turn of events. I wasn't expecting to have this conversation today, but I'm glad that we are. And hopefully for those of you guys who are at home and you've had that same situation, I'd love to hear your thoughts on it. I know you could probably send Alaina a DM or send me a DM over on Instagram, too, and we can keep that conversation going because I think that we all need to talk about success and how to handle that and how to make it okay for everyone around you to come along that journey with you. Have you ever again. This is. I'm going to stay on this rabbit hole for just a minute. But on that topic, how do you handle it? If people have looked at you or maybe this has not happened, where people say, gosh, you've changed, or your business has grown and like, now you're different, or maybe they treat you differently because of it. Not you. More so than your husband.

Now, I honestly don't think that I have experienced that. No one's ever said that to me. Most people, and here's one reason why. I grew up in Florida, and. And then Kenny and I, we just moved to this Nashville area about eight years ago. And so when we moved up here, I didn't really know a lot of people. And then four years later, I started the boutique. So I guess I. For just. For me personally, I'm not around on a regular basis. A lot of people that kind of, like, knew me before, but I. I will say those that did, like family members and such, it's usually just, I'm so proud of you. So. So, yeah, that's one thing that I. I haven't encountered. And I don't know if it's because I haven't changed or if it's just because, again, I'm not around a lot of people, you know, regularly that kind of knew me before.

Yeah, it totally makes sense. And I love that it sounds like just having that conversation with your family. Right. And them totally supporting you. Right. That's. That's what we're all after at the.

End of the day. Yes, absolutely. That means a lot.

So tell me about your customer today. I know you have such a great, like a close relationship, very authentic relationship with your customer. Tell me more about the women that you serve specifically.

Okay. They are generally going to be over the age of 25. I don't carry a lot of things that are super trendy, super edgy. I would probably even say to narrow that even, even more, that majority of my customers are going to be between the ages of probably 30 and 40. She likes to be trendy, but yet not. But still classy, Nothing too, too trendy, too edgy. But she likes to be comfortable but also feel sexy. She most likely lives in a more rural area where she doesn't have, like, super easy, easy, say, a shopping mall. I'm trying to think, what else, what else did I include in that description.

That I wrote do you most often connect with her in your Facebook group? Is that like your number one channel of communication?

Yes, absolutely. I really think that's when we started our Facebook group is when that really allowed me to get to know my customer much better and to see who's buying my clothes, to actually see a picture of them. How old are they? Yeah, where are they? What's their lifestyle so that I know where are they going on a daily basis, you know, what do they do? And then be able to figure out from there, what kind of clothing do they need for that? What kind of clothing do they want? Are they looking for, what are they willing to invest in, what styles are they willing to try, what styles are they gonna just totally like shake their head no at that's been instrumental in learning all of those things about my ideal customer.

Perfect. And you had mentioned, we were talking before the podcast that Facebook's been your jam. Right. And you've even spoken at the boutique summit about Facebook, but Instagram was maybe a little bit later addition to your marketing. Are you bigger into Instagram today?

We are, we. I'm investing a lot more time into Instagram. I've hired a gal who works for me who that's pretty much her full time thing is to do, to post on Instagram, to make our Insta story every day, to make it interesting and engaging and authentic. And so we're, we're really trying to focus there more because I totally missed the boat early on when I started this boutique. I, I really did. I focused primarily on Facebook and I did that because I was, see I was getting returned there and I thought, okay, this, this is where my customer is. This is how I can reach them. And I, I knew that Instagram was there. I knew it was another platform that worked, but I honestly just kind of like dropped the ball. I really did. And that's been one of my absolute biggest regrets. And so because of that, I'm trying to do a better job of kind of keeping a pulse on. Okay, what's the next, you know, up and coming platform that I can reach my customer, whether it's an app or a website or whatnot, and make sure that I don't miss that boat again.

So easy to do, right? It's so easy to get overwhelmed with all the options. So that being said, do you guys have your own app and are you on TikTok yet?

We are not on TikTok, but I'm getting ready to do that. I just downloaded the TikTok app probably a month or two ago. And I'm like, obsessed with it. It's amazing. And so that's one of our goals for my newly created team, for us to get focused on that. We are currently developing an app and hoping, cross my fingers, we're hoping to launch it two or three weeks before Black Friday. And I will say, you know, with an app, one thing that I kind of had to. I've probably compared to my competitors. I'm probably one of the last boutiques that does not have an app. And I think the reason why I didn't prioritize it in the very beginning is because I knew that it was going to be a platform to better reach my existing customers. Not. It's not really a tool so much to reach new customers. And so I think I just felt like, okay, I need to reach more. More people, more people, more customers, more customers, which is good. But it is more costly to do that. It's cheaper as. And you know this to. To get your current customers to just buy more. So, yeah, so we're. We're now like, okay, it's time. We've got to circle back to this. I actually have a very, very good customer retention rate. I think so far, year to date, I have a repeat customer rate of around 75%.

Wow, that's awesome.

And really. And to just brag on myself a little bit, I have a very, very good conversion rate. Conversion rate typically stays close to 3% strong. Once I get people to my site, they're buying, they're liking what they see. It tells me that I've got to drive more traffic to my site. But also that high customer retention rate and repeat customer rate tells me, okay, if I could give them an even easier avenue of seeing of shopping, basically, then I could possibly, you know, increase sales that way as well.

I love that I'm nerding out listening to your numbers, and I'm just thinking about, like, watching your business grow over the years. Do you think a lot of this, like, as strategies change? Because I know you've gotten so into video now and you do a lot of comment selling, but one thing that you've maintained through even, like, changes in how you post things is your brand has always remained so strong. Like, you've got. You've kept the same model and I know you've added some additional models in. I know you're getting in front of the camera once in a while as well in your videos. Do you think some of those changes help that retention rate as well?

Absolutely. I have been very fortunate. I Feel like to. I still have my same original model because I know that my customers just really relate to Haley. I think that's the one characteristic she has that has really worked well for me. She's just relatable. She's beautiful, but not in a intimidating way. She's just got that girl next door vibe. And that has. That has worked for my business and for my customer. So I think that's helped. I have added Christina, who just has a really strong personality. She's, again, she's super relaxed, relatable. I think that's helped. And then I certainly hope that it's also helped that I try to jump on, you know, in the video or whatnot, in a live whenever I can and feel like I actually. Okay, did I come to work with makeup today?

You know, that kind of thing.

I'll. I'll try to jump out there. And then, you know, I definitely. I do my best to stay active in the Facebook group. I have a. An employee or team member who primarily manages it. But I am. I mean, every day I'm in there trying to respond to customers, making sure that I comment on every customer who posts a picture wearing, you know, an EO outfit. I think that's super important to keep that personal touch and to express gratitude to your customers, to really let them know that you appreciate them, that if they're taking the time to post a picture in my group, then I want them to know, hey, I see you, and I appreciate this. Thank you for shopping with me. I try to say that as much as I can every single day. And there have been times where I've been tempted. I mean, in fact, my husband has said you need to just get out of the group so that you can disconnect for a little bit. And he has a good intention there, because I'm always on my phone. I'm sure most other boutique owners are too, but I just can't do it because I can't disconnect from that group because that's my opportunity to show that gratitude, which I think goes so far in business.

Oh, I totally agree. Do you think that's part of. I know, like, a lot of your customers are so good about taking selfies and sharing things in the group, and, like, they're so open with your group. Do you think a lot of it comes back to you're setting the tone as the leader and so they're following your lead as well?

I hope so. I think so. I think, don't get me wrong, there are times when I sit back. And I think, man, what motivates my customers to always post in here like this is awesome. And I think it's because we do try to, to have that personal touch, to always comment and you know, to say, you know, you look, you look so great. Because I mean, truly, at the end of the day, every woman wants to feel beautiful and to feel like they look pretty or they look cute or they look great or they put together an outfit well. And I think that especially in this age of social media, that they're looking for that kind of positive reinforcement that, hey, you know, someone, someone sees me, someone saw my outfit today and they liked it. My gal who runs the group, she knows also that when she approves a post to try to immediately say, hey, you look amazing and this, you're rocking this outfit. I think that's really important and I think that's why my customers feel comfortable doing that. And then they also know I've been very, I've tried to be very open with allowing customers to truly give like honest feedback even when it's negative. I think that just builds credibility that I'm not going to try to monitor the group so much that when someone has something negative to say that I try to go in and delete that comment or delete that post or, you know, it's okay. Not everyone is going to like everything that you sell or everything that they purchase and it's okay for them to give that feedback. Maybe it did run small. Maybe I need to pull that item. And so I hope that that also has, you know, encouraged them to feel like they can post and, and to ask questions, knowing that they're going to get feedback from the customers. That's unfiltered.

So good and absolutely true. Talk to me about along the way in your business, biggest obstacles or maybe growing pains that you feel like you've hit.

Okay. Absolute number one biggest obstacle in Growing Pains has been hiring and retaining employees. It's something that, and you know, I was a teacher for many years before I started this business. And, and I thought, and I had a very well managed classroom. My students loved me, but they didn't love me because I was easy. I thought I did a really good job with classroom management and I thought that that would just easily transfer over to running a business. And I have learned that it is not the same, not at all. And so taking the time in the beginning, the mistakes that I made were, I did not take the time in the beginning when we were growing exponentially and I was just, it was All I could do to get through each day. I didn't take the time to really hire quality employees. If they expressed interest in the position and they seemed like a good person, like, hey, they're capable. I was like, you're hired. That was a mistake. And I had, I had to learn that the hard way. Even once I did start to hire more qualified, I should say individuals. I really struggled with how to manage them. I struggled with how to approach a team member with a mistake that they made and kind of point that out to them. I struggled with communicating my vision for the boutique. And it was really, really hard. And I think, I think, I thought. I really thought that it wasn't me, that I was doing a great job, that there was something wrong with this person that I hired. And I had to step back finally and say, okay, you have a high turnover for a reason. There's. And really, I don't want to chase Rabbit too much sometimes. I ramble. But I hired a friend of mine. Time, it's probably been six months ago now. And within eight weeks she quit.

Really?

She did. And she, and she did that to save our friendship. And we're still best friends now. And she really. We had some heart to hearts. We had some conversations that ended in tears, but were very humbling for me. Very eye opening. And it was. And you know what? She. I could probably start crying right now. But she, she was a true friend to me because she, she was honest and she really helped me grow to say, it's. It's you. And so I had to reflect on myself and I had to, number one, I had to acknowledge that, okay, I'm not good at this. I need to get better, number one. But number two, I need to consider maybe hiring someone who is good at that because it's in weakness of mine. I need to find someone that is their strength. Yeah. But then also for me to. To realize that there is a better way to talk to my employees. There's a better way to communicate to them. They can't. They're going to beat themselves up over a mistake even more than I am. So why do I need to hammer it home even more? Does that make sense? Yeah. I mean, I really think. And I'm not. I don't want to. To curse, but I really think the word that starts with a B, that rhymes with which, that was me. And I had to realize that. And so I've learned that. What I've learned is to. Don't sweat the small stuff. I remember Gary Vee, who's one of my absolute favorite folks to follow on Instagram. I've read one of his books, but he did a little clip that said, you know what? If it's not going to matter five years from now, then don't spend more than five minutes thinking about it. And that I have to remind myself of that all the time. Like, it's okay if. If this photograph didn't turn out perfectly. It's okay if this product description isn't exactly how I would have written it. It's okay that we shipped the wrong order to a customer like it, you know, so that really helped, I think, when I had my dog, my second daughter, which was 11 weeks ago, that kind of, obviously, that's life changing for any woman to have a baby. And I really, I had to choose, okay, are you going to back from your business a little bit and let someone else kind of take the reins over for a while so that you can focus on your baby, or are you going to miss this time with your baby and try to keep running every single minutia, you know, that goes with the business? And I had to go back to that quote and say, what's going to matter most five years from now? And of course, it was. It was this time with my baby girl. So that was probably again, one of the best things that ever happened to me because it forced me to step back, to give more responsibility to my employees and then to just to say, to trust them and to, if they, if they messed up, say, hey, you know what? It's okay. I've messed up too. Don't sweat it, Alaina. You know, and if they did a photo, if we went to. They went to a photo shoot and they didn't maybe do everything exactly how I would have done it, that's okay, too. You've got great photos, and that's all that matters. I mean, I was just trying, I think, to micromanage every single aspect. Aspect. And that's impossible. And it was driving people away. I feel like I've really rambled on that.

Hopefully. No, but it's so many good, important things. Do you. I was curious to know two things. One, was there, like, besides Gary Vee, was there like a resource or a book or somewhere you went to find help to make some of those realizations? And then did you change the way that you communicated also by, like, team meetings? Do you. Do you have all team meetings every week or, like, what's the method in which you all communicate as a team?

So, okay, to go back to with Gary V I or a book. I have not read a book or used a resource for managing other than, I will say the Bible and my faith and realizing that not only was I a difficult boss, I think to work for, I was, was not, you know, I was not interacting with these people the way that Christ would like. I was just, I was, I wasn't doing things that way. And so I had to realize too what matters most five years down the road. And I would like for my employees to know that I manage this business in, in a cross like way. And so, so I, I have kind of fallen back on some of those principles that I grew up with that I needed to kind of get back in touch with. And then let's see the second part of your question. Oh, how do we communicate? So I will say that we are not having weekly team meetings right now primarily because of the baby. I am still really trying to work from home as much as I can with her, but I'm still here twice a week at a minimum every week. And. But still a lot of our communication, I think when I say communicate better, I think really just the way that I. The way that I've empowered them to use their own judgment. Here's an example of something that I'm envisioning. Here's something that I want us to do. But you know what? I want you to use your own judgment. I think that message to my employees has changed, has made the most impact on how things are different now. However, we are going to move to those weekly team meetings. But because I now that I have a larger group or I say larger, one extra person, but still, and I feel like I've really took time with the last three girls that I hired. I really took the time to. I interviewed almost every single one of them twice. I had one of them even come here and do like a shadowing. And she came all the way from Alabama and I asked her to, you know, to spend half a day with us. So I think now that I've really kind of got some good folks, they're being very patient with me with having the new baby and then we're going to be ready here soon to like really rock and roll and start, I think, accomplishing even more things when I can let go of, I don't want to say let go of my motherly instincts, but like, you know, I can be down here more and that I'm not missing everything. Does that make sense?

That totally makes sense. And I think everyone listening can probably sympathize with you. In a couple ways. Number one, I think as business owners in general, we all are control freaks. Like when you build something that you're so proud of, you feel like nobody else can do it quite like I can do it. So it's really, really hard to let go of that control.

Right.

But I mean, number two being you're not a new mom, but a mom of an infant and having two, two babes, then that's hard too. It's a complete life adjustment. And not to mention like hormones on top of it sometimes impact our emotions. I mean, right?

Yeah. Not that that's ever happened to me.

No, I'm just kidding. Right. But no, I think that we all are definitely on the same page with you there. Talk to me about your schedule now and how, you know, you're in the busiest time of the year and you've got an 11 week old baby and another little girl, she's six, right?

Yes.

Okay, so tell me about how you balance it. What are some of the strategies and tools that you've used, used to enjoy both worlds.

Oh man. So I would say my number one and not to like repeat this again, but my number one strategy has been to force myself to let go of all the details, to empower my employees to make decisions on my behalf and to back up whatever decision they made. And that really allowed me. It's been freeing, honestly. Like I feel freer to not have to be, you know, here all the time. That's what's probably helped the most. I, as far as my schedule, I'm actually our photographer. I take all of our photos for every product. And so I am, I'm here when we do photo shoots twice a week. So I'm always here for those. And then, and then of course I'm, I spend more time, time after that just working on 100 other things. But I think because I've got a really great team, that's what's allowed me to be able to feel comfortable staying home up to those three days a week. I'm here every Tuesday, Thursday, Monday, Wednesday, Friday. I try to stay home if I can, but I do know that I've kind of got like a little area set up down here for the baby so that when I, when I do need to come down on those photo shoot days or one of the non photo shoot days, you know, she's kind of got a little area where she'll be fine. My employees honestly have been very understanding too, that if I'm holding her and I've got her on my hip and I'm also helping with this or that or talking about this. They're okay with that. Anything beyond that? I mean, I feel like it's just, it's just day to day, like every day just like just figuring it out. And you know, for each, for each woman, I think it's different circumstances and, and so I don't know what to say to, you know, that I feel like truly help someone else other than you got to have a good team so that you can lean on them. You've got to be able to let go of all the small little details and trust their judgment. And that's what's truly going to allow you to step back and have more time with your family.

I totally agree. Well said. Well said. All right, well, do you want to do a quick lightning round while we wrap up our time together today?

Yes, sure.