#252 Growing Your Business During the Coronavirus with Our Host Ashley Alderson, Founder of The Boutique Hub

It's episode number 252. And this is one just from me to you, to talk all about the great things that are possible in your business today because of the pandemic.

So get ready.

I'm going to answer some of your frequently asked questions today on actions you can be taking right now for success. 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 that actually make it happen. I'm your host, Ashley Alderson from the boutique Hub, and I can't wait to chat.

All right, you guys, I am so excited just to have an honest chat, just you and me today, about the world we live in, the madness that is still around us, but what you are going to do about it. You know, we're a couple days, I don't even know. I feel like I'm living in Twilight Zone. What day is it today? We're a week or a couple days or some period into this pandemic that we're all facing. And I think by this point, you and just like me and I'm sure everyone else in the world around us has gone through some stages of grief. I'll call it grief, because I feel like grief has waves, right? You, you've got shock and you've got anger and you've got sadness. But then at some point, you come to this period of, I'm going to overcome this, right? At some point, you've got to get out of bed and figure out, well, the sun's coming up tomorrow and now what action am I going to take? And I think going through this period of uncertainty is much the same. You know, we all were very worried, and I think many of us are still worried. But at the same time, I think we've all come to realize, man, there's a lot of opportunity here, but we have to make sure we're ready to take action on it. You know, I think everyone in the middle of this pandemic has a choice of fear, right? And just slowing down and closing up shop and woe is me and becoming a victim. Or we have the opportunity to be the victor and to show up and to be nimble and to be creative and to take action over our anxiety every single day. The only thing that trumps fear and anxiety is your ability to show up and take action in your life and in your business and for those around you and to find a sense of normalcy in your life. Right. The one thing I want to share with you that I think has been most exciting, eye opening and hopefully inspiring for you today is that the more stores that I talk to, e commerce, brick and mortar, you name it, the more of you that I talk to every single day, the more I'm hearing. Ashley, my sales are actually really, really good. My sale numbers are actually up. They're buying more now from my live sales than they ever have before. They're buying more from me now online. My brick and mortar is only doing curbside pickup or drop off or whatever it is, but sales are actually really good. And the truth in the matter is, you've built a community around your business. You've showed up, you've supported them. People want to do business with people and now they want to show up and they want to support you. And even amongst this new normal we're living in, you know, temporary normal at least, people still want to shop, they still want to clean out their closets, they still want to have girl time, they want to escape the craziness of this world we're living in and they're turning to you to do that. And so I want to make sure that you're showing up for them, that even if every post you make isn't selling a product, you're still having a conversation and you're doing cooking parties and beauty parties and closet cleanouts and recipe threads and home workout challenges and just being a real relatable human being with your community because they need that, but because your business is going to grow through this pandemic because of it, because of how you showed up during this time. So I hope that's encouraging to you guys just to start, start this week out on that foot of every single action I take right now matters. And there's opportunity in this. This is not, you know, the end of my business as I know it. This is the beginning of the new business that I have as I know it. And every action you take today, if you think about your, your life and your business six months down the road and you look back on this, what are you gonna say to yourself in terms of what actions you wish you would have taken now? Right? If you could talk to yourself, say you're six months down the road and you're looking back and you're going, gosh, shoulda, coulda, woulda, you know, I should have done this and I could have done that. What are those items? What are they gonna be? Predict that for yourself now to make sure you're taking those actions right now and you're taking, again, action over anxiety. You know, I hear that quote all the time about smooth seas don't make for great sailors, right? And a ship in the harbor is safe, but that's not what ships are built for. I don't know why we've got all the sailor analogies all of a sudden. I don't. I live in the Midwest. I don't know anything about boats or water. But I will tell you that the analogies are true, right? That this is not what we were made for. This is. This is happening for us and not to us. And this is going to make our businesses stronger than they ever were before if we take the right actions right now. So today I wanted to run through just a couple of what I'm seeing as frequently asked questions for all kinds of retailers, brick and mortar and E commerce that you can be taking action on right now to help grow your business through this pandemic and to take care of your community, to show up for your community and serve your community. Because as much as I want to tell you that this is about continuing to grow opportunity for your business, really what this is about is if we all have a greater why and a mission in what we do. If we are about service above self, if we are about giving back and impacting the world around us, there's also no greater time than now to do that, to both grow your business, but also to grow your greater impact on the world. So here it is, a couple of frequently asked questions that I'm seeing online and in our community at the Boutique Hub, all about what you can be doing right now to grow your business. Number one, and I hope I've somewhat already addressed this, is this idea of guilt or shame, right? I think some people are choosing to be keyboard jockeys throughout this pandemic and to shame you and so many others into that. You shouldn't be selling or you shouldn't be operating or you shouldn't be doing whatever it is that you're doing. I think that crisis reveals what's already in us, right? It. It's just like money, right? Money is a reflection of. It's a mirror. It's a reflection of your character. There's good people that have money and. And can do wonderful things. It's like a brick, right? I can take a brick and I can build a cathedral or there's money or crisis or A brick that makes people choose to do bad things. You can take a brick and you can throw it through a window or, you know, you can choose to be greedy with money or you can choose to be rude and harmful to other people during this time out of your own fear, out of your own insecurity. The crisis will always reveal what's already in us. And so don't let someone else's reflection of who they truly are land and stick on you and your reflection of who you are and what actions you're going to take. Right? You know, what the best action is right now for you and for your business and for your community and how you can show up and serve other people. And so don't let one or two keyboard jockeys get you down. Right? Keep going because you're in it for the right reasons and you're doing the right thing. And your economy, our economy, our global economy, the people that you employ, the local government you pay taxes to or the ball teams you donate to, all the things that those dollars that run through your business impact, it impacts all of us. Right? You're doing your part not just to serve a community, but to also serve the economy. And I think that's really important that we all continue to do our own part and to employ people and to support other businesses as much as we possibly can during this time. Because the pandemic will take lives, but the economy will take them as well. Another frequently asked question that I get is just about E Commerce and let's start here. If you're a brick and mortar store and you haven't yet gone online, now is your time. And if there's ever been an insecurity you have about going online, it's time to overcome it. Shopify has waived and I can put this link in the comments for you in the show notes for you. We've got free trial with Shopify. You can use that link if you choose to or go there on your own. They've extended their free trial period for, I think it's 60 or 90 days, I forget which one, but it's extended. And they've also added gift cards to the $29 Shopify plan, which usually was only available on the $79 plan. So now is certainly a really good time. If you're not yet on Shopify. Had to get a drink of coffee, guys. Now is a really good time. If you're not yet on Shopify to get started, you can go there, you can choose a free theme, you can choose a paid theme, you can get some great photos of your products either in natural light or selfie photos or fit videos of you in front of a mirror or model photos. If someone's going to take pictures of you or you have a model that you're still working with, just get those product photos and start getting them uploaded. It is so simple. You can do everything yourself with Shopify. You can rearrange your categories, how you're you're featuring your products on your homepage. Pull a couple products together and make featured collections like a Work from Home Chic collection and an Athleisure collection, a denim collection, a Spring must haves collection. You probably have a sale collection, right? You probably have some kind of casual collection. If you don't want to call it work from Home chic, whatever it is, build those pieces into collections just like you would merchandise a storefront to serve the needs of your customers. Whatever it is you think your customers are shopping for right now, what their needs are, you build collections just like you merchandise a store around those needs. And then your homepage essentially becomes the window that you have in your storefront. Every three weeks you're updating with some new graphics the home page of your website. You're keeping it merchandised or keeping it fresh. You're featuring new collections again just like you would your brick and mortar window. Super easy to set up. I'm also creating, I've got this list of must have apps for Shopify. I'm going to put a link in the show notes so you can get that as well to kind of take some of the guesswork and headache out of oh my gosh, what do I need to connect to Shopify once I get it started? A couple of really key important ingredients are if you have a point of sale system, something like Springboard or Lightspeed, whatever it is, those all integrate with Shopify. So check with your point of sale solution to make sure that they integrate. Or if you don't have a point of sale solution, making sure you have an app like Delirious Profit or shopventory installed in your Shopify site. Inventory Planner is another really great one and we've got specials on those inside of the boutique hub as well. And that's going to help you manage numbers and inventory flow through Shopify. The second side of things that I think is really important to make sure you have connected to Shopify is obviously your email marketing program. So if you're using Omnisend or Klaviyo or Mailchimp or ActiveCampaign or whatever it is that you're using, making sure that's connected. Because one of the most important factors in continuing to reach your audience right now is email marketing and text marketing and Facebook messenger marketing. So getting all of your contact list uploaded, you know, now I like to think of now as like the off season, right? If you're someone whose business is maybe a little bit slower, maybe you aren't someone who's having record sales right now, maybe you're like, oh my gosh, I've got to get some sales right now. That's okay. I'm hearing a lot of that too. Now is the off season, so it's the time to start building those email lists, right? Get the email contacts you have, get a great automation for welcome to my list. Welcome new subscribers automation. A thank you for your first purchase automation. A thank you for any purchase which is, you know, comes after your first purchase Automation, your abandoned cart automation or a customer get back automation. And now's the time also to be segmenting your customers and tagging them. Who's local and who's nationwide. Who are my top 100 customers? Who are my customers that buy in smalls, mediums, curvies, Right? Who are my discount Debbie customers that always want to buy on a deal? And who are my customers that love certain key brands that I carry in my business? Pretty much any email marketing program today has the ability to tag. And if you've got questions on tagging, hit me up on instagramjalderson and I'll walk you through how we tag in our system because it's super easy to do, but you just use that tagging feature to highlight your customers and segment them into different groups. Because the more you can speak to your customers in a personal one on one type fashion right now, the more they're going to continue to show up for you and buy. Looking at your customers as if everyone has a sign around their neck that says make me feel important. It matters to them. So get those email automations going, get your customers segmented and make sure that email system is connected to your e commerce site. Then a couple of really quick e commerce tips you guys. If you are new to it when you are sharing, this is different. If you're brick and mortar and you're used to sharing on social media, if you're moving into E commerce, making sure that you have the exact product URL of your products on your website that you're sharing on Facebook, right? You're not just saying hey go shop my boutique.com but you're saying go shop this product at my boutique.com this product and it's the exact URL. Because the name of the game in E commerce is how many clicks can I get to my website in as few of clicks as possible, how many people can I get there and how can I make it as easy as possible for them to get there? So if you say go shop myboutique.com and I love this sweater that you have, well now I'm going to my boutique.com and I'm searching through new arrivals and I'm searching through sweaters and then maybe on page three I find it and then I click on it and then I add it to my cart and. And by now my kid is busted down the door and I'm no longer shopping. Right? So make it easy and share those links everywhere and show up and share them often along with E commerce. Those of you who are brick and mortar and you're moving online or maybe those of you who are online and you just need to double down right now. Showing up live and showing up in video matters and I know there's a lot of anxiety, you guys, I've been there myself. There's a lot of anxiety around that. But there doesn't have to be. You know, people want to do business with people and your customers want to support you and they want to build a community around your brand. And if you don't yet have a community around your brand, they're going to go somewhere where they find one. Because human interaction matters. They aren't getting it out in public right now. So they're looking to you to interact with. They're looking to your community to interact with. If you're doing live video, they feel like you're showing up right there next to them and you're having a girls night, right? So get live, get over your fear, tell them, hey, it's my first time if it is and I'm nervous, help me through this. Once you get that first one under your belt, you guys, I know it's going to become so much easier for you and those of you who are doing it maybe once or twice a week now, you know, oh my gosh, I'm going to do it more often, right? I'm going to go live twice a day or I'm going to go live every single day, whatever it is. Maybe it's just your insta stories or it's more try on sessions or it's pre recorded videos, but videos right now matter and even TikTok right now matters. You're just making your customers feel like they're part of your community. A marketing tip that I want to give you that also kind of part of this Frequently Asked Questions business is I keep hearing people saying, I need more engagement. How do I get more engagement? What action should I take right now to get more engagement? And to me, the number one thing you do right now is you show up as a human. You build a community around your brand. So, host, you know, not everyone's going out for work right now, and everyone is grappling with this new idea of working from home. And coming from someone who's worked from home for seven years, I'll tell you, the most important thing I do every day is I get dressed. And when I get dressed and I have makeup on, I guarantee you I'm 10 times more productive than when I'm in my sweats. Working from home and wearing sweats sounds awesome. It's really not. You stink. No one wants to be near you. You want to take a nap. You're more likely to drink wine and eat Doritos. I mean, I've been there. I can tell you. That's the honest truth. So the more you encourage your own community to get up and show up and dress up every single day, and you host an outfit of the day challenge where you're saying, hey, dress up and show us what you're wearing today and post a picture in our group, now you're building community, right? Because not only are you loving on your customers at this point, that they're able to love on one another, and that's what community is all about. So get them to show up. Outfit of the day challenge. You're also doing things I know many of you are, like homeschooling kids right now, right? Trying to survive that. So maybe you have a thread on that in your group and an open conversation about show us your workspace. What did you figure out that you can do that you didn't know you could do before today? What are your kids learning right now? What is one thing that you think is different from when you were a kid and going to school right now? Right? You could have all kinds of conversations around that. Same is true with cooking. Now, I know a lot of us are able to get takeout here and there, but a lot of us are also digging deep into the recipe books. So pull out some threads and some cooking demonstrations. If you love to cook, share that gift with your community. Show up and do a cooking special, right? Show them how you make. I saw Ashley with the pink pug doing a homemade pasta tutorial a few days ago. I think that is so, so cool. Show up and share your gifts, share your recipes. Do different threads on breakfast recipes, lunch recipes, dinner recipes, vegetarian recipes, recipes with beef, recipes with chicken. I mean you could go through the recipe book together, right? Have all of those threads and engage your audience around cooking your kids about what they're wearing. And finally, the fourth thing, I don't know about you guys, but you know the freshman 15 in college, I am 100% certain the corona 15 is a thing. It's definitely a thing. So work from home or workout at home. Threads and challenges in your group are really good. Now have your community hold one another accountable to show up and have an at home workout. Push ups and sit ups and jumping jacks and oh my gosh, you guys, I found these videos that I didn't even know that I had like DVDs on Pilates and like the own the old Chalene Johnson workouts and like all these like vintage workouts that I have that I'm totally pulling out. I was actually doing one the other day and Eric walked into our room and you guys, if you could see the look on his face, I was doing like, like stair step and kick and push and like aerobics kinds of things. And he walked in like what did I just witness? What did I just witness? And this is giving me flashbacks to the early 90s. If any of you can remember. Remember on like every morning you could get up at 6am and turn on ESPN in the early 90s and there was always those workout videos on there and maybe there still is. Like I can't even remember the last time I turned on espn. So I don't know if this still is a thing, but it darn sure used to be a thing. Like Denise Austin and all of those, right? So pull them out, have some fun, workout at home and then get your community involved in it because they're battling the same things that you guys are every single day. All right, another frequently asked question I get, and this is a really big one, you guys, and it's about our wholesale supply chain. So again, some of you I know are struggling just keeping things going, but I promise it's possible for you. You guys keep showing up, some of you are killing it right now and you're like, I need more, I need more product. Where am I going to get more product? So we've got several lists inside of the Boutique hub and we're actually launching something right now called the virtual wholesale market pop up, where every wholesaler that we're in business with, over 600 of them, has an opportunity to come live to show their line and to talk about specials. So many of them are running specials to help you guys out right now, including free shipping and many other things. They just want to get you products. They know you need it and frankly, they need it too. Right? They're hurting just as bad as you guys are in many cases. So we're going to have this virtual wholesale market pop up where there's all kinds of video sharing and it's happening. But we also have lists. Fashion Go provided a list for us that's inside of the members group. There's still a number of vendors that are trying to get you product as much as they can, as fast as they can. So know that that opportunity is still out there. The next frequently asked question I get, this is a really big one. And I think that all of us have reverted to this in some way, shape or form, and that is cutting costs, right? We all kind of had like this panic moment and went deep into our QuickBooks and we're like, okay, red pen, what can I eliminate? And I think that's really important to do because I think we all need to get leaner. You know, you've probably heard Mike Michalowicz, who was a speaker last year at the Boutique Summit. He talked about this theory of small plates and how, you know, the bigger the plate that we have that we're served on when it comes to meals, the more we're likely to fill it up and the more we're likely to eat. But if you just start using smaller plates, the less we're going to put on the plate and the less we're going to consume. And businesses are exactly the same way. The more we feel like times are good, right? And the more sales we're reaching, it seems like those expenses continue to grow and grow and grow, just like this theory states. And so it isn't a bad thing, you guys, that you're figuring out what is your basic cash flow. What is, what's your opportunity to go look at, here's my income, here's my expenses, here's what I need, and here's what I don't need. Or here's my break even, right? Based on my. My most necessary operating expenses, here is my break even, and here's where I am. Green light, yellow light, red light, here's what I have to have, here's what I can maybe do without, and here's for sure what I can eliminate right now. So look at those numbers. Get in those numbers. And, and no, you can cut expenses, but I will warn you, you cannot grow or save a business by cutting expenses. You absolutely can't. So it's important to use it to get lean. But what's more important is they're spending time and energy on getting creative and building new revenue. And I will tell you this only because my husband has drilled this in my head a thousand million times. If that was a real number, it, you know, my kindergarten self would tell you it's a real number because we've been there. I will never forget the beginning of the boutique hub, you guys, when, when the boutique hub, frankly, was not working and we were so broke and you know, we were toying with, like, do we just fold it up? You know, do we just go to town and get a job? Like, what should I do? And Eric kept saying, ashley, and you know, I'd say I eliminated this expense and I unsubscribed from this and I sold this and I, I was selling baby cribs and jumpers and playsets and I mean, if I had breast milk, I would have sold that too. But you can't save a business by cutting expenses. And Eric would hammer that into my head, you guys. And he say, you got to spend your energy somewhere else. Forget about selling this crap on Facebook, show up and. And put your energy in creating something new for your business and not trying to save it by eliminating these costs and selling your personal belongings, right? And the same is true for you guys. It's the time where you've got to get creative and show up Facebook Live and get your email marketing going and get your e commerce site going and add value to your customers and give back to your community and get with your local media outlets to talk about the good things that are happening around you and the good that you're providing because that brings traffic back to you, right? It's the time to spend your energy on getting creative and being nimble and adapting to what's happening today. Because if I just heard a good friend of mine say this, if you don't, if you do not adapt, you go extinct, right? Spend your energy there versus on just trying to save costs. But getting lean is still a thing we did create. And I'll put this in the show notes for you guys as well. A Download with about 25 ideas on how you can get lean right now. And again, this is not the only solution, but it's part of the solution. So it's a free download. You can grab that in the show notes, take it, use it, go through your expenses, look at your cash flow, get lean. But then put your energy right back into getting creative and to finding new ways to engage your customer, build a community and build revenue in your business. Last frequently asked question has to do with shipping and return policies. And I know some of you maybe have a little bit tighter return policy. And, and I just really want to encourage you today to think about opening that return policy up to be a little bit more lenient because there's shipping delays and there's people scared to open packages because they want to make sure packages are disinfected. There's all these external factors, right, that impact shipping and returns. So make sure you, you loosen those policies as much as you can to serve your customer. But then number two, you also are in really clear open communication with your customer about what your policies are and if they've changed. A lot of you have gone to free shipping or free shipping over 50 just to try to encourage again your customers to shop with you and to move them into your e commerce space if that's new to you. So communicate with them, make it a big deal in your business that you're doing that, but then also let them know that you're there to protect them. At the same time, studies show the more lenient return policy, the fewer returns that you have. So be clear with them that you're trying to help them through both your shipping and and your return policies. All right, you guys, a couple other things I want to mention today that I see happening in the world around us that I think are so valuable even beyond these frequently asked questions. And if you have more frequently asked questions, message me anytime and I will share them either on a Facebook Live because we're doing those quite often Instagram live or here on the podcast. Message them to me at ajalderson on Instagram or ashley@the boutiquehub.com and I will answer your questions anytime. But a couple other things I really want to mention right now that I just want to give you a huge pat on the back about. Just a huge kudos. You know, there's never a better time than now to see the good in the world and we need to see more good in the world. And I am so proud of our industry because you guys are showing up and helping one another in a way that you've never done it before. You know, this is community over competition on a whole new level. This is, we've been using the hashtag community over Corona on a whole new level of the way you guys are giving back and supporting one another and fighting for one another. You know you are only as strong as the soldier on your right and your left, right? When you are in a battle, it has nothing to do with how strong you are. It has how strong, how strong you are as a unit, the soldier that is with you to your right and to your left. And you guys are showing up like soldiers for one another and with one another. And I just want to say kudos to you. Thank you for being so gracious with your community, with those that you serve, with those fellow retailers, with those fellow wholesalers, the way that you're collaborating, but also the way that you're giving back to your community in need. I've seen some amazing care packages come from boutiques that are going to homeless shelters, that are going to schools, that are going to nursing homes, that are going to the elderly population that's shut in right now mailing care packages to them. I've seen so many of you come together and find masks. There's a number of wholesalers that are creating masks right now and you guys are coming together to find them, buy them and donate them to your local nursing homes and hospital healthcare centers in need. There's so much good happening and please keep that good circulating and please keep talking about that good because the world needs to celebrate all the good that we possibly can and you guys are making it happen. You guys have built a platform in your business. You have a voice, you are an influencer in your community and you can use it for good, right? Service above self. And I'm so proud of you for what you're creating. So thank you for that guys. If there's anything our team can do to help you during this time again, please message me a couple things. We just launched the brand new retail resource center that is the boutiquehub.com Covid where you can check it out. I'll link it in the show notes. And rather than just put Boutique Hub resources there, I truly believe in community over competition. And so every single partner that we work with, we have pulled in all of their resources and it's all under one roof. So you have one link you can go to and you can find everything from the hub to management one to shopify, to fair to the market centers, to many wholesalers, to many service providers where you know, we've got Nadia Martinez, who's a great Facebook ads expert, providing a free Facebook ads workshop like, there's so many people that want to provide you freebies and ideas and discounts and new opportunities. And so we are pulling all those under one roof. And if you're listening and you have something to share that you want listed there, just let me know and our team will make it happen. But we're in this together. This is about community over competition. And this is about collaboration. So find it. The Corona. The Corona Retail Resource center. It's the boutiquehub.com Covid and you guys, when this is all done and whenever we get to the Boutique Summit and we get to celebrate with you in person, we will drink a Corona and we will celebrate that this happened for us, not to us. And that we became stronger as individuals, as families, as businesses, and as communities because of this experience. So you guys stay safe out there. Prayers to all of our doctors and nurses on the front lines. And we are with you and we are here when you need us in your business. Have a great week, you guys.

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We'll see you next time. Weekend.