#279: How to Successfully Manage Multiple Storefronts with Jennafer King & Jessica Divine, Founders of The Red Racoon Boutique

It's time for episode number 279, and we're talking to a duo of boutique owners slash sisters with not only one, but two storefronts and a very busy online boutique. You guys are going to love hearing from the girls at the Red Raccoon 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 that actually make it happen. I'm your host, Ashley Alderson from the Boutique Hub and I can't wait to chat. I've had the pleasure of meeting the entire family behind the Red Raccoon boutique a handful of times since they've been longtime Boutique Hub members. So today I am so excited to introduce them to you and to talk all about what's made their business a success. From being the 2018 runner up storefront Boutique of the Year in Indiana to the 2019 overall Boutique of the Year winner plus the 2020 overall Boutique of the Year winner. These gals have got some awesome things going on from running two storefront businesses, a very busy live sale and online business, and multiple other family businesses. Today you're going to meet both Jennifer and Jessica, who are sisters in the business. Plus you're going to hear about their mom, Jamie, who also is like the glue that keeps the family together as well. We're going to talk about all of the ins and outs of building the business, of managing inventory in multiple locations, of live sale ups and downs, of what it means to go to market, and of course, how 2020 has really changed their business. So get ready to take notes. I know you're going to love this episode. These gals are hard workers and see the industry on the ins and the outs and the ups and the downs every single day. Get ready to meet the family behind the Red Raccoon Bouti. Hey guys, welcome back to the podcast. We have a two for one on the podcast this week with two guests, two sisters nonetheless, Jennifer and Jessica from the Red Raccoon Boutique. You guys, I am so excited to have you because first of all, congratulations are in order, right? We've got 2020 boutique of the Year in Indiana. How awesome is that? And like a 3P winner in the Boutique awards as well.

Correct?

Yes.

Yes, man, three years in a row. I love that. And the cool part about it is I appreciate the opportunity that we've had to meet one another in person because of the Boutique Summit and the Boutique Awards, but also seeing you guys in Dallas and Vegas and all over. So it's been amazing to watch your guys growth and success. So congrats on that.

Hey, thank you so much.

Thank you. Yes, it has been so fun getting to know you and the whole hub team. You guys are the best. Yes.

So nice that you can, like, reach out any, like, given point. And you guys are more than willing to help us out.

Yes, for sure.

Well, I appreciate that. I. I appreciate that we actually get to build friendships. You know, it's more than just seeing you guys in a Facebook group, but it's actually like getting to see you in person and watch your growth and success. And so I encourage anyone who's listening who hasn't yet come to an event or at least come to the showroom at Dallas Market or gotten to meet us in person. We are personally invested in you guys, so it's pretty cool to meet you in person.

Thank you so much.

Let's start here, you guys. You've got a family business, you've got an online business, a mobile business, two storefronts. You ladies are busy, and I want to give everyone some context. Tell me the backstory of how the boutique business came about in your family.

Okay, well, I am Jessica and I'm talking now, but so the boutique started kind of on a whim, I guess I would say. Our parents have owned and operated their own business our entire lives, Jen and I. So for 30 some 30 plus years. And throughout that time, I never really knew, but my dad with his lumber company really wanted to get hit. The byproducts of the lumber company on a highway front, as far as the storefront being on the highway, rather than just on our dirt country road. So my mom and I were actually at a horse show and my dad called my mom and said, I'm just calling to let you know that I just purchased this old restaurant building that we all knew where it was. And my mom said, okay, and what are we going to do with that? And he said, well, I'm going to move the mulch over there and, you know, have the rock. And with that we'll do a garden center. And anyone who knows my mom knows that she absolutely loves to decorate and has always been very good at home decor and just stylizing her home. So naturally she said, well, if we're going to do that, we need to put some home decor in there. You know, we have this 5,000 square foot building that we need to fill, we can't just have it sitting empty with just the garden center on the outside. So my mom started that and at that time my sister was actually working at the lumber company in the office. And so she got pulled from the office to the store. And as this is all evolving, I, being the person I am, I guess, begged my dad to let me have a very small portion of the store. I would say it's what, 400 square foot where we started. The clothing portion? Yeah, maybe 400 square feet. I begged him, will you please let me put clothes in there? And my dad is the furthest from fashion that you could ever get. And I begged. I mean, I literally begged. And he told me no for a really long time and said, that's a horrible idea. Don't invest your money in that. We live in a very small community, a very small county and it's not going to work. And I really don't want to see you invest all of your savings into that to just throw it away. So then again, being the person I am, I just kept going back and begging and finally he said yes. And so that is how it evolved. It went from being that small area in our storefront to now encompassing the whole 5,000 square foot. We do still do the home decor and the rock and mulch, but our store is very lifestyled, so it's all intermingled. And from there then how many years later? Three years later, the second store.

I.

Think, I believe three years later, we were able to open a second storefront.

Which is year you got married. Because we couldn't finish the building until.

After the wedding, 2017. So yeah, it would have been three years. Yep. So we opened our second storefront and honestly the plan with the second storefront was to just be open during a absolutely huge festival that we have in town every year that goes on for 10 days that brings millions of people to the area and then the remainder of the year to rent it out as a for bridal showers or more of an event space. And we quickly learned that that wasn't going to work, that we needed to be open at both stores all the time based upon our customers requests and them begging us to stay open.

Which is crazy to us because when we opened we're like, there is absolutely no way whatsoever we can have two storefronts 10 minutes apart. Like that's crazy talk. Yes. Like who? Like, why would you not drive that extra 10 minutes? But we're kind of here to tell you it works. Yeah. But we do keep our inventory separate.

We do. And I think that is a huge part that we definitely adapted to our customers requests and then used our brainstorming and knowledge to figure out what was going to be the best way to make it work for everyone. And so that's the avenue that we went with, having the two of them open.

Tell me more about that process and that decision. I think there's a lot of people listening that have worn at least one storefront and they've considered opening a second. How did you make that determination? And how did you start with inventory for that second storefront? And how do you track some of that now?

I would say the way that we started as far as figuring out, okay, yes, let's keep it open. That festival that I spoke of earlier happens every year in October for 10 days. And so that 10 days of October we were open. And that year, our first year of being open, we decided to stay open until Christmas with the idea of, we can get that inventory moved out. We're not going to have to take that inventory back to the warehouse or back to our main storefront. And more for us, it was, this just makes sense because it'll be a little bit easier as far as moving inventory back and forth. And then so we stayed open until Christmas Eve. We were closed in January, and then probably starting in February, we still had the idea at that point that we were going to stay closed. And customers just were contacting us at our main storefront. They were messaging us on Facebook. They were personally contacting and reaching out to us, asking, hey, when is that? When is Ruby's going to be open again? And I said, oh, you know, well, we're not sure. Like, that's not really our plan. And so I feel like we really just listened to what the customers were wanting and asking as far as deciding to reopen. And so then we did decide to reopen. And Jen can probably share more about as far as the inventory side of it, like how we decided to how much inventory to buy and maybe that learning curve, like, she would be a little bit better at that.

We really.

Or we could just say a lot of times we really don't have a plan. We just adapt.

If inventory is looking a little low, we're like on it to replenish and fast. The first couple years, we kind of had an idea as far as how much inventory to purchase for this festival.

Yeah.

And then last year we're like, we're gonna really, like, step out of the box and we're gonna like, probably do double our inventory.

Yes.

Like literally stepped out of the box and did that. And we totally. The first night it was like, I don't know, 9 o', clock, 10 o' clock at night. Jessica calls me and she says we need to go to the warehouse and bring another load. And I'm like, it's seriously like nine or ten o'.

Clock.

She's like, I know, but we need clothes. And we had no power for whatever reason at the warehouse at night. Like a storm had came through and knocked it out. So here we are.

At that point. I had a two month old baby.

Yes. So here we are loading a trailer of inventory to replenish. Our husbands are like totally on board. Super helpful during the process. But I guess that this is really the last market besides that festival week. This last market's the first time that we've been ordering more than one pack. And it's just kind of something that we felt like we needed to order a little bit deeper because we order fairly wide.

I'm actually really excited to hear that because I think there's a lot of boutique owners that feel like I have to order more than one pack. But really what you're illustrating is we can go wider versus deeper while we're getting the lay of the land and having two stores, right?

Yes.

And we have kept both of.

Oh, sorry, I cut you off.

Nope, go ahead, pick up right where you were going.

We do keep our inventory separate for the two stores. So what you find at one store, you're not going to find at our other stores.

For the most part, you're gonna have.

Like, there might be some denim or like crisscross camis or kind of those basic pieces that you are gonna find at both places. But the purple shirt that you find at one location, that same purple shirt is not gonna be at the second location. So that's kind of an avenue that we were able to go down of being able to buy a little bit wider. We're just recently being able to start buying a little bit deeper. But I think the deeper has more. So because of our online sales kind of increasing.

And we do. I know Jen said that we keep our inventory separate as far as which storefront they are at. But our hub, as far as our tracking system is all one system. And then we just use tags in our Shopify to denote which location it's at, whether it's at our main storefront, if it's. Or in our warehouse, or if it's at our second storefront. Just so Jen does all of that side of it and so that when she is at her office, it's all one platform, I think is why we stuck with that avenue.

Correct.

We, before switching to Shopify, we had.

Used QuickBooks point of sale. And I really like QuickBooks point of sale. It was a good program, but we needed something that was going to keep up with online, with being able to sell in real time. And so we had switched to Shopify.

When we switched to Shopify, we felt.

That it was easier to go and have one location rather than separating the locations. And I don't know if that's right or wrong, but for us, it was.

More time efficient to not have to.

Be scanning items from one location to the second. And then if at the end of the season we're taking it back to the warehouse to have to scan those items back. So that is why we went that avenue.

That's actually super helpful to know. So I hope everyone listening caught that little tidbit because I feel like I see that question a lot of, do I need a whole separate inventory and do I need a separate tracking system? But just that you guys are using tags to separate those locations. The three locations makes it a ton easier. How do you decide this? When you. Because you've got your online business, you're doing comments sold as well, and the two storefronts. When you're bringing new inventory in, what's your process for launching new inventory and choosing which spot you're going to launch it first?

So our process, and actually up until this point, it's kind of been just a messy process as far as what we felt we needed in what location or what we felt needed to launch. And I feel like it's actually taken us until this year to really push inventory at the right time as far as knowing when to launch it. And we were always bad about launching it a little bit too late. So I think it's definitely good to stay up with the trends and, you know, to put the fall stuff out as fall is approaching, not once it's already hit. And that's kind of how we process it as far as when new inventory comes in, our first step is that it typically is put in a live sale or posted within our VIP group on Facebook. When we created our VIP group, that's definitely the goal that we had with the VIP group was those customers were going to see the new arrivals first. So we started there and then added live sales after we had created the VIP group. So then we, you know, kind of adapted and started throwing new inventory into live sales. And then once it's gone into a live or has been posted within the VIP group, we then either put it on the sales floor at our main location or we take it to our second location. And the way we decide which location it goes to is either A, based upon the style. I feel like our customers at both locations have a little bit of a different style. And also B, our employees are amazing as far as telling us we really need these colors or we really need dresses or the floor is too full, it can't come out here, that kind of thing. So a lot of good communication with our employees and we kind of leave it up to them as far as what item is going to go. Where we have two or three lead stylists and managers that are really, really good at identifying what is needed and where it should go.

That's super helpful. Do you feel like on the back end of your Shopify there's certain apps that you have installed or are there key reports that you guys are pretty diligent about sitting down with with your team and reviewing every week so you can best make those decisions?

I feel like when we. I feel like that we just like.

We literally just switched to Shopify and I feel like we're still learning a lot. So I don't feel like we are gurus at it by any means as far as Shopify. But Jen does run reports as far as like sales, like goals and what. And you can talk through that.

So we do three different sales goals across the board for the employees. Based on whether you're a part time employee, you have to have at least 30 hours a month. And then the full time employees.

And so we do three different brackets.

Of goals and their percentage. I think that it's like 15%, 25% and 50% increase in those three brackets. You get a different bonus per bracket. And so those are numbers that we are iron quite frequently. You know that I can go to the girls and say, this month we're doing really well versus like this month. Like, hey, we're a little behind on those. We don't show the like actual numbers. It's just a bar. And that way they can kind of.

Look at it without.

Being like too.

Open with the financial side of the business.

Yeah.

But I feel. Go ahead.

Oh, no, go. Go ahead and finish your thought.

Oh, I was just going to say I feel like we're all very open as far as saying, okay, we have way too many shoes right now. We really need to work on Selling shoes, you know, we need to put them. Put a shoe in the dressing room with our customer. That would go well with the outfit they've chosen. Or when we. Last year. I know we have talked about that festival a few different times. My mom ordered a ton of Buffalo plaid Judy Blues and we knew that if we did not have Those sold by November 1st, we weren't going to sell them. And so we're very open with everyone in that aspect with our girls that we. We typically do a morning meeting at least once or twice a week and discuss those kind of things. And I feel like that is definitely crucial, especially when we have two storefronts and managing the inventory at two different places.

So with that many employees and you're kind of keeping everything straight in all these locations, what does your team management schedule look like? You had mentioned meetings. How often do you meet and how do you set up those team experiences?

So we do the morning meetings at least a couple times a week. We're honestly just very open communication. We don't have a. We don't have a ton of structure as far as every Tuesday we are going to talk about this. And I know that probably isn't exactly what you would expect to hear, but we just try to be very open with our employees. Our office spaces are open concept. And actually just because of how our building was set up when we purchased it, our offices separate our storefront from our warehouse. So when the girls are needing to grab something from the warehouse or anything, they have to walk right through our offices. So there's a lot of just open communication.

Like our live sale area is like smack dab in the middle of our offices. Yes, definitely a open concept kind of situation.

Got it. So perfect to keep them engaged.

Yes.

When you guys first got into live selling. Let's talk about that for a little bit. I think there's always questions around getting started in live selling and what's working in live selling. Start here for me. What was your biggest ever oopsies or live sale flop that you've had?

Well, I think at the time we really didn't know it was a flop. But when we first started our live sales, we literally would haul all of the clothes to my house because our Internet at the store was not good enough to stream live. And at this point we were not using Comet Sold and Jen's fiance at the time, they weren't married yet, would come to the house and would literally write down every single order that anyone had. And then the next day we would go back to the store and invoice everyone and hope and pray to God that they would pay. And you know what, how, what percentage do you think would actually end up paying?

60. Yeah.

And it would literally take Jen all day long to invoice those people. And we weren't selling that much stuff at the time. We thought we were killing it. We were two, three hour long live sales. And the whole next day Jen was pumping out invoices. And yeah, we just thought we were rocking it. But looking back for one, we should have implemented Comet sold a lot sooner. Two, we should have had a better plan as far as what to show and how to do it. And again, at the time, ignorance was bliss. We just thought we were killing it. We were so excited. We were pumped and well then after.

We started doing up here, my husband is like a computer guru, so he was doing like overlays to where we had like green screen per se. And so then I was going in and creating PowerPoints saying that like the shirts number 100 and the sizes and the price, like basically that like the Comet sold overlay. Yeah. Like having to type all of that out for our hundred items. A live sale night.

Yes.

And then still go back in and manually invoice people. Yes, all the things.

So you're saving time. How have you found ways to optimize your live selling strategy now? Like, are there certain things that have helped you get more viewers on your live sales?

I feel like as far as gaining more viewers, not just getting on to sell, but to chat and be human with them. Especially during the whole Covid, I feel like just having interaction with people and you know, we would ask about their day and how everything is going. I feel like our group is very much based on creating a relationship within our community, whether it's online or our in store customers. And I feel like that has really.

Helped our live sales.

Continue to grow, but also to retain our, our like faithful viewers that are always on. Anytime we hop on, they're there.

Talk to me about family time next. So it's you guys and your mom Jamie as well.

Yep.

You're. You've got all the live sales happening. All these, you know, different businesses coming out of these different locations. The mulch business with your dad as well and your mom doing decor. If I was a mouse in the corner on a daily basis, what would I see with you guys working together?

Every day is a whole new world. So my sister and I, Jen and I are at the store full time. My mom actually is at the office of the lumber company full time and she pops in on Thursdays to do live sales and pops in. I mean, she's in and out a lot. She does a lot of the behind the scenes stuff, but isn't physically at our storefronts full time just because she does everything for the lumber company, accounting wise and that side of thing. But as far as Jen and I, Jen handled. You can talk about what you do.

I when all the invoices come in at the store, I am the one who, after they get unpacked, I go through.

We keep like a baseline of how.

Much we want to mark things up. But a lot of times you have to see that piece to see what that piece is going to sell for. Sometimes you get those pieces that you order online and you pay $20 for it and looking at it, you think I'm really going to be lucky if I can get $29.99 out of this shirt.

And so we go through piece by.

Piece to price the pieces. I run them through. I use Market to Boutique as the Shopify app and then use that to integrate into Shopify. And then we print the tags. After the tags are printed, all the clothes are tagged and steamed. We find a lot of damages that way. And so that is something that is important to us. We don't want to ship a shirt to a customer that has a damage. We want to catch that prior. So that takes up a lot of my day is doing the inventory side, the reporting side, the sales tax, kind of those behind the scenes things that you don't always see. But then also at the store with the rock and the mulch is me and my husband run the loader. So kind of I'm always there if someone comes and needs their trailer loaded or whatever.

Yes. And then for my side of it, up until recently I was doing all of the social media side of the business as far as the scheduling of the posts, creating graphics, that side of things. And it was nice, especially when because I had just had Briggs, so I was able to stay home and do a lot of that from home. And with traveling, I show horses. So I'm gone a lot in the summertime. And so it even allowed me to be able to be gone and still feel like I was contributing to the business. Recently we did hire somebody that could be that customer service and social media side of the business and it has allowed me to be more involved in the daily tasks as far as planning out the live sales photographs, making sure all the inventory gets photographed. I feel like we have a lot of inventory because we do buy wider than deeper. And we have learned through the years that the more of that that we can get online and get in the live sales and have on our app, obviously, the better chance we are at. We are going to have at selling it before that time period, as far as the season change or whatever, before you run out of time to sell it.

We very rarely buy online. Yeah. We buy probably 90% of our pieces at market and just mainly because we do like to be able to touch and feel and see what we're getting rather than having a really good stock photo.

Right.

And it not be a good piece.

Yeah.

And the risk is, I mean, it's real with that.

Yes.

How do you guys like, as you've looked at your business, I mean, obviously I think about your family and I think how important it is that everyone has their own role. Right. And it's really what makes, you know, the beautiful music is when everyone knows how to play their part. But this year's been so crazy, or 2020 has been so crazy at least. And going to market to buy has been so crazy. How do you guys see your business changing and our industry changing during this crazy time?

I think the invention of the iPhone.

Was a magnificent thing. We have done like sales calls with vendors like FaceTime and that. That is probably what saved us through Covid, to be honest.

Yes. And honestly, I feel like a huge shout out to our mom too, because she, I don't know, she has this weird ability to predict things. And she thought before it really, before COVID got bad, she thought, she's like, this is going. I feel like it's going to get bad is what she thought. And she thought it could become a struggle to get inventory and that kind of thing. And we weren't planning on going to Magic in February. And she told us, she was like, I am going to stay home with the baby and you and Jen are going to go. Because I want to be able to at least have inventory and be able to get rid of it rather than not have any inventory in stock. But like Jen said, doing those FaceTime calls with our vendors and really having vendor relationships definitely helped us through that. And I feel like even since things have opened back up and we're getting back to some sense of normalcy, I feel like the vendors are still really adapting to what the situation was and how to move forward from that. We're still getting vendor calls and, you know, some vendors aren't going to market anymore. And I think having that relationship with them is definitely important. And did you. You were about to say no.

I. I think that you nailed that on the head of. There are so many vendors, or at least like our. One of our biggest vendors. They didn't go to market. Yeah. And from talking to them, it was like. It was almost like Covid never hit financially with them. Yeah, we're doing like record sales and they weren't having the booth rent.

Man. Just all shifting.

Right.

But it sounds like you've been able to adapt and your mom does have a sixth sense and you're absolutely right, man. Okay, let's shift gears. I want to hear something a little bit more personal. So talk to me about where do you guys go to fill your cup? Where do you go to get motivated day in and day out? Is there a podcast or YouTube channel or a mentor you guys love to follow?

I really enjoy Rachel Hollis's podcast. I like hers. I do like the store. We listen to the Boutique Hub podcast.

So, yeah, we'll come to work and the manager and I will talk about did you listen to this or do.

You listen to that? And oh my gosh, there's a new podcast out. You have to listen to it. And so that's always like a nice. A nice little thing too.

Awesome.

How about any books that you love to read?

Jen is definitely the bookworm as well. I am, like, super, just free spirited. And honestly, this sounds bizarre, but I fill my cup by going to horse shows. Like, once I return from a horse show, I am just fired up and it's really just a time for me to do my own thing. And I don't know, it just really. It really makes me want to do better for the business, you know? I don't know. I feel like that's a weird explanation, but it's. That's just how it is for me.

I think that, yeah, I. I am kind of a workaholic. I probably would rather work than do anything else. But I do think that, like, getting away and turning off your phone and I mean, to an extent, you can't.

Just run away, but, like, get that.

Like, personal time to, like, gather your senses. And I do enjoy, like, sitting by myself for that, like 30 minutes a day. Like, leave me alone. Let me, like, take everything in and kind of rejuvenate. So.

Man, they say distance makes the heart grow fonder, and I think that's so true in business. It's amazing how you know how much of a difference just a little time off makes.

Yes.

Perfect. What is your favorite trend at the moment?

Favorite trend.

My favorite trend is anything sequins, anything fringe, and bell bottoms, graphic tees. I have a lot of favorite trends. I like the style of kind of businessy, but funky at the same time. Mixing those two together, I would say.

Like, the blazers are my favorite. Which market this last time, I don't feel it, like, I don't feel like we saw as many.

Yeah.

As prior markets, but I like that, like, the blazer with blue jeans kind of look.

I like it. Business in the front, party in the back. Kind of like perfect. Well, you guys, any last advice that you would have. Actually, I'm going to make this two questions. First of all, any last advice you would have for someone who wants to open and work in a business with their family?

Working in a business with your family is really, really hard, especially when you all are stubborn and feel like you. Your way might be better than the others. But at the same time, I feel like working in a business with family is by far the best and most rewarding and totally contradicting to what I said as far as it being hard, but the easiest as well, because if you need to leave for what, you know, Jen said she likes to. Or unwind and do her own thing. If she needs to do that, everyone is okay with that. You don't have to worry about those kind of like, big corporation hierarchies as far as getting it approved or that kind of thing. And for me, myself, I know I am gone so much with showing, and it all just ends up working out. We make it work. We work really hard when we're home. And I don't want it to sound like we just run off on vacation all the time, because that's definitely not it. But there are definitely periods of time where I know that, you know, if this is the world show that I'm going to be gone and I just have to make it work.

And.

And so other parts of our family pull the weight during that time, which I feel like is so nice about working with family.

I love that. All right. Second last question. Is any last piece of advice for other boutique owners that are listening? I know you guys have been hubbies for a long time. Obviously you participated in the boutique awards, all the things. Is there advice you wish everyone here would take to heart?

We were like, hubbies before you had, like, before there was, like, payment.

Yes. Oh, geez.

I think the biggest thing is to.

Work hard and don't give up. My dad has always said that if there's something you want to do, if you Work hard at it. You can do it. Whether it's, I don't know, even this smallest things, like he always says, I bet you could clean sidewalks. If you worked hard enough at it, you can make a living doing it. And I think that that's definitely the truth.

And I think, building on that, that with the boutique movement of so many places or so many people have boutiques, which I think is great, because I think there is a great trend to shopping local, shopping small. But don't get caught up in what you see on Instagram or what you see on Facebook. You can post whatever you want to post. You can post the best pictures, you can have the best videos, you can have the best wrapping paper. But it all boils down to what is really going on. I think just stay in your own lane. Do your own thing. And even if everything you're doing is what everyone says not to do, if it works for you, you need to keep doing that. I feel like our business is the epitome of that.

Well, and I think.

Yes.

And I think too, of. Quit selling yourself short. Like, be more than just a clothes flipper.

Yes. Yeah.

You know that you don't want to.

Buy a shirt for.

From the vendor for $12, and you and your boutique sell it for 15. Right. I wouldn't think. Right. You need to make a profit.

Yeah. So good. Build your brand. Don't just be a clothes flipper. Right. And just like we were talking about before we even got on the podcast, man, I feel like the biggest misconception in boutique land is it's gonna be easy and it's gonna be fun, and it's gonna be so glamorous, you know, and then you get in and you're like, dang, this is not what I expected.

You know, someone sold me something.

And then you find glamor in some of the most. Most mundane things. Like, I actually really enjoy unpacking boxes, and it's not a glamorous job.

Right.

Mindless activity. Oh, man. All right, well, you guys, last question. And you guys know I love to ask this question because I. I believe that we're all here for a much greater purpose than just selling clothes. Right. So talk to me. You've got a family reunion now, 20 years down the road, and there's all kinds of grandkids running around and family and your entire family sitting down, talking about the businesses that you built together and the life that you lived. As you think about that, what is the thing that you really want to be remembered for the most?

I Feel like I really want to be remembered for the most, that our mission, our vision, our entire business was about welcoming all women and men. We have some men's clothes, welcoming everyone that comes through our doors with a smile and making them feel that they're worthy, that they're beautiful. And I know that sounds cliche, but that really is the center of our business. And we have had so many customers come back to us and really express that we either A, brighten their day, or B, that, you know, they used to hate shopping because they're a size 3X and they can never find clothes that fit, or it's always shoved back in the back corner or that they're a size small, and, you know, no one will ever help them because they're not curvy enough. So I feel like that is what I would really want to be remembered for, that I was just a shining light in somebody's day, and that our business, over our whole time period of being open, was kind of a safe haven for women.

Yes. I agree with Jessica that, like, we want to lead. Like, we want everyone to feel that way and to put on the clothes that we help them purchase and feel truly good about yourself. Right.

And I think that everyone across the.

Board knows and can, like, feel like when you put something on and you're like, oh, my gosh, I look awful in this, and then you put something else on, you're like, I'm ready to, like, take on the world. Like, you want that take on the world mentality.

And I feel like it's very personal for Jen and I because through our business, we have learned that each of us, even our mom as well, have experienced some type of situation where we. I don't know if bullied is the right word. I don't really feel like I was bullied, but where attributes that we had, people talked negatively of. I know Jen through high school, had the mean girls in high school. You know, I had a coach that, as I was growing up and showing horses, was. I mean, she expressed to my mom that my mom really needed to help me out because I was too fat. And. And I think my mom has expressed that she has, you know, had some of those demons from the past, too. So I feel like that's where it's really personal for us and, like, it's really deep in our roots, is that.

You never want, like, you never want to make someone feel the way that, like, they've made you feel. Yeah. Yep.

I love that you guys are shining lights. Thank you so much. For being on the podcast today, you guys and sharing your story and my greetings to your mom as well. And congrats again you guys on the boutique award and thank you for being hubbies for so long. This was really intriguing.

Thank you so much. Thank you for having us.

Yeah.

Hey guys, real quick. I know as you're thinking about this podcast episode and what can I do today that's really going to impact my sales tomorrow, especially in the fourth quarter, I want to talk to you about the Holiday Marketing Masterclass. Probably the biggest mistake I see boutique owners make in the fourth quarter is hustle all season long for these record breaking sales numbers but being left with no profit at the end of the day. And if there's two things I want for you guys this year, it's profit and it's its peace. So stop giving away the farm with gross blanket sales, right? Stop marking everything down and over staffing and not having the right inventory or being left to plan at the very last minute. Inside of the Holiday Marketing Masterclass, I want to walk you through seven steps, seven modules to help you prep everything from in store events to e commerce maximization to driving traffic, running ads, building holiday engagement by using our calendars and our sales funnel and done for you step by step engagement ideas. We're going to talk about nine essential events to run and the promotions versus the sales that are going to leave you profit at the end of the day, guys. Again, it's profit and peace that I want you to experience this season. So nearly a thousand boutique owners have taken part of this training that we've offered for about four years now and it's completely updated in 2020 to today's changing landscape. So if you want to learn more, if you want, if you love my personal help throughout the entire holiday season proven to double the sales of many boutique owners who've taken a part of the program. Check it out at holidaymarketingmasterclass.com. Hey guys, thank you so much for listening to this episode. We hope that you loved it. Don't forget to hit subscribe and leave a rating and review down below for a chance to be one of our featured listeners each and every week. For more information on our spirit of community over competition and how to access complete show notes and bonus downloads from our guests, head on over to the boutiquehub.com and join the community. We'll see you next week.

Sa.