#285: Tips From a Successful Boutique Owner with Alison Grooms, Owner of Jules & James Boutique

It's episode number 285, and I think you guys are gonna love this one because it's with one of the coolest boutique owners I know, Ms. Alison Grooms, the founder of Jules and Jane's 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, exper 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 feel like there's always these posts inside of the Boutique Hub where people are asking, hey, what boutique owner inspires you? Or what type of business owner do you want to be when you grow up, basically? And the answer I see so often is this one. It's Allison Grooms from Jules and James Boutique. She's someone who has not only built an incredible business, but when you follow her, she is so real and authentic. Every single day on social media, you feel like you get a sneak peek into the life that she lives and the business that she's built and the ups and the downs and being a mom and a wife and a business owner all at the same time. And she is as generous as as they come when it comes to helping others and sharing an opinion or just giving back to the industry. That's really helped her build an incredible business. So today I'm so excited. She has become a dear friend of mine, and today we sit down and have just a chat about life and business and growth. And I think no matter what, whether you are a new boutique owner, whether you're a brick and mortar boutique owner who's been in the business for a long time, or you are a major e commerce brand, I think there's something for everyone here, and I wanted to hit on both. What is it like at the beginning of the journey, but also once you get to the point where you have major scale happening? What do you need to know then? So I'm excited that this podcast really covers all of the different angles of this business and you get to experience her journey firsthand. So without me rambling any further, you guys, meet my friend, Allison Grooms, the founder of Jules and James Boutique.

All right.

Hey, guys, welcome back to the podcast this week, or if you're catching us on video this week. I'm so excited because I feel like you're my long lost boutique bestie that.

I've been looking for forever.

Allison, it has been such a pleasure to get to know you both through the hub and on social media. I know we've connected a lot this year, but you have such an inspiring story and are such a business mentor to so many people in the hub that I'm excited to share your story on the podcast. So, Allison Grooms from Jules and James Boutique, welcome.

Thank you so much. I am literally so, so honored and excited to be here and to be asked. I was at the first. I don't know if you even know this Ashley, but I was at the first boutique hub summit. You were at the very first. The very first one. I was there. And. Oh, my gosh, you guys have glown up.

So who did you come with? Did you come with family or.

I brought. Okay. So I think that I might have even roomed with Glamour. The Glamour farm girls. Yeah. Known them, been friends with them for a long time. And then I think that I brought my manager from my store. And I don't even know, like, that was. I mean, that was like, when Comet sold was brand new. So I hung out with Brandon Cruz a lot that trip. Yeah. So I was there. Girl, that's so crazy. I've been in fangirl for a long time. Oh, my gosh.

No, that is so cool. Comments. Brand new because Brandon, like, literally, I met him the week before that and he was like, oh, yeah, you know, I knew about discount Divas. I knew about Amanda, but he's like, yeah, now we're going to start opening it up to others. So you must have been one of the very first users of Common Gold. There wasn't very many. Yeah.

That's amazing.

Okay, well, I'm excited. We've got a lot to talk about with your story and a lot of personal things that I want to talk about with you today. So let's start here. I always want to give everyone the backstory about. Tell us a little bit about your boutique, where you live, and how you got started in this journey.

Okay. So my store, my whole business is Jules and James. Jules and James Boutique. And I named it after my children. A lot of people even shop with me and don't realize that it's named after my kids. I have a daughter named Juliet. She is six. And then I have a son named Jameson, and he is four. So Jules and James is named after them. We live in Carrollton, Georgia, the cutest, best little town ever. I have been here for about eight years now. And my business is a little more than five years old. And honestly, I did not ever really plan on having a boutique in this business. I started out my early adulthood as an elementary education teacher. Yeah, so I was a teacher, which I think a lot of it seems like a lot of the boutique owners come from the education world. So I don't know. Really, I don't know. I'm sure there's some like, psychology behind why that happens. Like bubbly, kind people maybe, I don't know. But yeah, I was a teacher and then I had my daughter Juliet, and I knew that I probably would never be back in the classroom. I knew I really wanted to stay home with her. And, and honestly, teaching was something that I loved, but I never felt like it was like my lifelong calling. I just never had that feeling. And so I really, you know, I feel like I spent a lot of my, like, early adulthood feeling like I didn't know what I wanted to do with my life and what would really bring me fulfillment. But I come from a long line of entrepreneurs and it's funny even that, That it just was a fact of my life. But I didn't really give it much thought. But really, like grandparents, my parents have, I mean, they've done so many business ventures, it's unbelievable. And had a lot of successes and a lot of failures at the same time. So I think that's in me. And you know, after having my daughter, she was probably, she wasn't even a year old yet. She was probably like nine or 10 months. And I remember just feeling like I've got to do something else. Like I thought that I wanted to stay home and I do want to stay home, but like, I have to have something else. And so I talked to my husband into letting me get a embroidery machine. It was $1,000 machine. And literally $1,000 back then to me seemed like what 10 or $15,000 seemed like to a lot of normal people these days. Like, it just seemed like that is a lot of money. It was a big risk. And so I got that thousand dollar machine and I worked up a business plan of how I was going to pay it off because we put it on a credit card, which is also something that I really don't love is debt ever. But anyways, I had a plan on how I was going to get it paid off. And so, girl, I was monogramming and embroidering everything, had a little Etsy business and really that just turned into buying stuff wholesale. I started a Facebook group and just added all My friends and was like, y', all, I can get a sweater like this and sell it to you real cheap. And I have to buy a pack of six of it. Who wants them? You know? And so, honestly, even then, like, I didn't have a lot of business sense in a way. Like, I didn't know anything about marking up or, like, true business sense. Now, like, stuff that seems very basic, I just was figuring it out, you know? And so really, it just started growing and growing and growing. And then at some point, I kind of was like, okay, I'm having literally the most fun in my whole life that I've ever had with this, but I've got to legitimize this business, pay taxes, get a business license, do all the things you got to do to, like, make it legitimate. And really, probably after just playing with it for, like, a year, is when I got serious about it. And that's when Jules and James, the brand was born.

Oh, I like it. So many people, I think, feel like. I hear they get started kind of like you feel like they don't really know what's going on. And one thing that sets so many people back almost immediately is this idea of comparison. You know, I just started this business. How come I'm not growing as fast as Jules and James is? You know, there's just this comparison trap that happens immediately. How did you start to really, like, flip the switch from the Etsy shop and monogramming, which does every boutique owner in the south get started with bows and Etsy shops and monogramming?

I mean, it's a good possibility. Anything with tool and little. Yeah, all that stuff from, like, so fancy 2000s or whatever it was. You know, one thing that. And I tell people this a lot, like, whenever I do advise other, you know, new boutique owners, this is something that I say. I feel very blessed because of when I got started. I feel like the boutique industry has taken off, and there are thousands of boutiques and boutique owners. But that's not to say that there's not room for another one. I'm not saying that whatsoever. But one thing that I feel blessed about is it was kind of before the surge. And honestly, I was not in a comparison trap. I really wasn't, because I didn't know. I was not comparing myself to anyone because of how I was doing it. I was selling on a Facebook group. And after I was doing it for a few months is when I learned about Flaunt boutique in Texas, which I love those girls. They're amazing. They were selling On a Facebook group before I was. And then Discount Divas was. And then I know there's another one and I can't think of her name right now. But anyways, those were the only two that I found out about after the fact. And really, even then, like, they were only two. So at that point I was like, okay, well, wow, they're doing amazing. And so, you know, that's when you get inspiration of how to do things better. Because obviously they were doing it for a little bit longer, so their stuff looked way better. And I'm like, okay, I can actually step up my game a little bit and make this look better. But that's one thing that I'm really thankful for is I did not have. I didn't see all these boutiques that I just constantly compared myself to. And that's, that's a blessing and a curse of nowadays because it's like, you know, in our Facebook group, like the boutique hub where we all share stuff, you see people, literally you see people, you see girls doing $3 million a month, which I'm not even there. You see girls that are like, I got five sales this week. So literally it is like across the spectrum of what everyone's doing. And honestly, someone's five sales in a week, that's just as huge to somebody as a million a month to someone else. So we all obviously have different places we start out at and hit our goals at different times. So.

But yeah, and everyone's goals are different too, I think.

That's absolutely.

I talked to a lot of people even about this podcast and you know, like the size and range of boutiques that we have on here. Not everyone's goal is to be a multi million dollar store. You know, it may be just to have some freedom, some flexibility, to serve your greatest why and purpose in life and give back to others and to create sustainable for your family. So I love that you called that out, that everyone's journey is different. So talk to me about kind of what happened next. I love to hear like the moments that things started to click for you. So you realize there was these other stores that were doing well. You were selling in a Facebook group. I'm assuming that's when comment selling started to catch on for you or what made that flip to this new style of selling.

Yeah, so I started. Started doing this. I probably did this for about nine months before I had Comet sold. Because Comet sold was not out there yet. So I still have my notebook. Ashley. I need to find it and take pictures and like post it somewhere because I still have a notebook and it is hundreds of pages of literally me handwriting the order. It would be like a style number at the top, how many sizes that I was ordering of it. All the people that I was going to either ship it to or they were going to come pick it up and I have hundreds of pages of that. So yeah, it was crazy. But you know what, I will tell you. And I shared this story with my staff the other day and they were like, that is the most beautiful story. And I am going to tell you a story of like a turning point for me and I hope that he gets to hear this. But honestly, I feel like a huge turning point for me was actually a vendor relationship. And I feel like I know you have vendors that listen to you and so I think this could even inspire them. But so when I first started really like being serious about my business, I was ordering a ton on Fashion Go. And there was this brand that I found and honestly I found his top in a boutique probably like an hour away from my store. I was shopping one day and I got this top and I was in love with it and I saw the label and it was Andre by unit. And so have you met Leo in person? Yes. He is literally like such a sweet human. Well, anyways, I found their stuff and so I started ordering their stuff like crazy on Fashion Go. And it was odd because like at the time I was doing a lot of pre orders on stuff and so like I would order one or two packs of something and then I might order like eight or nine packs of like another talk. And so I remember one day my phone rang and literally no vendor had ever called me. Like I know that sometimes even call for credit cards. I don't even think they even called me for that. Like I had never had a vendor call me. And so anyways, I get a phone call and he's like, hey Ali. Because my email is Ali Grims. They all still call me Ali. It's so funny. He's like, hey Ali, I noticed, like I'm just kind of confused about like your buying habits and blah, blah, blah. And he's like, hey, are you going to be at the Atlanta show in a couple of weeks? And I'm like, yeah, I'll be there. And he's like, listen, I really want to meet you, okay? And I'm like, okay, I'll. I'll be there and I'll meet you. And this is when Andre by unit, like I don't even know if they've been in the business for, like, a year. I have no idea. I remember I brought. Yeah, I brought one of my best friends, Megan, with me. And I remember we walked in the booth, and I'd only been at the Atlanta Mart maybe one other time. I still was, like, so new. And I remember, like, I walked into his booth, and he was like, okay. He told his staff in front of me. He was like, whatever she wants, I want you to get it for her. If she wants Starbucks, I want you to get it for her. And he pulled up a chair, and, like, he was like, I just want to talk to you about your business and your goals and, like, what you're doing and, like, how you're selling. He's like, I'm super intrigued by you. And he's like, I can just tell. He's like, I can tell you're going to be huge one day. And he's like, and I really want to work with you. I know. And so listen to what he did. This is what like meant the absolute world to me. And honestly, I don't know. I don't know if anyone would ever do this for anyone. This is a little risky, what he did. So I walked into his booth, and he's like, okay. He's like, how much can you spend today? And I was like, honestly? I mean, I don't know. Maybe like, $2,000 maybe. And he was like, okay, Ali. He's like, I really believe in you. He's like, we're going to do something. He's like, I'm going to send you stuff. He's like, we're going to create an order, and you just pay me when you can pay me. And he's like, and if something doesn't sell, I will pay to ship it back. And so I was like, are you kidding me? So I walked in with a $2,000 budget. He shipped me $8,000. It might have even been 12,000. $12,000 worth of product. And I remember, like, getting all these boxes at my house and being like, oh, my gosh, like, what am I going to do with all this merchandise? And so now, like, I'll probably go see Leo the first week of December. He wanted me to come this week, and I didn't want to go. It's election week, by the way, when we're recording. I didn't want to go this week, but I'll probably go the first week of December. And it's rare that I ever leave his place or his booth. And I don't spend anywhere from, like, 80 to over 100 grand every time I see him. I normally spend over a million dollars in a year with Andre by unit now. So he really took a chance on me. And, you know, it was probably like, six to nine months before I could even get caught up on, like, paying him, like, when he shipped stuff. But even like a year, a year and a half after that, like, he would call me sometimes and he'd be like, hey, your order today that I'm shipping is 20,000. I know you probably can't swipe all that on your card today, but if you can just pay me five, we'll get the rest later. And so he is just. He grew. He helped me grow so much. And he would tell you. I know he would tell everybody else, too, that we grew together, but it just really meant a lot to me to have someone, like, believe in me and want to work with me when I didn't have anything to offer him at first, you know, so just. He's just. He's. Honestly, I tell people he's one of my best friends, and I don't say in the industry. I just mean period. One of my best friends. Such a good person.

Oh, my gosh. So there's so many things I want to unpack about that because I love that story, and I hope he does get to hear this. Number one is the value of relationships and going to market and making those relationships. And I know so many of you guys listening. You do go to market or you do go to la. Like, I can't stress that enough that you have to build a relationship with vendors, right? And I'm sure there's many more. There's many more you've built relationships with now, too. But number two, he saw something in you that I think really sets your business apart as I still see it today. And you and I have talked about this, and that's just how real and authentic you are. And I feel like those are maybe buzzwords in our industry today. Like, we're telling everyone to be authentic. What does that really mean, like, to you? What does it really mean to show up and be authentic to your customer?

So, for me, I would say one thing that I had to learn early on is you look at other people that are successful. And like I said, there weren't a ton of people that I could really compare myself to, but there were other people. I mean, there were other. There were a lot of website companies that I could look at. Like, Philly Flair, she was one that I loved so much that I used to look at her stuff all the time. And I remember thinking, like, I wanted. I would try to, like, want to be like someone else because I would see that they were successful. But then, like, what you realize is, like, that's not you, you know? And I know it's kind of. I don't know. It's. We've. We hear this all the time. But, like, you have to be you because everyone else is taken. But it's true. Like, if you do something, and especially if your mom and your sister notice that you're not being yourself, you're really not being yourself because they know you better than anyone else. But people. People obvious also, just very much recognize fake and phony and when you're not being yourself. But also, I think, like, one thing that my. I don't like to call them followers. My customers, my friends, my people, my community. I think, like, what they. One thing that I think they would love me for is that I'm not perfect, and I don't try to be perfect to them. Like, I tell them when I'm struggling or. And there's a. There's a line, you know, you don't want to cross a line with telling them too much. But, like, I'll tell them when I'm trying on clothes, like, y', all, I've gained 10 pounds since corona, so, you know, this is gonna fit me different today, you know, and you're just real because they are there. They face those challenges too, you know? I mean, I've gone live and done fit videos, and, like, my kids are in the background half dressed, or they come in and I don't even delete it and start over, because, y', all, that's real life, and they want to see that you're real. Even my room right now looks really clean. But, like, if I was live, I would show them, y'. All. I got, like, a whole. I got probably three loads of laundry over here that's not folded. Like, dirty underwear on the floor, you know? Like, they want to know that, like, you are a human and that you don't have this, like, perfectly curated life. And I think that's also, like, kind of a blessing and a curse of how, like, Instagram used to be. It seems like for a while, like, Instagram was so curated, and then I think people got tired of it. Yeah, I got tired of it. I don't know. That's just me, though.

I get tired of Insta Stories so much.

Yes, I do, too. It's like, no, I want to see that you have a messy kitchen like I do, and that your kid is kind of crying in the background. Not that I'm delighting in your misery, but sometimes I am. I just want to know that you're normal.

Exactly. Oh, man. So other thing I'm thinking about going back to Leo's story is customer service and customer data. And that's something I think about. As you've grown, how have you, like, really used your data to go into customer service, to treat your customers like you were treated in that story?

Yeah. So one thing we have not always done the very best job at this, but one thing that we really, really, really started to look at this year is our top customers. And so, I mean, it seems like that's something that we should have been doing long before this year. But I even told my team, I'm like, I want to know their faces. Like, if I see someone that spends. If I see someone that spent $10,000 with me this year, like, I need to know their face if I see them at Kroger or wherever, you know? So one thing we do is. And I have a team that helps me with this, but they. We write notes to them, we send gifts. We literally. I mean, there's even. I can't. I wish that I could think of her name so I could shout her out. But, like, I found her on the hub. Maybe you know who she is, but she has, like, earrings. And so I think I bought, like, 500 pair of earrings for $500, and they were assorted. And, like, I've just been mailing those to customers all year, you know.

And.

You know, after I ship it, it cost me three or four dollars, but that customer got a gift from me with a handwritten note with my name on it. And I think it just means a lot to them. And so we really. I mean, I. I can't tell you how many customers I've sent flowers to this year. One of my good customers had a cancer battle this year. One of my good customers got accepted into hair school. And so we just send flowers, we send cookies. We just do a lot to love on our people. And it's honestly such a small gesture when people show up for you as much as they do for us. I mean, it sounds. It's so small in comparison for what they do for us. So I just think showing that gratitude and just really looking at your data of who is shopping with you and who you really need to be paying attention to.

Yeah, I love that. We just did this huge pay it forward thread in the hub. I don't know if you saw that, but I'm a big fan of like $5 Starbucks gift cards. I just like, write someone a note, throw in a gift card, throw in a boutique of sticker, whatever. But that little thing, as much as it is for the other person, it does something for you too. Like, I feel like, gratitude. Yes, it pays forward, but it also pays you tenfold too. Like, when you're having a bad day, that's the best thing you could do for yourself too.

Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely.

All right, let's talk live sales for a minute because I know that's how you built your business. You're 100% comment sold, right? So talk to me about, like, some strategy. If someone's listening and they're like, how do I grow my life sales? How do I get more viewers? What are some things that have worked for you?

So I will say live sales are something we definitely have done, but we have not done them. I would say we've definitely not done them to the full capacity that some of the other comments sold sellers have. But I'll tell you what we've learned. So I think that there are some people that they have gone live so much that they feel like in a way that they're slave to a live sale. And I think that it's important not to get to that point to where you feel like you can never take a vacation or that you have to be in every live or if you don't go live at all, that you make zero money. And so one thing that I think that we've done a good job of is diversifying our selling channels. So we do wall drops, we do obviously, app notifications, we have a great email marketing campaign, we run Facebook ads. And then of course, we do live sales. I will say, like, we really stepped up our game with a live sales, especially when, like the quarantine happened and we were forced to shut down because I had no models for photo shoots. And so it was literally me, my husband, my sister in law and her husband working at our warehouse packaging all the orders. And it just made me sick because it was like everyone was at home shopping and like, we couldn't even keep up with what all they were wanting to buy. Literally they would buy, want to buy everything. And I'm like, y', all, there's just four of us packaging orders, so I can't sell you anything else tonight. Bye. You know, but really, I learned especially during that time how much our customers and I don't think it's just Our customers. I think it's so many humans. I think that a lot of people are lonely and they crave, like, human interaction. And I love and adore our customer base. And I think that we do have a lot of customers that are super busy and they don't have time for a live sale. I mean, honestly, if I were not in this business, I don't think that I would be that kind of a consumer. In a way, I really don't think that would be me. It's not my favorite thing to watch. I'll watch them, other people sometimes just for, like, inspiration or see what they're doing, but I'm even not a huge fan to watch them. But I think that there's a ton of people out there that are lonely and they crave, like, just say my name. You know, like, we even have sometimes annoying customers that keep saying the same thing over and over again. And they literally want you to say their name, first and last name, and just address them, you know, like, it might be the only time that someone says their name that day. I don't know. But one thing that we learned, especially like I said through the whole coronavirus is. Or the quarantine, is people do long for that interaction. And so we've really. I mean, we've sold a ton this year through live sales. And one thing that I would say has been huge for us is consistency. And consistency for us means we go live the same times at the same nights of the week. So Tuesdays and Thursdays, you can pretty much count on us being live. We might throw in some extra ones or surprise ones, but Tuesday and Thursday nights, we're always going to be live. And then also, um, I was going to say same people, but sometimes we do change it up. But anyways, just being consistent with your times and just, they know, like, no matter what, Tuesday, Thursday, even this past Tuesday with the election, we were still alive. And honestly, we had so many viewers. I was really surprised at how many people, I guess, wanted to turn the news off and just take a break. So. Yeah.

So as you scaled that, I love that it's diversified. First of all, like, I want to really emphasize that for everyone who's listening. And I know the app is a huge piece of what you do, too, but to manage all of that, you had to grow a lot of team. And so I think about this whole idea of being a CEO versus an entrepreneur, and I talk about that a lot in the Hub because I think being a CEO starts when it's just you by Yourself, like you don't even have to have employees yet to have this mindset of I need to hire to scale my business in some capacity. I need to ask for help. So talk to me about lessons you've learned in growing your team and how you've started to ask for more help.

Yeah, so I am really, really, really blessed with the team that I have. I hear some horror stories. I mean, I know you do too. We hear the same story sometimes, but so I feel like I have just been really blessed with the people that have come alongside me and I really can't even take that much credit for it, honestly. One thing that I think that I do well is I don't micromanage and I let them lead their teams. And so my sister in law, I call her my right hand chick, she basically was my first hire and we could not be any more different. Like literally we are night and day different in every single way that you could possibly think of. She doesn't even really love fashion and clothes that much is what's hilarious. But I'm telling you, I could not. I'm not going to say I couldn't do this without her. But like Jules and James would not be what it is today if it wasn't for her because she is like my operations. I'm right brain. She's left brain. Yeah. And so we always say like I can sell anything and Leah's going to make sure it gets there. And she keeps our warehouse so organized. I mean if I had to organize a warehouse, I would just. There would be no organization. It would just be like close through, up everywhere. But that's not her. So I'm so super thankful for her. And so she like runs. She basically has like two or three teams under her that have to do with like our inventory, receiving or shipping. And then she just does so many things that I can't even name all the things she does. And then I have another girl that I hired a year ago to be on my creative team and she's basically, she runs our creative team, she runs photo shoots, all of our sales campaigns and she is super organized. So she's a type three on the Enneagram and I'm a type seven. And so literally. Are you a three? Yeah, I could see you being a three. So I'm the kind of person, I'm embarrassed to tell you this, Ashley, but I have that adorable, amazing boutique hub planner and I don't think I've even hardly written anything in it. Nicole has that same planner and like she has a notebook. Like, I don't talk to her. That she's not writing down everything, making lists, checking it twice, crossing it off. And I'm like. I'm like, it's all up here. I got it, but I don't got it, you know? So the Sevens need the threes. We need our boutique planners, which are amazing. There's so many resources. You just need to use it. But anyways, that's just me. I'm just a hot mess. Totally a hot mess. But I definitely let them lead their teams, and I don't micromanage. I definitely check in and I know what's going on, but, you know, just let them do their thing. So I'm really blessed with that. And then I have an amazing store manager, and she runs my store, and I literally could never go in my store again and know that everything was going to be perfectly fine. So she does an amazing job with that.

I love that. Okay, so a couple questions, because I'm thinking about there's people that both are brand new to hiring, so I'm going to ask you the what would you do different question in a minute. But before that, there's people that are listening that have teams, and they want to scale to the place where you are, where, you know, you've been able to kind of step back out of your business a little bit and give yourself more freedom and more family life. So can you explain to me how many teams do you have in captains? And then how do you structure that in terms of, like, leadership meetings, ongoing training? Like, what does the structure of your team look like?

Sure. Okay, so I have a warehouse, and I have this store. So I think of them as two totally different things. So in my store, I have my store manager, and I have, I think, maybe four or five employees. And Kaylee has been with me from the very beginning, and she basically just kind of evolved into her position. She's amazing. And so I don't. I wish that I did more with my store girls I'm trying to get better about. I might go to lunch with them individually. Like, I've just started even asking them to go to lunch. You know, just trying to get that. So where I actually see them, because a lot of them I don't ever see. And I have a great girls that work in my store that have been like, our turnover is low, surprisingly, for our store. So anyways, she meets with them once a week. They do a little team meeting every morning before their shift starts. They do a little devotion. They talk about Their sales goals, and then they have goals for the month also in incentives. And so that's my store. Then our warehouse. So my sister in law and Nicole, I would say are over the warehouse. Leah, definitely. So we have two parts of the warehouse. We have like our whole warehouse, which is all like the clothes part. And then we have our office space in the front of that, which is a good size office with offices and a conference room and all that. So we have one person in hr and really Leah, our HR would actually report to Leah. And then we have a inventory team. Inventory receiving. So Wendy is my inventory manager and she has a team, but then she reports to Leah because Leah is like, set up the warehouse, all of that.

Let me back up. I feel like I'm not getting all. I'm confusing names. So you've got your HR person.

Mm, house man.

Your inventory manager that you just managed.

Yes.

What is your sister in law's name again?

Her name is Leah.

Okay, do you have two Leah's?

No, just one. So Leah's basically over the whole warehouse.

Okay.

So I have hr, which is its own thing. And I have Wendy, she's over all of inventory.

Okay.

And she has a team.

Gotcha.

And then I have Kelly, and Kelly is over all of my packages, like all the shipping, all the things that go out. And so Kelly is over that. And then she's also over customer service. Okay, so returns, all that. Yes, returns. Customer service. Yes. Returns is a huge thing. So two people that do returns. And then I have Nicole, and Nicole has maybe four or five people underneath her, which Nicole is our creative director. And so she has under her our photographers. She manages all the photo shoots. All of our models report to her, and we contract out all of our models. And she's. She just oversees basically everything. Creative marketing, all of that that we do.

They do social media to her team.

Oh, yes, yes, everything. And I always say, if you ever see anything written by Jules and M, even if it comes from my account on Facebook, those girls wrote it. They wrote the picture or they made the pictures, they created the graphic, they created the email, they wrote the words. That's her entire team. So email marketing, everything. I love this team.

I love that structure. I think that paints such a good picture. Okay, so put yourself back in, like making your very first hire.

Okay.

Like, oh my gosh, I'm growing and I need help. What do you wish you would have known then that you know now?

Hmm. Well, I will say this, and I know I wrote this in my little thing to you. But somebody told me this a couple years ago, and it was after I'd been in business a couple years ago or a couple years. But one of my very favorite business advice, if anyone ever says, like, what's your best piece of advice? This is it. Be slow to hire and quick to fire. And I don't know who the. I need to look up who the original author is of that quote and give them credit every time I share it. But anyways, a mentor slash friend of mine told me that, and I think if I would have done that from the beginning, it would have saved me a lot of headache, a little bit of heartache. But more of a headache than a heartache, because, Ashley, you know how it is. If you have someone working for you that is just, like, they're just not the best and not a good fit. It's a headache. And then you're just. It's just constantly a struggle until you finally let them go. And I always tell people, I've never fired someone or let someone go. That I was like, man, I just really hate that I let them go. I wish I could get them back, you know? Like, that is never happened. Yes. And then once you do it, it's like a breakup with a boyfriend, you know, it's like you dread it. You're sad over it. You're kind of sick to your stomach. But then literally, after you do it, you're like, like, why did I wait so long to do that? Yeah. And so now, like, this is kind of savage of us, but I cannot tell you how many people we've hired for, like, a trial. And, like, after the first day, we're like, hey, you're really great, but it's just not gonna work out here, you know? And I tell people all the time, like, one thing that I'm really, really proud of with Jules and James, like, I'm so proud of this. We are literally no drama. Like, my leadership team, they are zero drama. Like, we do not talk bad about each other. We are not catty. We don't wonder if others are mad. And honestly, that we used to have a couple guys that worked for us and we lost them after the quarantine, but we're, like, 100% women right now. And, like, there's just no drama. And not to say that there hasn't ever been, but we're just no nonsense, no drama. And that's one thing. If you have a lot of that going on in your business, you know, I'm talking to whoever is watching. That is something to look at and be like, who do I need to get rid of? And also take a look and see, is it you? Are you the one that's dramatic and emotional? And you know, there's a lot of times even, yeah, like I think about a situation and I'm like, you know, I think that there's a time and a place when like conversations need to be had. But then sometimes like I tell my husband I might vent to him about something happen and I'm like, okay, but if I address that, that makes me look bad because that makes me look petty. So there's just certain times, like it's just better to let it go and not be that way.

Culture starts at the top. And I think we like, from your very first hire, you're immediately setting the tone for the culture in your company. And I mean, I can't emphasize that enough. How you lead will be by example. It's not what you say, but it's what you do. You said something a minute ago. You said in your store that in the meetings in the morning, you guys lead with a devotional. Talk to me more about that and being a faith based company and leading in that direction. And do you think that changes the culture of your team?

Absolutely. And also that's something that we started in our warehouse. We didn't always do that, but honestly, after the quarantine, so like I said, there was a time for several. Not several weeks. It was like over a month, like six. I don't know how long quarantine even was. It's a blur now.

Too long.

It was too long. But there was a time when it was just me and my sister in law and our husband. So just our little family up there and like our kids were running around and really like what was kind of special about that time? I don't, I would never want to relive it again. But you know, it gave me a lot of time to reflect. I had to come up there and do jobs that I haven't done in like two or three, four years. You know, like I was doing jobs that I pay people less than I make to do now. You know, and so I had a lot of time to think and really think about, okay, I've been too busy and I have been out of touch with people in my company and like there's people that are doing jobs and like, not that they're doing them wrong or bad or whatever, but it's like I have been so busy because I travel, I go to la, I go to Dallas. I go by, I travel and visit my family a lot. I'm not in the office, I'm not in the warehouse every day, sometimes not even every week. And so there was a lot of things like I felt very out of touch with that I got back in touch with. And so after the quarantine hit, I sat down and I spent several hours rewriting our handbook and just looking at things and saying, ok, these are the things that are important to me. These are the things that are important to me that have been important to me all along. But like we get too busy that we forget what's important. And so after quarantine, one thing that we implemented was like basically starting every day meeting together. We do a short devotion. If anyone has anything that they want to pray about, someone prays and then we start the day and it's no more than 10 minutes they get to clock in. So they are there for it. And we're not shy about the fact that we're a faith based company. If you come to work for us, we tell you that up front and we, what's really cool is we have, we've had a couple people that have come and they're not believers, they don't really have a faith. But I had one of those girls tell me a couple weeks ago that like working at Jules and James has completely changed her life. And so I don't know that. Just like I don't want to cry, but all the warm fuzzies, you know. And so I think too, like we just really care about our people, like truly, truly care about them. And I know a lot of people like say work, family and it's very not true. But I definitely want the people that work for me to know that we care about them. And I even called a girl, one of my girl actually called two of them back to back a couple weeks ago and I just told them I know that I freaked them out because I never call them. Like I, I don't even know that everyone has my phone number that works for me. But I called them and I was like, don't panic, you're not in trouble. And I just called them to tell them that like they were doing such a great job and that, you know, I had a little monetary bonus for them next time I saw them and just told them like how much I appreciated them. And I was like, I just don't want you to ever think that I was like, I know that I'm busy, but you have my phone number and I just want you to Know, like anytime you need to talk to me or even if there's something going on and you know, you want me to know about it or if there's any issue, I just want you to know, like, my door is open, my cell phone number is active, you know, and that they can reach me because. And I hope one day I grow too much to where I can't give my phone number out to everybody anymore. But, you know, for now I'm not too important that they can't really. I don't ever want to be that important to where people can't ever talk to me like a human. But you know what I mean.

Yeah, I love that.

I love that.

I want to take this because I think you are segueing perfectly into another question I want to ask you, which is more personal and that is you have this huge growing business, but you also have two little kids and work life balance is really important to you, but there is a lot of pressure that comes with that that nobody ever talks about. And so I want to give that some space today. Talk to me about your growing family.

Yeah, so I definitely think that there are a lot of pressures on moms and on women. I think I even made a post like a couple of months ago saying, you know, I think I made a post and it was something like, hey, hey girl. Like, if you're wanting to start a family and you think you're too busy, you're really not like, you still can. I have other friends in the industry or in this, an industry similar. And you know, they're growing their business so hard and they're hustling and that they don't even think that they have time. And I know it's scary, but you really do and you make time for it. And I had. Jameson was born literally during the middle of the growth of my business. And I just remember thinking, like, I don't know how I'm going to survive. And sometimes I even tell myself I'm like, I don't know, I literally like. And I'm not even saying this to be funny, I don't know how that I didn't have like a nervous breakdown. And there's a couple times I look back and I'm like, was that a nervous breakdown? I'm not sure. It might have been because it kind of looks like it might have been. But I remember like when Jameson was born, gosh, I was working so much. I had a 2 year old. Juliet was 25 months old when he was born. So I had literally a Young two year old and an infant he was nursing. Neither one of my kids slept through the night until they were almost two. So I was so sleep deprived. And I just remember at the time, I was still working out of my house, but I remember I would work. I mean, gosh, I don't even know how I did it. I would work literally all day during the pockets of time that I could find to work. And then I would put my kids to bed, you know, like 8 o', clock, whatever, and I would go downstairs in my basement and I would work till like maybe two, get up to nurse in the night and then be up at 7. And I don't know how I did it, Ashley, I really don't. But I will say this. I survived. And now, like I have told my girls before, I think I said this during the beginning of my interview, but I started Jules and James, like, I wanted to stay at home with my kids. That was. That's the desire of my heart. And honestly, I had. We kind of had, like I said, like I said, we've had a little bit of drama. And so one thing that happened last year was I think there was some miscommunication with me and my staff. And I think that there were. We had this big come to Jesus meeting last August. And honestly, I will never forget it because it was probably like the hardest day of my professional career. And it's the only time I've literally ever cried at work. And I remember just being really, really upset. And I had a great team. So it was just one of those, like, times where they had to understand my heart and I had to tell them, y'. All. I started this business as a side hustle and I would never, ever, ever change the fact that, like, it sounds crazy to say this, but, like, God blessed it more than like, I even wanted him to in a way. Like, and I wouldn't change it. Like, it has changed my life. It has changed my family tree. But I had to look at them and tell them, y', all. I wanted to stay home with my kids and I still do. Like, that is what I want to do. I don't want to be up here eight hours a day or ten hours a day. I really don't. And so I had to tell them, like, y' all have to understand where I'm at. And also, I put in a lot of hard work before any of y' all were here. And so now when it seems like I'm at Disney with my kids or I'm going here or going there or I'm at the zoo or whatever, I'm making up for lost time that I miss with them. And so anyways, there's a lot of pressure that comes, like, as a business owner, and I feel pressure sometimes from my staff to be something that I may not want to be in this season. And really, I think too, like, it's not so much pressure from them because they don't do anything. Like, they. They don't do a thing. It's honestly an insecurity of mine as a business owner that am I doing enough or do they respect me? Do they know that I'm up until 3am Talking to vendors? Because, you know, whatever. Do they know that I'm up doing this? Do they know I'm talking to the accountant? Do they know I've been in meetings all day with, you know, all this stuff that you got to do as a business owner? And then also, I think, you know, I just think that really, probably more than anything, like I said, it's. It comes from an insecurity more than it is, like, the pressures from other people. It's what you see on Instagram and you compare your life to and you wonder, like, how is that mom or business owner doing it all? And the truth is, I'm not doing it all. I have a lot of help at this point in my life. I have a lot of help, and for that, I'm very, very thankful. But I will say I haven't always had a lot of help. And so I feel like there's a point where you feel like you arrive in some way to where you get that help. You have to work really, really hard to get there. Yeah.

You know what's interesting? And you and I had talked about this a little bit before, but it's like we're the first generation. I feel like that's kind of facing this new landscape because for the most part, we didn't have a generation before us that really had to deal with both. You know, so many female entrepreneurs building strong businesses and having a family at the same time. Like, we didn't have to watch anyone go through that. I mean, yes, we had a lot of mothers that worked, but maybe it was a little bit different as it is now because female entrepreneurship is so much stronger than it ever has been in the past.

Absolutely.

So so many people feel like they have to choose one or the other. Or again, like you said, compare online, when really, you know, part of growing a business is hopefully being able to afford some help to help you enjoy.

Both Pieces of that.

What do you say to someone who is choosing between, should I have another child or should I keep growing my business?

You know what I say? I say, do what you really want to do. And that's something. I've even had those conversations with friends. I would say, you know, the desire of my heart has always been to have another one. And there's been times where I'm like, I don't think that I can. Like, I don't think I feel like I'm too strapped to my business. And I had a friend, she actually works for me, and she's 10 years older than me. She's someone that. She's been a friend of mine. I mean, she's known me since I was a teenager, so she's someone that I've always looked up to, like, in a big sister way. And I remember talking to her about it, and she was like, allison, you don't get to, like, go back and do this. Like, if you decide, like, you. You really want a baby, but then you don't, like, you don't get to go back and change it. Like, what's done is done, you know? And so I would say, go with the desires of your heart, and everything else is going to work out. So, yeah, I'm probably going to have another baby one day.

I love it. All right, well, Alison, this has been amazing to get to talk to you. I feel like time's flown by. Let me end. I actually got two more questions. One is, I just want to hear if you have parting advice for anyone listening today that is, like, really at this stage where they just want to explode their business. Right? What's the best piece of advice you could give to a boutique owner today?

Okay, so just even kind of rehashing some of the things we said. One, don't compare your journey. There are a ton of people to compare to. Don't compare, but be inspired. Do your market research, y'.

All.

What is on the boutique hub, like, all the resources, it blows my mind. Literally blows my mind. With Retail Bootcamp, all the things to learn, I just wish it would have been out two years prior to where I could have learned all that. But seriously, don't compare. Be inspired, and then also learn. Learn something every day. That is something. The first couple years of my business, I definitely could do better. Now about continuing my learning, I try to challenge myself at least a couple times a week to listen to a podcast, learn something new, just glean some kind of knowledge. But really, that is something that I was doing. Several hours a day when I first was starting out is just learning. Um, I remember I would watch a lot of YouTube videos back in the day because that was kind of like the platform five years ago for, like, learning. And I don't even know if they even. I don't think they even had podcasts five years ago, did they? I don't even think they did. Probably. Yeah. So anyways. Yeah. So just learn and don't compare, but be inspired and learn.

I love it. All right, last question. So let's fast forward 20 years from now, right? And you're sitting on the front porch with your kids who now have babies, right? Your grandma. And you're talking about Jules and James and what you built and the life that you lived. What's the thing that you want those grandbabies to know most about who you are and what you did in your life?

Hmm. Okay. Literally. I don't know why that, like, literally put tears in my eyes. Like, I don't know why. Ok. So I think what I want to be known for and, like, through my business is probably the way that I loved people and gave back and changed their life for the better. One thing that we say at Joel's and James, and again, I don't know who, like, came up with this quote, but we always say it. It's not about the women wearing the clothes. It's not about the clothes. It's about the women wearing the clothes. That's the quote. We say that all the time. And, you know, I even look back, we looked at a video, a YouTube video of something that we did with Jules and James, like, three years ago. And it was a ton of our customers, and we were like, look at what they're wearing. Like, look how bad the fashion is. And they were like, what are they wearing? And I'm like, it's all Jules and James. Yeah. I'm like, it's all Jules and James, and it's terrible. And so, you know, in 20 years, like, the clothes are going to be so irrelevant. Like, literally irrelevant. They're going to be in the garbage somewhere. You know, like, it's not about the clothes. It's about the people, and it's about their relationships and it's about the lives you can change. And, you know, God has blessed me and so many people in this industry with relationships and, oh, my gosh, the money that we have because of our business. And I'm not going to squander that. I'm not going to squander the relationships, and I'm definitely going to bless people with my money because I have more at this point than I even need. So I would say in 20 years, that's what I want my kids and my grandkids to know and to realize is that we changed lives and changed the world with how we loved and blessed others.

I love that. Oh, my gosh. All right, Allison, why don't you tell us where everyone can follow you after this podcast?

Yeah. So you can follow me on Instagram. It's @alison1 l a l I s o n underscore grooms. That's my personal Instagram. And honestly, you can follow me on Facebook, but don't send me Facebook messages there. If you're a boutique owner and you want to connect, send me a message on Instagram. And it would even be better if you comment on one of my pictures and say, yo, girl, sent you a message. So I see it. But really, like, that's my favorite place to chat with people because it's the one account that no one has my password. It's totally private. So, yeah.

Awesome. Alison, thanks so much for your time today.

Absolutely. Thank you.

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