3 Ways to Grow Your Boutique Business With Your #BoutiqueBossPlanner

It's time for episode number 238, and we are going to dive into four ways you can maximize your day planner. 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 Alt from the Boutique Hub, and I can't wait to chat. Hey, guys. Welcome back to this week's episode. And I'm so excited this week to talk about a project that our team has really taken on in the last year. And it's blown up in such a good way and it's been so beneficial to many of you, but at the same time, it's brought a lot of questions to our team, and that is talking about the Boutique Boss Planner. So let me start here. I don't know about you guys, But I am 100% a planner nerd. I have had every planner under the sun. Everything from the cheap $12 planner, from Target to the start planner to the planners now from create and cultivate. I love the inspiring bright colors and the messages and the quotes and the organization of it all. And despite how much I love to use things like Google Calendar and Trello and any type of online planning tool, there's still something that is still so real for me about the chemicals released in your brain when you physically cross off an item on your to do list. Like, the act of writing something down in my planner solidifies it in my brain so much more. And then physically crossing it off gives me that sense of pride and accomplishment. And like, I actually did something with my day. So I was so excited when our team, over a year ago now, I guess, came up with this idea that we should create a boutique planner or a day planner just for boutique owners. Because as much as we looked around the market, there really isn't a planner specific to retail number one. But really there isn't one specific to small business owners in general. A lot of them are very generic in terms of life, planning and goals, but nothing really sits down and gets to the meat of what grows your business. And that's inventory, social media, tracking, you know, true business goals, and then checklists that accompany all that, whether it's daily, weekly, quarterly, all the little reminders of the things that we need to get done in our business. Hence a planner. Get the Things done right that remind us at the right place at the right time. So that was the mission. And I have to give serious props to two people on our team who literally made this happen. Number one is Sarah Burks, who you guys know as the Director of Partnerships and Education on our team. Former boutique owner, had a business that she bought when she was in her 20s, early 20s. The business was in existence for 67 years. Is that crazy? And she was the owner of that business for over 20 of those years. So once they took that business a different direction, she was able to join us at the Hub and take all of that knowledge, all of the ups and downs and that experience and put it into educational tools for you guys. So she ran so many of the reports for the Planner and built so many of the tools, the things that she used daily in her own open to buy planning that she knew you guys could use too. So thank you so much to Sarah Burks for this brainchild. Second is Jessie Jarvis on our team. If you don't know Jesse, she is one spunky ray of light. Let me tell you that. She is so creative and has a lot of experience with publishing and running large projects. So she really was the business brains behind the Planner and worked with our designer and our manufacturers and printers to get all of this put together, all of the layouts and all the tedious work that you wouldn't think goes into a project like this that does and takes forever in a day. She has the patience of a saint. So a huge thank you to Jesse Jarvis for making this possible and to our entire team. Everyone on our team literally has had a hand in creating the Boutique Boss Planner. From our web developers, to Kate, our graphic designer, to Beth who worked with and Kelly who worked with all of the sponsors, to Ed who worked on all of the market dates, literally everyone on our team had such a hand in making this a reality. And I mean, from a leadership perspective, Eric and I could not be more proud of our team and the way they put this together. So if you've already had the opportunity to land a Boutique Boss Planner in your hands, I hope you love it. I hope you know that Blood, Sweat and Tears will literally went into the Planner. And I hope that you can see all the tools that we were trying to pull together in one place to help you grow your business and to create the best 2020 yet. Now I know this is just the beginning. We launched the Planner in a six month version after the summit in 2019. So a lot of you are just finishing up Your year with your six month planner, and we'll start January off with your 2020 planner. So let me ask you this. If you have a planner and you ever have any suggestions or ideas or things that you found helpful or maybe things that weren't in the planner that could have been, please let us know. This is a project for us that's only going to continue to evolve and grow. There'll be different designs and different layouts and different covers and different binding and different paper and all the things that come along with a print project. But most important to us is the content. And that it's easy for you to use. It makes sense. It's something you're excited about working with on a daily basis because you truly have to be committed to growing your business on a daily basis to get in there and run the numbers and make the reports work. But we would love your feedback along the way so we can continue to make it even better. So with that, I know you guys have had lots of questions about the planner. So I wanted to dive in today to three ways that you can use your planner more efficiently to get more done and to start the new decade off right. The new decade. That sounds kind of crazy, doesn't it? I love the way 2020 sounds, but new decade makes me. Makes me feel. I won't say old, I'll say wise. Makes me feel wise. All right, let's talk about these three tips right away. Number one, one hack that I have used for a long time with many planners that we tried to make easy inside of this planner is to sit down and create a daily date with the numbers and your own commitment to tracking. Right? So I know that so many people have this feedback with planners. Like sometimes you're into it, sometimes you forget about it, sometimes you're not committed. Like you're in and out with wanting to use a day planner. And I think that comes from having a day planner that isn't really designed for you and what you're doing. It's just generic. So I hope that this planner is different in the sense that there are forms and sheets and tracking that are asking you to show up daily, to commit to those numbers, that hopefully inspire you and motivate you to make this a habit where every single day at a certain same time of the day, you sit down and you are committed to using that planner because that's how you're going to be able to see the measurable growth over a period of time. So a couple of ways that you can do that three Things that I do every single day that help me maintain that daily commitment. Number one is each morning when I sit down, I take the first, I'll say 30 to 45 minutes of my day and it's about setting myself up for success. It's not about diving into my emails, my Slack messages, my Facebook messages. That absolutely cannot be my first priority in the day because it's a black hole. And I don't know if you've heard this saying, but an email inbox is a holding place for other people's agendas. Let me repeat. An inbox is a holding place for other people's agendas. So anytime you want to start your day off in the most efficient way possible, you have to start with your agenda first. So for me, what that looks like is I sit down every day ahead of my day. It's usually we've kind of made some changes in our family and I'm so grateful to Eric for this because he has a schedule where he takes the kids to school in the morning and that allows me some quiet time to have my coffee and to like get my day set up right. So I sit down with my planner, I review my schedule for the day ahead. And this is after I do some journaling and I do gratitude journaling every morning. I'll tell you about that more in a minute. Then I sit down again with my planner. I look at my schedule for the day. There's always one question I ask myself, and this is going to sound self serving, but I really hope that you ask yourself this question too. If I look at my schedule, I always ask, is there something I can eliminate? Is there something I can eliminate? Because I don't know if it's just us as women or this habit that we've gotten into in terms of serving everyone else before ourselves, but we're really good at saying yes to everything. Oh yes, I'll have that meeting, right? Oh yes, I'll do this. Oh yes, I'll get that extra project done. Oh, you don't have time for that. I'll take it on. Right. We're so good at saying yes to everyone else, but at some point, if we are actually going to have tiger time, as we call it, to get our own crap done for the day, there's got to be time in the schedule. So what on your schedule can you eliminate? I do this every morning, but also usually on Sunday nights or early Monday mornings when I'm looking at the full week ahead. I usually try to pick like one meeting or one project or something that I can eliminate. And I truly feel better about eliminating that thing or even pushing it off for a week because it means more space in my schedule, more free time's opened up, and I physically feel better for doing that. So, guys, learn to say no and look for that one thing every day that you can eliminate that gives you more time to be a boss and to run your business. After I look at my schedule and I ask myself that question, then I go into, what are my three biggest rocks for the day? And you've probably heard me talk about this before, but if you have never read Mary Kay Ash's bio, her book from the Mary Kay Makeup Company, I still think she's one of the most brilliant business women of our of any time, of all time. And she was certainly ahead of her time. Now, she always said that she only put three big rocks on her schedule every day because at the end of the day, she wanted to lead with a sense of accomplishment, like she got something done and she felt good about what she did that day. Rather than Our typical add 5,000 things to the to do list, cross off one or two, and then look at our running to do list and feel totally defeated. Like, you didn't get enough done. You're always kind of in that state of lack, right? Or you just didn't quite measure up. You just couldn't quite get there. It's. It's in a negative state. It physically and mentally puts us in a negative state when we cannot accomplish what's been on our list for the day. So you set the bar at three big rocks, and now this is big rocks. This isn't I answered three emails or the little pebbles of sand that fill our to do list. This is the big rocks that the 20 that gets us 80% of the way to our goal, right? So what are those three big things? So that at the end of the day I can cross them off, I feel good about it. And if I have more time, if I have more tiger time and I can work ahead, then I can start to look at what's on my later list, what's on my trello board. But my planner only has three big rocks for that day. And I can smile at the end of the day once those things are done. Now, the other thing I do once I go through my schedule and my big rocks, as I mentioned, is I focus on gratitude, because I believe that starting every single day in a state of gratitude only brings us more to be grateful for. So there's two ways that I Look at gratitude. Excuse me. Number one is I look at gratitude in present tense, and I look at gratitude in future tense. So present tense to me is, I am so grateful for my health, which, if you know my story and some of the health challenges I've had being a cancer survivor, that is and forever will be number one on my list. Thank you. I'm grateful for my health. I'm grateful for my family's health. I'm grateful for my happy, healthy children. I'm grateful for my husband. I'm grateful for my marriage. All of the things that are in present tense. And then I start to look at what can I be grateful for in future tense, Meaning what's on my vision board, where am I going? Where do I want to go? And how can I state that in present tense? Gratitude. So that might be. I'm so grateful that I have this sense of peace and accomplishment at the end of every day. I'm so grateful that I'm meeting and exceeding my sales goals. I am so thankful for my cohesive team. I'm so thankful for the new marketing person I know that I'm about to hire. Right? Whatever it is that you feel like is coming or you're working into, start to express gratitude for that now in present tense, each and every day. Because it puts. Puts us in that position of being rather than the position of lack. Like, I'm not there yet. Right? There's always that position of being versus lack in our language every day, right? It's just like saying the word need versus I am so or I'm committed to, so I need to start working out. Doesn't that word need just sound needy? Like, right, I need to start working out. Puts me in this state of I'm not there yet. I'm not good enough yet. I need to. But I can't do it. It's negative. Rather than I'm committed to working out, right? I'm going to. I own this. I am working out and celebrating those small wins along the way. So think about gratitude in terms of present tense, and it's positive. It's not in a state of neglect or a state of lack. So that's number one. That is how I review my morning and use the planner each and every morning. Number two, after each task is completed for the day, again, that's the sense of gratitude and crossing it off. Like, you have to take a moment to actually enjoy the gratitude, right? You have to let the gratitude sink in and not just cross it off and run to the next thing. Because as entrepreneurs, do you ever feel like this? Like you set a big goal for yourself and let's say it's, you know, to sell a half a million dollars in your store this year or to sell a million dollars in your store this year, and you have looked forward to this goal for so long, right? You have worked and worked and worked, and then you get there and you accomplish it and then you're like, oh, well, okay, that's great, but now what? And you're immediately off to the next thing. Eric and I just had this conversation the other day about what it meant to pay our house off, what a big, big deal it was to pay our house off, and how we remember the day that we did it because we did it together, but we didn't take enough time to actually celebrate it, right? To really show gratitude for that moment. So showing gratitude in those moments, I mean, it can be as big as paying your house off or meeting that million dollar goal or whatever it is that you have set aside. It can be as small as simply crossing off a task on your to do list and feeling a state of gratitude. Because the more you live in a state of gratitude, again, the more you are going to attract things to be grateful for in your life. The next thing I would say, you know, kind of as it comes to setting up your morning and making sure you celebrate those tasks is making sure you set yourself up with your planner with enough time to actually get things done. You've probably heard me talk about time blocking, and I won't go into detail today because we're going to have much more time to talk about that in our best year yet challenge, which will start January 1st in the boutique Hub. And it's something we've already kind of coached on in Retail bootcamp and in our training library. But if you're running time blocking, making sure you set your day planner up each morning with time for you to work on those big rocks that you were going to cross off at the end of the day. I call it tiger time. So making sure in the morning, I know I am most efficient, I'll say in the first two hours of the day. So from 8 or 8:30 to 10 or 10:30, like, that's my time when I never schedule a meeting with anyone, no matter how important it is. And I don't look at emails in that time. I may look at it if there's something like critical for a second or I'll make a note of it. Or maybe it's a Facebook post that I just needed to respond to a message super quick that couldn't be done later. But it is no more than five or ten minutes in my tiger time that morning. Instead, tiger time is what is the big rock on my list that I need to get accomplished immediately after that ends for me. So at 10:30, now I go into my emails, or now I go into my messages, or now I go back and start interacting on social media, that I have to give myself that time to get the big rocks done first, when I know I'm most efficient, if I'm going to schedule meetings with someone during the day and maybe this is you with photo shoots or vendor calls or again, any meetings that you have, interviews that you're going to host. To me, that is something that always comes at the end of the day because we need to save our best brain power for those big rocks that we're working on that are really going to move the needle in our business. So time block those to be the first thing you work on in the morning and not your inboxes and social media and not all the busy work that is other people's agendas. The third thing is that I do each and every day with my day planner. That I think you're gonna find useful with the Boutique Bus planner is I wrap up my day by creating a new list for tomorrow. So I look ahead at tomorrow's schedule. I look ahead at what my three rocks are for tomorrow based on what I did or didn't get accomplished today. And then I write down my done list and again my gratitude list. So what did I do today? I rewrite them. Like check, check, check. I did these things and I am so grateful for blank today. I usually choose one thing today. I'm so grateful that this went well or that I got this message or that I spoke to this person or that the team did this or the team, you know, accomplished this. There's always something that I want to end my day in gratitude for because I feel like it's a good way to close out, you know, those hours of my day when I'm working Ashley, when I'm CEO Ashley, versus when I transition to go get the kids. And now I'm the basketball coach, or now I'm the mom, or now I'm cooking dinner. Right? It's just like a clean cut end of the day. So those are three things I do each and every day with my planner that might be helpful for you and your day planner or if you're using the boutique boss planner. The second thing I want to talk to you about in terms of getting the most out of your boutique boss planner. And bear with me, guys, this is where Sarah and I probably get the most questions. And this is where the majority of boutique owners really want to put their head in the sand. Okay, I'm not going to let you put your head in the sand anymore. And that is the boutique boss planner is going to help you get familiar with your numbers and with your reports. All right, I know we get questions. Where do I find this report? Or where do I find this number? Or what do I do with this number? That's okay. We want you to get familiar with it. We want you to get in the habit with it. It's important that you have a daily and a weekly and a monthly date with your numbers. And because have you heard this only attract number grows. Guys, if you have an opportunity to do this, grab a notebook or grab a post it note and please write this in big black Sharpies and put it on your desk or your computer. Only attract number grows because I want you to be so motivated to look at what's happening in your business and not feel like you've got shoebox accounting where things are happening, but you just don't understand why. You just know you've got all the pretty things in the store, but you don't know how much money they're making you. And you're probably, you know, if that's the case, you're probably at a point where you're not able to pay yourself what you'd really like to pay yourself at the end of the month. So only attract number grows. So here's a couple of ways the boutique boss planner really dives deep into that. There is a yearly tracking sheet and there's two monthly tracking sheets inside. The yearly tracking sheet is going to help you analyze your percentage growth year over year. So you're going to look at what were your sales for the last couple of years, what was your inventory on hand, what was your turn rate? Truly, how are you operating your business more efficiently today than you were then? That's going to help contribute to your overall bottom line. Now there's two monthly tracking sheets that are going to look at things just a little bit differently. One is strictly numbers based. So what's my sales this month over last month or over this month last year? What were my sales per category? What were my sales per vendor? What's my highest ROI category? What's my turn rates? And really, you know, going back to roi, what's the ROI Based on fact. Not just like the feeling of what I think is selling, but what is actually selling in your business. So that report is going to ask you to truly look in your actual inventory numbers. It's going to ask for BOM and EOM inventory, which is beginning of month and end of month. Now, if you don't have a tool to help you track inventory, it's time to get one. So that's a point of sale, a true point of sale system. There's a number that we work with at the Hub that I could recommend to you. They're all listed on our website. I love Shopify. You guys know I love Shopify, But Shopify Point of sale alone does not have the reports that you're looking for. It does not track actual inventory. And not tracking actual inventory would be like being a farmer, let's say a dairy farmer, because I'm in Wisconsin. That'd be like being a dairy farmer and not knowing how many cows you have and not knowing which of your cows are producing the most milk. You're just, you know, running the herd. In twice a day, you're getting the milk you can and you're sending it on down the line. But an efficient dairy farmer knows what cows he has. He knows which cows are producing milk. He is breeding those genetics into his herd, right? So he's getting more solid producers and he's milking them strategically at key times of the day where he knows he's going to get the most milk. I didn't even grow up on a dairy farm, you guys. I just lived in Wisconsin. I grew up on a beef cattle ranch. Like, I could talk to you about Angus cattle. I don't know anything about dairy cattle, but those same things seem fairly obvious to me. Right. I could talk to you more about, like, birth weights and average daily gain. Those of you who didn't grow up on a ranch probably think I'm speaking German, so I'll move on. The point is, I really want you guys to track your inventory in a much more detailed manner. So if you are on Shopify or you're on Square or something that you know is a great starter package, I want you to start exploring how can you get apps and tools that are going to help you truly get the numbers you need. Shopventory is a great one for Shopify. Delirious Profit a great one for Shopify. If you want to look at, like, Open to Buy planning, Inventory Planner is an app you can get on Shopify. Plus we work with management, one that helps with that there's so many great tools out there to help you really look at your inventory numbers. And if anything, I hope the day planner, the Boutique Boss Planner is a great way for you to just open your eyes to man, how much inventory do I really have on hand? What have I been ordering? What's my goals for the next month? And is this inventory sufficient? Now the bonus of what's going to come along with using those apps in your business is now you're going to have a better look at is my inventory fresh or is my inventory aged? So I can look at my beginning of month inventory all year long, but how much of that is fresh? Like how much of that is actually going to turn or how much of it do I need to look at marking down because it's been on hand for a while. So those things all come from that month over month report inside of the Boutique Boss Planner. Now, besides just inventory, the other thing that those reports look at is your social media. So how much did the really important metrics grow in my social media this month? And by really important metrics, spoiler alert, I do not mean Facebook or Instagram page likes. I don't mean follower counts. That is not the metric that's going to get you there. But I'm talking about lists that you can manage. So what were my app downloads? What were my website page views? What's my email list growth rate? What's my text list growth rate? What are my average conversion rates this month? Those are the numbers that we really want to be tracking. So all of that is included month over month and then at the end, like in a summary of each and every month inside of the planner. All right, third way that you can get more out of your Boutique Boss Planner. And we have seen so many of you do this. I'm so thankful that you are a step ahead of the game here and that is to involve your team. There's one store in particular, the Mustard Seed. I've got to give you guys a serious shout out. You are in my almost hometown currently, which is Eau Claire, Wisconsin. I live in Chippewa, which is, you know, basically connected. But the Mustard Seed went and they bought, I think like four planners. So the owner, the owner's wife and then the managers all have their own planner because they can go through, they can track their own day, they can work together as a team to track sales and all of the growth. Everyone is responsible for a little bit different piece of the pie in that business. So they all can look at their piece of the pie and then come together in their team meetings and really compare notes. So the other way I think, you know, it's really exciting for you to involve your team with a planner is going back to the weekly and the quarterly and the annual checklist that's in the planner. Rather than you as an owner feeling like you have to micromanage your team and you've always got to be giving them tasks and telling them what to do next. The planner has all that laid out for them. Now, it's not going to be everything for your business, but it's going to give them a number of things that they could be working on in the downtime. When you haven't given them a specific project, they can look at the planner and go, oh wow, I really should go update all of our passwords because it's once a quarter. Or I should really go be working on following up with these key vendors because of this one report. It's a number of things that are in there that your team can be empowered to take action on without you having to breathe down their neck and tell them what to do. So empower your team by involving the planner in your team meetings. Last thing I just want to quickly mention, those are three great ways to utilize the planner. The fourth and final way is just to look at that month in review and to take time to make that date with your planner at the end of every single month. Now, I've been guilty of this with my planners. I'll be honest where I go through. I use it every day, I use it to start the week, I use it to end the week. But to get the most out of it, you have to be committed to take, I'll say, a good hour to an hour and a half at the end of every month, or let's say the beginning of every month so you can look at the month prior and compile all of your numbers. Because every single month has a month in review. It goes through and it asks you things, you guys, that seem like such no brainers, like the weather or right, the weather in your planner or events or your best performing team members or your top customers, promotions that work really well. All the things that when you get a year down the road and you're like, gosh, what did I run this time last year and did it work or was it a flop? And if it was a flop, why was it a flop? Your planner, what you track today right now, what you note right now is going to 100% impact you 12 months from now. So take that time to do your year. I'm sorry, your month in review where you're really looking at the details of your business and the notes that you want to make for yourself to remember a year from now because that's where you're going to see the most fruit. Only attract number grows, right? We can't bury our heads in the sand any longer. Only attract number grows. And if it's overwhelming, that's okay. Think about every successful business owner you know, right? Think about the sharks on Shark Tank. Think about some of the big boutiques that you follow. Any business owner that we see as successful is probably not successful just because they're great at marketing, right? If they're truly successful and have built wealth and have been able to pay themselves, it's because they have been committed to also making a date with their numbers. And if it's a big boutique that's successful and they've got all kinds of followers but aren't paying themselves, guys, that's called smoke and mirrors. And you don't want to be that. Right? You want to be successful. Because, yes, you've built a great business. It impacts lots of people. Of course the marketing is spot on, but the back end of the business is what makes it sustainable for the long term. And that's your numbers. And only attract number grows. So, guys, there you have it. I hope you love your 2020 boutique boss planner. If you haven't had a chance to grab one yet, I will link it up in the show notes for you. It's all over our website and social media, but be sure to check out our new Instagram page. It's outiquebossplanner on the gram. We've been highlighting so many of your photos, so thank you so much for sharing those with us. And we also will be running giveaways all year long once a month. For those of you who continue to fill out your planner, you're committed to it and you show us on hashtag Boutique Boss Planner. So guys, I hope you have a wonderful week ahead. Cheers to 2020. And I know that you are going to crush it using your Boutique Boss Planner. Hey guys, I hope you loved this short and sweet episode all about maximizing your Boutique Boss Planner today. But you know what? I know today as the episode airs, it is Christmas Eve and so I want to take this time to also wish you a very Merry Christmas. I hope that you have some time off that you celebrate the season and the busiest time of the year with some rest and family, friends, some food and some R and R of just gratitude. You guys, we've got so many things coming over the next couple of weeks as you start to shift your focus into a brand new year, including an amazing episode next week on the podcast that I hope you listen to. So many of you actually joined me in helping create this episode by sharing messages of gratitude for one another. So you just might hear your name mentioned on next week's podcast. But also I want to mention we are getting close to kicking off the 2020 best year yet Challenge. If you've never taken part in our challenge, it is our big challenge that we do to kick off the start of every year to make sure that you're starting the year right with the best year yet. There's a couple of past challenges inside of our training library at the Hub, but we have five weeks of live training PL downloads plus videos like a mini business course coming to you starting on January 2nd. So guys, stay tuned. I hope you take part in the Best Year Yet Challenges. Watch your Facebook group notifications and watch your emails so you know how to take part. But Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year. 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. Sam.