#307: How to Maximize the Viral Potential of Your Content

Hey, guys, it's episode number 307 with my friend Angela Smith from Off the Racks 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.

Way back, way, way back in the.

Early boutiques coming on Facebook days, I remember meeting Angela Smith when we very first started the Boutique Hub. She had founded this awesome boutique in the Carolinas called Off the Racks Boutique. Now, one of the first things I remember about meeting Angela. Well, two things, actually. Number one, she had this coral anchor tank top go viral on Pinterest. She was one of the first boutiques I remember going viral. And this tank top was everywhere. It had a little turquoise bow in the back, if you remember. It literally was everywhere. And I remember her sharing her experience of what that was like and how it started to build her boutique both in person and online during that period of time. Now, the other thing I remember about Angela is one of the very first times we ever got boutique owners together in person was we had this private little dinner during Magic in Vegas in, I'm just going to call it a dive hotel because we booked it online and we'd never been there before. But the cool part about this hotel was there was this little tiny bar inside of the hotel that's probably one of the best hidden gems in Las Vegas. It has this really cool 1920s vibe.

In this dark little dining room.

And although these boutique owners had no idea where they were going, they were just going to meet up with this new group of gals they found called the Boutique Hub. It turned out to be a really cool experience. And meeting Angela and her husband and hearing their story and their journey in business was really inspiring at that time. And now to see how far she's come and grown and how she inspires others in our industry as well and is pretty remarkable. Guys, get ready to meet Angela Smith, the founder of off the Racks Boutique, a long time Hub member and a serious businesswoman. You're gonna love this episode.

All right, guys, it's like old home week on today's podcast. I'm pretty sure, because Angela Smith from Off the Racks Boutiques, you've been in the Hub since day one. Kudos I think that's pretty cool. And you guys, I have to tell you this story about the first time I met Angela. We were having this very first meetup. We'd never done a meetup before at the Hub, and it was in Vegas. Angela, you remember all of this?

Oh, yeah.

And we had this meetup. There was maybe 15 of us. Do you think? I loved it.

I like small.

I enjoyed it, really. Did you? When we planned this meetup, it was in. I don't even remember the name of the hotel, but when you drive by it, it kind of looks sketchy. Like you're kind of wondering who stays at this hotel when they're in Vegas.

So funny story. We still go eat there every time we go to Vegas because we love the food. It was called the Barrymore was the restaurant. And it's inside of a hotel.

Yeah. When you got inside. So the hotel looked weird. Weird. I don't know. That's a general term. But then when you go in, the Barrymore was so cool. It's like this glam. Yeah, like glam 20s vibe, kind of a hidden gem. So you and your husband were at this very first meetup that we had, and I was just laughing, thinking about, man, if you and I both knew then what we know now, how far your business has come, how it's changed, how much the Hub has changed since then, man, it's amazing. So thank you for being on this journey since day one. That's so cool.

Oh, I have enjoyed every minute. I love watching you grow, just like you love watching all the rest of us grow.

For sure, man, I. So take me back to that time. How long were you in business when we very first met and what was your business like at that point?

Do you remember what year that was?

2016, maybe.

So I was just one year into.

Opening a storefront that I thought was.

Just going to be so amazing. Having a storefront. That was like my dream to have a storefront. So I was probably one year into that and really looking back at my business. It was so small, but I thought, oh, it's so great. Every. I mean, every part of my journey, I'm always like, we're the best. We're number one. I'm so competitive. So my goal for the. My daily goal was just, like, so.

Small back then compared to what it takes to run our business today.

Yeah. Amazing how that. That goes. Tell everyone where you're. Where you're from and where your storefront was at, and then now how it's. How it's changed. Like, give me the then and now version of what your business is like.

So I'm from a super small town in North Carolina called Eastover, but we're right outside of Fayetteville, which is near.

A big military, pretty big military base.

So it's kind of just a melting.

Pot of people around.

But we're in a super small town. And when I opened my storefront, they were really excited to have somewhere to shop. I mean, there's nowhere to shop in the town, really.

Yeah. So you had your storefront. How long did you have your storefront open?

Just from 2015. I think it was like October. I opened just in time for Christmas. I think I opened right after Black Friday because I had Black Friday planned. And so before this I was in the bonus room of my house. So I had my Black Friday planned and I was like, well, I don't know how I would have in store shoppers and online shoppers. So we'll just wait until after Black Friday to open. So I was open for that Christmas season in 2015.

And when did you decide to close your storefront and why?

So I closed my storefront because of coronavirus and I was super scared. I had one employee, one full time and one part time. I've always worked with minimal staff and then my family helps. So my one full time girl, I thought that she would want to bring her daughter to work with her because a lot of the daycares were closing and I was like, well, we'll just close. And it was ahead of the governor's orders. I was like, we'll just close to the public and we'll just go to online. It was scary.

And you've always been, I mean, you had an online presence. I feel like when I met you and that's just continued to grow. How has that evolved?

Well, it really, it might seem like it's continued to grow, but honestly there's been just like a lot of up and down years. So when I first started this business, I was actually in business with a partner and we did fairly well together, but we just had different ideas. So she, she didn't want anyone to know who really owned the business. But I wanted to really make relationships with people. And I really think that's like the.

Number one thing for growing a business is the relationships you make with the customers.

You know, I hate to even call them customers because especially the people in store here. And I was able to build. I'm not from this small town, so I'm actually from another small town. A few miles away. So a lot of these people in this town, they did not know me until I opened my business here. And we're still operating in the storefront.

It's just close to the public.

Yeah. So. And I want to talk more about that in just a minute. But thinking about that online. So did you. You parted ways with your partner, and then you were able to kind of build your online business in the way that felt right to you, build a community around it, Right?

Yeah, I think I probably didn't do that right at first, but probably not within the first year. I think once Facebook groups was a thing, then that was really the easiest.

Way you can build a relationship is.

Through the groups and not the business pages. Just kind of, you know, more the face of your company, more professional, I guess. But in the group, you can really let people get to know you. But one thing about me is I'm not really. Even though I say I want to build relationships with my customers and that is important, I'm still a very private person. So it was kind of hard for me to come out of that shell at first, but I realized when I.

Did, my business didn't grow.

Yeah. People wanted to know who they were doing business with, right?

Exactly. Yeah.

People this day and age, they want to support. They want to know what they're supporting. And not just like big corporations. I think people are starting to realize.

How important it is to shop small.

Yeah. I feel like this fall or the fall of 2020, I guess, when you're listening to this, has been a huge turning point. Like, more than ever, society is understanding what it means to shop small.

True. And a lot of these big box places are going out of business.

When you got started online, you started with a Shopify site, correct?

No, actually, we're on BigCommerce, and I've.

Always had that BigCommerce site. I still have it to this day. I actually love it.

That's awesome to know. So tell me about this. You were on BigCommerce and then you got into comments sold as well. Are you still on both platforms?

I am. So comment sold doesn't really integrate with BigCommerce at this moment, but it works good enough for us. But they are working on a.

What do you call it?

An integration.

An integration, yeah. So they're working on an integration right.

Now with BigCommerce, like a legit one.

That really works with the API connection. But I've never really had any issues that were huge. Maybe one month, I think just a few months Ago, we had an issue where our photos weren't showing up properly, but that it was just a connection issue.

So nothing.

So as you're thinking about when you closed your storefront, you know, really because of Corona at the beginning, and you were like, man, now I've got to make the shift to online. And your storefront's been your bread and butter for so long.

How.

I mean, mentally, that had to be pretty scary, right? At first.

So I just thought of this. So the very first thing I did was me and my daughter came into the storefront, set up a live video, and started clearing out stuff. I was like, if this goes down bad in a bad way, you know, I don't want to be stuck with all this inventory. So I clearanced out a lot of stuff, and I was scared. I was like, where am I going to get inventory? There's, like, a local bus that comes around, and they'll sell inventory. It's like a. It's a local vendor to North Carolina, and she drives around, and she was really one of my saving graces, because she would come here and I could get the inventory pretty fast. But it was a lot of basics.

But still, I mean, I was just glad to have it.

Yeah. Help you through that time.

But, yeah, there was definitely. It was scary, but it was fine. And then one great thing that happened was Barry G. Shoes. He found me somehow, and I had not been selling shoes for a while because it. It really didn't go well for me. So Steve from Barry G. Was like, I want to come visit you and show you our shoe line. And I was like, okay, you can come, but I really don't sell shoes. And he came and I bought a few cases of shoes. And I remember one pair of shoes, the cow.

He.

He brought them out, and it was a cow shoe. And I said, are you kidding me?

This is ridiculous.

The shoe is ridiculous. So I posted a picture of it in my group, and they went crazy. And we literally sold over a thousand.

Pairs of that shoe.

Oh, my gosh. And he's. If anyone doesn't know Steve and doesn't know very g. What a great brand, what a great group of people they are.

They are.

They would do anything to help you. And I'm just so thankful that I've tried. He kind of coaxed me into trying shoes again because, I mean, it just really helped amplify. Like, it really helped us grow this year. I mean, we have grown this year, even though I was skipping, scared that we wouldn't do well at all.

We have grown so much this year.

So when did that start to take off for you? You, you did the live, you took on the shoes. Like how did you start to realize, okay, moving myself really to solely rely on online. This is going to work for me and this is going to be the future for me.

I think when I took my focus off like a store and making it pretty because remember, I don't have a lot of staff. Like I'm not really doing this the right way. I don't have a lot of staff because I don't really trust a lot of people. I have, I have one employee that works super hard and then my mom and then I have a part time employee and then me. I work day and night. I'm not, don't do what I do. I'm not doing it the right way. But I think if I had more.

Help, we could grow more for sure once we get the space.

But I don't know, it's such a blur. I mean stuff we were selling face masks. We were just, I think I just tried to pivot and try to carry items that I thought people needed. Like I brought in Naked Bee, which is like a body bath and body line. And people just were having a hard time getting stuff from the store so they would just order it online.

Yeah. So I'm thinking back about your time. I remember when I first met you, one of the things that happened is you had this tank top go viral. The tank top. Talk to me about what that experience was like to have a product online go completely viral. And that had to be a pretty big catalyst for your online sales as well, right?

Yeah. So we were still, I was still in my bonus room at that time. And I remember I would like, I had to pre sell them because they were selling faster than I could get them. And then I only had one business card. And you know you have like a daily maximum. So the vendor would call me and they would charge my card and it would be maxed out for the day and I'd be like, well, you have.

To charge it over a few days.

It was insane.

I mean I went from. It's crazy to even think about because my husband and I, when we first met, we literally had nothing. Like we used to count change to go on a date or to like buy food. And I would. My mom, she would always help me, but I never wanted to ask her for help. So we just struggled. And then we had our first child and I mean we were pretty broke. Pretty broke. Not saying that we're rich by any means, but we live a lot more comfortably now than when we did back then. So it's really kind of wild to think about it. I remember, I think my camera broke during the time that those shirts were viral.

And.

And my husband told me, like, you don't need to run out and buy another camera. And my mom was like, dude, she's got money coming in every day. She's good to buy a camera. I was like, I can't function without a camera. Yeah, yeah. My, like, SD card slot broke.

And my husband was like, trying to.

Tell me, you know, don't just run out and buy a camera. And I'm like, we need a camera for the business.

It was wild.

I mean, I literally remember sitting in my bonus room, and when those boxes would come in, we would have to haul them up the stairs. And my whole family would come over, like my grandma, my cousin, my aunt.

And we would all pack these orders.

Oh, my goodness. And it just to kind of give everyone the story. I mean, you've probably seen this. If you followed boutiques back in the day, it was like this anchor on this coral shirt. With a bow on the back. Yeah, with a bowl in the back. And it happened on Pinterest. Right?

Pinterest. Facebook. I love when things go viral on Facebook like those shoes, because then I'll run an ad. Now, back then with the anchor tank top, I had no clue about ads, but if something gets a lot of attention organically, I'll run an ad on it.

And that's how we blew through all those shoes from Very G. Talk to.

Me more about that. What else would you do now if something goes viral?

Oh, so with the shoes, I thought, man, I'm just giving away all my secrets. But so with Comet sold, you can wait list things. So we have an app and I posted the shoes and then I ran an ad and I was like, these shoes are coming soon. Get on the wait list. Authorize your wait list. And I ran an ad and I got so many app downloads. And then when the shoes were ready to ship, I didn't pre sell them, but when they were like ready to ship to me, I released them all and they charged all those cards. And so I had sold over half.

Of what I ordered just in 24 hours.

Yeah, makes a huge difference. Did you run an ad to a specific audience? Cold audience, warm audience?

I do like a little mixture of both, but I like to take my comments sold customers and use the. The value base and then make kind of like a broad so you might do 2% look alike. I did like 8 or 10% look alike. So it was a. I was trying to gain new customers because I knew everybody liked these shoes. So if we send them these shoes and they're good quality shoes, then, and they get this first order from us, then we might have a lifetime customer.

Yeah, man. It's amazing what one viral product can do. I had a. It was a western store in boutique boot camp one time, and it was when these twisted X shoes, which Angela's totally not your boutique style, this is like another end of the spectrum. But they went viral, kind of like those shoes did. And they started to run ads to them, just like you're talking about. And they sold an entire container full of these.

Good for them.

It was unbelievable. So I think, like, to your point, you've got to look and see and test the waters. What, what works organically for you, and then that's what you spend your money on rather than just like picking and choosing products before they're a hit to put Facebook ads on them. Would you agree?

Right?

Yeah.

So if I have something and it gets a lot of attention, then I.

Definitely pour a lot of AD$.

And I still do all my ads myself. I totally geek out on ads. I love them. I love that.

I. I think I get those questions almost every day. Hey, do you think I can learn ads myself or do I have to hire this out? Because it can feel overwhelming to people from the very beginning. How did you start to learn ads in the first place? To geek out on them now just.

Oh, just a whole lot of trial and error. So, I mean, you do waste money sometimes, but just trying things. But you, you can also make a lot of money too. So if you see something that's not working, then just stop and try to do something different.

And I just, I mean, I enjoy doing that.

So do you feel like there's a certain ad type that you have to have running all the time?

Yeah.

So I like to do like a recap. So I post our new arrivals every night at 9 o' clock and then I call it a recap ad. I really don't know what the name for it is, but it's just a normal post. And then I'll like let it go overnight and then I turn it into an ad, basically.

Yeah, I, I call them recap posts. Like where it's just basically a post where you add a photo to it.

Yep.

But you're probably adding what, 10 to 15 photos of your new arrival, whatever.

The new Arrivals were. And I try to make that first main photo, like whatever my customers in my group, so they get the app, people get the new arrivals. That's one thing about consistency. So they know they're getting new arrivals every night at 9pm so whatever I thought that they liked the most appealed to them the most, I think will probably appeal to our Facebook page. So I'll try to make that one item. Denim does really good. And shoes, I'll try to make it the bigger.

The very first photo.

Yeah. I'm just trying to think for your guys's reference. If you're listening to this. If you listen to the episode with Eleven Oaks with Elena, she talks a lot about similarly, she loves Facebook ads like you do Angela, and she talks a lot about recap posts. That's something she's done for a long time.

Yes, I listen to that one.

Yeah. So you run that. Do you just run it as a traffic ad then, or what's. What ad type do you use when you run that ad?

There's one I have set up for add to cart and then one I.

Have set up for conversions.

Gotcha. And do you run them to two separate audiences?

The audiences, I don't think they overlap. Again, I'm not, I'm not a expert by any means, but I don't think the audiences overlap.

So I think they are two separate audiences.

Gotcha. So lots of new eyeballs. Do you feel like you've had a lot of growth, like even in followers and new people in your group just from some of that basic ad strategy?

Oh, yeah. So when I post that recap post, I say, like, these are our new arrivals. This is our website. This is our app link for you to download. And then at the bottom I was like, I post, this is our group.

Perfect. So you're kind of getting traffic to all areas just from that one ad type, right?

Yeah.

Yeah. So I know you use the word consistent consistency. And I think that can mean a lot of different things. As you think about consistency and ads or in just, you know, your basic marketing strategy, what does that mean to you?

I just like for the customers to know when something's going to happen. Because, like, if you think about a movie, you're, you know, what time the movie starts so you're going to be.

There at that time.

Well, I think of like my new releases as a production and they need to know when, when to be there to get their hands on it. And I think the more you hype, hype it up, even if you get tired Like, I know we all boutique owners, we get tired of seeing. I even get tired of opening up new boxes. So we get tired of seeing this stuff. But you just have to make it seem like it's the most amazing show that's gonna happen at 9 o' clock at night. And you better be there.

You're gonna miss out.

Yeah, that's so good. It's just like a reality TV show or whatever it is. You're right. People have to know what's coming.

I know Erica from Whiskey Darling.

She's really awesome at doing that.

Yeah.

She's also been on the podcast if anyone wants to listen to her episode, too. You're right. It goes back to not just when you're gonna show up, but your photos too. Like, I go back to. You always had the same model.

I do. It's just a different girl. But I do always use one model. It does help with recognition, but honestly, it's easier for me because I do all the photography. I know you guys are surprised. So when I pull. When something comes in, we pull a small. And so if I had a model that wasn't a small or she was my size, say I'm like a medium or a large.

It just depends.

Imagine when we get to our photo shoot and we have something and it doesn't fit. I just always know this girl is.

Going to be a small.

But I do want to branch out.

Into some other sizes. I just have to get the help I need.

I think when we move to this.

Bigger space, it'll be a lot easier for that.

Yeah. So you've got. Do you feel like your customers become a reflection of who your model is now? Speaking of that, like, if she's a small, then that's what you're really showing up as. Do you feel like your customers are similar?

No, I think sometimes we get stuck with smalls, to be honest. I don't know. No, I think that they think she's. She looks like the girl next door. She's beautiful. She doesn't wear, like, a lot of makeup. And I think they think, oh, if I buy this, then I will look like she does. I don't mean that in a bad way, but I think that looking at her, they're like, oh, if I buy this, then I'll.

I'll be beautiful. Which is what you want your customers.

To feel when they try something on.

I don't know. I think the model is the number one. You might want to cut some of that. Ashley.

I don't know how to say It. How do I say that without being.

I don't know.

I don't think you said anything wrong.

Okay.

I think as I hear what you're saying, she's beautiful. I've seen your model. She's beautiful, but she's relatable, right?

She is relatable.

There's a difference in being relatable and being unachievable in a way that turns people off. So I think that's so important when you're thinking about your model. And even I know you went through a time, and I've seen other people go through this too, where you're going through a changeover in models and you simply have to test. You know, you got to test like, does it work better on a blonde or a brunette or large or a smaller. You know, it's one thing to say I want to bring in a variation of sizes and, and then to do it well, you still have to test within that to see what your customers trust and really react to because it might not be what you think it is. You might be trying to be version of some other boutique that you follow, but really not being true to who you are, to who your customers are.

Right, right. And so it's funny, my current model, it's always good for me to have somebody in college that is available, has some daytime availability because that's obviously when you shoot photos, especially we do outdoor photography and I've tested indoor and I.

Think outdoor really works the best.

And it works good here because our.

Climate is pretty mild here, here.

But yeah, so I do try to find a model that is relatable. I've had one that wasn't and she was beautiful, but she wasn't like the girl next door type. And that's pretty much what I try.

To go for, is somebody just like.

A small town girl. That's. I mean, that's our style of clothing is casual, comfortable. We do carry some clothes for like.

The office, but yeah, that's pretty consistent.

Yeah, I, you know, going back to seven years, you've been doing this right. And you've had ups and downs and you've learned to be consistent. And that all comes from really knowing your customer and knowing your brand. And the, the thing I notice about you is you're the person that will absolutely speak her mind, like to do this. Like, I know that if Angela comments like, there's no BS behind what you're about to say. It is just, it is what it is. And I think that's like, that's a powerful trait Because I'm assuming that allows you to not get caught up in copying, being copied, looking at what other people are doing. Like, it allows you to really stay in your lane because you're so true to who you are. Do you think that's been a positive quality of yours too?

Yeah, it's really funny because some days I know when you, like, think about your personality and who you are, I think, what are people gonna say about me at my funeral? Yeah. And I think that what you just said is probably what most people that actually know me would say about me is, my mom says that I'm no nonsense.

That's what she. Yeah. Yeah.

So, yeah, I don't try to look at. Because I became successful doing what I like to do, so why would I.

Want to be like anybody else?

Oh, that's so good. What would you say to someone who maybe is the opposite personality type as you? Maybe there's someone who. They're a people pleaser. And getting a bad review on Facebook from a customer sucks and it hurts. And it's almost like the. The kind of thing that will stop you dead in your tracks for some people. What advice would you give to them?

I used to be that person. So bad reviews would just keep me awake at night. And really, that's no way to live, because that person's not paying your bills. The people that you are, your customers and the people that you are serving every day that do like you and do like your business and don't have anything bad to say about you, they're probably not going to leave a bad review or a good review. Sorry, not a bad review. A good review. So the people that you're making happy, they're not always going to leave a good review. Mad people leave bad reviews, so you just have to let it go.

Yeah, that's helpful. And remember that it's always worth marketing to 100 true fans versus a thousand followers.

Right? Oh, yeah.

So, I mean, our Facebook page started when Facebook was. It showed up organically on your Timeline. So my Facebook started a long time ago, and we do. We gained a lot of followers, but not really that many of them are active. So a lot of people think our company is larger than what it is.

But it's really not.

There's other businesses that do way more than me and have way less followers.

Than we do, but I think that's.

A good metric to remember. I think about that with the Boutique awards, too. When people are like, I need to have a, you know, all these followers or do giveaways or whatever it is to win. It's not the truth, it's just who's engaged with you. Like what kind of community community do you have? It could take a. You might have a thousand people in your group and still come out ahead.

That's true.

How have you branched? I know Facebook was really your first bread and butter. How have you branched out to Instagram or growing your email list or growing your text list? Like we talked a lot about not putting all of your eggs in one basket. Right. How have you diversified your marketing channels?

Oh, just utilizing all of the above. So we do have a text list and I'll text maybe like once a week. I do notice a ton of traffic.

On the website when we text.

And then I actually hired a former boutique owner to do my email list. Taylor Bennett. You might remember her.

Yeah.

So she does my Instagram and she does our emails and she's wonderful because she knows she really cares and she wants it to grow just as if.

It were her own. So I couldn't ask for anything more.

And she's really good at the Instagram, which I think maybe I might be too old to understand. We use Snapchat too to create hype for new arrivals, but yeah.

And are you on TikTok yet?

I am, but I just am no good at TikTok.

It's like a love hate thing, I think with TikTok up and down. When you think about your email list, how are you utilizing the email list?

Well, the email list is like a pop up now on our website we do segment and, you know, resend emails.

To people that don't open.

But Taylor's really worked hard and got.

The open rate up.

I really don't even have to look at it. It's just done so well since she took over. So that is one thing that I don't do myself anymore. I'm trying to let some of this stuff off my plate.

Yeah, and you've got to, to keep going. You've got. You have two kids.

Two kids, yeah.

Virtual learning right now and dance class.

All the pieces of life. How have you. Do you feel like you've morphed into more of a CEO role of your business? How have you shed some of that responsibility besides hiring Taylor? Like how else do you look at your opportunity to scale now versus what you did before?

I think my opportunity is there, but I'm not personally there because I'm such a micromanager. Like I said, I don't hire a lot of help that I know I can't trust. I like to pay people well to do things and get a lot done.

I don't.

I do need more help, but as of right now, we don't have the space. I think the opportunity for me to kind of slide out and be more of a CEO is probably one thing.

To look forward to in 2021.

Yeah. Let's go back to your space. So when you close your storefront at the beginning of COVID it's turned into your warehouse for your online business. How have you managed? I mean, it's a lot to fit into a small space, right? I know you're looking for a bigger space, but how have you kind of managed that transition? Was there anything that was kind of new and unexpected that you had to work through?

Yeah. So whenever we first closed and sales picked up, we were making a lot of shipping mistakes. So probably a lot of people can relate to this. We were pulling items. Our storefront shared inventory with our website. So we pulled items based on memory.

Of where they were.

They didn't have like a bin number.

Or anything like that.

So my part time girl, she is in college and she's really good at projects. She's been with me for probably three or four years now and she comes and goes just whenever I need her.

I just put her back on payroll.

But she is good at projects. So I was like, look, we're making a lot of mistakes so we need to set this up like a warehouse and we need to name all these locations. So before she got left for to like focus on school, she's in nursing school, so before she left to focus on school more, that is one project.

That she got done.

I'm so thankful because the shipping mistakes are so much less now and it's really easy with comments.

Sold for sure.

BigCommerce is not as easy to not make mistakes, but with the scanning it's.

So easy in the locations.

Yeah. How else have you shaped your back end? Do you feel like in the last year, like have you approached buying differently or even just the data management and inventory management of your business? Do you have a date with your numbers that you're pretty adamant about or what does the retail scientist and you really look like.

Kind of all over the place? I don't think I'm a retail scientist. I just try to replenish what has sold. So if I start tops are number one seller. So I just try to have like a certain number of pieces. Back when the storefront was open, we had all of our clothes on hangers. So I would try to refill the.

Hangers, which is not a very scientific way of doing it, but I mean.

If you're small, like we were then, then.

I mean, we're still small now.

But when you're just starting out, refilling.

Hangers is a good way to forecast, you know, you're buying.

So if you're. You're looking ahead and saying, what are my projected sales in the next month and what actually sold this month.

Right.

Which is kind of the same as looking at hangers. Right. What actually worked.

Yeah.

And you need to make sure you have enough inventory to reach your sales goals. So sometimes I use different strategies. Like, usually in the middle of a season, like in the hot and heavy part, I buy pretty deep. And then in the, in the opening and close of a season, you know, in the middle, I'll buy more weight wide. So I'll buy, like more variety but less quantity.

Yeah. Just to test the waters.

And I. And a lot of times during season change, even when I was just starting out in the season change times, I would try to find really good bargains on items.

I think that really, that really helped.

Just to get more of a margin.

Do you feel like having a good relationship with your vendors, like you have, makes a huge difference in that?

Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah. Even though we. I haven't visited la, so this will be my first time, but I do FaceTime appointments with them and text a lot. I don't like to leave my kids, so I try to keep in touch with text messages and FaceTime appointments.

That's really the best way.

Yeah. So for anyone who's listening, listening today, what would be, like, the one biggest tip you could give to boutique owners today?

Really, just keep going even when you fail. I've had so many failures. It is not all sunshine and rainbows. Don't like, sometimes. I remember the one failure I had, I had to pay a lot of taxes, and I was like, why am I even doing this if I have to pay all these taxes? You know, it kind of makes you want to quit, but never give up.

Really is the number one thing.

Ride out the ups and downs and know that a new day is coming tomorrow.

Yes, for sure.

Just wake up in the morning and put your pants on and.

Try to change it. Perfect. All right. Well, Angela, I always end with this question, and you probably know this on the podcast, but I, you know, you and I both know that your business isn't just about selling anchor tops with bows in the back. Right. It's about people like you said about making women feel beautiful and. And when they buy that piece from you, they go home and they feel beautiful in it. Right. You're changing lives. That's your goal. So when you think about your kids and 30 years down the road and you're sitting on the front porch with your grandkids and you're talking about what off the racks meant to you and the life that you lived, what's the thing that you really want them to remember most about who you are and what you did in your life?

I think the one thing that I want my kids and grandkids to know about me and try to try to do themselves is just to work hard. Because my husband and I, we have worked hard for everything we have, and we don't expect anything to be handed to us. And I think that.

Hard work is.

Just such a good trait for somebody to have.

Yeah, it's a rare trait, I think, for people to have today because we're in the society of instant gratification. Right, Right.

And it is not built overnight.

Yes. Well, Angela, you've been an awesome example of this. Thanks. You know, thanks first of all for jumping on here today and sharing your story with everyone and. And the ups and the downs and everything in between. But thank you for being a Hub member for so long, too. And I mean, all the way back to that first dinner that we had together before the Hub was even anything. You know, you saw the vision and what was being created and community over competition and building relationships with other boutique owners. You've done that so well along the way, and I just want to commend you for that and thank you for being a part of this journey.

Well, thank you so much for creating the Hub. Even though it wasn't what you originally planned to be, it just turned out to be so much more for sure.

Thank you.

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