7 Quick Tips for End of Year
19 Dec 2023 · 35 min
Ashley Alderson walks boutique owners through an end-of-year checklist: cut costs on leases and unused subscriptions, find revenue in unsold inventory and shipping optimization, talk to an accountant about taxes, and decide if you're actually paying yourself enough. She also covers staff appreciation, refreshing your space, and a free challenge starting January 2.
Questions this episode answers
Ashley Alderson (Boutique Hub).
December 19, 2023.
January 2, 3, and 4 (10am Central Time; ~90 minutes per day).
10% of revenue.
Chapters
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. Hey, guys. Welcome back to the podcast. This week it is you and me, and we are wrapping up the end of the year together. This is my favorite time of year. I just have to bring you behind the scenes. So I'm in my office today. If we're friends on Instagram, it's AJ Alderson. I recently went through a whole office overhaul and got rid of a bunch of stuff, cleared out a bunch of stuff, organized a bunch of stuff, totally rearranged some shelving units. I still need a little more lighting. But you guys, it feels so good to be in a clean space at the end of the year. And just the dumbest, littlest, most subtle things, like I brought in a salt lamp in a new diffusion user in here, and those two little things make me feel like I'm working in a spa during the day. And so it's amazing what those tiny little shifts at the end of the year when you organize your space and you feel like you're in a great physical space, how they can put you in a really powerful mental space. So that's what I wanted to hit on today. As we close out this year together, what opportunities do you guys have before you that you can really take advantage of during this time to to close out the year strong in a way that's going to help you start the new year brand new and fresh and in your best space ever. So here's a couple of quick tips today between you and I that I hope you take advantage of to really finish the year strong so you can again start the new year in the best place ever. And before I get started in these tips, I just have to remind you, not only is this my personal favorite time of year, but I feel like it's the time of year where I get to hang out with you guys the most is as well, because the best year yet challenge is coming up and that's January 2nd, 3rd and 4th. It's free. Every year, it's like our whole industry gets together on Zoom and we all collaborate, share ideas, and really dig into what our predictions are going to be for the new year and how we can all capitalize on it together. So I'll send you more information on that at the end of the podcast. The link is in the show notes. Again, it's free. I hope you join us regardless. We're digging into all the tips today anyway, so. So here's the first one someone a long time ago mentioned to me. What got you here may not get you there. What got you here may not get you there. And, boy, that hit me in a lot of big ways. And I've seen over 10 years of business how that's become really true in my life. And so I just want to invite you. The very first thing you do this time of year is something I just walked through literally today with my own personal coach. And it's just asking yourself two questions as you close out the year. Number one, what brings you the most joy? What brings you the most joy out of everything that you get to work on, not have to work on every day? What brings you the most joy? And are you doing those things or are you like me and I accidentally outsourced some of those things or I gave myself a way to do things that were not on that list. So what brings you the most joy? And then what is sucking the most energy? Right? What is not bringing you the joy, but you're finding yourself, you know, elbows deep in every single day. There is things for me that were floating around in my head that I knew I didn't love doing, but I had really never verbalized it or given it a lot of thought or energy or I certainly had never made a list of it in the way that I was forced to today. So for me, this was such a clear. Okay, here's my very clear focuses on what I want to do more of. I came up with four things and here's my very clear. Oh my gosh, somebody else can do this. Yes. Maybe they can't do it how I do it or as well as I can do it or whatever it is, but nevertheless, it's draining me and I need to ask for help in these areas and I gave myself permission to ask for help. So. So that next year I know that I can be more creative. I know I can be more productive. I know I can build a better business when I'm working on the things that are really in my joy spot and that really bring me energy. So that's where I'm ending the year so that I can begin the year in that same way. So definitely focus. Number one, what got you Here may not always get you there. And that leads me into tip number two, because it's very similar. And let's just be honest, it's kind of similar to the statement making money is one thing, but then once you start to make money, the second challenge becomes how do you keep it? So what got you here may not get you there, but once you make the money, how do you actually keep the money? That becomes a full time job. That's Eric Alderson's job, by the way. I'm super thankful for him because he's very creative on that very, very topic. But no matter how big or no matter how small your business is, this is for you. Because it really comes down to, I would say, three things, right? If you're thinking about not only just how do I make the money, but how do I keep the money, three things come to mind to close out your year. Number one, did you get as lean as possible this year? Did you get as lean as possible this year? And here's a couple things I want you to review in your end of year checklist. Review your lease. Could you get more lean on your lease? Is there an opportunity for improvement or a negotiation or a conversation or something that can make your lease more cost effective? Number two, do you have unused subscriptions? Do you have things that are just sitting there? I have crap like Ipsy boxes showing up to the house mainly because my girls want them. But do we really need them? No. I go on a spree of canceling everything I can this time of year. I just encourage you don't. If you're a hub member, maybe that's not on your list because that's education. That's a whole other topic. But unused subscriptions, things that you are not maximizing. If you go into Shopify, chances are you probably have a lot of apps that you've downloaded that you're not utilizing, or maybe some that you're using and you're just underutilizing. So the question is, either I cancel this or I really dig in and figure out how to use it, right? And the same is true for the hub, let's be honest. So unused subscriptions is a huge piece of this. The third is review your insurance policies. So there may be cases where you're overinsured. There may be cases where you're underinsured. Right? And that's risk that you don't want to assume going into the new year. This is critical. So I'll tell you. Some of you may know Shea with little Cadillac and She's got a wholesale brand in the Hub. She's been a member of the Hub for a long time. She recently was showing at the NFR at Cowboy Christmas. And as she had packed up all of her inventory in her trailer to drive to Las Vegas, her trailer caught on fire. Her cargo trailer caught on fire the day before she was going to leave to go to Vegas. You guys know that's like everyone's worst nightmare, right? So God bless her, God bless the community, her friends, wholesale and retail alike. She was able to get some new things that she needed. She was able to fly to LA and then fly that inventory into Las Vegas. She was able to set up in her booth and I think she did well at the show. When I ran into her and talked to her, she said, you know, I had just signed my insurance policy the day before this happened, like, what a godsend, right? And I don't know how much she was over or under on her policy versus her actual losses. But I'm just telling you again, my father in law is our insurance agent, so we are forced into this conversation more often than I would really like to have it, honestly. But there's times where you could be overinsured and there's times where you certainly could be underinsured. So make sure that's right, because it could be really costing you in the short term or it could be costing you in the long term. The next area of really making sure you're maximizing and getting lean is untrained staff. So I don't look at payroll as an expense, I look at payroll as an investment. So whatever I invest in, payroll should pay me back, right? But if I have staff, that's dead weight and they really aren't like creating a ton of value, right? Like at least a hundred thousand dollars per staff member is just like. Let's just say that's the rule of thumb for our industry, right? And that, and that's not for everybody, right? You might just be starting with an intern and you're like, wow, okay, this could help me get to my first, you know, 50k in business, whatever it's going to be. But making sure that staff is completely trained and you aren't having to duplicate work, right? And they are actually focused on income generating activities along with you. Those things are huge. So make sure you look at that. Make sure your staff is really an asset and not a liability in that area. All right? Next place to get lean and make sure you're saving money right now is are you using your Hub Discounts. So those of you who are members of the Hub, you have, I mean, you could save over 50amonth on comments. Sold. Right. Get on the 99 plan, which normally costs people one 49. The Vistaprint discounts, all kinds of service provider discounts. Also on Hubventory, there's a lot of people who are paying on certain wholesale platforms to get free shipping. They pay a subscription to get free shipping on wholesale platforms. Hubventory has that built in. So those of you who are members of the hub already, we have hundreds of brands that give free shipping every single day on hubventory, our wholesale marketplace. And you don't have to pay for it. It's already built in because you are a member of the boutique hub. So are you utilizing those things to get lean and to save money on the things that you're already doing on a daily basis? All right, next place, gift cards to redeem. Gift cards to redeem or credits to redeem. So the other day I went into my Delta account. I had a whole bunch of flight vouchers I didn't know I had. So to me, wow, that saves me like 800 bucks a flight. So I needed to get them because they were going to expire in April. So make sure you're redeeming any gift cards, but also make sure you're reminding your customers of the gift cards they have that they can redeem with you. That's a great way to lift your revenue. Either now, before the end of the year or right away at the beginning of the year. Is doing some kind of promotion, getting people back in who have gift cards. All right, finally, check with vendors who have on orders or vendors you have credits with. That's a whole other area. Some of you hopefully have spreadsheets or you have open to buy plans or you're using faves and you have an idea of what's still out there. That's a really critical thing to get your arms wrapped around as you close out the year and make sure you start your books in the new year absolutely fresh. So as you think about really like building, not only how do I make the money, how do I keep the money? Getting lean is step number one. And that's that conversation we need to have with those things right now. But the second way to really think about keeping more of the money that we're making is this time of year, thinking about what untapped revenue do we have. So chances are, it's not even chances are, it's every single one of you listening has unsold inventory. Every single one of you has it. So what is your plan for your unsold inventory? A, you've got to take inventory this time of year. It's beneficial because your inventory is at its lowest level, typically all year long. You want to know what did I start the year at? What did I end the year at? What goes on my books and in some states, what am I going to be taxed for, Right? What did I lose to shrinkage and theft this year? Right? Is my inventory off in Shopify? I need to know now while my inventory levels are low so that as I buy in January, I know where I stand, right? I know I don't have errors, especially if I'm using Shopify plus comments Sold. And I have all these pieces of technology piece together. So where am I at with my unsold inventory? What is my plan to move it out before the end of the year or immediately in January? And I'm going to come back to that because I have several promotions I want to tell you about in just a second. But get a handle first on what is my unsold inventory? Then I would just ask myself, okay, as another piece of untapped revenue, is my shipping policy right for me or is it too low? So I would encourage you to think about what is your average order value and your shipping threshold. Free for free shipping should be at least 10% over that. So if your average order value right now is $75, that's what people are constantly ordering from you, then you should not be giving free shipping out for that standard. We should have a lift. So I would say at least free shipping over 100 or free shipping over 125. But that free shipping threshold is how we pull up our average order value. Because most people are going to say, oh, if I just order one more thing, I'm going to get free shipping. It's a bonus for me. So make sure you're leveraging that and you're reviewing those types of policies in your business right now. The second is am I shipping too often? So think back over the last year. What did you spend in shipping? How many repeat customers did you have and at what frequency were they reordering? Would it have made more sense to you to just ship and to pay payroll on Tuesdays and Thursdays versus pride yourself on this arbitrary metric that I get my orders out as fast as Amazon? Does it really matter? Like, are your customers really do or die? Do you have to compete with Amazon or are you just wasting money that you could have used more efficiently if you just ship two days a week. So things to really look at. The third thing when it comes to untapped revenue and really saving when it comes to shipping is are your shipping packages optimized? You know, if you played around with your package sizes, if you were an inch smaller right in one direction or another a couple ounces later, or you did boxes versus packages like what could that potentially save you in shipping? What is your average package size and how can you optimize that by a dollar or two makes a huge difference at the end of the day. So optimize where there is untapped revenue in your business. Now the third way to really think about this and how do I keep more of the money that I make has to do directly with tax efficiency and old Uncle Sam, right? Like they're gonna get their money no matter what. But your wealth at the end of your life, right, Your gener, your opportunity for generational wealth will be a direct result of how you manage your taxes efficiently right now. Let me repeat, your opportunity for generational wealth will be a direct result for how from how you manage your tax efficiency right now. So making sure when you go into to do your taxes this time of year A, I really hope you have a great accountant that is more like a counselor or a coach and less like H and R block, right? Like that's great if you're just an individual filing single or jointly, whatever. But when you're a business, you're an llc, you're an S corp, whatever you are, it's time to have someone who's a little bit more in depth that you're meeting with, not just at the end of the year, but through throughout the year. So when you get into the third quarter, you're planning how you're going to manage your fourth quarter. So it's not a rush in the last two weeks of the year, what you're going to do with your revenue, if you have some and you have a tax liability, right? So am I making mileage payouts to myself? Am I writing off things that I use every day like my cell phone or, you know, a portion of my, my home? If I have a home office, right. Do I have equipment that I need to purchase in order to manage my tax liability? If I have to pay in, do I, I need to prepay a bunch of expenses going into the new year, right? If you have a positive balance, right, and you're gonna have to pay into Uncle Sam, wouldn't you rather prepay a bunch of the stuff that you know you're going to need in the new year or buy that extra computer or that thing that's going to make your life a little bit easier because you can save that 30% on it. Now granted, there is an upside down, you know, way to get into this as well, where it could be the 80s and you could have your whole business slipped on your head if you got too into prepayment or too much into buying equipment, right? But your accountant can help you make those decisions. So you're managing what you're going to be paying in quarterlys next year. So how do you manage the money that you were able to build in revenue this year so that you can keep it and build generational wealth in the long term? So hopefully those three things really helped. The last thing I want to put on this, the last caveat is, are you building assets or are you building liabilities? So is it possible for you to take your business and whatever revenue you have, right, and build it into another asset that continues to pay you back? So if you've read the book Rich Dad, Poor Dad, A thousand percent recommended if you have it, or Unshakable or Money Master the Game, those by Tony Robbins, amazing. Those are three amazing books. Those are three must reads, in my opinion. But if you get into those three books, what you should be learning is I can take the revenue that I'm building now, right? I can take that cash, I can build it into a secondary asset that I can maybe like lease back to myself or use in another way to build tax efficiency. And again, to let one asset pay for another and then another and then another down the road. Again, that's building generational wealth. So a quick example of this, it could be you and your business and you're leasing this space right now, right? But what if you took out a loan and you bought that space, right? Yes, you have the mortgage on the property, but then you're able to pay yourself the rent every single month and then you're able to write off the maintenance, right, that your husband, the maintenance man is providing or the garbage services or whatever other liabilities come with that space. But you're building a long term asset with money that you're already paying out in expenses. Make sense? So Rich Dad, Poor dad, read it. Unshakable. Read it. Money Master the game, read it. But build long term assets that will build you generational wealth. Okay, give me a quick head nod if you love the Power of January, like opening a new planner. The smell of the Paper, not writing like you're a 12 year old boy like me, like maybe even using some fancy gel pens while you're at it. Right. Like, it's just such a feeling. That's why I love January so much. It feels like such a clean slate. So every year at the Hub, we host this week long challenge called the Best Year Yet Challenge. You don't even have to be a member to participate. It's literally free for everyone. And, and the goal is just how do we start this year off in a really powerful way. So this year I just have to say it's gonna be more important than ever because we're facing some major changes. How we do business in this industry is changing and I think there's so much opportunity in it. But if we don't address the opportunity and lean into it, it's gonna be really a tough year for a lot of people. So I wanna get ahead of that with you. This, this year we are talking into the three major ways to grow and change your business. And we're going to deep dive each of those three ways each day of the Best Year Yet Challenge. So I've got a link for you in the show notes. Go ahead and drop your email again, it's completely free and I'll email you the information and the zoom links. It'll be January 2nd, 3rd and 4th, 10am Central Time. Each day will go for about 90 minutes. You're going to want to be there because it is the most powerful way to start your year off completely fresh and address the changes that we're seeing together. You guys, this is your time, this is your opportunity. This is just like opening that planner and getting out your fancy gel pens. Let's do it together during the Best Year Yet Challenge. All right, that was all tip number one. I'm exhausted. Okay. Tip number two for capitalizing on the end of the year is just capitalizing on your end of year promotions plan and what revenue you can build in these last final sprints. So Scrooge night, a gift card sale, January bonus bucks. Whatever you buy now, you're gonna get $10 in bonus bucks, $20 in bonus bucks to come in and spend in January. Right? Men's night out, free gift wrap, free delivery, whatever it might be that can get the very last minute shoppers into your business. But then also be thinking about the week between Christmas and New Year's. Now keep in mind, once we get into January, they have Blue Monday. Have you heard of this? The first Monday in January, which is January 1st. This year. Most depressing day of the year. Most depressing day of the year, right? So we've already went through all the hustle and bustle of all the holidays. The holidays are not joyful for everybody, right? For some people, it's a tough time of year and the days are, like, long. The days are long and it gets dark early and it is depressing and cold, especially if you live in the Midwest. God bless. Midwest is the best. Right? So how are you going to capitalize on January and getting people excited and building positive energy during a time that's typically low for a lot of people? So think about it. Promotions. I know you've got some good creative ideas in there as well. All right, third tip I want to give you for closing the end of the year out strong. And that is thinking about. And this is the boring stuff, but it's really the most important stuff. And that's. Are my sops and processes documented and are they serving me? And are they documented and followed by all right, if I have a team, does my team really know what these things are? So I would think about this. The very first process I would review is returns, because we're going to have all kinds of holiday returns. So is my staff trained on returns? And this is key, you guys. Are my staff members keyed in on the opportunity of returns or are they just focused on the wah wah of returns? Right. And the frustration of returns? Returns in January are your biggest opportunity to create a new customer for life. They're your biggest opportunity because typically big box stores and everybody else who is going through Blue Monday and hates January gets a holiday return. And they're mad. Right? It's frustrating. You don't want to see that stuff that you already sold come back. You don't want to have to give credit. You don't have to. You don't want to deal with those types of people right after the holidays. So it's frustrating. But what if you flipped it and made it an opportunity? What if it was your way to surprise and delight customers, exceed their expectations, create viral marketing and word of mouth. Two of the biggest marketing events in 2023 had to do with this very thing. The first was, I don't know if you guys saw this, but Stanley's right. Stanley cups. Did you guys see where this woman's car caught on fire? Her car, like, burnt to a crisp. Her Stanley was in the cup holder. They opened the Stanley after the car was on fire and there was still ice in it. It was amazing. She made this viral TikTok about it. The owner of Stanley actually came and bought her a new car, which was cool. And then that was viral TikTok huge opportunity to surprise and delight somebody. Right? The second biggest marketing event in the same, like, train of thought was not Patagonia north face, it was North Face. So this woman was hiking, I want to say, in like, New Zealand. And it was. She was in the middle of a downpour and her north face jacket got soaked and it was leaking and she was mad. And so she was making this angry tick tock about, I just wish you'd fly out here and give me a new jacket. I'm soaked, you know, kind of a thing. Well, guess what they did. They saw it. North Face saw it. They found the nearest north face. They found a helicopter. They took the jacket, got on the helicopter, flew out, met her on the side of the mountain, gave it to her, made another TikTok. It had 15 million views the last time I checked. So your opportunity to take something as frustrating as a return and to turn it into something beautiful and a way to win that customer back for life is there. It's your opportunity for the taking and to make some really amazing viral content and to help your customers really spread your brand through word of mouth. All right, the next. The fourth tip for end of year is just staff appreciation and customer appreciation. You've probably already thought about gifts for your VIP customers, handwritten notes for your VIP customers, notes for fellow boutique owners or people in the industry that you're grateful for, Your, your staff, your family, anybody who had a hand in your business this year, big or small, how are you showing them appreciation this year? I love this. I love. Our team has a list of people that we send gifts to and cards to. And it's one of my favorite things to discuss is how do we just share how grateful we are? Our team like our bonuses that we get to hand out. Like, how do we just get to share how grateful we are? So don't lose this opportunity. Gratitude is so contagious. Don't miss your opportunity to share it in a big way. All right, tip number five. Plan your blank space. Plan your blank space. I know that in the last year, I feel like if my white my life was a piece of notebook paper, I used every. It was college ruled. First of all, it was more than college ruled. It was like master class ruled. Very, very small lines. And I wrote in every single line and I scribbled in all the margins. Like, I know in the last year I used every ounce of my Life. And that's great. I did a lot. I fit in a lot. I was busy, I was hustling. But in the new year, I don't want to do that. I feel really good when I have blank space and white space, but I don't get white space unless I plan for it, right? If I don't ahead of time, look at my calendar for the next four months and go, okay, this is when I could take a break. This is when I could go on vacation. My husband and I are going to go to the spa once a quarter, whatever it's going to be. That's like wishful thinking. These are the days I know I'm going to work out. This is when I'm going to work out. These are the days that I'm going to, you know, just take the afternoon off and be with my girlfriends. I really like to golf. I hardly golfed at all last summer because I just let every meeting fill up my calendar. I'm not going to do that anymore, right? When I have white space, I'm a better person. I'm more creative. I just can think clearly. I have a better attitude. My energy is so much better and this business is so much better when I'm in that space. And so I no longer can live in all of the margin. And I know you can't either. You're exhausted trying to do it all. But it's like us in our masculine energy trying to fit all of it in as much as we can. We don't have to. So I just encourage you to think about when are you going to create white space, when are you going to take a break, plan it in. If you show me your calendar, you'll show me your priorities. And if it's only work related things on your calendar, therefore those are your priorities, right? Desperation is a stinky clone. And sometimes we, we work like we're desperate. We don't have to, right? We can, we can work, but also create some boundaries and be a CEO and create some freedom. All right, tip number six. Tip number six. This is a new year. Enter it in a new space, a clean space, right? Make your space yours around you. So just like my office cleaning, if you have time, things like you can work ahead on that. Don't become fires later, right? So changing the oil in your car, replacing the light bulbs, putting new batteries in your smoke detector, cleaning out your Google Drive, cleaning out the desktop on your computers and laptops, and just something as simple as, you're gonna think I'm crazy, something as simple as making a new desktop background picture. I did that. I have a new desktop background picture. It's Jade riding her big paint horse. And I love it. Every time I see it, I smile. It's so bright and happy. Right? So those little tweaks make your space yours and be proactive about it. Make a new Spotify playlist that you cannot wait to turn on and listen to. Find something that makes you feel really good and put it in your space. It could be a cozy blanket. It could be a new chair. It could be simply cleaning off your space. It could be painting your walls white. It could be a new picture that's hanging next to your desk. Something that makes your space yours. All right, finally. Reconcile your accounts, close your books, and ask yourself financially if this was the year that you wanted it to be. Reconcile your accounts, close your books, and ask yourself, is this the year you wanted it to be? That is the last tip, and I ask you that, and I want you to dig a little bit deeper as you are closing out this year and say what worked and why? Why did it work? What did I do to make it work? Right. If I had that great sales month, how much inventory did I have on hand? That just didn't happen out of the blue. I had so much inventory on hand and I had so many promotions I ran, and this was happening in the world. Maybe you're taking note of that in your boutique boss planner, hopefully. Right? So. So what worked and why? And then what didn't work and why? Oh, my gosh, my sales were low. Well, how much inventory did I actually have on hand? That is a huge red flag that most people do not think about. What promotions did I run? How was I feeling? What else was happening in my life? What was happening with my staff? What was happening with the weather? What was happening with the economy? Da, da, da. What worked and why? What didn't work and why? And what will I do differently next year? What changes am I committing to for next year? So right away, at the beginning of this podcast, we talked about what gives me energy and what gives me life versus what sucks it away from me, what is draining to me. Same is true for you financially. What are the hard decisions that you need to make? So with that, let me just ask you this question or a couple questions. I made this note for myself and, God, this is the stuff nobody wants to talk about, but I'm just gonna. We're going to talk about it. And that is if industry averages you paying yourself 10% of your revenue right? If you have been through retail boot camp and you've done the where does my money go formula and you've really invested in yourself to understand your financials and your cash flow and you know, average is to pay yourself 10% of your sales, is that a living wage for you? You probably hate me for asking that question right now because it's the one we avoid. And your spouse maybe is asking you and your families may be asking you, is that a living wage for you? And if it is, awesome, keep going. And if it's not, it's okay. I just want you to admit it and I want you to pick a number and say, this is a living wage for me. This is what I need to make this worthwhile. Not just financially, because some of you, it's not about the financials, but it's about your energy, right? Money is just energy translated on paper so energetically. Is this a living wage for me? And I want you to have that hard conversation now because if you do and you can own that conversation, then you can make a plan about it for the next year. You know what it needs to be. You know what your threshold is. How are you going to get there? You can take the appropriate steps to get there. You can get the education, you can get the coaching, you can get the training, you can get the accounting accountant, you can get the strategy. We can work ourselves backwards in the where does my money go formula or in the boutique traffic formula, whatever. But at least we can make a plan if we know the number that we're shooting at. But sometimes we're just really shooting at nothing and receiving nothing in return because we're avoiding this really difficult conversation. So are you putting off the hard stuff? Do you know what this answer is? And are you allowing yourself, Grace, to be honest about this conversation and honest with your loved ones about this conversation? Because there is no shame in it. At least when we have this conversation, we can make a plan going forward. So thanks for hearing me out on that. I know that we don't talk about that enough and it's the truth of running a business. And trust me, I have been there myself. I have been there in the times when my family was telling my husband, why doesn't she just get a real job? This will never work. What does she think she's doing? She should just be home. Her kids have a disheveled appearance, they need more home cooked meals. She's always traveling. I heard all the things, but by God, you know what? I set my freaking boundary. I knew what My limit was I knew what the opportunity was and I made a plan and I went for it. And by God, you can too. You just have to own what the number is and own how you're going to make a plan to get there. And if you're already there, again, freaking great. Right on. Right? I am here to cheer you on. But if it is not where you want it to be, know that this girl right here, your friend Ashley, has been in your shoes. And I am ready to help. So you just say the word if you need the help. All right, guys, those are my end of year tips. I wish you all the best this holiday season and hopefully the opportunity to create the blank space to think about where you want this to go, to think about what brings you joy, to think about what brings you energy, and to give yourself permission to let go of all the things that are not. That are not serving you right. And to empower you to ask for help if you need it. Because there are so many wonderful people that are out there willing to give it to you and hopefully you've heard many of them on this podcast. Besides myself, there's many of them out there willing to help however they can. So I wish you happy holidays. I wish you a merry Christmas. Thank you for spending this last year with me. And I cannot wait for the best year yet challenge January 2nd, 3rd and 4th so that we can kick off this new year together. God bless you guys. Merry Christmas. Happy holidays. Thank you from my family and our team from the bottom of my heart for being here. Take. 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 theboutiquehub.com and join the community. We'll see you next week. Sam.
