#725: The Power of Pink Friday: How to Win the Holidays Before Black Friday

Did you hear? I hope so. I hope you're on the list. Pink Friday is coming November 21st. It is always the Friday before Black Friday and there has never been a better way to celebrate our industry in community over competition and get you the tools you need to really tell a story of why you're in business and the massive economic impact you have specifically on the community around you. So today, Sarah Burks is going to be joining me from our team here at the Boutique Hub. We're talking all about how to calculate your local economic impact. Literally, I'm giving you a formula, I want you to run it and then I want you to promote the heck out of it. Plus, we're going to be talking about how to use that number and tell your story to the local media during this year's Pink Friday. So if you'd love some new ideas and you want to hear an exciting announcement, hint, hint. We're giving away a bunch of money for a great cause and you can be a part of it. Get ready for this episode all about Pink Friday with Sarah Burks here at the Boutique Hub. Business can be a lonely game. But it doesn't have to be. Welcome to Boutique Chat where we explore community over competition and how to scale your company with the balance and the happiness that we all seek. We'll hear from product based businesses of all types, retailers, e commerce and wholesale brands, along with industry experts shaping the future of our industry. I'm your host, Ashley Alderson from the Boutique Hub and I can't wait to chat. Hey guys, welcome back to the podcast. I am joined by the one, the only, Sarah Burks. Welcome to the show.

Hey guys, good to be here. Good to be here. Thanks for having me.

We have got some updates and some fun things to talk about today as we get into the fall and holiday season and retailer's busiest time of the year. So we're digging into all things Pink Friday today. You ready for this?

Let's do it. I wore pink for the day. Let's do it.

I should have wore pink today. I wasn't even thinking. Okay.

My mind.

Okay, well, let's start here. So we're going to talk, of course, like what is Pink Friday, how to Pink Friday, all the things. But before we even get into it, I think let's take a big step back and talk about, you know, all the things we're doing during the fall season, all the holidays, the Black Friday, the small business Saturday, all of it. And I think it's so important before we dig into like all the sales and all the promotions and the things that we want to run. And let's just talk about what does it mean to be a small business in a community and support your local community today? What do you think retailers need to keep top of mind?

Oh, gosh, like how important they are to their community? I think that's one thing. Sometimes as small business owners, you know, we feel so much pressure, but just sit back and think, like, what would my community be like without me? What would my community be like without my offering? You know, where would people source, fill in the blank, whatever it is that they have. And granted, they might just come back and say, well, they could probably get it on Amazon or they're probably going to drive and go get it at one of the box stores. But there's more to it than that. And I think that is why we see small businesses still doing well. Right. When they're really active in their community, they are the backbone. They provide so much to their local economy. Their, their, the support, the, the employees, all of the things, they pay taxes in their local area. So man, they're so much bigger than, you know, sometimes I don't even like to say small. Right. Sometimes that's hard to. As an ex small business owner, as an ex retail owner in a small community. Yeah, they're a big part of life in general.

Yeah, I totally agree. And not even just brick and mortar small businesses, but online businesses too are a huge part of local communities. So. So we've had this discussion a lot inside of the hub and you can elaborate on just economic impact, but I think anytime somebody walks in your doors or sends you an email saying, hey, can you donate to my kids baseball team? Hey, can you sponsor jerseys or donate to the food pantry or whatever it's going to be. And then at the same time, we see this conversation in the world about people shopping on Shein and Temu and Amazon and all these other places. And it's kind of this weird dichotomy of how can you shop in this one place but then ask for a donation from another? And I think a great way to tie this whole conversation together is just to say, hey, what is the value of my small business in this local community? And tying their economic impact, you know, to that community, I think is a first step in that process. Do you agree?

Oh, 100%. 100%. I was raised in a family that, you know, when it was time to go buy whatever it might be, a car, a pair of shoes or something, it was like, all right, hey, can we get it in town? Can we get it in town? And the answer is, yeah, we can get it in town. That's exactly where we're going. That's exactly what we're going to do. Because it's so important to keep our dollars local, to keep your dollars in those small businesses. And isn't it something like 68 cents of every dollar stays in your local community?

Yeah, it's something like that. I always look at it as a dollar turns on average of seven times in a local community. So probably very similar math. But let's do this exercise with everybody listening today. I encourage you, please pause this podcast, jot down some notes, run this equation for your business. So if I looked at your business and I said, I want you to add up all of these things, add up the total amount of payroll or even take home pay for you, because that's, you're on the payroll as a business owner. So what do you take home? What do you pay out in payroll for all of your staff? What do you pay in local taxes, property taxes, all of that. What do you pay in your lease to your landlord? Because that money stays local. What are you paying in local supplies? So every time you go to the grocery store or you go and buy tape at the local hardware store, you bought a Christmas tree, you worked with a local handyman, like all the local supplies that you've invested in throughout the entire this for the whole year, not just today, but for the whole year, what total amount of donations have you made to your local community? Big, small. Even if it's inventory donations. So if you add all of those things up, your taxes, your rent, your supplies, your donations, your payroll, all those five things, add all those things up and then times it by seven. And that is the value of the economic impact you have on your community in one year. Because every dollar you spend locally turns on average of seven times. So I just think that number, when you know that number to me, tell that story throughout this fall and holiday season. Because every single small business owner has this impact on the local community. It's huge.

Yeah. Oh, my gosh, it's so huge. And I, and I think, you know, one of the things that we as consumers, right. Like I always say, as a small business owner, as that retail owner, it's so important not to put the retail hat on every time, but sometimes we have to just go back, step back and say, what's my customer need? What are, what are their struggles? What are they worried about? Right? Yeah. Well, what, what is it that, it that makes that consumer go to an Amazon or to a big box store at the holiday season, odds are when you really peel it back, it's convenience and time. Yeah, right. Like, I forgot I needed to get this gift. I forgot dah, dah, dah, dah, or I just don't have the time or whatever it might be. So now is the time to think outside of your box and say, okay, how can I do better? How can I get in front of people now? How can I get in front of people early? Just like the big box stores, they put out Christmas, right? They put out back to school. They put out all the things so much earlier, it seems like, than a lot of small independent retailers. But we got to flip that. We got to get in front of them right now and get it on their mind so they're like, yes, I can buy that holiday item right now. I can buy. Fill in the blank right now. I don't have to wait until the day before Christmas or the week before and then all of a sudden be like, oh, I guess. I guess I just got to go to prime because that's the only way I'm going to get it. Yeah, we can do better than that.

You've heard me say this so many times and you know, I'm a movie quote, but I mean, this is like Ricky Bobby. If you ain't first, you're last. And so either you're going to compete and you're going to get your stuff ready early, or you're going to be left in the dust. And then your consumers, your customers, your community, they are going to go to Amazon and somewhere else where it's super convenient and fast. So I think that's what you and I want to accomplish today is talking about how do you speed it up, how do you get ready for the holidays this much earlier? And how do you get your customers in your door before they go to the big box stores on Black Friday? And that was really the entire premise around back in 2020 when we launched Pink Friday.

That was the idea.

How do you support small businesses first? So I know you and I both love Small Business Saturday, but we have a beef with Small Business Saturday. Do you want to talk about what that is?

Oh, gosh, yeah, for sure. Have a beef with Small Business Saturday. I mean, no offense, but here's the thing. When I had my store, it was just heartbreaking. It was. It was so hard on me when somebody would come in my store on that Saturday and say, oh, Sarah, I would totally buy that jacket or that coat or I would have bought those shoes except for I just bought the TV or I just bought this or I just went to the mall or whatever on Black Friday. So they spent their money at the big guys on Black Friday and then, yeah, they wanted to come in and have a, you know, mimosa or you know, you know, say hey and whatever on small business Saturday. But they, they weren't investing in my business on that day specifically. That was not one of my bigger sales days ever. And we did a lot. We utilized all the resources, all those freebies and all the things from American Express, but it didn't convert for us and it didn't convert for our small town community. On that day. We, we got together as a community and we talked over it numerous times as a chamber and all the things. It just didn't hit with us. And I talked to other small businesses and they said the same thing. And so it was just, it was, it's hard because it felt like we got the seconds right. Big box stores get all the push. Friday was their day and then, hey, come in and you know, see your small businesses and supposedly support them, but it wasn't with dollars.

That's so true. And it's great. And I know a lot of stores who have wonderful small business Saturdays. But there is still something about, ah, your customer has already spent the majority of their money or bought the majority of their gifts Friday on Black Friday. So that's the idea behind Pink Friday. It is always the Friday before Black Friday for this very reason. And Sarah, I know you and I have seen a lot of business owners, even before we launched Pink Friday, they were already having open houses and celebrations and different things on Pink Friday. And so we thought, why not bring everyone together and in hub fashion and community over competition, create one day where we all work together, we all pool our energy and resources on Pink. Pink Friday to talk about supporting small businesses first. So do you want to talk more about specifically what Pink Friday is and how it works?

Yeah, it's a day of celebration and a day of discovery. So I think that is so fun is this, It's a day to celebrate the small businesses and that's actually where the pink comes from. Yes. Pink is one of the boutique hub's branded colors. However, some people are like pink in November. That seems really weird. It is. It's different. Right? That's the whole thing about small businesses. They're different, they're unique. They're supposed to get noticed. So I mean, yeah, we could have Picked a really dull fall color. But no, that's boring. That's not what this is about. It's about getting into the stores, getting onto their sites, seeing those unique products that people are going to stop you and be like, where did you get that? I've not seen something like that before. I got it at this little local store. I got it online on this really eclectic little online store I found. It doesn't matter if you're a hub member or not. We want to pay paint the coast to coast pink for Pink Friday and celebrate. You get more eyeballs on your store, more traffic in your doors, more cash in your register before all the other big crazy holidays start to happen.

Absolutely. So this year, November 21, the Friday before Black Friday, and again, plan for it every single year. Friday before Black Friday. How it works is you can go to the boutiquehub.com and on our homepage, we've got all the information for you to sign up. This is really important. So you can, you can host your own event, you can do all your own things. But we want to get you signed up on our website for a couple of reasons. A, it's free, but B, there's all kinds of resources that we can send your way to help you celebrate Pink Friday. So whether it's done for you graphics or our sample press releases, Sarah, talk about more like when you sign up for Pink Friday, what else you have access to?

Okay, so we're not trying be very clear. We don't want to put more work on you because I know you're all like, oh, thank you, Sarah. Because as small business owners, we're wearing lots of hats. We have a lot of things we've got to do. So we really want to make this easy for you. So what we've done is when you go to the site and you sign up, you immediately start getting resources sent to you. Now, these are going to be dripped out to you as we get closer to the event, right? But we want to teach you how to have a boutique crawl in your area, how to have an online event, an online collaboration event. Like Ashley said, the done for you graphics. We don't want you to have to spend time in Canva and make your own things. We are providing you templates. So all you have to do is use those graphics and enter in maybe your name, your logo, and they're yours. We've already written press releases in multiple stages. Right. And we're teaching you, we'll give you a guide how to use those, how to send those early, how to send the ones right before your event, how to respond back post event to your media so you can get more, hopefully more coverage. Wouldn't it be awesome if a news station showed up at your door or your warehouse to highlight your small business or whatever collaboration effort you're putting together in your community? All those kind of things. Not, not to mention that, just those kind of marketing materials. But there's also a ton of like inventory evaluation, how much inventory do I need, My pricing strategy being more profitable. We're going to provide you with all sorts of resources, tools, education material, right that are easy for you to follow to make sure this event is not just fun but it's profitable for your business. And what a way to kick start that holiday season with more money in the bank for you.

Are you ready to collaborate with us in community over competition on Pink Friday? I hope so. This is your invitation to join us for Pink Friday November 21st. Held annually, the Friday before Black Friday in an effort to tell your small business's story, mention your massive economic impact and plus support small businesses first before the big box stores on Black Friday every year. Our opportunity to gather together as an industry has never been better. When you sign up, it's completely free at the boutiquehub.com, you're going to get done for your resources like signage, a complete media kit coming with press releases so you can work with your local media on Pink Friday. Plus signage, printed materials and it will get you on the Pink Friday map. Also new this year, something we've never done and I am so excited about, we're teaming up with Hard on Main street, which is a nonprofit supporting small business owners and retailers who are hit by natural disasters. So this year the Boutique Hub is donating $1 for every single small business that signs up for Pink Friday on our website. So when you sign up, we're sending money on your behalf to Heart on Main street to support small businesses hit by those natural disasters, specifically this year, the Texas floods. So I hope you'll join us November 21st for Pink Friday. Host an event, a giveaway, a collaboration. Do what you've got to do to tell your story of what it means to be a small business owner today. Sign up Join us for free on Pink Friday November 21st. Let's double down on one thing that you brought up that I think is one of the most important things we send your way is the press releases and the media kit. So a big piece of Pink Friday. The big piece of Pink Friday is being able to work with local media and tell your story. So this is not a day where just run a sale and have an event like, no, that's not what this is about. This is about celebrating you and your local economic impact. And so we've got to get ahead of the media cycle during Black Friday. We've got to play offense with the media and tell our story proactively versus waiting for Black Friday and Small Business Saturday and letting the media say and dictate, oh, this is the state of the economy and this is the state of small businesses. No, we want to tell our story first. So with those media kits and with the press releases, talk to me about just the importance of working with your local media and persistence with media to get them into your door. What are they looking for to cover your event on Pink Friday?

Great question. Okay, so just like, you're a small business right now, and you're looking ahead and you're starting to work backwards with, let's say, your inventory buying, right? Well, these media outlets, the newspapers, the radio stations, the TV channels, they're having meetings right now, too, and they're starting to say, okay, what are we covering? What's happening? Right. How awesome would it be if somebody rolled into one of those meetings and said, hey, I received this press release from Ashley's boutique in La Crosse, Wisconsin, and they're having this big event in November. I know it's early, but this is something we could keep our eyes on. She's going to do this, this and this. She's partnering with these other businesses. This is a nationwide movement. This sounds something like some good news that we want to cover that starts the conversation at the media or, you know, the radio station, the news outlet, whatever it might be, gets you on their schedule on, on their radar. So then they can schedule accordingly and you guys can start working out, you know, coming to your event, what that might look like, coverage of that event. Like I said, the actual TV channels showing up. But it doesn't just happen. If you just make some social media posts. They are looking for good news to cover. They're looking for industry experts that know the economy, they know what's happening in small businesses, they know the fashion world or whatever it might be to shine a light and have good news to celebrate. But, man, sometimes you got to go to them and get in front of them first and position yourself as that, that industry expert. And then they're like, oh, that's an easy button. I'm going to go to Ashley. And guess what? They're going to go to Ashley in November for Pink Friday. They're going to turn around and they're going to reach back out to Ashley or you're going to stay in touch with them and they're going to have that relationship for something after Christmas. Maybe it's March, maybe it's back to school, but this one reach out could foster a relationship with these media outlets all year round. We've seen it happen with so many of our stores. It's just, it is a huge game changer in, in how they're positioned in the industry and obviously how many customers come into their, onto their site or into their door.

Yeah, it's a, it's a huge opportunity to work with press, it's earned media, it has a huge SEO value, it has a huge organic traffic value. And it's such a sign of trust and confidence when your customers are like, oh, I'm going to take Sarah's Boutique seriously. Because I saw Sarah's boutique on the 7 o' clock news. So for sure, the media piece is huge. Sarah, you and I have talked about this a lot as well. Again, this is not a day just to go run a sale. Right. These types of events, even Small Business Saturday, I would say this is not a day just to go run a sale. Talk about making this a celebration versus a sale.

Oh, gosh, yes. So true. It is not a time for you to just like bottom out your prices right now. Yes. You can create some excitement with promotions or bundles or offers or, you know, maybe you're doing some doorbuster events of some sort. But at the end of the day, what we really want to do is we want to, we want to highlight and elevate you as a small business owner. Just like we talked about at the beginning. Why do you exist? What is your story? What is your impact? Celebrate your existence. Right. This is what the Pink Friday initiative is all about. And you know, we have this super awesome map. That's another thing when you sign up that wouldn't you love to be on this nationwide map when you pull it up to see, like just all the little bubbles all across the United States of. These are your small anchor store businesses, the backbones of our country. Yeah. And that, that's it. Like, you're a part of that. You are a part of that. You're employing people, you're raising leaders, you're dressing people for success. You are redecorating living rooms and bedrooms and creating parties and holiday events and all these amazing cool things that really elevate that Consumer's life, right. Their experience. That's what we're celebrating. We're not celebrating. Are you the cheapest place in town? Nobody cares. No, you can't compete with that. That's not exciting. You're always going to get beat by somebody. Somebody is going to come and buy an entire container ship of the trinket that you're selling and say, hey, now I can. I'm bottoming dollar this. And now I just put this small business, you know, put her in a bind. Price is not what we're going for here. We are going for celebration. And part of that media kit and all those resources we're sending you is also discounts on a lot of products. Right. Whether it's balloons or, you know, just props and decor, things like that. We're, we're out there finding good deals for you guys to be able to bring those into your stores or bring those, you know, into like your photo shoots or things like that that you're doing as you're marketing Pink Friday as well, to make it a big celebration.

It's a huge piece of it. Hubbin for you is a huge piece of when you sign up for Pink Friday, several of our brands have Pink Friday collections and Pink Friday closeouts and like extreme value based, like discounts they're giving you on merchandise so you can bring in and really make margin on Pink Friday. And the brands want to be a part of that story that you're, you're going to tell as well. So when you sign up, you get that information and then this is something we're doing that's new this year. We're kind of like we're doubling down on Pink Friday. We're putting our money where our mouth is because we not only want to make this great for your business, but we want to make this like a kind of a charitable give back for our industry as well. So I'm really excited to announce you guys that this year we're partnering with Heart on Main street, which is an awesome 501c3 charitable organization that donates back to small businesses and retailers in need when they're hit by a natural disaster. So whether it's been floods or hurricanes or tornadoes or, you know, the latest thing that happened in Texas with the floods this summer, they look for retailers who have been put in a tough economic situation by a natural disaster, and they donate to help get them back on their feet. So the boutique hub is announcing, I think you guys are going to hear it first, that for every single single boutique owner, that signs up for Pink Friday. Again, it's free to sign up for Pink Friday. Just get all the free resources. But when you put your name and email address and information to sign up for Pink Friday, we're going to donate a dollar per store. And keep in mind, we have thousands and thousands of stores that participate. We're going to donate a thousand or a dollar per store back to Heart on Main street to go back to the retailers who need it in times of need. So excited to have you guys be a part of that as well.

That is huge. That gives me goosebumps thinking about it. I mean, it's just such that that's what we are as small independent retailers, right? We have that ability to rally around and gather together. We don't have a board of directors sitting in a high rise somewhere telling us exactly what to do and when to do it. We're a family. We are a community. That's what we are here at the Boti Cub. And we want everyone to join in and celebrate in this amazing opportunity of Pink Friday. And not just Pink Friday, but this extends all year round. And for all of you listening that are Hub members, I know you believe in that. You see it, you feel it. You felt it at our boutique summit. You know, we are together as one big lock arms. Let's take on the Amazons of the world together. We're stronger. We are so much stronger. And that's where this Pink Friday initiative really came from. It's to unite independent retailers of all kinds, not just boutiques, right? Of all types of retailers. Bring them together and say, hey, let's go. Let's be celebrated in this moment. Let's get more attention on us, right? Less attention on the big guys. This is our day. More attention on us.

Yes. I love it. All right, Sarah, any last best practices you would recommend to somebody thinking about participating this year?

Sign up early. If you were on this, heard this, and you said, I'm signing up right now. If you've already done it, high five to you. Congratulations. You are ready. Get in that email of yours. You're going to find these resources to start building this out. Be vocal, be on repeat, man. This is a time to just stick your chest out a little bit, say, I am a small independent retailer. Look at me, right? Don't be shy, don't sit back. That is all I'm asking is just get in there, sign up, start getting the resources. Maybe, maybe you kind of tip your toe in this year, but next year you're going to go bigger Talk to your local chamber, your downtown revitalization committees, all the things, talk to other small businesses. If you're online, talk to other small businesses online and say, hey, let's do something together. Let's collaborate together. We're going to give you tips on how to do that in those resources I'm talking about. But man, get involved. Get on that map. Get noticed. Get noticed. That is your, that is all you got to do. Just get signed up.

So good you mentioned something important. Small town associate like Main street associations, chambers of commerce, economic development associations. We have many of them that also participate in Pink Friday. So if that's something you're interested in your community, send them our way. We will help get them the information and the toolkits and all the things that they can use as well. So the more the merrier. Doesn't have to be a boutique hub member. It is literally open to anyone and everyone. It is free. You don't have to be a boutique, you don't have to love the color pink. We've had coffee shops and flower shops and tire shops shops and salons and tanning salons. We've had a little bit of everybody participate in Pink Friday. If you're a small business owner, Pink Friday is definitely set up for you, man.

I echo that. If you have any connection, maybe you don't know exactly how to go about it, but you have a connection with your local chamber or a group like that and have them sign up, they'll get all the information and they can roll with it and they can help create events as well. Have them reach out to us. I, I've already had conversations with Buffalo, New York, Olathe, Kansas. These are Des Moines, Iowa. We also partner with Visipay. They do a Look Local first initiative in Des Moines and in that surrounding Iowa area. I'm telling you, more and more and more other companies, news networks, cities are getting on board because they see the importance. If the small independent retailer struggles, those doors close. What that does, it's a trickle down effect in your economy. Right? People start, stop moving in schools, stop developing all of those things. That small business is literally the glue that's holding everything together. And those cities, the city councils, the chambers, they know how important that is. So get them involved, have them sign up. Just send them a message, say, hey, I think this would be a great opportunity. Get signed up.

Yeah.

And we'll take it from there.

Absolutely. Awesome. Well, you guys, your call to action is get signed up for pay Friday. You can find all the information@the boutiquehub.com or it's going to be all over our social media. You guys, you are not going to stop hearing about it from us because we love this event and the collaboration that it brings so much. So we look forward to it. Sign up, use the resources and then tag us on social media. Everything that you're doing, tag the Boutique Cup. We will reshare it. Our goal this year is to be also working with national media outlets and so we want to tell your story on an even bigger level. What else, Sarah? That was it.

Tag us, you guys, tag us. Don't forget because we will reshare it. We will get more eyeballs on you. That is what we want to do for you as well. And like I said, we want to paint coast to coast pink.

That's right. Let's do it.

Yep.

Together. All right, Sarah, thanks for being here today, you guys. Thanks for listening. We will see you soon. Soon get signed up for Pink Friday and we're going to have some fun come November telling your story and sharing all the good news about small businesses across the world. So thank you, guys.

Thank you.

Thanks for listening, guys. I hope you took away all kinds of nuggets and new ideas from this week's episode. Don't forget to subscribe and leave a rating and review. We love to hear your feedback and give you a chance to be featured on the show each and every week. For more information on our spirit of community over competition and to access guest downloads and bonuses and all the resources we talked about on the show, head on over to the boutiquehub.com and join the community. We'll see you next week.