#731 Recurring Revenue for Retailers: A Proven Path to Growth

She is the queen of subscription boxes. You guys, today, I am so excited for you to meet Sarah Williams. She's been a longtime member of our community at the Boutique Hub and also founder of not only her own subscription box business, Boutique, but also teaches others around the world how to grow their own subscription boxes. So today we're diving into all the details of what does it really mean to build a community that you can sell to month after month and build recurring revenue by selling subscription boxes? And. And how do you do it profitably? There are so many juicy details, you guys, inside of today's episode. Get ready, grab a notebook, get a pen and paper, let's talk about it, and let's build some recurring revenue inside of your own business based on all the hard work you've already done with your own communities. Meet my friend, Sarah Williams and get ready to learn.

Hey, guys.

Welcome back to the podcast this week. Sarah, I am so pumped that you're here. I feel like I've known you are in our ecosystem for a long time and I had heard so much about you. So today I'm so excited to get to share your story.

I'm so excited to be here. I have been in your world for a long time too, so it's interesting that we've taken so long to get each other on our podcast. Right?

I know. This is so good. So you guys listening? Just so you know, like, we're doing a little bit of a podcast swap, so you guys get to hear Sarah here today, and then I'm going to be guesting on Sarah's podcast as well. So you're going to get to hear Best of Both Worlds, and we both have a lot to share, kind of on the same topic, so I'm really excited to dive into it. Should we get started?

Yeah, absolutely.

Okay, so today is all about subscription boxes, you guys. And we've got to go back to the beginning, because Sarah and I kind of started our businesses around the same time. But give me the backstory. How did you first decide to get into the industry? Where did it all start? And then we'll work our way into where the box is now.

It's such a weird loop into how I got into having my own boutique. But I was teaching painting classes. Okay, so this is where it all started. I was teaching painting classes at a local art studio, and I realized that I could do this on my own. So this was my first little dip into entrepreneurship. And so I was also teaching art classes when I started on my own, I didn't Have a building. I didn't have a space. I didn't have a studio. So I'm like in the bar, in the church, in the barn, wherever anybody would take me. And what I realized when I'm in the bar, that they're buying food and drink, they're buying all these things. So then I. I ended up opening my little tiny 600 square foot storefront. And it was really just to get this stuff out of my house and into a building. Well, I was still teaching at the bar and at the church and at the barn or wherever, you know, and. But I realized that no one's. A lot of these people had never been to my shop. And they say, I've never been to your shop. I've never been to your shop. And I was like, I gotta get them to come to my shop. I. I'm making gifts. Like, I started with the painting, then I started making personalized gift. Like I was your Pinterest board maker, like, whatever. And it started with like, last name signs. This is where the personalization really started for me. Then I felt like, there's gotta be a better, better way because I'm spending hours making one thing. And so I started to buy products that I could personalize. And that really helped with the scale and with filling my shop. And so that's where this started. So then it was like, I got to get these people to come shop at my store instead of taking them to other locations. And so I opened up my store that had a studio in the back. And then it was really big. So I was like, I got to do graphic tees. I've got to have, you know, the cup that you can monogram. I've got to have, like a cute scarf that I can throw initials on. I've got. And so it started into this big gift store. And then I went from painting all the time to really having the storefront. That was just booming because nobody in my area, you couldn't personalize anything. You can't go to Hobby Lobby and get something personalized. You can't go to Target and get something personalized. So it was a gap in the market that was really. It was really feeling this niche. And so after a couple years of having the brick and mortar store, I really just had this affinity for subscription boxes. And I was watching, you know, one company do a monogram subscription box, and I thought, man, this is so cool. I could do this better. Like, in my mind, I kept saying, I could do this better. Their quality is like cheap stuff thrown in A box, and it was $20. Like the subscription was 20 bucks a month. And I'm like, this is such cheap stuff. Like, I could do this at a better quality. I could do this for my customer. And so in 2017, I launched my subscription box and it's called the monogram box. And there's three to five items in it. One of them is personalized. It's all curated to go together. And, and that's kind of how we launched. And I launched with 44 subscribers, and I was over the moon with 44 subscribers. My goal was 100 subscribers when I launched it, because 100 subscribers paid my rent at the brick and mortar store. And it allowed me to have one part time person. So I thought if I could just build this to 100 subscribers, my fixed, some of my fixed expenses would be paid for. And then I, I don't have to hustle so hard every day like I can, My rent would be paid for, my part time employee could be paid for. And then my sales in the store would bring me profit and would bring me a paycheck. And so that was really my goal. But I didn't know that by month three, I would have over 100 subscribers and years later I would have thousands of monthly subscribers. And so it just really took off. And here we are in 2025.

Oh my gosh. There's a lot to unpack there. Holy smokes. Let's back up. So when you first decided, like I love, I think every good business story starts with, yeah, there's this, but I could do it better. You know, that's really where it comes, what it comes down to. So I love that when you decided to go for it. And as I've seen people try to start subscription boxes, like there, there's no roadmap. You created the roadmap.

Yeah.

How did you decide what to put in your first boxes? How did you source? Like, what did people get right away?

So the very first box had a tumbler. Tumblers were a thing back then, but they were all silver, if you remember, they were all the silver yetis. They didn't. We didn't have any of the cool things that we have now. So I had a patterned tumbler, which was going to be just exciting. Then I matched that with a zipper pouch and some phone cords and some little wraps for your phone charger. And so it was all coordinating in this pattern that I had put on the cup. And I, you know, I, I started with 50 subscribers. I, in my mind I thought, okay, I get 40 people into a paint night like this, I could get 50 people to sign up for this. I feel like I could. Worst case scenario, I'll have extra product that I can use in Q4 for some promotion. This is how my mind works. Like, worst case scenario, I sell 10, I have 40 of everything left over. I'll sell it in Q4 because we can sell anything in Q4. And so that was kind of my plan. And I just, I worked with a vendor that I had been using for the store, and they custom made some things for me. And so that's how the first box started. And that was the 44 out of my 50. And then once I did the box reveal, because it was all a mystery. Like they didn't know what they were going to get. And they. And my, my spiel, my horrible pitch was, if you like my things, you're going to love this subscription box. Like, that's all I could tell them. And it was a horrible white box where I had imposed a mock up of my logo on top. It was like the worst launch in history. But it worked because I had an audience. It wasn't big. I had a couple thousand Facebook followers. I had a strong local following from teaching these paint classes and people that had come and shopped it with me. And so I was like, surely I could get 50 people to sign up for this. I get 40 people in a class all the time. They know me, they spend a couple hours with me, right? And so I just used that to focus on the thing. And then in my mind, I'd already had month two and month three planned out with the same vendor that I was working with. I'm like, let's do this, let's do this. And I don't know how many I'm going to need, but since I sold my 44, let's see if I could sell 75 the next month. Because when I did my box reveal, those six sold in five minutes. And so now I was sold out. So then I did 75 for the next month, and then I did 125 for the next month, and I was sold out. Sold out, sold out. And that created the momentum for me to be sold out every single month for a year. And I grew to 300 and 400 and 600. And I just kept growing those numbers. And so that's kind of how it started.

That's so incredible. When you started, were you first on Shopify to begin with?

No.

So, so tell me about your tech stack when you got started. And now how that's evolved.

It's not evolved that much. I'm just going to tell you that the problem was I built 3,000 subscribers on a. On a platform that I wished I hadn't. And it's really hard to move them. Okay? So, yeah, I. The only thing I had was a WordPress site that had my location and my hours. This is all I had. I wasn't online. I was a local brick and mortar store. I was doing the Christmas show and the Mother's Day gardening center show. Like, I had a. Both of these things. Like, I wasn't online. Right. This was the first product that I ever sold online. So we took my clunky WordPress site and we added in WooCommerce, and we added in WooCommerce subscription. This was the only thing you could buy from me online. I had nothing else. And it was like, I didn't know how to make this work. And so my web developer was there. Like, I'm like, can we make some updates to the website? Oh, and I want to start a subscription box. Like, this is how it happened. Like, I just vomited on him. And he was like, okay. I said, I don't know how to make reoccurring payments. I don't know if I can do that on the register. Like, I was so naive to all these things. And he's like, I can make that work. You figure out what you want to put in it. I'll make it work. In three months, we launched the subscription box. And so it was just WordPress WooCommerce. WooCommerce subscriptions. Those were what I had, and I sold thousands that way. Oh, my gosh.

You know, it's so funny, our stories are so parallel because literally when I started the boutique up, I didn't. Like, now there's all these people coaching on, like, how to start a membership site and how to. There was nothing. I didn't even know what a membership site was. Like, recurring subscription. Like, there was nothing available. So I started on WordPress and with WooCommerce, but I started with paid Membership Pro.

Okay.

And so the funny thing is, even today, people who signed up for the Boutique Hub, like, in the first two, three years, they. They're still paying through paid Membership Pro. Like, I can't get rid of it, even though now our website is completely different, and now everyone else is paying through Kajabi. So I'm like, oh, now we have so much administration on the back end, like, managing where these payments are at, but you just do it like you.

Just say, figure it out.

We're gonna do it. And you figure it out. Yeah, yeah. So go on with your tech stack.

This is. Okay, so this is how the tech stack changed. So I'm just really only subscriber online, right. And so then I'm realizing I'm getting all these subscribers all over the country and my Facebook and Instagram is showing in store product that I don't have online. And they're like, how do I buy that? How do I get that? I'm like, your email and I'll invoice you. Right? Like this is what we did. Okay. And then I'm like, I need to get this stuff online. I already have WooCommerce now. So I'm like, okay, let's put it on WooCommerce. It was just between the subscription and the one time products and the shipping features. It was awful. Yeah. So in 2019, we moved all of our one time product over to Shopify.

Okay.

I had to leave everything on Woo for subscriptions for the subscription because I had 3200 subscribers at that point. It had been a nightmare to move over. So we like, okay, let's. And then here's the best part. All my subscription analytics are on WordPress. All my one time product analytics are on Shopify. So they're not overlapping. And I can really clearly see. And I love that today I would tell you to put your subscription on Shopify. And I tell my students that too. You can do. If you already have a WordPress site like a lot of my students like have really good blogs and things like that. Absolutely you can do. I still use WooCommerce and it works really well. But for a shopping experience, Shopify is like the way to go. And I know you feel the same way.

I do too.

Yeah, yeah. So there's great things that you can do on Shopify. So there's an app called paywirl and that's how you can set up reoccurring subscriptions for a very low cost. There's some apps like Bold and Recharge, but they kind of have higher monthly fees and payroll does it. So it's really perfect for people that are starting and as you grow, you can take down your percentage with a monthly fee. And so I recommend that on Shopify. But yeah, so we have WordPress as our main website still. And then we've got our subscriptions there and we've hyperlinked over to Shopify to shop. You know, our, our shop is all there. It looks like it's all the same website, but it's not. So that's what we have to do.

Oh, my gosh. I love hearing the guts of, like, how it works because they're just, you know, there's just a different level of stress when you have things in, you know, five different places. So, yes, totally get it. Let's go back. I want to talk about community and your launches and all of that. But before we get to that, that's the fun part. I want to go back to what you talked about at the beginning and how you from the start knew if I had a hundred subscribers, here's what I could afford to do otherwise. So I want to talk about, like, just the logistics of planning what's going to go in your box, planning the profit margin of your box and understanding how many you need to sell in order to really make a profitable business. So can you talk like, if someone's just going to start a box, how would you advise them to start planning, you know, price wise, what's going to go in the box and what percentage margin they should be looking for?

Yeah. So pricing is one of those things that I think I see a lot of people, you know, planning the products first and then planning the price later. And we've got to plan the price first and back our products into that because the price is going to stay the same from month to month. Your products are going to change. So we need to flip that. And we have a lot of data in our businesses already. We have an average order value. So our AOV tells us so much. And that was one thing that I worked off of from the beginning. My average order value in 2016 was $40. Somebody would come in my shop, they would buy stuff, they would leave with $40 worth of goods. So interesting.

There's probably like a bubble necklace and like a chevron dress.

Yes, 100%. And so I knew that effectively I could sell this at $40 a month. So that's what I started with. Now my AOV is like $67. So it's much higher now. And our prices and our subscriptions reflect that now. But it's such a good starting point because you already have data in your business to show that that's what someone's willing to spend with you. So look at your AOV first. And then from there I was looking at what are my best selling categories for my business? For me as a gift shop, it was tumblers. They were hot. And if I could throw initials on them, that was even better. So it was tumblers graphic tees. People would buy every season of graphic tee that I ever created and it was accessories like purses, bags, totes, those kinds of things. Yeah. So I took my best selling top three categories, tumblers, T shirts and accessories, and I created a subscription box around it. And you know, the funny thing is I look back now and I, I don't have a yearly option because I wasn't sure it was going to make it a year. Right. So I only did monthly and I still only have monthly, but I planned those first three months and with those categories in mind, with that dollar amount in mind, so $40, effectively I needed to at least have a 45% gross profit margin. And so at scale that's much better than with like 10 subscribers. But I knew that I couldn't go lower than that. And the goal was to get to 65% profit margin. And that comes with buying in bulk. And the more buying power I had, I, as I grew, the more buying power I had, I was able to get that margin higher and higher and higher my cost lower. So my goal was to start at 45% profit margin and see if I could get this to scale. And as I was scaling, could I get all of my costs down? And so Today we run 60 to 67% profit margin on our subscriptions. But it started and I had to catch myself because you're going to find yourself doing this. Let me add one more thing. Oh, it's just a dollar. Oh, let me add one more thing. Oh, let me put this pretty packaging sticker on this. Well, that sticker cost 50 cents. Let me add all of those things were adding up and I wasn't tracking them. And then after I had my first million dollar subscription year, I was like, oh my God, I had a million dollars just from my subscription this year. This is the best year ever. Why is it not in my bank account?

That's right.

Where is it at? And I, it was this high and a low at the same time to feel like I would reach this milestone in my business. Here's 2020. I just hit a million dollars with one product the year and I didn't have any money in my bank account to show for it. And that's when I had to say, okay, you are a business owner, let's get it together. You don't know your numbers like you think you know your numbers. And that's when I started to track everything. And I just realized how much everything was costing and my profit margin was suffering big time for it. And I was down under 30% profit margin when my mind I was over 45%. And so it's starting with that price. So then, then, then I needed a price increase. Then I needed a cost cut, and so I was buying smarter. I had a price increase then I was now $45. And we also did some upgrades. So I had a combo subscription box where you got the box and. And a graphic T shirt. And then I had an ultimate box where you get the box, a T shirt, and matching earrings. I could add $10 into that ultimate box knowing I pay $2 for a pair of earrings. I just got 80% profit margin in an. In an upgrade that people love. And I sell the same earrings in my shop for $1825 all day long. So they're getting the value because it's in subscription. And I know I made 80% profit on that accessory that's going in that box. So the perceived value of the box is really high. My cost is really efficient because I'm buying in bulk. I can buy a thousand of those earrings instead of 20 for my shop. Right. And that makes a price difference. That takes those earrings from 475 to $2 when I'm buying 500 of them versus 20. Right. So those are the things that started to shift for me. One, it was being a better CEO of my business and treating it like a business instead of a hobby.

That's right.

And then really focusing on how. How much money I had in my bank account at the end of the year.

It's so powerful because I think we get so lost in, you know, I don't want to know my numbers or numbers are overwhelming. But when you replace the word numbers with dollars.

Yeah.

Oh, I want to know where my dollars are. I want to know why the dollars are not in my bank account. You just start to take it in a whole new light and really show up like the CEO of your business. Like you mentioned.

It's true that, like, when you focus on something, that's where you improve it. So. So if you're creative like me, I just want to make the cute shirts. I just want to design the cute bag. I just want to put to curate the cute box for next month. That's been my mindset for this. I'm an artist. I taught painting classes. Right. That's where my creativity comes out in this business. And so as a creative, I don't want to dig into the spreadsheets. I don't want to know those things. But it was hindering my growth as a Business owner and my ability to scale. And here it was. I made my first million dollars with one product and I had nothing in my bank account to show for it. And that was so eye opening to me that it was like, you're not going to have a business if you don't get this under control. You have to know every number. But I know the most important numbers in my business and what's driving my bank account. Those are the numbers I need to know.

Yeah, absolutely critical. Okay, you've got to know about this. If you have three thought about being a member of the Boutique Hub or if you're already a member of the Boutique Hub. This year we added something that I just can't wait to get into your hands. Okay, so if you're a monthly member of the Hub, awesome. Glad to have you. It's a great experience. But we were like people who are really serious about their business and growing it into the future. They don't just join the Hub monthly, they join for the whole year because it takes more than a month to impact and make real lasting change in your business. So this year we have updated our annual offer. For those of you who are our members are thinking about becoming a member and joining for the entire year. You want to hear about it? All right. If you're an annual member of the Hub, not only do you get access to everything the Hub has to offer from all of the education, live, training, every single week, all of our exclusive discounts, resources, wholesale brands, all the things. But now as an annual member of the Hub, you also have access to some of our very best selling master classes and. And handbooks. That's right. I'm throwing all of these crazy things in for free. If you are an annual member of the Boutique Hub, this includes our best selling Small business marketing handbook which is over 100 pages of content. Calendars, live sale ideas, TikTok ideas, real ideas, social media ideas for literally every day of the month, engagement questions for literally every month of the year, collections, event ideas to run in your brick and mortar, and so, so much more. The Small Business Marketing Handbook is a must have for every type of retailer, no matter what you sell. I guarantee it. We're also throwing in our small business hiring Handbook which is all the things you know to hire, train, onboard job descriptions, everything you need to know to grow a team. Plus our holiday marketing master class, our content sanity masterclass, Best of our boutique summit videos and so much more. There's over thirteen hundred dollars added in courses, master classes and handbooks just for you plus, when you're an annual member of the Boutique Hub, you get access to join one on one coaching calls with myself and several members of our team. We don't give out an opportunity to do one on one coaching anywhere other than for our VIP students in Retail Bootcamp or those who are members of Boutique Hub Black. So this is a real opportunity for those of you who are a member of the Hub and you're like, hey, I just need to pick Ashley's brain for an hour. I. I need to pick Sarah's brain for an hour. What does that look like? You can book an annual coaching call if you are an annual member of the Hub. Did I say annual coaching call? I meant anytime. You can book a coaching call only if you're an annual member of the Hub. So that's it. I'm excited. I'm rambling. I just want you to know, if you're going to join the Hub, this is the best opportunity to get the most out of your membership. If you're already a member, reach out to our team at happypeople@the boutiquehub.com we can get you upgraded to annual. You can. If you're not yet a member, scroll all the way down to the join page at the boutiquehub.com and click annual to join us now. I can't wait to see you inside and get you all of these extras. We're going to do a lot together to grow, scale, optimize and secure your business together in the next year. Let's get started. Can you elaborate more on just the power of also knowing this number? Just recurring revenue and how to plan for the future around recurring revenue. We were talking before we got started recording today and I made the comment, you know, in retail, sometimes you have to wake up every single day and sing for our supper. Like, we've got to get up and we've got to sell just to pay the bills, hustle every single day. So when you have a sub box, it changes things because you have, you have planned revenue ahead of time.

And here's the other thing, Ashley, is you also have sold the inventory once you bought it. It's none of these bad buys. Like I go to market and I buy, I'm going to buy 100 of these because it's so cute and everyone's going to love it. And then 90 days later, I have 80 of them still sitting on my shelf because nobody loved it as much as I did, right? And so for this, you know, I got my first month of sales and Then on the first of the next month, all of a sudden, I open my bank account and all that money is there again. And I'm like, I didn't have to get out of bed. I didn't have to put a collection together. I didn't have to show up live. I didn't have to redress mannequins at the front of my store. Like, this money came again without having to do anything. And then month three, and. And then it kept growing and growing and the amount kept growing. And I'm like, I can hire someone now because I know I can pay them. I can. I can get more help for my business now. Now when I go and buy something, I know it's already sold. I don't have to worry about, is this going to be a great hit. Well, they're getting this box or not, so it better be a hit, right? So it just started to shift my whole mentality about my business. And because every day, if I didn't send an email, show up live, post something, you know, run an ad, I wasn't getting any sales. And so now 80% of my sales just hit like clockwork. And then when I want to show up live and sell my new game day collection or I want to show up live and show a new Christmas, you know, T shirt that I'm drawing, I can do that. But I don't have to do it at all because 80% of my revenue is coming whether I show up or not. I have a 94% lifetime retention rate on my subscriptions. That means that they're staying for 17.3 months. So think about selling one time and then getting 16 more sales. Like how hard that is, how hard we have to work for 17 sales, knowing if I just sell it one time, on average I'm going to get 16 more sales for them. And so it's just one of those things that once you realize what's happening, it changes the stability of your business. It changes your love for business. Because you and I both know we get burned out of having to make the next sale. Like I used you say, sing for your supper. I used to say, I've got to show up because my rent is due every day. Like, my rent is due every day. And so what am I going to do to pay the rent today? That was my mentality. Got to pay the rent today. What am I going to. What am I going to sell? How am I going to show up? And honestly, there's days that you don't feel like showing up and so the other great thing about having this reoccurring revenue, think about 3,000 orders in your boutique, Ashley. Like think about 3,000 orders. How long would that take you to pick, pack and ship 3,000 orders? We can do 3,000 orders in two days because it's the same thing. And so there are weeks out of the month where we work real hard. First two weeks of the month, we work hard. All the boxes go out between. We, we customize everything too because that's just a little wrench that I had to throw in there. But we have to personalize everything. Then we pack them in two days and then the rest of the week we're just prepping for the next box. We're selling a few game day things, you know, and I'm still having great sales in my shop because my customers are so loyal. They want everything I throw in front of them, but I don't have to throw anything in front of them if I don't feel like it because I know I already have their revenue for the next box. And that's the power of building reoccurring revenue in for our, our product based businesses. Like we have the ability to collect this reoccurring revenue. All we have to do is build something that they're going to love.

So true. I want to take it one step further. You mentioned this earlier in terms of knowing your numbers, your customer acquisition cost, when you know the lifetime value of your customer, you know how long they stay. Now you can plan how much am I willing to pay to acquire a customer to get them into my funnel.

And it's not. So I'm acquiring them for less than a one month price right now. Yeah. So I know I'm gonna break even probably on month one or two based on the profit margins. Right. And then the net, the rest, the other 15 payments I get are full profit. And so I, and that's the thing, that's the difference between one time sales. I, I have to acquire those one time sales every time. You only have to acquire a subscriber one time. And if you have a solid retention rate like I do, 94%, it means that they're staying for 17 months in my subscription. And so I'm really acquiring them for pennies on the dollar. For what? And not only are they staying for 17 months, Ashley, but they're buying repeat one time buys in my shop. Because in your box you might have a cute T shirt, but in my shop I got the cardigan that matches it. In my shop I have a bag that matches it. In my shop, I have a skirt that's going to go perfect with that. And I intentionally buy those items to match my subscription items so that it's an added experience. And all I have to do is do the unboxing. And now I've got, I've got all these things that match what's in your box. And my subscribers are going to buy that.

Love it. Powerful upsell. So that didn't happen overnight, the subscribers being that loyal to you. So we've got to talk about this. And, and really, this is the same at the Hub. Everything comes back to the power of community.

Yep.

Everything. You can sell anything as long as you have the loyal people who trust you and are in relationship with you to buy it. So what was it like for you to build that community from the start? And how do you maintain the loyalty in that community?

So it was hard for me because I'm not someone that likes to be on camera. I wasn't back then. I felt like I was too old, I felt like I was overweight. I felt like I didn't have a great self esteem. And so it was really challenging me for to connect. But what I realized is if I could just get people online to love me, like the people that walk in my front door, I'll have a conversation with anybody that walks in my front door. Right. I know about your kids. I know where you work because I'm in person with you. So I had to, like, I had to build relationships online in the same way. And the only way I could do that was going live. And so I really struggled with that. I would cry, I would overthink every outfit that I would put on before I went live. I would sit there and sweat for an hour before I hit the red button. Like, it was awful. But the minute I went live, I started connecting with people. And I was overweight. Like, I wear a size large. Like, I'm not a skinny Instagram model. But when I realized that people were seeing me in a size large and my highest subscription size was a large and an extra large, it meant that they related to me. And so I was like, I've got it. I was the influencer of my business and I didn't realize that I was showing up live. I was talking about the hectic morning I'd had with my kids. And here's some new stuff I've got in the shop. Here's a subscription box. And I would just talk once a week, 30 minutes. I'd show up live. I'd pick my five favorites of the week. I would show them on a mannequin. I would wear one of them, I would talk about the items, and boom, all those things would sell out. And it was just me having some morning coffee with people. And. And I didn't do fit videos because I didn't like my body. So I wasn't showing anybody past my, you know, my stomach down was not on camera. I was just showing up and talking. And that's how I built my audience. And I didn't have a private group. I don't have a private Facebook group. It was all front facing. I built my community in the public, and that allowed other people to see what was happening. And then I would do my box openings live and people are like, oh my God, that's so cute. I'm like, well, it sold out. Can't get it. It was exclusive. And so that built urgency for people to join. And then I built a wait list where I didn't have to physically launch anything for two years because my wait list was so large, because I was sold out month over month over month. Because I didn't overgrow too quickly, that I built this wait list. And I kept growing and growing and growing because I kept adding numbers and they would sell out from one email to a wait list in a few hours. And so and I would just show up and I'm like, welcome our new subscribers. And I would get more comfortable with myself and I would go get a blowout because I could never fix my hair the way I wanted it. And now I have the blow dry bar. I bought the blow dry bar and I built a membership in the blow dry bar because I love reoccurring revenue. So now you can come get a weekly blowout on a membership. So it's like one of those things that you just learn as you go. You don't have to be perfect when you start. You don't have to have it figured out. You didn't have it figured out when you started your boutique. I sure didn't have it figured out when I started my subscription box. And there wasn't anyone to learn from. There wasn't anyone that was teaching small businesses how to build this reoccurring revenue. We only saw it in 2017 from FabFitFun, Birchbox, Ipsy. Like, we only saw it from big players. Now we're seeing it from everyone. And I've had the pleasure of working with over 8,000 subscription box owners at this point. And we've learned so much that Helps people launch quicker, faster, and build that reoccurring revenue into their business.

I mean, it's life changing.

Life changing. Yeah.

It's amazing. I just love, like, again, the parallels because when you started, when I started, there was no one teaching any of this.

No.

And now you've built this incredible community of men, women, all working toward subscription boxes and freedom of recurring revenue. And when you look around the world today, I mean, look at Amazon's recurring revenue and Netflix is recurring revenue. Like, there's so many things that we live and die by in terms of subscription. So it's an opportunity for everybody.

And it just, it's, it stabilizes any more than anything that, like, that's the biggest thing about reoccurring revenue. I know I have money coming in to pay the bills. I know I have money coming in to give myself an income. I. I know I have money coming in to pay for employees. And that's something that can be so stressful when you're relying on hope I make sales today, hope I don't get sick tomorrow, and I can, you know, promote all of this thing like those life is going to happen through all of this. And 2020 is a perfect example. Built my subscription box in 2017. I had five employees at this point. By 2020, my brick and mortar gets shut down for. At that time, we didn't know how long, but it was down for about 45 days. And it's really hard in that moment to show up and sell when people are dying and the world is falling apart and we don't. There's so much uncertainty. Come buy my cute bag. Come buy this cute little tumbler while you're sitting at home. So I didn't have to do any of that because my subscriptions were on autopay. And yes. Did I have some cancellations? Yes, people were losing their jobs. I didn't know they were canceling things they didn't need. But that subscription paid my rent when I wasn't able to open the doors, it paid all my employees and it paid me during a time where things were so uncertain. And we think about what happens if I get sick, what happens if I get in a car wreck, what happens if my kids are sick and I can't show up? I have built this reoccurring revenue in my business that builds stability and reassurance that things aren't going to fall apart if I can't show up and pay the rent today or I can't sing for my supper today. Right.

Yeah. Oh, what a Powerful opportunity for sure. So I have a couple quick questions for you. I was just gathering last thoughts, a couple lightning round questions. If I give you two hours back in your day to work on just income generating activities, what do you focus on?

Ads and emails.

Ads and emails.

And emails. And I'm gonna. I call my email my ATM because you, like, type in a code and out comes money. Like every time it's my ATM and ads are the same way because I've really dialed in what it takes to sell with ads. And the visibility that ads provide you is like nothing else that you can do organically. You can jump through hoops, you can dance on TikTok, you can sing opera on your Facebook page if that's what gets people attention. But ads will give you 100 times more visibility than anything that you do and it doesn't require a ton of money.

Totally agree. So powerful. So powerful. Especially when you're talking about the numbers you are in terms of understanding what your lifetime value is and what you can pay to acquire a customer when you have a box. So, yeah, absolutely agree. All right, what is the unsexiest but most important process in your business?

Gosh. The unsexiest. Folding boxes. That is the unsexiest thing that we do. Folding the damn thousands of. I just said that on your podcast, please. The thousands of boxes. And just when you think you're done, it's time to do it again. So that would probably be the unsexiest. But it's totally necessary for us to ship them out. I think everything else aside from that's pretty fun. So. Yeah. Yeah.

Or I think even like our kids, like one of their core memories is going to be folding boxes because we used to ship out like all of our boutique bus planners. We used to do all of that in house, like a warehouse on our property. And now we have a 3 PL who does it for us but our kids. We'd be like, okay, guys, like invite your friends over. Like a pallet of boxes just arrived. And they'd be sitting there like folding pizza boxes.

And I would get, you know, texts.

From other mothers like, what are you. What are you doing? Like, what are the kids working on?

I'm like, they're folding boxes.

It's so nice to have their hope today. So, yes. Poor memory.

My kids have. Have folded boxes for a lot of years. And my daughter's 17 now and she works for me once a after school and that's her job. And she's like, my thumbs hurt, mom. And I'M like, get over it. You have to do it one day a week. Get over it. I love it.

So good. All right, what's been the best business advice you've received that always sticks with you?

I had a launch one time that went from me having 500 subscribers to over 1100 in about four days. And I was, I didn't have any more product and I wanted to shut it down and I was like panicking. And my business mentor, I reached out to him and I said, oh my gosh, I'm on day two of my launch, I gotta shut it down. I have. And at that time I probably had, I'd sold out like over a hundred of what I actually had. I don't know what to do. I don't know. I'm. And he said, stop. And I said, what? He goes, this is happening for you, not to you. You'll figure out the product, you'll figure out how to deliver, but let this happen for you and lean into it. And he sat there and he wrote me another email to send out while we were on the phone together. And he's, I, like, I don't, I want sending more emails. I'm shutting the ads down. Like, I'm, I'm. He's like, no, you're going to complete this launch in the six days that I had and you're going to lean into this. And I gained 1100 new subscribers in that launch period and I had to like scramble to get product. But it all worked out and it taught me a lot about leaning into things and keeping the momentum going. And if I would have shut that down, I would have lost all momentum going forward. And that set me up for my biggest year yet. That was my first million dollar year. And that's one of the best pieces of advice that I've ever gotten. And when I think I'm in a panic mode and I can't handle something, I'm like, it's happening for you, it's not happening to you. And I have to remind myself of that. So that's probably the biggest piece of advice.

I love that. That's great advice. Gosh. Well, Sarah, when you think about your, your life and your business and this journey you've been on, I've got one last question. And it, it kind of comes down to, right, the root of why we're doing what we're doing. So if you fast forward 30 years from now and you know you've got your family around you, let's say you're on the front porch. You're all hanging out together and you're just reflecting on this journey you've been on and telling the story of the life you lived. What's the thing that you really want your family to remember most about the person you are and how you live through this journey?

This is such an intense question.

I didn't prepare you for it.

I know. I think for me, and you kind of heard it in my. I don't want to show up live because I'm not confident in myself. Building this business has grown my self confidence more than any other personal journey I could have been on. And so I think that lean into what being an entrepreneur is for you because that has changed my life in so many ways. Not only financially and the financials have built freedom into my life. I'm not somebody that needs a giant company with a whole bunch of employees and all the things, but I live comfortably and I have a sense of freedom that I never thought I would have in my life. I can go and do anything I want at any time, and I get to build my schedule around that because of the reoccurring revenue. And it's built myself every challenge that I've had in the business. And there are fails. Like, there's so many failures in my years. Every failure has become an opportunity to problem solve. And that has built my confidence, not only personally, but professionally. And I think that that's something you don't realize as you're going through it. But when you look back at things like, I'm a completely different person than when I started in 2013. I am such a better version of myself because of the confidence that I grew through building a business, through really challenging times in our economy and in our world. But that's made me a better person. It's made me a better mom, better, you know, partner, a better business owner. And so I think that's what I would look back and, and, and say.

Oh, that's so, so true and so powerful. And everyone has the opportunity that's listening to lean into that wholeheartedly. So, Sarah, this has been awesome. Thank you so much for being on the show today. I've got to link up all of your information. Your box I see sitting behind you. Yeah, we'll get everything linked up in the show notes today and get people listening to your podcast as well. But this is so valuable. Thank you for your time.

Thank you for having me. And I just want every boutique owner listening to know that you can build reoccurring revenue in your business and just relax and breathe again because it's really possible even right now in this time we're having some of the biggest launches in our community that we've ever had.

Awesome. All right, we're going to get you guys connected. Sarah, thanks again for being here today. Appreciate you so much.

Thank you so much, guys.

I hope you love this episode with Sarah and learning all about framed her own subscription box but also her program launch your box. If you want to learn more about how to start a subscription box, how to grow a subscription box and have the freedom of recurring revenue, be sure to check out the show notes from today's episode because Sarah's limited enrollment is opening soon so that you can work with her directly on how to grow your own subscription box. So so head to the show notes. They're linked up everywhere. You catch this podcast plus across our social media and get ready to connect with Sarah and learn from her even more directly.