#738 Pink Friday 2025: Why This Week Matters (and How to Make the Most of It)

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. It is finally here. It is Pink Friday week and I am so excited and I hope that you are listening to this episode. As you're driving in your car, you're setting up a balloon arch. I don't know, you're making your last minute plans to get ready for this huge week ahead. And I just want to say congratulations. Congratulations on making it to this week. This is the cross craziest, busiest time in retail. And you know this is super bowl season, right? Like this is the time where all of your hard work pays off. And I hope you have the most amazing week ahead for Pink Friday. And as we look forward to Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday, Giving Tuesday, all of the days in the holiday season. And before we get started, I, I want to talk about Pink Friday today. But I just want to start with this reminder of no matter what this season, I hope if there's anything that my team and I can bring to you, it's two things and it's the reminder that we just want to see your business bring profit and peace this year. We want to make sure as you're planning out everything over the next couple of weeks that it's profitable, that you're keeping the money that you make. And I want to make sure that you have the strategies and the systems and processes in place so that you've got some peace so that you can enjoy the season that you're in with your friends and with your family as well. So profit and peace this holiday season. And let's get into it, let's talk about Pink Friday specifically. So some of you know the backstory on Pink Friday. We launched this, gosh, this is the sixth year of Pink Friday. We launched it back in 2020 when the world was such a crazy world. And we were thinking, you know, we love Small Business Saturday. We love the idea of shopping small and that entire movement. But my beef with that whole movement became, you know, it's an afterthought. Shopping small comes after Black Friday and after people have spent the majority of their money with these big box stores. And so the team And I got to brainstorming. Okay, a lot of our stores that were in the hub were telling us they were already running open houses, they were having events the Friday before Black Friday. It was already something that was in their marketing mix, but it wasn't like a nationwide thing like the rest of these holidays are. And so we thought, well, our motto is community over competition. We want to bring all types of stores, no matter what they sell, from all around the world together to collaborate and, and in general, just to create more small business shoppers. The more the merrier, right? No matter who they're shopping. That's what community over competition is all about. So we came up with Pink Friday. Of course, hubs pink. And it's an eye catching color right outside of all of the red and the numbers and, you know, the colors for the rest of the holidays. But Pink Friday became the day where our entire industry could collaborate with one another. And really, more than anything, I wanted our industry to be able to share their story. So before the media tells us what we're going to talk about in terms of the big economic numbers and indicators on Black Friday, I wanted small business owners to be able to say, you know what, this is my story. This is how my business has been in the last year. Here's what's worked for me, you know, as an independent retailer on Main street or a small business owner selling on my website in the middle of Nebraska. No matter who you are and what you sell, I wanted you to own that story. And so Pink Friday became that opportunity. Hey guys. One of the most important things you can do to support yourself on your retail journey is to make sure you're a member of the boutique hub. Inside of the boutique hub, we really focus on four huge things for your business. Number one, community. So no matter how big, how small, how new, how experienced, or whatever niche you sell in, we want to connect you to retailers at your level who sell like products. So we're going to get you connected in one of our 14 niche Facebook groups so you can build community, ask instant questions, get answers, support and build friends literally around the world in the business. The second is education. So our on demand training modules, our training library, our Ask Ashley, AI bot, all of the weekly training we do live inside of our Facebook groups for members, our seasonal trend reports and so much more. Up to the minute helpful training built by experts just for you. The next is wholesale. It's so important to not only get the right products from trusted vendors, but also to save a little money along the way. So as a member of the Hub, we're passing along exclusive discounts from our partners just from for you when it comes to wholesale and you can connect with those partners in our Facebook groups at market from our showrooms on hubventory.com or anywhere else you are experiencing the Boutique Hub. Typically our wholesale brand partners are right there with us. And then finally we're all about the data and the exclusives and all the limited information that you're going to get inside of the Hub only. So from access to personalized meetups at markets, our trend reports, our member app, our resources, our 75 plus vetted service providers and the discounts that they are going to give you as a member of the Hub, our engagement graphic library and all of up to the minute marketing tips, tools and resources loaded right on your training library or on your membership app. So I hope you'll take a second to join us. Join us as an annual member to Save the most. It's literally less than a dollar a day. Plus as an annual member of the Hub, you're going to get access to our bestselling masterclasses and handbooks and just for you, added to your training library. So join us today. Less than a dollar a day to be an annual member of the Hub. Or if you'd rather pay monthly, cancel anytime. There's an option for you to do that too, so go to the boutiquehub.com backslash join-boutique so every single year Pink Friday is held the Friday before Black Friday. So shopping small first again before the big big box stores. So this year it is November 21st this week and it will continue to be on this cadence every single year. So this year, as you are getting ready, this week I know is going to be amazing. A couple of things I want to keep in mind as you're planning ahead. Number one, if you have not sent out all of your press releases yet or gotten in contact with your local media, I encourage you to do so again to tell that story of your business this year. And one of the best ways to tell that story is through the measure of your economic impact. So here's how that works. And the reason this is so near and dear to me, by the way, is before I started the Boutique Hub and many, many years ago, I actually worked in economic development and ran a small business Development center and Chamber of Commerce in a small town in North Dakota. And so I know the value of dollars turning in a local community like mine. And so this is where this number really comes from. Studies show that A dollar turned in, a local community turns seven times, right? So I spend the dollar at the grocery store. It, you know, funnels its way through my community seven different times before it goes somewhere else. You can't say that about the big box stores, right? When you're spending money online with Amazon or Shein or Temu or any of these other sites, that money, none of it stays local. 100% of it goes out the door. So again, telling your story as a small business owner, it's important to hammer home this number. So how you get your measure of economic impact is like this. You first start by adding up all of the payroll that you paid to your local staff this year. Again, you don't have to be a brick and mortar to do this. You can be online, you can have a warehouse. You're still contributing to your local economy. So how much payroll did I pay out this year? How much rent did I pay out this year? Or my mortgage interest, that's going to my bank, right? Those are all dollars generated locally. How much did I donate this year, both in cash and then in, in kind donations as well? How about how much money did I spend with other local businesses buying supplies or food. Food or drink. Or maybe it's a local accountant or attorney or some other local service, right? H Vac, right? Plumbers, all of those things. And then how much did I actually pay in local taxes this year? I add up all of those numbers, right? And I get one number for the entire year, and then I take that number and I times it by seven. Because all of those dollars, when they turn in my community, right, that's the first turn, when they come out of my business, they turn on average of seven times. So that great number times seven is the value of your business's local economic impact. So gather that number and again, if you haven't already told that story to your local media, send them an email, send them a text, follow up, be persistent and tell the story of being a small business owner this year. Yes, this year was a challenge, but it presented new opportunity as well. And I know that all of you have your own story story of how you shifted and pivoted and tried new things this year and what worked and what didn't. But most importantly, I'm sure you want people to know why you're in business and how you want to serve your local community, right? What it means to change women's lives, what it means to serve your customers, what it means to employ local team. All of that story is yours to share On Pink Friday. Another local or another special thing about Pink Friday this year that I want to make sure you're aware of, besides telling your own story, is this is a way for our entire industry to team up. Yes. In community over competition that can also give back to our industry as a whole. There's an amazing organization called Heart on Main street. And this year the Boutique Hub has chosen to donate $1 for every single store that's participating back to Heart on Main Street. Now our goal is to have about 10,000 stores participate around the world. And I'm hoping that works out so we can make a massive donation to Heart on Main Street. What Hard on Main street does is they look for stores that have been impacted by natural disasters, so hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, all those things. And they help donate money to get those stores back on their feet after that natural disaster. So together we're going to help impact several of our like businesses inside of this industry. So if you have not already shared your story or you have not told people to at least sign up on the Boutique Hubs website this week so they're on the Pink Friday map that we're going to be sharing with shoppers and that you can share with shoppers as well, where we can see all the stores participating we can shop with around the world. And so that you can get that local economic impact number out there and so that we can donate with Heart on Main street, please do so sign up if you haven't already for Pink Friday. Let your friends know, let your neighbors know. The more the merrier to collaborate with you. And this week, I hope you enjoy the process. Again, this is your week to tell your story. So from the entire team at the Boutique Hub and myself, we are wishing you an amazing week. We are so thankful for your business. We are cheering you on as you close this year out strong. And let's go get them. Let's have an amazing week ahead at Pink Friday. I will see many of you guys out there. I've got a bus here in Wisconsin. Sarah's got a bus. We have a bus going around in Texas. I hope some of your local community members rally around this event and get some buses going as well. All right, Enjoy the week, you guys. Can't wait to see it. You tag us on social media. I'll be watching all the feeds, but let's go get them. Have an amazing Pink Friday week. 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.