#744: The End-of-Year Checklist Every Retailer Actually Needs

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 and I can't wait to chat. Hey guys, it is you and me this week and we are going to talk about all the things that I know you're loving to get started on at the end of the year. Maybe you're loving, maybe you're not loving some of these things. We're just going to pretend like it's all the same because I want to make sure that you close out 2025 right and you are ready to bring in 2026. And now this episode is not all about goal setting and filling out your planner and all the pretty things that you want to do in order to set your Europe for success. It's actually about the behind the scenes things that your business needs for you to get done properly so that you're in compliance, you're ready to file your taxes, your books are in order, and your operations of your business are ready to run sound inside of the new year. So we're going to go through, let me see here, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 different areas of your business to make sure you're closing the year out strong and setting your new year up for success. Are you ready? All right, let's jump into it. First, let's talk about money and accounting. Some of the most important things you do right before you close out the year and head into a new one. And the first is if you don't already have access to a great accountant, somebody who understands retail specifically. This is very important. It's time that you start thinking about it right now. You see, there's lots of accountants out there in the world. There's lots of accountants who will tell you they know everything about small businesses and they specialize in small businesses. But retail businesses specifically that deal with inventory are a different type of business that not everyone is familiar with. And when you work with an accountant, it shouldn't just be someone you roll up right in, you know, beginning of April so that you can file by April 15 and get your taxes done. An accountant should be a strategic coach in your business. Somebody who could look at your business structure, how you're paying yourself, how you're paying your employees. How you're optimizing your QuickBooks account for cash flow and for tax purposes and understanding what expenses should really fall in line and where. And specifically before the end of the year, your accountant should help you understand what is your potential tax liability and what you can do to minimize or maximize that at that time of year before the new year starts. So make sure you've got that meeting scheduled with your accountant. You're looking at what your tax liability is going to look like and what you need to do to set your bookkeeping up for success. Now this might also fit directly in with making sure your mileage logs are filled out. So if you're somebody who's going to market and you're driving to the airport, or maybe you have a company vehicle and you're doing gas and not mileage, make sure you're having that conversation with your accountant as well. And you're maximizing the mileage deductions that you're allowed to take take per the irs. Now here's another one. Making sure your receipts are timely in order, categorized because you need to keep those files for seven years per the irs. So we use an app here at the Boutique Hub called File F Y L E. And this app allows our entire team, because we're all remote, all of our employees as they're traveling, to simply take a picture with their phone, upload that receipt to the app, and then it goes directly to Jenny, who does our bookkeeping and our accounting. So make sure you've got a system or a process of yourself, your employees, whoever is going to be, you know, managing, keeping the receipts in your business. You've got them all systematized and organized. All right, Last thing I want to mention is making sure you're really following up in your QuickBooks account on all of your receivables and payables from the year. Now you may have vendor credits from damaged goods that you receive throughout the year. What is your plan to go ahead and document those vendor credits? What is your plan on outstanding receivables? Are you following up with those outstanding receivables? What about any debt or bills that you have to pay? Make sure that you are closing the year out. You know exactly what your liabilities are, you know exactly where the money's going, you know what your assets are, you know any write offs that you have in relation to those assets and you are ready to start that year strong. When it comes to money and accounting and all of that, you're going to want to make sure that you have this on a list and ready to talk to your accountant about so, so that you can set that new year up right? All right, let's transition and talk not just about money and accounting, but let's talk about inventory and sales. So a lot of you, once we're getting like just a few days before the holiday season, have already started to think about running a year end inventory clearance sale. Now the reason a lot of you are doing this is because this is the time of year where you take a physical count inventory. At minimum, you want to do this twice a year. And there's a couple reasons you want to Number one, for some of you that have tax liabilities, you want to understand, okay, what do I have on hand for my inventory? What is the age of this inventory and what am I able to mark down, write off, donate, what do I need to do to keep this inventory as fresh as it can be on my books and what do I need to do if it's not fresh? You're also wanting to do an inventory because you're understanding, okay, where was there leakage in my business? Was there a theft, Was there inventory issues with my point of sale system or what happened in my business that maybe had some inventory disappearing in a way that it shouldn't have been disappearing? This year you want to make sure that those records are accurate so that you are ready to start that new year with success. So inventory counts are a huge piece of usually right at the end of the year or right into the beginning of the new year to make sure that you have everything accounted for. A lot of you are reorganizing warehouses or reorganizing your storefronts or updating systems and processes. So making sure you've got that inventory number on hand is important if you are somebody who's also thinking about starting the new year with a merchandise plan or working with an inventory planner or maybe you downloaded Delirious Profit or Better reports or a new app. You want to also have that inventory on hand so you can start to think about the age of the inventory, what your systematized markdown strategies are going to be, and how to set your new year up for success with an open to buy plan. All right, we're also going to want to make sure that we are updating any of our apps as it relates to inventory or any any other apps in our point of sale system or E commerce platform this time of year. I know I am guilty on some of our websites to have way too many apps that I'm actually not utilizing. There's a lot of hidden costs that goes into that, whether it's on Shopify or maybe it's apps that I have on my iPhone that I've been paying for and I totally forgot about. I think that there is a real strategy and an opportunity at the end of the year to go through all of our expenses and make sure if we are not using something that we either get to using it or or we get rid of it. So apps are a lot of extra hidden cost and I want to make sure you're aware of everything that you're paying for at the end of the year. Are you ready to kick off the new year right. I hope you will join me. It is my favorite time of the year. Q. New planners gel pens Trying not to Write like a 12 year old boy. That's what we do during the Best Year Yet Challenge. But better yet, we help you plan out your year from scratch. And we go far beyond just goal setting and the regular things that you put on the board that you say you're going to do but maybe don't do every single January instead. January 6th through the 8th for the best Year Yet Challenge, we're going to spend three days together, you and I, Sarah Burks, Jeff Fenn, our team here at the Hub, helping you map out real strategy for the new year, talking about what's actually trending and working right now across our industry. Everything from mapping out content, mapping out inventory, strategy, sales strategies, growing your team, or just making sure you have the systems and processes in place for you to be the CEO of your business this year and not just the hustling entrepreneur. Let's face it. I just want to make sure you have more profit and peace not only throughout the holiday season but all the way throughout 2026. So come join me during the Best Year Yet Challenge. It's completely, completely free. Members, non members, doesn't matter. If you're listening to this and you just want to start your year off a lot stronger, come and join me for the Best Area Challenge. All of the links are across our social media in our show notes. Be there or be square. Let's start this new year off right. All right, one other section. So we talk about inventory, we talked about money and finances. Let's talk about operations and operational expenses and getting that ready for the end of the year. So a lot of times at the end of the year, if you've met with your accountant, you've discussed if you have a tax liability, yes or no, kind of where you're sitting, some of you may be making some business related expenses this time of year, thinking about saving whatever that tax liability might be, getting those expenses on the books to minimize what your taxable amount might be. So for you, it might be thinking, okay, do I need a new printer or steamer or computer or what needs to go on my books this year after I've had that conversation with my accountant. There's a lot of places that are running clearance sales. One thing you might do to think ahead for next year is specifically on Black Friday. I use Black Friday personally, you guys, for a lot of business related expenses. So if I need a new computer or, you know, something for one of our showrooms, I'm doing that on Black Friday because I'm getting a great deal and I'm getting exactly what I need. So start thinking ahead. Now, whether you're going to buy it this year or you need to start making yourself a list for next year, you're also going to going to want to look at any recurring contracts that you have. This might be lease agreements, those of you in wholesale, it might be your showroom lease agreements, it might be some of your employment contracts or uh, with your payroll staff. If you're doing that outsourced, right through a third party, any type of subscriptions contracts, any of those ongoing expenses that we mentioned. This is the time of year to review and to think about what needs to be renegotiated for the new year. All right, the next area I want to hit on is just goal setting and planning and we're going to do so much of this, you guys, in the best year yet Challenge, if you are joining us live or if you're going to be catching the replay. A lot of the best year get challenge is going to be making sure we look backwards in order to look ahead. We're going to map out all of your your systems, your processes, your goals for the year, your word for the year, your vision board for the year. We're going to talk about all of your inventory planning for the year, all of your marketing and what's happening with Andromeda and how to set yourself up for success as a content creator in the new year. Because frankly, if you're a small business owner, you are now a content creator full time. We're going to talk about all of those things. But a few things you could start on right now. Whether you're on the best here yet challenge or not, I would want you to make a full list of just in review. If you have a notebook or a Google Doc or a Trello board, or your boutique boss planner. If this is what you're using to map out your year, go back and look at all those goals quarter by quarter. Right. If you did the EOS system like we did, you had annual goals and then you had quarterly rocks. Go through those in review and make yourself notes on what worked and what didn't work and what you would do different. Getting ready for this new year. Get yourself some good notes in a place where you can remember, come back to. They're documented. Because 12 months from now, you're going to want to look back on this. So what did you hit? What did you not hit? How do you want to plan different? And I think a really important factor of planning is not just, you know, what did I accomplish or what did I not accomplish, but honestly, how'd you feel, like, what resonated with you that you really focus in on this year and what didn't? And what are the things that you need to say no to this year in order to say yes to something else? That is a huge piece of this process. Then, of course, besides the business goals, I hope you have some personal goals, some health goals, some family goals, some faith goals, all the things that go with it. But I want you to think about the goals that you're about to set for the new year. And I want you to think about what are the leading and lagging indicators for those goals. And I'll give you an example. I talk about this a lot in Retail Bootcamp. So if we're going to set a financial goal for the new year, right. A sales goal that is a lagging indicator. A sales goal is of what I did in my business a month ago, right? The actions I took a month ago are what set my sales up for success or failure. And then the sales goal itself is just a lagging indicator of telling me, like, did I hit it? Did I not? So for every goal that you set, I want you to think about what is the leading indicator? What are the things that that are going to help me accomplish this goal that I can measure in real time to make sure they're going to help me hit this goal. So the boutique traffic formula, you guys, I talk about this all the time, so hopefully you have access to it. There's a free download you can use at the hub if you're in Retail Bootcamp, we literally talk about it weekly. But the Boutique Traffic formula asks yourself this question. What is my goal for this period of time divided by my average order value and that gives me how many transactions I need. I then take how many transactions I need and divide that by my average conversion rate in store or online, just one or the other. And that tells me how much traffic I need. So now, in order to say, okay, this is my sales goal, I want to make a million dollars. Now I can actually say, okay, well, how much traffic do I need on a daily basis in order to get there? Or what does my average order value need to be and be maintained at in order to get there? So now, every single day, I have a leading indicator that is going to help me get to the goal that's coming 12 months down the road. So it's kind of like goals and objectives, right? So for every goal that you're setting for yourself, getting to the gym. I want to get to the gym three times a week, right. In order to maintain my health goal. Well, that's great, but that's a lagging indicator. So the leading indicator of that would be, okay, did I, did I schedule time in my family calendar? Did my husband and I coordinate our schedules so that I'm able to do that? Like, can he drop the kids off in the morning so that I can get to the gym? Did I get a gym membership? Like, is that ready? Did I have a habit? Or do I have it in my calendar to set my gym clothes out the night before? Do I need to clear appointments? Or make sure my team knows I'm not going to be coming into the store for 30 minutes until after I get back from the gym? Like, what are the things you need to do in order to set yourself up for going to the gym versus just saying, I'm gonna do it. But then you never actually scheduled any time for it. The same could be true for our faith life, our prayer life, how we wanna be showing up as a wife or as a mother with our family. Maybe it's cooking at home or maintaining a healthy lifestyle. It's one thing to make the goal, but it's a whole nother to say, what are the leading indicators, the things that I can do ahead of time that are gonna set me up for success, to actually reach the goal, right? So think about that as you're planning your goals for the new year. Now, I would also make sure that I'm looking at a couple of other big pieces of content for the new year. So as I am setting up my new year and I'm looking at all of my marketing goals, right? My marketing goals are going to lead directly into that sales goal. If I want to make a million dollars, I know I need this much traffic. Now I'm going to look at what is the marketing need to be in order to get me there, how much content do I need to create? On what channels am I going to create it because they're proven to be the most successful for me. Right? Google Analytics tells me this is where my traffic is actually coming from. What are the sales or the events or the promotions or the launches or the collections that things that performed great in the last year that I'm going to double down on and that's what I'm going to work on this year. So again, leading indicators, these are the things I know that I can focus on, that I can get ready, get in place that are all going to help me push to that big million dollar goal or whatever the sales goal is going to be for our business. So coming into best year yet, you guys, it would be super helpful if you thought about that. Yes, these are my goals, but these are the leading indicators in order to help me get there. All right, a couple of other last minute random things I want you to think about. We had talked about contracts a minute ago and one contract you're probably going to be reviewing at this time of year is your insurance contracts. So making sure you've gone around and a few times a year you are videoing your space, you're taking photos of your space so that if anything ever happened to you, right, like caught on fire, there was a flood, you know, some other natural disaster, you have document like recent documented proof of what was in your space. So making sure that is something that's set up on your calendar, making sure your employee reviews are set up on your calendar. These are things you can do this time of year, but you should have a recurring calendar invite for yourself, making sure that you have some space on that calendar for your quarterly planning sessions. Again, it's great to sit down and do an annual planning, goal setting, all the things you're working on now, but the truth is every single quarter of the year, every 90 days, you've got to get back in there, review what's working, review what's not, and reset that direction. And those goals for each quarter, they're going to help you get to those big overarching annual goals. And then I want you to think about who are you surrounding yourself with in the new year. Your mom probably said this, my mom definitely said this. And it was you are who you surround yourself with. And so as you march forward into the new year, I want you to ask yourself that question one more time, Am I surrounding myself by people who are big thinkers, who are big dreamers, who are also going after big goals just like I am? Or are these people doubters? Are they gossipers? Are they negative? Are they actually holding me back from my goal without me actually knowing about it? So in the new year, I want you to make a list of who are the biggest growth minded friends that you have. Right? There's three types of friends. There's growth friends, there's maintenance friends, right, we maintain them. Sometimes it's family, but they are our closest people. And then there's old friends. And those are the ones that we need to let go of spending time with. So old friends, maintenance friends, growth friends. Who are my growth friends going to be in the new year that are going to help hold me accountable, to be the best version of myself and help me achieve those goals? And you guys, if there's anything I can please ask you for in the new year, it is that I want to be your growth friend. I want to be your growth friend. I have got through business for so many years, both in the community of amazing people, but there was also times throughout these many years where I felt very lonely or I didn't have the right support system around me. And so if there's anything I would love to be for you, it is that support system. And maybe that's just by you checking in on the podcast. And if I can pour into you one week at a time, I would love to do that. But more than the podcast, you guys, I would love to see you in person at the Boutique Summit or in any of our showrooms, at Market or especially inside of our membership at the Hub where I hang out each and every day in our team goes live every single week. I want to be your growth friend. I want to surround you by the right type of people in community over competition and get you the latest strategies you guys to help you grow your business this year. So make that list, set those goals, set up the leading indicators, run through the boring inventory and money checklist. Yes, I know it's not always the fun stuff you see on Instagram, but it's the necessary stuff. And remember, it's not always about the big goal or the biggest shiny, amazing content we're putting out there on Instagram or the external validation that we get from social media and business. But it's often the systems and the processes and the quiet moments and the things that no one really talks about in business that are actually setting us up for the most success. They say that you don't rise to the level of your goals, you actually fall to the level of the processes that support them. So if there are no processes, if these things are not established, it's hard to reach those huge goals. All right, you guys, I am so pumped for you to march into this new year arm in arm together with us and our team here at the Boutique Hub. Thanks for listening to this short podcast today. I hope to see you on the best here yet challenge. And more than anything, I hope to see you inside of our community at the Boutique Hub anytime in the new year. I am wishing you all the best. Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Happy New Year and thank you for trusting us with your business here at the Boutique Hub. All right, I will see you guys next 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.