#814: Retail Summer Strategy: Do This to GROW Your Boutique!

Welcome to the Boutique Chat Podcast, where we're going to help you build a profitable, sustainable business without you having to sacrifice your profitability, your family, or your sanity. Each week we're going to dive into real conversations with retailers who have been exactly where you are and industry experts so you can learn and know exactly what to do next, all in community over competition. Whether you're just getting started or you're growing past an 8-figure business, you're in the right spot. So let's get into it. Welcome to this week's episode. Hey guys, welcome back to the podcast. We have a couch podcast for you today, and I'm so happy to be joined by the one and only retail professor, Sarah Burks.

Hello everybody, thanks for having me.

I love when we have these couch conversations.

Oh, me too.

In case you guys haven't seen, we have a whole series on Instagram that are Couch Conversations with Ashley and Sarah, so we're bringing it to the podcast today because we've got big things happening. So this will be a short and sweet episode, but yeah, we wanted to bring you guys kind of up to speed on the latest and greatest from the hub. Uh, but more importantly, we know that right now is one of the craziest times of year as a business owner. Yes, it's not December, but it's Maycember. It is the month that never ends as a business owner. And if you're also a parent, you're trying to do all of the things from the last minute graduations, teacher gifts. Track meets, like all the chaos of Maycember, but you're also trying to run your business. But what comes after Maycember is a break, right? You get into June and July, typically in retail these months are just a little bit slower unless of course you're in a resort town. And I think, Sarah, this is the best time of year to grow your business, to reinvest time back into your business.

It is. And I— a lot of times we'll see a business owner really want to take that break, and the The problem is that break is necessary, but if we let that break get away from us, all of a sudden we've missed some really big opportunity. And before we know it, summer's almost over and it's back-to-school season. And we all know back-to-school season is an enormous opportunity for small business owners. So this time of year, it's crucial for business growth.

Yeah, let's talk about like the best way to— I'll say like set aside and schedule time in the slower months, in the J months, so you reinvest in your business. What's like a, a sure way that you get this on the books and that you're actually investing time into rebuilding your business?

Well, number one, I mean, you've got to come to Summer School. The Boutique Hub, every summer, every June, the first week of June, we kick off summer with Summer School. And it's gathering together yourself, Ashley Alderson, and I, other members of our Boutique Hub team, and other students coming in to just learn, say, hey, like, what's going on? What's working? What's not? What do I really need to be focused on? And, you know, dedicate a little time for yourself, personal growth, as well as your business.

Yeah. Oh, definitely Summer School, and we're going to talk more about that in just a minute and what's in Summer School. Um, I'm going to add to that because I think that if you show me your calendar, you'll show me your priorities, right? So if you don't have dedicated time blocked on your calendar to just learning and testing, right? Like, AI is such a big thing right now, huge. But I feel like if you don't actually block time on your calendar to go investigate and then to to test it out and to implement it. It's just like another thing that you're saving the reel or, you know, you're downloading the video, but are you actually ever implementing it?

Oh my gosh.

So calendar, like saving on your calendar would be a big one for me. What else? Anything else?

It's a really big one. Um, yeah, definitely assessing, like auditing. What are you spending your time on? What are you spending your money on? That's— it's a really good time to kind of take a look and say, okay, we're almost halfway through the year. What's worked? What hasn't? Where's my money tied up? Where do I need to really double down in these next few months? And whether it's clearing out some inventory to make some more cash in your business, retraining some staff to be more productive, less of an expense, more of an investment, right? So really kind of taking a health check, an audit of you personally as well as your business right now, because we've put behind us a few really key months already in business, and, uh, it's, it's kind of crunch time to really capitalize on our next opportunity.

Yeah. I love that you said this earlier, but like this is kind of the last opportunity we have before back to school, which is the second biggest retail season of the year. And right after back to school, like we're right into all the holiday seasons.

Holy smokes.

If we don't prepare now, there's not gonna be time left in the fall to do it.

That's right. It just is, we all know it's a big blur. It just goes so fast.

Oh my gosh. Okay, well let's talk about summer school because literally that is the time we set aside a whole week for this. So if you can like block this in your calendars right now starting June 2nd, Uh, we'll be at 10:00 AM Central Time, June 2nd, 3rd, and 4th. And you're gonna be in the Zoom room with myself and Sarah.

Yeah.

Uh, do you wanna kind of walk us through what we're really gonna hit on in summer school?

Yeah, for sure. So the setting is literally we're in a Zoom room, so I'm gonna see your face, you're gonna see mine. If you wanna ask a question, you're gonna be able to, we're gonna call you out by name. I mean, it's awesome. Now if you wanna be a sleeper and leave your camera off, you, you totally can. However, yeah, but get the most of this time together and we wanna dive into your business to help you understand really like Where's my profit hiding? Where's opportunity hiding? We want to go through some different pieces of your business. AI specifically, you might think you're using AI, but are you really maximizing it? That might sound like kind of a wishy-washy word, but I would say, you know, we, we talk about wiggle words. Using feels like a wiggle word, right? You may have AI and prompt it, but that's not really maximizing it to the way retailers need to be going forward.. So we'll definitely be diving into that and dissecting products, sales, marketing, knowing your customer, all of those things to turn your business into a cash cow. Cash cow. Can I say cash cow?

Cash cow. Yeah, cash cow.

Yeah, yeah, for sure, for sure. And then we've got to tie in the marketing piece. We, we've definitely got to tie in that, you know, like making it all come full circle, right? Make you more money.

I love that. So really the foundation of Summer School is We teach the 6 layers of retail, which you guys have heard us talk about on the podcast before. So we'll dig into really the first couple of layers. We're gonna talk about really your customer, building a business that can operate without you. We're gonna talk about products, profitability, and we're gonna talk about marketing. But like you said, we're tying all of that back into how can you take the strategies and lessons we're gonna teach you in Summer School and then instantly go put that in your AI and have the AI help you work smarter and not harder along the way. So the there definitely is gonna be some actionable takeaways.

Oh, for sure.

That you're gonna get to do as homework each day during Summer School.

I think that's one of the things that the Hub has the best reputation for. We're not just gonna sit there and say, okay, Susie, this is what you should go do. We're gonna actually share some screen. We're gonna show you, we're gonna dissect some things and give you some step-by-step examples and demonstrate it. That's what I'm really excited about.

I love it. Yeah. Okay, we also have some big things to share at the end of Summer School. Summer School is always the beginning of our Retail Bootcamp season. This year it's going to be a little bit different. So if you're coming and you're like, I'm joining Retail Bootcamp this time, what should you be expecting?

Ooh, well, let's just say Retail Bootcamp is getting a complete new facelift, uh, restructure. And it's basically because we've been asked, and by so many of our Retail Bootcamp students.

Yeah.

And we've seen industry changes, we've seen retail change, and we don't feel good about just showing up for a few weeks a year and then letting you guys DIY things. That's not what we wanted to do. We want to actually like help you transform your business and implement what we're talking about. And one of the things we hear a lot of times in Retail Bootcamp is it just goes so fast. Well, we can't slow time down, but we can show up for you more. We can show up for you more intentionally. We are building out some workshops. We're building out more intentional deep dives into our class and our time together, still covering the 6 layers But for all of you guys that have listened and heard us talk and coach inside Retail Bootcamp and wondered like, hey, could we go into that a little bit further? Yes, we can, and we're going to.

So not only is there going to be 52 weeks a year of coaching coming up, but really Retail Bootcamp is changing. It's going to become a brand new separate product. It's going to be the same 6 layers you're familiar with, but like on steroids in way more detail. Year-round coaching plus a brand new AI dashboard that we're gonna get to show you during Summer School. Yeah. And there's a few special bonuses I think I'll hold. I, okay. You have to show up to find out, but we're gonna show you something completely new that we're so excited about, and you're only gonna get access to it, first dibs, best price, if you're on Summer School. So any last words on why to, to come join us this summer?

Well, I will just say for all of you guys that are like, oh wait, when did she say it was?

Yeah.

It is June 2nd, 3rd, and 4th. We start at 10 in the morning. We're gonna go about 90 minutes each day. And I know somebody right now is saying, oh crap, I got a dental appointment, or Oh crap, Johnny's got baseball. We get it. We understand. Go ahead and register anyway. Get your name on the list. We're gonna save you a seat and I promise we will send you the replay so you will be able to watch it while you're making dinner later those evenings, whatever. Don't let your personal life, whatever's on your schedule, get in the way of this information. 'Cause when Ashley says she wants to transform your business and she's like, let's go guys, this is our new mission. Yeah, we'll put it together. Right. And I'm super pumped about it. I'm super pumped about it. So no more DIYing. Get inside Summer School and see what we got for you.

And so that's right. Oh my gosh. We're moving from information to transformation.

Yeah.

That's like my motto for the year. So, all right, you guys, please join us during Summer School. I can't wait to see you there. Sarah, thanks for coming on the podcast today. Uh, you guys, I'll see you June, June 2nd, 3rd, and 4th on Summer School. Thanks for tuning in today, you guys.

Thanks, guys.

Hey guys, thanks so much for listening to this week's episode. If you found it helpful, please share it with a friend or feel free to subscribe. And I would always love it if you would leave a rating and review. Hey, if you want more tools, education, and just support, head on over to theboutiquehub.com. Or if you have feedback or episode ideas, DM me personally, @ashleyalderson on Instagram. Thanks so much for being here and listening to this week's episode. I'll see you next week.