Episode #217: Boutique Owner Myths Debunked with Ashley Alderson and Sara Burks

Hey, it's time for episode 217, and we are covering all of your common boutique owner myths debunked today. Get ready to hear from Sarah Birx and myself as we hash it out about the summit and one of our favorite breakout sessions. Let's talk about your business strategy and the juicy details of what actually works, from mainstream fashion to fashion on Main street and the entire ecosystem behind it. How do we scale your company and do it with the balance and the happiness that we all seek? Let's hear from those insiders, experts, and strategists that actually make it happen. I'm your host, Ashley Alderson from the Boutique Hub, and I can't wait to chat. Hey, guys. Welcome back to this week's podcast. Today I am joined by a very special guest, Sarah Burks, who is our director of partnerships and education at the Boutique Hub. And if you have been a part of the Hub for any period of time, or if you've been through our signature program, Retail Boot Camp, you know that we also refer to Sarah as the Retail Professor.

Oh, wow. You're such a bucket filler, Ashley. Jeez, I'm not even.

I think Ed came up with that name.

He did, yes.

Yes. But it's true, right?

Well, I don't know. I mean, I've been in retail for a long, long time, so I guess I feel like I am able to spread my wealth and knowledge of things to not do in the world of retail. That has made me the Retail Professor. But, yeah, I've learned a lot of lessons along the way. I love it.

So for those of you who don't know, Sarah, the cool part, tell us a little bit about your store that you had before you came to the Hub, because I think it's so unique, the background and perspective you bring.

Yeah, well, I started in retail back in 1993, just a few years ago, and brick and mortar store in a very small town, rural Wisconsin. I worked there in high school and eventually became an owner of the store. And yeah, it was a very large women's boutique that catered to women of all ages, sizes, and they came from all over. And anyway, we learned a little bit about absolutely everything working there, doing bra fittings to, you know, fitting people for dresses for their funeral, things like that. I mean, just a little bit of absolute everything. Obviously, we had a lot of fun while we were there too, but learned a lot about people, a lot about strategy, a lot about coaching, a lot about, you know, what works and what doesn't. And yeah, over the years, I saw a lot of trends come and go. I saw a lot of customers come and go, staff come and go, and those are all lessons you learn along the way. So, yeah, Ashley brought me on here to the Boutique Hub in 2017, and I've been able to instill a lot of those lessons and, yeah, help people implement different strategies within their business to help them along the way.

I love it. And the cool part about it is, not only were you in retail, but both you and your husband have been coaches.

Yeah.

And I think that that's what makes you the retail professor, is this ability to teach people what not to do.

Well, you know, that's funny you say that, because sometimes we can make it super difficult. And the truth is, a lot of these things are just pretty common sense. We might have even learned this in kindergarten, but we get so busy along the way and we make it difficult on our. And, you know, when we really get down to it, it's treat people the way you want to be treated. That goes for your customers as well as your staff, and there's strategy involved with it as well. But making buying decisions, making all your markdown decisions, things like that, a lot of it is common sense. We just have to take time to really put it all together. And, you know, through coaching different kids, you know, from youth to college age, you know, you have to learn how to motivate them a little different. Same with your staff and same with your. Your customers that come through the door, they're all different. And being able to pick that out of a person's. A person's personality right away and capitalize on that, that takes a lot, a lot of time. Thus, the 20 years of retail experience I bring to the table.

There you go. Well, this is the game plan for today. So I know some of you were able to join us at the Boutique Summit, and you got to hear Sarah speak firsthand. But one of the breakout sessions that we had was called Retail Owner Myths Debunked. And this comes from all of our time in retail boot camp, working with hundreds, many of you boutique owners, and hearing your struggles and what works and just giving you that complete step by step guide of here's how you grow your business, starting with you from within, all the way up to your team and merchandising and marketing and everything that comes along with retail online or off inside of retail Bootcamp. So we wanted to give you some of the things that we shared in that breakout session on the podcast today.

Absolutely. Yeah. And, you know, a Lot of this comes from, you know, when we talk to different store owners, they. They tell us their why, and they tell us why they got into this business and what they were hoping to accomplish and some of the myths that they thought, you know, were going to be reality along the way. And that. Yeah, absolutely. That helped us develop the retail bootcamp. Also, you know, what we were talking about at summit, and it's just such good, solid information, no matter where you are in your journey of your business. Because sometimes we need to go back to the playbook. We need to just go d that thing off and go back and start with our why and look at what we really made ourselves believe was going to happen versus the reality.

Absolutely. And that's what retail bootcamp is. So we'll give you more information about that in a little bit, but let's just get into the meat of it, shall we?

Absolutely.

All right, so I'm going to read the myth, and then you debunk it.

I will debunk the myth. Yes.

Not to be confused with dunk.

No dunk, no debunk.

Debunk. Okay. All right. Myth number one. Your friends will support your business.

Oh, gosh. I mean, guys, how many times have we heard this that, you know, you're sitting around talking with your girlfriends, you're like, oh, maybe I'm thinking about opening a boutique. And they're like, oh, my gosh. I'd love that if you did that. You wear such cute clothes, and I love your style. You should totally do that.

Right.

Next thing you know, you are taking out a line of credit or getting another credit card or whatever you're going to do, and you're going crazy starting this new boutique. And then all of a sudden, you're like, wait, where are all my friends? They said they were going to buy from me, and. And, you know, they're not showing up. And the truth behind that is, you know, you have to really be concentrating on the full reason why, like, who is that customer? Why do they need you? What problem are you solving for them? Why will they vote for you with your. With their dollars? Because you can't spend people's words. You can only spend money. You know?

Right.

That is the income coming into your store. And you cannot support a store on words. You have to have those sales to support it, and you have to be. You have to be true to your mission on why you started, who you're solving the problem for, what you're going to be accomplishing with your business and just creating a place for Your friends to go. That's gonna. That life cycle's not long. You know, there's that. That's just not sustainable, because I don't know how many friends you have, but it takes a lot of. A lot of income to keep a business afloat. So unless you. When you say you're friends with the entire city, maybe, but really, truly, you cannot just start a business on your friends saying, oh, I'll support you, because they won't.

You know, one other thing I want to add to that is something I heard Brendan Burchard say and I thought was so wise, but he talked about how you have three types of friends.

Ah, yes.

You have old friends, you have maintenance friends. And I would say also that's where family sometimes falls in. Right. Because they don't always support you either, just like your friends. And then you have growth friends. So, you know, when your mom told you as a kid you are who you hang out with, and you wanted to, like, beat her over the head because you're like, mom, I've got excellent friends. We're making great choices in high school, which was such a lie. It's so true. Your mom was right. So it's really important that you find a community that lifts you up and supports you and that has your back. And your friends won't always understand what it's like to be an entrepreneur. It's such a roller coaster.

Absolutely.

So find growth friends who know where you are, but more importantly, know where you're going. And aren't the people that are going to hold you back.

Absolutely. And, you know, along that way, you know, for those of you that have gotten into the business and you've been maybe a little bit surprised about those friends that have, like, turned their back on you along the way, you know, envy and jealousy and that. That's. That's really out there. Obviously, that exists. And you have to prepare yourself for that as well when you go into business, because there's gonna be those people that stood by you and said, absolutely, go for it. And then all of a sudden, they're not there.

Yeah.

And that's a hard thing to deal with personally. And it makes, you know, it hurts your feelings when you know they're shopping somewhere, but they're choosing not to shop with you. Y. That's a whole nother psychological thing that you need to deal with when you go into business, because that will happen. Family as well.

Absolutely. They'll shop on Amazon or they'll tell you they're going to open a boutique themselves.

Yeah.

Both of which you ignore.

Yeah. You show up at your, you know, the picnic or whatever, and you're like, oh, Susie, that's really cute. Where'd you get it? Oh, yeah, Well, I got that at the store down the street, or I got it at Amazon for an amazing price. You know, I would shop with you, but your stuff's a little expensive, you know, so you have got to get pretty big shoulders and figure out, you know, how you're gonna deal with those kind of things, too, because, you know, you'll take it back then to last year at that same family picnic when Sally told you, oh, yeah, totally start your boutique. I'm totally gonna buy with you.

Yeah, exactly. All right. Myth number two.

Yes.

Is that loving the art of retail is enough to succeed, and I would say more like loving the art of fashion. Like, I love clothes, and I'm so great at picking them out. That's enough to succeed in business. Right.

Right. And I think those of you that. And those of us that have done seen that and that myth is debunked personally within your office within the first couple months.

Right.

When all of a sudden, all that. Those pretty things that you've purchased along the way, they've arrived, they're up in your store on your website or whatever it is. But then shortly after that, those bills come in the mail, and that's when you realize, oh, my gosh, there's a whole other side of this monster that I've created that now I need to, you know, I need to tend to, because it's. It's taking over. And that's the number side, the science side. There is no easy way to go about that in business. And you dang sure not close the door on it and just lock it in a room and think it's going to go away. It's not. It just continues to grow and grow and grow, and it'll eventually eat away at the pretty side, and it eats away at you emotionally as well. And that just, you know, that trickles down to your entire business, and your energy level depletes everything. So just going into business because it's cool and it's fun and it's pretty. That only lasts so long.

Yeah. And to add to that, boy, it's easy to say, I'm just not a numbers person. Yeah. Or my husband's a numbers person, or I have an accountant, and I just ship them my shoebox of receipts every month. The more you put off truly digging into and understanding your numbers, all numbers, inventory, turn classifications you know, all of the things, the more you put that off and put off creating an open to buy plan, all these things, the more you're just, you know, shortening the amount of time you're going to be in business.

Yeah, I am.

Inevitable will come.

It does. And when it comes, it's embarrassing because, you know, a lot of times we have business owners that they're like, eventually they reach that point and they'll say, I'm embarrassed to say this, and then whatever follows basically just stems the fact that they ignored their numbers and these are problems that could have been solved along the way. They just kept putting these little pretty band aids all over, you know, their business and like, oh, patching this, patching that. But pretty soon the seams bust it. It falls apart. And it falls apart in a really harsh way. And the truth is then not only does it affect you, it affects your staff, it affects obviously your community, it affects your family, your marriage. Your marriage, absolutely everything about it. You feel like you're completely alone. However, owning up to it and being like, look, I'm a rock star at merchandising, I'm a rock star at inventory and buying as far as knowing what my customers are going to want. But I do not bring a lot of skill sets to the table when it comes to reading a P and L or understanding my inventory turn or, you know, getting prepped for market to actually even know what my classifications are, where I'm strong, heavy, things like that. So maybe, you know what, I'm just going to own this and I'm going to really go out and reach out and find a bookkeeper that can help me with this, open a buy planner that can help me with this and just own that and do what you do best and hire the rest. And we do say that a lot in Bootcamp and at the Hub in general. But the truth is, we wear a lot of hats as women. Some are really look good in, some we don't. And, you know, that's fine. But a true business owner has got to own that and be real about it and honest. Because if you're not, and I wasn't for a long time in my business and you guys, that scared me. And it changed my energy level within the store and it changed how I communicated with my staff. And all of a sudden my staff was afraid. My staff was stressed because I was stressed. They were worried about not making enough sales, but they didn't really know what they needed to be doing. They just knew they needed to try to make Me. And it was because I was scared, because these numbers were growing and growing and growing, and I felt like I was getting out of control, but I was still mute to them. I was not bringing anybody else into this journey with me, and I carried it all on my shoulders. And anyway, once you kind of have that bottom moment where you're like, okay, crap. Get your crap together and own this and do it right, that's when you can start breathing again. You know, that aha moment is like, all right, fine. You know, it does take an army to raise a child. It takes a lot of people to run a successful business. It really does. Yep.

All right, myth number three. Price is everything.

Oh, my gosh. That is so common. But it's not, you know, to make those assumptions about your customer that you just assume that they won't spend more than $50 on this. You know, that's. That's pigeonholing yourself into a business that you're. It's a myth. It just simply is you making assumptions out of anything just makes an ass out of you and me. And basically, to say nothing's going to be over $50 in my store and market it that way in 2018 or 19. Can you really hold up to that in 2025? No, it's not possible. But if you're doing it because, like, price is everything, well, $50 today is a hell of a lot different than $50 next year or five years from now. Right. But if you're making that assumption that I'm going to sacrifice quality for price, all of a sudden you've assumed that your customers don't want quality. Well, you know what? If you really listen to them and you really listen to the problem that you're solving for them, quality is a big part of it, because everybody has a limited amount of time. We all have the 24 hours in a day. But what we spend with it, doing with it, you know, we're busy people. So to go and invest that time, to go shop for something that's going to turn around and fall apart tomorrow just because it might have been $25, that's a waste of time. And a lot, Especially moms, you know, a lot of times, people, especially this generation, too, I think people are really looking at quality. You know, that price is important to a lot of people, but it is not, number one.

Yeah, we talk a lot about wear per. Number of wears.

Yes.

Per product.

Yes.

And that makes a huge difference, you guys. We've all been there where we've bought a, you know, $20t shirt and then that piece of crap fell apart after the first wash. Yeah. Or shrunk or whatever. What a waste. And now your brand is associated with that in that customer's mind. And, and man, if you could just think about educating the customer on the front end of here's how many times you could wear and wash that product. You're going to spend $40 but you're going to wear it five times as long. Again, that's a no brainer.

Again solving that problem. You know, if, if somebody comes in to buy something and they know that they are going to get multiple wears out of it. Perfect. They know they can launder it. Perfect. I mean how many times do you pick up something right now and you're like, ooh, I don't know if I could actually put that thing in the washing machine.

Yeah.

You know, I don't care how, how much it costs. But if that's the first thing that's, that makes me afraid to wear it then, you know, it's just, you make assumptions on it for your customers and you assume what is fitting in their lifestyle. Right. Stop talking, stop making assumptions and listen. You know, what is it? You have two ears and one mouth. So double the amount of listening you're doing to your customer versus tell, you know, and saying, oh no, price is important. So hey, I haven't priced this more than 50 bucks so it's affordable to you. Well, that's an ins, you know, and yeah, price is not everything. Quality is huge. And anyway, before we, if we all want to be so like it's got to be cheap, it's got to be cheap. Which that word is just ridiculous. And affordable too. Right, We've said that also, you know what is affordable? That's a blank. That's just a wiggle word really. But there's no reason the, you know, the truck stop on the interstate, they're gonna out price you, you know, and that's not who you want to compare yourself with.

No.

You know, as a graphic tee or whatever it is you're wanting to do, you know, you do not want to compare yourself by price because you can always be beaten.

Yeah. Walmart customers are not loyal. They will always find it cheaper somewhere. And if that's what you're gonna hang your hat on, you won't have customers very long. But people want to do business with people.

Absolutely right.

So how are you gonna stand out? I also think about this as like a really good example of the whole numbers thing because this starts as a Numbers problem, right? Being ignorant to your numbers and saying, if it's cheaper, I'll sell more, but really not understanding your sell through or your margin or whatever. But if you understood the numbers on the front end and you understood your price, now you let the numbers speak to you on the creative side of things, now you can go, okay, since I'm educated on my numbers and what this price needs to be and how I need to drive value, now I can market that way right Now. I show up differently in my Facebook lives and in my Facebook ads because the words I'm speaking are more educated about driving value versus driving price.

Driving price, absolutely. Yeah. That is very, very true. Very true.

All right, myth number four. They aren't buying what I have, so I'll give them more options. I'll just get another credit card.

Oh, my gosh. For sure. And that is. That is very common. And you're thinking, oh, man. Well, you know, they're not buying this because of whatever the reason, you know, I. But there, I'll just go get them more things. I'm gonna jump back on the Internet and I'm gonna have a new delivery sent tomorrow, and I'm basically gonna kind of forget about this other stuff. Well, no, the. The first thing first is if they're not buying it, ask yourself why every buying decision, every markdown you make, every time you have something sit there on your shelf that's not moving, warehouse or brick and mortar store, in your store, whatever it is, you need to sit back and ask yourself, what did I do wrong? Is it the wrong color? Is it the wrong fit? Is it the wrong price? Is it the wrong season? What is it about this item that made it not sell? And who do you ask? Obviously, you ask your customers when you ask them why they decided not to buy that, you know, if they were took it in the dressing room and it sits there. But they also have to go back and ask your employees, like, what do you know about this? Please try this on. You know, if you have three different employees and they're all three different body styles, everybody please go try this on. Tell me what the deal is. There's something to be learned about everything. Now, if you're just quick to just like, ah, nope, nobody liked it. Which. That doesn't tell you anything. And just buy something new. You cannot figure out where your mistake was. You can't figure out what you did wrong to reinvest it for the future, Right? And also, you know, a lot of times people just get lazy and stop reinventing it stop re. Merchandising it, stop reshowing it. And what happens is you get left over with all this inventory that's tying up your cash. Because we also say you cannot spend inventory, you can only spend cash. So all of a sudden your next thing you need is a new credit card and a new box of hangers because you've ran out of hangers in your dang store too, because nobody's buying that stuff. So we better get more hangers and get more inventory and give them a better selection. And I think the other part of that is I'm going to use a TJ Maxx. I go in there and I get anxiety because there's so much to look at, same as a kid on Christmas morning, that grandma and grandpa and aunts and uncles bring them all these toys and eventually you're sitting there having your breakfast and you look over and the kid is playing with the flipping box in the corner because they're overwhelmed. There's just too much to choose from, right? Yeah. And a lot of times as a store, a boutique owner, whether it's on the website or again in your brick and mortar, if you're giving them too many options and there's just too much to choose from, it turns them off. It's a psychological thing where, you know, if I see one shirt and there the store is giving me an option of eight colors, my first thought is, why the hell are there still eight full runs of colors sitting here? Nobody likes this. I ain't, Nope, I don't want it. You know, if you show me a couple of them, oh, awesome. I'm into it. But a lot of times, you know, we're just quick to assume, oh, nope, they didn't like it. Let me order more. And you get in such a financial crisis with that because you're tying, you're investing in things you just, you've put no thought into. Really? Yeah.

So just something that you mentioned I just want to come back to and highlight is that idea of what is your strategy when it comes to restyle, reshoot and repost and then what's your markdown strategy like? You have to have both of those pieces put together and a good inventory management system. So, you know, like, how dated is this product? What is my typical sell through, what can I expect? So I know when I can start that restyle, reshoot and markdown strategy because.

Then it also helps you with that vendor, like, we call it like a vendor report card, you know, hey, is the majority of the items that are Sitting there. That's not selling from a specific vendor. Well, duh. Next time I go to order, let's not order from them. Or maybe I just. I kill it in their bottoms, but their. Their tops don't fit my customer. Okay. So, you know, adjust your strategy that way, you know, and go back and look again. Did I just bring it in at the wrong time or. Crap. Did we forget to showcase this? Did we bring this in and nobody posted about it? It didn't hit our social media channels. Oh, my God. It's on the 19th page of our website. Well, duh. That's the kind of stuff. But so quick to just be like, look at your rack and think, oh, well, nobody's touched that. Let me just reorder something else. Yeah, that is that. That's a quick thing that, you know, to definitely debunk that. Because, you know, if you're wondering where your cash is, look around. There it is. It's hanging there.

Yeah. And a lot of that we cover not just in retail Bootcamp, but the new Content Sanity Masterclass is all about how many times can I maximize that product and not just take a picture and waste the picture with one post on Instagram, but use it 10 different ways?

Absolutely.

All right, myth number five. I want to own a boutique so that I can have a flexible job.

Oh, right. I bet you want to own a boutique so you can take off whenever you want and you can just. Yes. It's just so flexible. No, it isn't. It's 24 7. Especially with social media anymore. I mean, it used to be back in the day, back in the 90s, I would go in, I put the key in, I'd open the door, turn the lights on, business hours, we're done. Put the key back in, close the doors, go home. Business is not happening until tomorrow. Not anymore. And the truth is, to debunk this even further, you don't just work for. You're not your own boss. Like, right. You're not. It's just you're not the leader of everything. You actually work for everybody. You all of a sudden have put yourself in a situation where you work for the bank, you work for your spouse, you work for your customers, you work for your employees, you work for your community. They all have you. You're like a puppet where you are trying to juggle absolutely everything and keep them all happy. So the word flexible, I don't. That. That's. That's hard. It's hard to take time off as a business owner. It's Hard to get out of the store and go to market. It is not a shut the lights off, turn the key off, or turn the key and walk away, because those orders come in, those Facebook messages come in. You know, the website goes down all sorts of different things that happen 24 hours a day, seven days a week. So you have to be super, super flexible to everybody.

Right? So it kind of comes down to mentally that can eat you alive. Right? You can be so overwhelmed with everything where you are a puppet, like you said, that you never end up taking time for yourself. And now your health is suffering, your relationships are suffering, your business is suffering. Right. Because you're gonna have burnout really, really quick. So how do you make a choice in your business? Right. It comes down to literally making a productivity choice of, this is what I'm gonna work on. I'm gonna be a CEO. And here's what I'm gonna outsource, and here's my expectations for what I'm gonna outsource so that you can have a life somewhere.

Absolutely.

Right. It's not easy, obviously.

I mean, and to get the recipe right. And it takes practice, but it is. It is worth it when you get it figured out. And it takes time, but it is not to say nobody going to retail, you know, but it's hard. It is an extremely hard business to survive in and be successful in. It takes a dedicated person. It takes that mindset, and it does. Going back to what we talked about earlier, you know, know where your strengths are, know what you're bringing to the table and what you're really gonna be awesome at, and then outsource some of the rest of that stuff. Surround yourself with a team that can help build you up and, you know, help take some of those things off your plate, because life does not stop outside of your store either. And, you know, everybody's busy. Dang it. I. And I'm gonna blame that on smartphones also. Yeah. You know, everybody is busy. So to think we are the only busy people. Retailers. That's wrong, too. Yeah.

Truth. All right. I like the debunk.

Debunk.

Myth number six. Blanket sales are easy and customers love them, so they must be a good idea.

Again with the easy. Yeah. Let's have a sale. That stuff's not moving. So let's just do an entire 25% off the entire store.

Right.

That took me five seconds to type in my social media channels. I made one sign. Stores on sale. Life is good. Well, not really, because, you know, as I like to say in retail, Bootcamp, basically, then what you're doing is you're discounting the diamonds, and the crap still sits there.

Yeah.

You know, and you don't want to do that. You want to figure out what needs to be moved, how a strategy to make sure people are focusing on that. And you're moving that out of this, out of your store, out of your inventory right now, turning that into cash now. Because all your merchandise has a life cycle. And, you know, sometimes. Sometimes things are nearing that end of the life cycle, and you need to move them. But don't go ahead and get lazy and then move out the things that UPS just dropped off yesterday.

Yeah.

And, yeah, it's easy to do that. It's, like, brainless. It doesn't take a lot of effort. But at the same time, your bottom lines are in a really, really struggle. And every markdown you make, you need to be educating your customer why you're doing it. So when you're doing an entire markdown of your whole store, that's basically telling the customer, hey, don't wait or don't. Don't buy it now. Pretty soon, they'll do an entire store sale, and so they can just wait.

Yeah.

So that is that laziness turns into confusion for your customer, and it just really does hurt the bottom line. And everything we do, every decision affects a number somewhere along the line, and blanket sales are huge.

You know, kind of goes right into myth number seven, which is Black Friday is the best retail day of the year.

Yeah.

Because this is what most people do. And then they go, well, my sales were great, but all they're looking at is what was my gross revenue for the day? But are you really looking at what was my margin?

What did it cost me to make that? Yeah.

And did you make money or lose money after paying staff and everything else? Because you aren't really tracking the discounts that you're taking. Absolutely.

Yeah. And, you know, along that line, we don't talk. We haven't talked yet about staff, really. But right there. How much staff did you bring on to prep for the Black Friday sale, to work the Black Friday sale? So fast forward 30 days later when you or whatever it is you write out that paycheck, all of a sudden you're like, holy crap, that was a lot this month. Well, yeah, it was. Because you prepped for what you thought was going to be your biggest income day ever, and your output was so big. And that really, you know, that's one of those things that, you know, a lot of times a Myth of retail is we just look at that Black Friday, and we look at that dollar of sales. Excuse me. Come in. And you know, we put so much emphasis on that, and all of a sudden, we still don't have cash to pay for anything. Yeah. Yeah.

I feel like we've heard that a lot from people just about spit on. You got really excited there.

Yes, very excited.

We've heard that a lot from people in bootcamp that, you know, when we ran bootcamp last time over the holidays, and people were coming back to the group going, man, I may, you know, have sold just as much as last year, but, man, I am way more profitable than I've ever been because of the strategy of, like, breaking down pieces of the store online or off, doesn't matter. But being smarter about how you're going to take markdowns and build incentives that draw in traffic. But don't leave you empty handed.

Leave you empty handed. Right. And being aggressive in those strategies and alerting your customer, it all goes together. But I think another thing, looking into Black Friday, that is something that nobody thinks of. It's a big shopping time. That season's big. So with increased traffic comes increased theft. That is another thing that I think a lot of times you just don't even think about. And all of a sudden, you're doing your numbers later and you're looking and you're wondering where that inventory is. And I've talked to a lot of stores that were so surprised about the amount of theft that happened over that period of time. And it is another myth within the business is, you know, when people think it's easy and it's pretty and all these things, there's a lot of ugliness that go along with it that you just have to be focused on, realize it's gonna happen and have a strategy in place, because all that also affects your bottom line.

Absolutely. All right, I'm gonna throw one more myth in there because you did a complete breakout session on this at the summit. So the myth I'm gonna throw you is my employees know what to do.

They do. How do they know what to do? Ashley. No, I don't mean that at. Ashley.

No, I don't mean to put tea cups in place.

I know exactly what you mean. No, guys, this is something I'm super, super passionate about. And I get really, really on a soapbox about this because. And I think it's because of being a coach of a lot of different age groups of people, having a lot of different employees at the store over that 20 years, raising two kids, being an aunt, being a godmother, all these things. But at the end of the day, you can really tell when you go into a store or retail space or restaurant or whatever, when an employee is happy with their job and they feel confident in what they're doing, or when you go in and they're not motivated, they're not attentive, you've actually interrupted them in their day, you know, And a lot of times society and business owners are quick to be like, God, they're never going to get their head out of their butt and really do their job. You know, I've told them what they need to do all these kind of things, but the reality is, when I go back and I look and say, okay, when was the last time you trained them well? What do you mean? I trained them when I hired them. Well, this person's been on staff with you for five years. You haven't trained them since then. And, well, they know what they're doing. And I always say, how do you know? Have you asked, you know, do you know? Have you continually retrained them? Are you under the same. Are they under the same assumptions today that they were five years ago? Do they know the little things? Do they know the big things? Do they know what your store's mission is? If you were to ask them, what's the mission statement of our store, would they be able to tell you? In coaching, you see that a lot of times with kids, too, on the court, they're acting out of fear because they're afraid they're going to mess up. And a lot of times business owners have a fear. They put that fear in their employees of messing up. And so they are not. They are not confident and they're not calm and excited about going to work and doing something because they never really know if they're satisfying the boss. They never really know if they're winning. They don't really. They have no idea really what, what the overall goal is. So it comes back down to us as employers that we need to open that line of communication and we need to listen and we need to find out, hey, what else? What's winning? What are you struggling with? Tell me more about how you feel. And I think one of the key things is ask that question and then shut your damn mouth and let them talk. And this is totally different than the 1993 version of management. Back then, it was like, come to work. This is what you do, Dammit. Do it. Get your paycheck, go home. Right? But Time has changed. People have changed. People, you know, they need to feel accountable for things. They need to feel that you're happy and satisfied with what they're doing.

Right.

Yeah. And a lot of that comes with time, giving them your time, your attention, listening to what they have to say. Because in all honesty, as business owners, we are so wrapped up in so many things. That employee has a ton of knowledge about what's really happening within your business that they see from a different side, and they can tell you all about it, and you can make better business decisions to grow your business because of that. But bringing their voice to the table is huge for accountability. It's huge for motivation. I'm very passionate about that because I think that I have not seen a successful sports team. I've never seen a professional football team come onto the field with one coach. There's multiple coaches. They all work together. They all talk to each other. They all know the strategy. They all know what the game plan is.

Right.

And they're very successful in doing that. Now, business owners, a lot of times you're like, it's me. I'm gonna tell one person. I'm gonna tell everybody how to do it, and everybody should know their role, and they really don't. And it creates confusion, and eventually that's where the turnover is. Yeah. So I guess my whole point to my talk is stop, take the time. Understand that those employees are your biggest resource, and it takes time and it takes money to replace them.

Yeah, man. So good.

Yeah, I get a little passionate about that, but it's so spot on, because.

If you're gonna scale a business of any kind, you can't do it alone. You're gonna have to have team.

Exactly. Exactly.

It becomes a huge part of what we talk about inside of Retail Bootcamp. Not just the team, but the numbers we cover in great detail. Merchandising, markdown strategies, buying, inventory management, marketing, Facebook ads, mindset.

Oh, my gosh. Absolutely.

A lot of things.

All of that. The legal side of things. You bet.

So I'm so glad that we had to got to have this conversation.

You bet.

And I hope that you guys listening had some really good takeaways for today. And if this is something that you guys are interested in learning more about and taking part in. Retail Bootcamp is open right now. It's only open two times a year. And then Sarah and I get to walk through you every single week for. Actually, we extended it this time. It'll be 14 weeks of 12 modules because some of them are really big yeah. And so we've been, like, cramming it all into 12 weeks, but it's longer than that, and it's an awesome group. Our past students inside of Retail Bootcamp actually get lifetime access. So they're in there with you walking through it again and again, because there's gems to be found every time you go through that course. And we've had businesses of all sizes.

Oh, absolutely. We have businesses that have been established for many, many years. And, you know, we'll be chatting with them, and they're like, man, I knew that, but I had forgotten it or I had never looked at it that way, and it totally opens up a whole different side of things. And, yeah, the lifetime access, that's priceless because you can always go back as your business experience evolves, as your team evolves, as your mission evolves, and, you know, reconnect on that level. And, yeah, just dust off that playbook. Go back to the basics sometimes. Make sure that foundation you're building your business on is solid rock. Rock solid.

Absolutely. So if you guys have questions about Retail Bootcamp or anything we chatted about today, definitely hit up Sarah and I in the Boutique hub or on Instagram or if you're wanting to join and be a part of what we've got going on, you can go to the Boutique University or just find the link inside of the show notes.

Absolutely. And we have a lot of fun. We do have a lot of fun within Retail Boot Camp.

Sometimes Sarah shows up wearing a coat of many colors, as I like to call it on the videos.

I took that coat of many colors to a donation site. Thank you very much. So you cannot give me hell about that anymore.

It's my favorite.

I wanted to brighten up your day.

You definitely did. You know what it reminded me of? You remember the show Fresh Prince of Bel Air? Yeah, yeah, yeah. What was Will Smith's brother's name again?

Yep, the dancer. Yeah, yeah.

The guy that dance. I can't think of it.

It was a fancy name. Carlton. Carlton.

No, Carlton was the. Was their stepbrother, apparently.

I need to go back and watch this show.

You know who I'm talking about? He always.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. The guy that wore the sunglasses. He was always dressed up in the color. All the colors. That's who you're talking about.

They always had those sweaters from the 90s that had so many colors on them.

Yes. Yeah.

That was your coat of mini colors you were bringing back. The 90s.

You know what I try? I like the 90s.

I do too.

I'm with the 90s.

Yeah. All right.

You bet I did. All right. I'm gonna go tight. Roll my jeans.

Okay, Perfect. All right. Oh, man. You guys, this also is inside a free toe boot camp, just in case you wanted to know. Shoot. Well, thank you for listening to the show today. For those of you who are at Summit, we hope you loved the entire event. And we also hope you love this breakout session. Cause we do have a lot of fun. So let us know if you've got questions. Otherwise, we will see you inside the hub or back here next week on the show.

See you later, guys.

Hey guys, thank you so much for listening to this episode. We hope that you loved it. Don't forget to hit subscribe and leave a rating and review down below for a chance to be one of our featured listeners each and every week. For more information on our spirit of community over competition and how to access complete show notes and bonuses downloads from our guests, head on over to the boutiquehub.com and join the community. We'll see you next week.