Episode #230: 5 Ways to Maximize Small Business Saturday with Your Host Ashley Alderson, Founder of The Boutique Hub

Hello, guys. It is time for episode number 230 and just in time for the busiest time of the year. We're going to dive deep into what you need to know about Small Business Saturday and five ways that you can maximize it in your business this year. 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 a 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. Alright, you guys, today is the day. Whether you are a brick and mortar store, an online boutique, or a mobile or pop up shop, we've got to talk about Small Business Saturday. So when I was growing up, I grew up on a farm and ranch and my dad always said, you've got to make hay while the sun shines. Right? Logical. And in retail, this is the exact same thing. Because during the fourth quarter, I know your sales are going to be bomb if you're out there hustling. But we've also got to make sure that we're prepping for what comes next year. So making sure that we maximize Small Business Saturday and all of our holiday promotions in the right way is going to make a big difference to our bottom line and our profitability this season so that we are prepared for the new year. Even J months tend to be a little bit slower. Right. The other thing we've got to keep in mind when it comes to holiday promotions and Small Business Saturday is not just the profitability of all of it, but I know that you started this business because you also longed for some freedom and some flexibility. I know so many boutique owners that we talk to daily are moms or they've got busy families or they also want to make sure they have enough time to take care of themselves and have some hobbies they enjoy. And in retail, most of the time, you're so busy over Thanksgiving, over the holiday, over the Christmas holiday, over Hanukkah, whatever you celebrate that sometimes you're so busy in the store, you don't always get to take the time to enjoy the season with your family and your loved ones. So I also want you to be mindful today as you're thinking about how to maximize this time of year, how to also make sure you're maximizing a team so that you have Enough time to enjoy yourself. Deal. All right, here's the skinny. It's gonna be a short episode today, but I really wanna drill down and ways to maximize small business Saturday. All right, number one, many communities and this is great for brick and mortar stores or pop up shops. Many communities have some type of community holiday celebration and some local businesses may bring a Santa into their store. So why not throw your hat in the mix your Santa hat, so to speak, pardon the pun, and bring Santa to your store. Just a little bit ago I was in LA with several boutique owners that are part of the Boutique Hub for our LA experience. And one of our roundtable discussions was all about holiday marketing and there was a number of stores who said, yes, I do bring Santa into my store and it's been a great draw for my business. So a couple things to keep in mind if you do choose to bring a Santa into your store is number one, it's going to be great to bring in families and lots of kids. So if you do have delicate items in your store or in your pop up, make sure you've got those at a distance where they can't get bumped easily because I can tell you from personal experience, one of my favorite stores who is still a member of the Boutique Hub, who's from my hometown in North Dakota, Shout out Nicole. One time I was in her store with my kids when they were really, really little and it was like for a ladies night out type of holiday promotion and she had the most beautiful Christmas trees in her store with these glass ornaments on them and my Hadley, who's now my oldest, bumped into the tree and knocked over a bunch of ornaments and they shattered and I felt like I definitely lost the mom of the Year title. So please know that I know moms are doing their best and if you're a mom, you totally get the feeling when you take your kids out in public and they're little. So as a store owner, the more you can do to kind of prepare your scene for children to be present, the better you're going to be in the long run. But likewise, while there's children present in your store, think about the gifts that moms need to get or that kids get excited about helping pick out during the season. And one of the main ones is gifts for teachers. So if you've already taken our holiday marketing masterclass training, this is a huge part of the training is understanding how to maximize bundles and teacher bundles are a perfect way to create add ons and additional sales in your business. So you might have Something that's like a cute mug or a candle or some lotion or some type of beauty product or a gift card. You could have a number of options that are pre wrapped like in cellophane, so they're see through and you don't have to take the time to wrap them from a busy mom who's coming into your store to get that last minute gift. So make it simple for her. Give her three price point options that she can just grab and go. That would be perfect for teachers or babysitters or friends or neighbors or someone at the church. You know your customer better than anyone so you have an idea of who she's likely shopping for. And then make those gift giving ideas really, really easy. Now, because you would have Santa in your store and obviously you're going to be marketing more for teachers, you can't be present to pitch or to sell that item to every mom who walks by. So our second tip for today is make sure that you're also using signage as your silent seller throughout the entire holiday season. Now I know you've got a ton of ideas for Black Friday and Small Business Saturday and all the events, the ladies night out and the VIP parties and the men's parties that you're going to host. But like I said, just like with Santa, you, you can't be everywhere to tell everyone every special. So make sure your signage is branded. It's not just you and a Sharpie marker on a piece of notebook paper because I've also seen that happen in some stores over the holidays. But make sure you've gone somewhere like Canva and develop design something really pretty and then used your Office Depot discount at the hub to get those things printed. We recently did this with some stickers that we wanted to place on the floor at our LA event that we hosted. So we designed something really pretty in Canva and then we went to Office Depot and had it printed as a big sticker, like a two foot by two foot sticker that could be placed on the floor. So you could do the exact same ideas. You could put little footprints on your store, little gift icons on your floor that go up the wall, that point over to wherever your gift bundle section is going to be. Then make it really easy for moms and kids to come and pick something out together while they're in the store. Now this idea of signage, don't limit it to just the holiday season because signage really is a silent seller in your stor or at your popup all year long. So if it's A new collection that you have to feature and you just did a beautiful marketing photo shoot. Get those pictures printed and put them up on the wall so people can visualize what it might be like to wear some of those pieces in your store based on your recent photo shoot. So brand your store using signage and graphics as often as you can. Tip number three, again, if you're going to be hosting an in store event or a pop up event, swag bags are your friend, okay? Swag bags are the way that you get the line wrapped all the way around your store on Small Business Saturday. So whether you've got some, we'll call it basement, garbage, basement, junk, basement clutter. The stuff that you have from a season ago that just wouldn't sell and you stuffed in the basement. You know what I'm talking about. Pull it up and put it into your swag bags. And then if you have vendors that you work with often that have given you water, water bottles or fanny packs or like the bag itself, like we have a number of bags that we get from vendors at the hub for different events we host, you could use those things. And the third thing you could use for swag bags is we often use a website called discountmugs.com but I know that there's also a number of vendors that you probably shop with, like your T shirt vendors. Two of them that we've also used are Bling a Go Go and Texas True Threads who are members of the hub that will also print promotional items for you. So if you wanted to have your own swag bag printed with your logo on it, you could go to those two brands. Oh, arm candy. Designer arm candy Glamour defined Katie Iverson, she also does this as a third member of the hub that we've used to do the same thing. So they could print the bags for you or you could go and you could have coffee cups made with your logo on them or pens or one really cool thing that I've been seeing a lot of lately is like a little mini measuring tape so your customer never has to worry about sizing again, right? They've got a little mini measuring tape with your logo on it to take care of that. So get creative and think about what would your customer love and then get some branded items that you could use all year long and put it into your swag bags. Now remember, your swag bags have to be limited, right? So if you use swag bags as a draw to get people to your store, you've got to make sure to mention in your marketing that it's limited to the first 50 people in line only or the first 20 people in line and the first 20 people who place orders over $100, something like that. So there's a definite cutoff, which makes people become a little bit more competitive to get to your store early. Hence the line around the building. You know, just like in life. And I mean, love it or hate it, I guess I don't really believe in participation ribbons. So just like in business, you've got to create a cutoff because if everybody wins, right, if everybody gets a swag bag, you just become one of many, and there's nothing special that sets you apart. So you aren't as apt to get there early and to get in line, right? That same psychology is true. So the more you limit something and make it a little bit more competitive, the more your customers are going to show up to get the prize. Tip number four, whether you're online, brick and mortar, or mobile, right? This applies to everybody who's listening. Make sure you understand the difference between a promotion and a sale, right? A promotion versus a sale. I'm just going back on my memory, and I recall several conversations, actually I've had with larger boutique owners on this very topic. So really, size or age doesn't matter. I've seen a lot of people make this mistake, and that is going with some massive blanket sale versus a promotion, right? So that means putting your entire site 40% off or your entire store 30% off, or some big blanket sale that overarches everything. And what happens when we do that is we sell the diamonds with the dirt. We sell the new arrivals, the things that we just got in. You know, the sweater that could have sold for 50 or $60, but you just gave it away at 40% off. You sell that at a discount. And what happens is your people come in and they gobble up all the diamonds, but they still leave you with the dirt. And part of the reason we do a promotion or a sale is to get rid of the dirt, right? The things that have been there for a while or that aren't turning. So you're only taking the problem that you at the beginning and amplifying it and making it worse when you do a blanket sale. So this season, I challenge you to get smarter about your promotions versus your sales and create something that is of value to your customer. That creates an experience for her, right? And it's a draw for her, but also helps you move the right type of inventory. Because the holidays are not just about marketing. They're not just about getting a warm body in the store. They're not just about your gross revenue and your sales. They're about being smart with your inventory and turning the right inventory and having a profit left at the end of the day. Can I get an amen? Right? We want to be profitable. We don't want to spend all this time and bring on extra staff and work all these hours only to give it all away come December 25th. So think about what's a promotion. So let me give you an example. You might carry denim in your store on your website and you might have some denim that just won't move, right? One brand or one style or whatever it is. So you take that denim and there's where you go with your deep 40 or 50% off. Because you know you need to move it. You know you need to get the cash out of it or it's going to sit stale on your shelf for another two months, right? So any money is better than no money. So you're going to get the money back out of it. So you're going to slash the prices on whatever category it is that isn't moving. You're going to use it as your promotion, as your loss leader, as your big draw to get in the store. But then your diamonds, you're going to keep those at full price. Now, you might layer that type of promotion with something else. Say all denim is 75% off plus swag bags for the first 50 customers, plus free gift with purchase, every purchase over $100. Or you might do something like pop a balloon at the checkout. Or you might layer two dust promotions. So denim and let's say you've got a candle line that you thought would sell better than it did. So maybe it's 75% off denim and candles or you pick a couple of catego that need to move in your store and you focus on those. So definitely be thinking about promotion versus sale this season. And if you need more ideas and examples, you guys, I have hundreds of them for you. And it's all inside of the holiday marketing masterclass and I'll link that up in the show notes just in case you want that type of resource. All right, tip number five, train your team now. And if you don't have a team yet, you guys, the holidays, like I mentioned, that's the time of year where I know you want to be present at your kids Christmas concerts and you want to be able to sit in your Christmas jammies and open presents on Christmas morning, right? There's just things that you really want to do and experience. But you can only do that if you have help. And it never fails. I know those of you who are experienced boutique owners, whether you're online or brick and mortar, you've been there. It never fails that just when you think you have enough holiday help, someone will quit or someone will want to be with their family or someone won't show up. And guess who's left to pick up all those hours? It's you. So hire extra and hire early and make sure you train your team really well from the start. Many times I see boutique owners who, if they're the ones on the floor or they're the ones doing Facebook lives, or they're the ones doing social media, they sell more. So it's important that you have a plan to transfer the knowledge that only you have. Because innately, as a boutique owner, if you're also the buyer, you go to market and you understand what the trend is and how things fit and the features and the perks and the extras and the guarantees of some of the product lines that you carry. But if you haven't transferred all of that knowledge down to your team, frankly, they can't sell like you because they don't have the same access to information that you have. So make it a habit of every single week having team trainings, making sure you have a Facebook group or something where you can stay in touch with your team and keep them up to date on all the things happening. Because everything changes so fast in retail in the fourth quarter, you've got to keep your team up to speed. Even if they haven't been there for two or three days, there's something bound to be different. So train them early and keep them up to speed. All right, that was five tips. But can I throw in a bonus while I'm thinking about it? We'll make this six Ways to Maximize Small Business Saturday. And that's collaborations, right? So again, whether you are brick and mortar online or mobile, I want to make sure these tips are inclusive to every type of boutique. Collaborations and pop ups are definite opportunities, so they just might look a little bit different based on your store situation. Okay, so you might be able to host a pop up if you're an online boutique at some other type of location. And really, nothing is off limits. Keep this in mind. So it could be a craft or vendor fair, right? That's pretty obvious. It could be a pop up at a salon or a spa. But you guys, it could be a pop up in a bar or it could be a pop up at a tire store. It could be somewhere where the guys go to shop, where because you're there, you're making their life much easier, right? You're helping the guys shop for the ladies. So nothing's out of bounds when it comes to pop up opportunities for your boutique. The second type of pop up opportunity would be if you're the one that owns the brick and mortar and you're hosting pop ups, right? You might have local Etsy shops or artisans or people who make really artisan food like jams and, you know, different types of things. You might have them do a pop up in your store. So now you have an added experience or a draw to get people into your store. Or the third way is you might be participating in some type of like a boutique crawl. Or like I mentioned, in my hometown in North Dakota, we had a ladies night out where all the local businesses participated. And if you shopped in one business, you got a coupon for the next business. So one thing I mentioned that worked well in our community was at the boutique. At the local boutique, you got like a branded cup for the boutique that was good for one free drink at the bar. So you're really, whether you're a man or a woman, there was something for everyone in that community event that was hosted because all local businesses participated. So even if the woman wanted to shop in the boutique, she gave the cup to the husband and he went to the bar for 30 minutes while she finished her shopping. And then they met up and they finished the small business crawl together. So guys, the point is this Small Business Saturday is your jam, right? And it's the one day of the year that is specifically meant for you. It's meant to raise your voice of small businesses. It's meant to talk about what it means to be a small business owner in America or around the world. Our Canadian friends have the same opportunity and to show why you're different and why you're special and why people should shop with you over Amazon. And the thing I'm excited about is honestly, in today's culture, there's more people than we've seen in a long time really excited about doing business with small business owners. Because at the end of the day, people want to do business with people, right? There's people looking for your type of business, but some just don't know you exist yet or some need to be wowed by your customer service yet. So this is your day to make a huge splash in your community and leave a lasting impression on all of your customers. All right, guys, I hope you enjoyed those six tips to maximize Small Business Saturday. I also wanted to use today's episode to leave you a couple of highlights of things that are going to be coming from the Boutique Hub that can help you with all of your holiday marketing. And the first is we have over 16 gift guides that we're creating on Boutique Style featuring all of our member boutiques at the Boutique Hub. So if you want to participate, whether it's gift guides for college girls or gift guides for the homebody or gifts under $25 or stocking stuffers or gifts for mom or gifts for the man, I know there's a number of things that you carry in your store that would fit so you can drop the links to your items and your store name and information in a link that I'll provide in the show notes. And again, this is for Boutique members who have a profile on Boutique Style which is completely free for Boutique Hub members. So make sure you get your information in. Those links will remain open all season long because every gift guide will be published a different week of the season. So whether you add your items this week or you wait a couple weeks, there's opportunities to be featured all season long. The second thing I wanted to mention today was we have a huge promotion from Boutique Style, the Boutique Hub and our friends at Sezzle that are going to be announcing in the next couple of weeks. So I can't tell you all the details yet, but if you accept Suzzle at your store, be prepared for a massive marketing promotion to get more consumers to come and do business with your store specifically. And third and final tip and announcement of the day is I mentioned this earlier in the show, but if you haven't already participated in our holiday marketing masterclass, you get instant access to the program once you sign up, but it's your complete guide to prepping and executing for the best holiday season that you've had yet. It's for online stor mobile brick and mortar. There's really tips and strategies for all types of stores and we cover everything from how to create landing pages for your e commerce store that are holiday specific, to promotions that you should run or how to train your team or how to get more ROI out of your inventory and complete checklists and calendars and to dos for the season. Plus you get lifetime access and we update it every year. So a lot of the stores that take the training actually watch it with their team year after year so they can get refreshed and get new ideas for this season. Guys, I hope those tips were helpful for you today. Again, thank you for being a part of our community at the Boutique Hub and for listening to this show. And more than anything, I just want to wish you the best holiday season yet. 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 bonus downloads from our guests, head on over to the boutiquehub.com and join the community. We'll see you next week. It.