19 Jun 2026 · 5 min
Boutique owners can motivate staff by connecting tasks to business goals, teaching employees key metrics like average order value and break-even point so they see how their work affects the bottom line, and modeling positive energy as a leader.
How do I get my employees to work harder? How do I get them to be more motivated? Well, giving employees ownership, not just telling them things that they have to do— go do the hangbacks, dust the mirrors, clean the dressing rooms, those kind of things— that makes them feel like they just work here. But if you present them with a problem and you give them a little bit of ownership or ways that they can come up with creative ideas to improve something, then that helps them feel like they really belong. So here's an example. Next time you're dealing with an employee that's just very stagnant, first, instead of just giving them a task, maybe you could say something like, hey, our average order values are down right now. How would you remerchandise this display to encourage more sales, to increase our average order value? How would you style this table better? Giving them a full description of what your goal is from that table display helps them do a better job versus, hey, just remerchandise merchandise that table. That falls very flat. It doesn't give them a purpose or reason behind strategically placing products or styling, actually merchandising that space, right? But if they can understand that the overall goal is to increase your average order value, right? They don't want to just sell one t-shirt at a time or one candle at a time or one pet product at a time, right? They want to sell multiple items. And yes, you think they would know that, but instead of just saying, here's the task, give them some reason behind that. So a good team member should eventually feel like, this is my department, these are my customers. They want to help create the results, not just the work, right? So the second way to increase their motivation is to show them your scorecard. In Retail Bootcamp Accelerator, we call this open book management. So what does this mean? You have to help educate them on what is an AOV, right? What is your units per transaction? What are your sales goals? What is, what is your break-even point every single day? This is what helps them understand really, are we winning or are we losing? Are we falling short? So second way to really get your employees to buy in, to be more active, be more productive, be more energetic in the workplace is what I call open book management. So the third one, and I think this is really important, and sometimes it's important to check ourselves on this, but this is our personal energy. So what are we bringing to the table? If we're always stressed, if we are always short, if we're always late, if we are always confused, right, not knowing the next thing to do, and we, we show our employees that, they tend to be the same, right? So the energy comes from us first and then trickles down to our employees. So I encourage you, when you walk into your store, when you walk into your warehouse, kind of check your energy yourself. See what are you bringing to the table. A spark continues to spark others, and if you're— if your energy is low, right, maybe you just need to get outside, take a walk, take a breath, maybe call a friend, do whatever you can do to like Maybe you have a dance party, I don't know, but do whatever you can do to kind of get yourself out of that space, that negative space, and be a light to your employees. Because if you're a light to your employees, they're more apt to be a light to your customers, which, you know, is a win. So those are my 3 biggest tips on motivating your employees, keeping them accountable, keeping them energized. And if you find that they're just not buying in, you know, sit down, have a talk with them. Help them value their role here. Help them understand that there is more here than just these daily tasks. But giving them a purpose behind dollars and numbers and customers and all of those kind of things help them do a better job. Know if they're winning. Know if they're reaching those sales goals. All the things. So we go into this deeper and we will, we love to dive into your specific customer needs and employee needs. Inside Retail Bootcamp Accelerator and inside your membership. That is one thing I really geek out a lot about. But, you know, how you're showing up and how you're managing your people directly affects how your employees manage and treat your customers. So if you're looking at a stagnant workforce, first, look at yourself. Number 2, stop just giving them tasks. Stop just giving them tasks. Start to give them purpose behind their actions. And number 3, number 3, show them the numbers. I love it. Show them the numbers. You don't have to show them all the numbers, but open book management is really important. So you guys take those tips, take those tips. Let us know what else can we help you with? But I think if you, if you really focus on just those 3 things today with your staff, you're going to see a big turnaround. Thanks guys.
Hey guys, thanks so much for listening to 5 Minute Friday. I love getting to hang out with you here on the podcast. As always, if you love this episode, send me a message, AJ Alderson on Instagram or @theboutiquehub, and I would love to chat with you, hear your feedback, and hear what you're doing while you're listening to the episode. If it was impactful to you, please share it with a friend or subscribe and leave a rating and review wherever it is you're listening to podcasts. You guys, I appreciate you being here. Thanks for showing up. Have a great rest of your week, and I'll see you next week on 5 Minute Friday.
