Five Minute Friday: How to Be a Good Retail Neighbor

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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.

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I'm your host Ashley Alderson from the.

Boutique Hub and and I can't wait to chat. Hey guys, welcome back to 5 Minute Friday and I've got just a short and sweet message for you today on how to be a good neighbor. This is such an important topic and it gets brought up again and again inside of our membership community at the Boutique Hub from a few different perspectives. I hear about great neighbors, I hear about retailers and product based business owners, really wholesale business owners at Market both that have such great relationships with their neighbors. They rave about them. It's community over competition and they work together and you know, they found ways to really support each other. But on the flip, I also hear horror stories of what it's like to have neighbors that are not collaborative and who you feel like you're in competition with and even neighbors who I know people have had to go out of their way to block and just cut off communication because it's so much negative energy. And, and so today I just want to kind of set the standard for how you can be a good neighbor and then let the rest of your neighbors decide if they want to be good neighbor back. Right? You can't control anyone else, you can't control their energy, you can't control their fear. You can only control you and put your best foot forward. And so when it comes to being a good neighbor, I think a couple of things really come to mind. First, I think making sure you introduce yourself whether you're new to the area or there is someone new and you're an existing business. I think extending a welcome face and a welcome message and bring some flowers or a treat or whatever it might be, but introduce yourself to the businesses in your neighborhood. Bring them something special, let them know you're not there to compete with them, but let them know that you're there to help create a destination in your space where two or more like businesses come together. You become a destination and that means there's more than enough to go around. Some of the most successful businesses I, I know that are, are brick and mortar focused are in a space in a city, in a downtown with multiple other boutiques. But they all can thrive because they collaborate they work together and they know each other's strengths and weaknesses and opportunities and what makes them each different. So you can have that choice to make yourself a shopping destination by setting yourself apart from your community. So introduce yourself and let them know, hey, this is who I am and this is who I serve, and this is how I'm going to be different. And then have an open conversation about brands if it seems appropriate. You know, that's the biggest struggle when it comes to neighbors is. Is so and so carrying this brand. I have this brand zip code protected. I think there's a way to say, hey, I just want to reassure you. I don't want to go after your brands. Like, I'm just here to be your friendly neighbor. I'm going to try to stay in my lane. Of course, there may be some times that we overlap, but hopefully we can share customers. Or if we're carrying the same brand, at least we're maybe carrying different products with that brand. Or maybe you style your brand one way and I style this brand completely different, and that's okay. If there is a demand for a certain brand in your community, be it something like Jelly Cat, or be it an apparel brand like Buddy Love or, you know, Judy Blue Denim, or be it some certain type of Candle Capri Blue, if there's a demand that should be good for both of you, your customers are going to go looking for the things they want in both businesses. So how can you guys collaborate and learn more or else stay out of each other's way with the brands you carry, have that conversation with them, so there's never any doubt what's happening. And if there's some, you know, competition or knockoffs or fear of competition, squelch that as fast as you can. I would also encourage you as much as possible to find ways to collaborate with your neighbors. It's a great way to be a neighbor. What are boutique crawls you can host together? What are Chamber of Commerce Ladies Night out holiday events? What are the things you can do to collaborate to collectively drive more business? Since you now are creating a shopping destination with one another, what are those collaborative ideas and opportunities? I know some retailers in the very same town actually have got my friend Melissa in Minneapolis, Minnesota. I run into her in the airport all the time when I'm headed to market. And Melissa, every time I see her, has two to three to four different boutique owners from her town going to market with her. They all travel together, they share rooms, they share expenses, they support one another because they know how they're different from one another and what they can learn to play off of with one another. In the times where there's similar brands they carry, I know them and I know other boutique owners who may even split orders and help one another go in on a buy in on a big brand so that they each can test out that brand in their marketplace. So there's all kinds of ways to go to market and to even travel together. I think at the end of the day the biggest lesson is this. Your energy is contagious. Be it positive or be it negative. And whether you are a good neighbor or a bad neighbor or you have good neighbors or bad neighbors, your customer will always know. Anytime there is one business who bad mouths another and tells customers, oh, don't go see Sarah down the street because you know what she did to me. You know what? It doesn't make that customer feel good. Of course, not about Sarah, but not about you either. So being negative about a neighbor always has a negative consequence in your customer's mind. The more you can rise above and be positive and be the best neighbor you can be and then let the chips fall where they may, that is the best outcome possible. Don't try to out price your neighbor. Don't try to copy your neighbor. The greatest opportunity you have in your business is to be yourself because nobody else can be that. You have customers who are undoubtedly going to shop with you and your neighbors whether you like it or whether you know it or not. So don't create a hostile environment where you have to make your customer feel awkward and break up with the both of you. Make yourself a destination where in community over competition you can always be a good neighbor. That's it for five minute Friday, you guys. I hope you have an amazing rest of your week. You guys that are members of the Boutique Hub, I want to hear from you. How are you a good neighbor? Tell me this week inside of our membership groups at the Hub and let's have a conversation about some of your best neighbor experiences. And I'll even listen to a couple of your worst neighbor experiences. All right, that's it. Have a great week guys. We'll talk to you 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 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.