13 Jun 2025 · 0 min
Sarah from the Boutique Hub tells business owners to stop blaming sales and look at spending instead. She points to cash stuck in excess inventory, unnecessary travel, redundant vendors, and bad timing. The fix: budget your numbers, set ROI timelines, and be intentional with every dollar.
Foreign. 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 future of our industry. I'm your host Ashley Alderson from the Boutique Hub and I can't wait to chat.
Hey guys, it's Sarah. I'm back with the Boutique Hub today to talk to you about finding cash in your business. One of the biggest issues that I see is the business owner not paying themselves. They're not paying themselves, but yet we're pretty frivolous in our spending and we're quick to go out and buy the next newest, brightest, shiniest thing or invest in maybe an app that we don't really have a purpose for today. Or when I'm going to market, think, oh, do I go to four markets a year? Do I go to six markets a year? Do I stay at the five star hotel or do I stay at that hotel I can really afford? What are my numbers telling me and making decisions that way. They're getting tied up, they're getting their cash tied up to a point where they're reducing their opportunity in their business and for growth. So here's my challenge for you today. Take a look around, take a look around in your life, take a look around in your business and, and identify some things that you've spent money on that maybe you didn't need to. That's tying up that opportunity for growth for you. It might be in that bulk supply of tissue paper that you bought. Or last time when you went to market you really didn't need to go, but you just couldn't bear to stay home so you went anyway. And you're still trying to pay off that market trip because when you got there you lived pretty the big life, right? Or maybe it's those that you know, five or six other vendors that you've invested in that you didn't really have a purpose for. You weren't sure who the customer was and you didn't give it all the attention it needed. And now that item is just sitting here growing and aging on your store floor in your warehouse. It's not turning over into cash. Maybe it's supplies, maybe it's that second location, maybe it's a nicer vehicle than what you could really afford. Ultimately the thing I would just want to say is there's cash in Your business, you just might be disguised in something other than dollar bills. So how do we turn that back into cash? What can we do? How can we liquidate those things? How can we get active and make that work for you? Yes, you can garage sale it, you can go to Destash, you can do all of those things and that's great. That might fix the problem right now, but how do we fix it going forward? My challenge to you today is to be purposeful with your spending. The next time you find yourself wanting to buy something or inventory supplies wise, trip wise, whatever it is, sit down and really think that through. Look at your numbers, see what you are budgeted for, what you can afford, what you're trending for and how bad you really need it. And make sure if you're investing in a course or you're investing in a service, or you're investing in an app, or you're investing in anything, you have a timeline of when you plan to use it and how you're going to measure that roi. There's cash to be had. And ultimately, as a working employee in your business, the best employee you have, the business owner you should pay yourself. So don't tie up your cash with all of these other things without thinking of you first. So my tip to you today is look around and find your cash. And then step two, next time you move forward in spending anything in your business, make sure it's purposeful. Now join me for my next video where I'm going to talk about markup and the difference between two time and three time markup and how that really affects the bottom dollar in your business when it comes to cash and time. But ultimately guys, there's cash in there. We just have to go find it.
That's it for five minute Friday, you guys, I hope you found some quick, actionable steps you can put into play in your business right away. As always, if you're not yet a member of the Boutique Hub, I would love to personally invite you to join us. It's where all of the daily conversations happen. The up to date what is working now in the industry conversations, the latest trainings, trend reports, discounts, resources and of course access to thousands of wholesale brands that you also know and love. So please take a minute, follow the link in the show notes and we would love to invite you to join us inside of the Boutique Hub.
