Five Minute Friday: The Beginner’s Guide to Starting a Boutique Business

Hey, guys. Welcome to Five Minute Friday. It's you and me today, and I'm answering one of our most commonly asked questions to new listeners on the podcast. And that is, how do I start my boutique? What are the steps I'm missing? What are the things I could forget about? How do I do it right from the very beginning? And here's the truth. Let me just put it out there. I think there is a major misconception in the world today, and maybe this comes from school or college or professors who wrongly assume that the way to start a business is by having everything figured out and by having a business plan and by making it perfect and having everything on paper before you get started. When the truth is, the most successful businesses that I've ever met, including my own, are the ones that just start. Yes, you have to have a plan. Yes, you should think through some things. Yes, you should know what you're getting into. But having everything perfect isn't realistic. It's creating the minimum viable product. It's testing out your theory on what the problem is you're trying to solve in the world around you. So don't worry about not having it all together if this is where you're at. Know that it's okay to try things and test them. Know that it's okay to fail. Know that some things are not going to work out, some things are going to be a flop. But you have to be able to get in and do the thing consistently. Test it out over a long enough period of time that you have enough information to tell you what to do next. That's the thing about starting a business and trying and failing. Failing isn't an end. Failing is just saying, hey, you've tried this, but how about you try it a little bit differently next time? And here's how you should try things differently next time, my own business included. There have been too many failures to count. In fact, the entire business model that I first started at the Boutique Hub didn't work, and I had to redirect the entire business model multiple times. So, again, no worries. There is no perfect plan. But if I were to give you a few pieces of advice on how to specifically start in this industry, let's start with a couple of key points. So first things first. When you're getting started, one of your most valuable assets is your name and your brand. So as you're thinking about what your business is going to be called, make sure it's really easy to say, easy to pronounce, easy to spell. If there's multiple Ls that are silent or whatever it is. If it's tricky to spell, spell, it's going to be hard for your customers to find you in any kind of search. So make sure it's easy to say, easy to spell, and then make sure the name isn't already taken because you don't want to get hit with a cease and desist letter from some other business who has a name that's similar to yours. So do some searches, make sure the name is available on social media, all social media accounts, and then the US Patent and Trademark Office. So USTPO.gov and you can run a trademark search to see if somebody has already registered your name. Now this is also going to go into effect with your domain. So wherever you're buying your domain, godaddy namecheap directly through Shopify, there's a number of ways to buy your domain. You want to make sure that that name is available and it's not just.net or.co or. Whatever these weird domains are these days. You guys, the options are endless. Make sure the name you want is available in all of these different places because you want to protect what you're building and, and then as soon as you're getting started, maybe a year down the road or a couple of months down the road, you want to make sure you protect yourself by trademarking your name so that someone doesn't come along behind you and copy that exact same name. Create confusion and then send you the cease and desist letter. So protect the asset that you're building. The second piece that I think is really important to note when you get started is you're going to have a great hypothesis of who your customer is going to be. Who's the person that you're really trying to solve their problems. And so test that hypothesis out and know that in retail it's all about just buying and selling and testing inventory, right? You're going to have one, two or three key customer avatars and you're buying and selling and the sales data is going to help you understand and build who those avatars are. So your sales data, your marketing information. So just asking your customers questions really like getting to know your customers. If they're walking through the brick and mortar doors of your business, those are going to be the clues to help you understand who they are. If you are a front facing person in your marketing, chances are your first few customers are going to be a lot like you. They're going to have similar interests and probably a similar lifestyle and similar challenges. So lean into knowing specifically who your customer might be. One big mistake I see a lot of early business owners make is thinking that when I target everyone, everyone's my customer, right? Any woman age 20 to 80 needs to buy clothes and so they could buy them from me. Well, the truth is they don't. The riches are in the niches. So the more specific you can be with your specific style, who you're speaking to, how you want people to feel and what problems you want to solve and how you're going to talk to them, the better off you're going to be building out your customer avatar. So get specific, build a brand and test things out. Don't be scared of the process of trying and failing and rinsing and repeating, but make sure you give it enough time to test along the way. There are so many other places, you guys, I want to give you information on how to get started and what other roadblocks to avoid. But it's too much for a five Minute Friday. So I wanted to tell you today that one of our favorite programs at the Boutique Hub, it was formerly called Boutique Owner Basics. We completely redid the program and renamed it Retail Owner Basics because it's not just about a boutique or apparel, but no matter what you sell, if you are a product based business, I want to give you the steps on how to make sure your foundation is solid and you're starting your business right. So I have linked it up today in the show notes or just search Retail Owner Basics, go to the boutiquehub.com, click on Products. Find Retail Owner Basics there. If you need help getting started, this program is built for you. So let's help you start that business the right way, grow it from the ground up and watch your dreams come to life. And it doesn't have to be perfect, you just have to start. I'm so glad you're here you guys. Tune in for all of our regular episodes launching every single Tuesday and then more five Minute Fridays from me, from our partners, from our team as we dig into what is going to make your business successful. Thanks for tuning in today you guys. 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 with 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.