31 Oct 2025 · 7 min
Ashley Alderson shows boutique owners how checklists at different intervals catch small tasks before they become big problems. Annual checklists cover sabbaticals and password updates; quarterly ones track markdown and traffic plans. The Boutique Boss Planner and Boutique Hub provide templates for inventory, social media, and team accountability.
Hey, welcome to the series of five Minute Fridays all about planning. How to plan, how to get more done with your planner and how to use the right checklists and numbers to track so that planning is actually moving the needle in your business. For three series, we're going to dig deep into getting more done and being the CEO that your business deserves, not just a hustling entrepreneur. So let's get into it. Hey guys, I'm sure one of the things that we have in common is we probably love checklists. Like I am a huge checklist lover. I love the feeling that you get, right? Is it the endorphins that are released when you cross something off a checklist like boom, done, accomplished, moving on to the next thing. I think as humans we all love that feeling. And so when it comes to setting your year up for success and using a day planner, in our five Minute Friday series, we've been doing here on planning, using day planners, getting ready for the year ahead, I want to talk about one tool that you can use when whether you're using our retail planner here at the Boutique Hub or you've got your very own day planner you're using, I want you to set your year up for success using checklists. So again, inside of the Retail Planner we have several different checklists. Whether it's our annual checklist for you and your staff. And these are just things that, you know, once a year someone needs to sit down and refresh some of these things, whether it's doing, I'll give you a couple of examples. The owner doing a self audit on sabbatical planning. How do you plan to avoid burnout this year? When are you going to map out time off? Okay, really, you need to sit down and talk about that. What is your education plan for yourself? What conferences, masterminds, books or coaching are you going to seek out this year and when are you going to map out time for it? Okay, how about this? How about backing up all digital assets? Photos, videos, customer lists, financial documents, what is stored somewhere, willy nilly, it's on your desktop or your Google Drive and it needs to be cleaned up and organized once a year, right? Just the silly stuff we've got to do. So if you're using the planner, there's the annual checklist or there is the quarterly and beginning of month checklist for the same reason. So quarterly, these are things that every single quarter we should be doing, like quarterly reviews with our team, setting new quarterly goals and rocks, updating passwords, reviewing staff checklists and goals, deep cleaning our space, right? You probably have a rotation for how you're deep cleaning your space, your warehouse or your storefront. And then monthly we have even more checklists. So on a more regular basis, what's my markdown plans this month? What is my website traffic and social media plan for the month? Like I need using the Boutique Traffic formula that we teach in the Boutique Hub. How much traffic do I need to achieve my monthly sales goal? This is a formula we should all know and be using on a regular basis. How about I need to update my content calendar for the month? What social media holidays and events and things am I going to host in terms of promotions? What about reviewing our Shopify apps and optimizing them and getting rid of the ones that we are no longer using so that we're not paying for them? Have you ever sat down and look at all of your subscriptions that you're not using and you're like what am I doing? I could be spending money on inventory, but instead it's going to this app I downloaded on Shopify, but I'm never using. It's here, it's time. Are you ready to start planning 2025? Well, you might have your own day planner, you might have a Google calendar, but let me tell you, I love planning with the official Boutique Boss Planner. The Boutique Boss Planner is a day planner that we created here at the Boutique Hub several years ago created by boutique owners for boutique owners and it's more than a day planner. Inside the Boutique Boss Planner is not only your opportunity to operate with a normal day planner with your hours and your time blocks and but it's also a boutique owner's go to resource. Inside there's inventory tracking, social media tracking, monthly reminders and to do lists. All kinds of information on how to host a month in review to really track what worked and what didn't in your business this month, but also a planning sheet on how to get ready for the next month in your business. Even if you're going to market, even if you're getting ready for social media content, there's tools, tips and ideas and checklists to keep you on track and organized all year long inside of the Boutique Boss Planner. So check out the link in the Show Notes for access to the 2025 Boutique Boss Planner or visit BoutiqueBoss store.com so the lists are endless. I just want to make sure with our quick 5 minute Friday today that a you're either using this in the planner or I know a lot of you purchase the planner and your managers and your staff are using these. So these are things that they can go on and check off as they go. Your whole team, like some people, will buy a planner just for behind the main counter in their storefront, and then the whole team is checking things off and initialing them with who did what when. So making sure you have this either in your planner or if you're a member of the Boutique Hub. In our training library, we have several different checklists. So opening checklists, closing checklists, managers checklist, warehouse checklist, cleaning checklist. Like, the list could go on. Get your checklist, put it in a binder, put it on a counter somewhere, put it in a little clear sheet with a marker. You know, it's a dry erase marker, so people can check it off and initial when it's done. But get the lists out there, because assuming that your employees know what needs to be done and when is assuming right. What's the saying? Assuming makes an ass out of you and me. Of course it does. So don't assume. Make the list. The Hub has all these lists done for you. I want to make your life as easy as we possibly can and. And not forget those little things that slip through the cracks. Now, why is this so important to me? I'm just going to go, like, big picture for a second. A lot of the things that are a little, like, simple, easy, like, duh, I should do that, are things that we put off because they don't affect us on a daily basis, but they could have catastrophic impacts long term. So things like updating your passwords or making sure you have two factor authentication, or just training your new employees on why and how not to click on suspicious links that come via email and social media that could result in you getting your entire online presence hacked. All right, so these things are simple, they're easy, but we never take the time to do them. And avoiding doing them could have huge impacts long term. So this is your reminder. Get your checklist for your team, get your checklist for yourself. Replicate them, add, add to them, enhance them every single year. And if you need a good place to start, there's a whole bunch of them inside of the Retail Planner. All right, all right, let me know, you guys. What are your checklists? What are things, if you're using the Retail Planner, that are not on our checklist, that you think we should add? I'll take your feedback on that, too, so we can make it even better next year. All right, Happy Friday. Have an awesome week ahead. Hopefully you guys have subscribed to the podcast left a rating and review or just shot me your opinion on over on Instagram. Thanks for listening you guys. I'll see you back here next time. 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.
