FTV: 12 Crucial Tips for Boutique Owner Success with Sara Burks

Guess what?

You are invited to college for boutique owners. That's right, College for boutique owners. It's called Retail Bootcamp. You may have heard us talk about it, or if you were a part of our best year yet series, you heard us dig into what is coming twice a year, every year here at the Boutique Hub when we launch Retail Bootcamp for this semester. Now, whether you are a brand new business owner or maybe you're someone who's growing and scaling your business, this maybe you are a multi year, multi million dollar boutique owner. We have in fact worked with all types of retailers inside of Bootcamp. Again, whether you're new, you're experienced, whether you're a brick and mortar, you're online, whether you're on comments sold or you're a home and gift boutique. Children's boutiques, Canadian boutiques, international boutiques, we have literally worked with all of them and I hope I get to work with you as well. This January and coming next June, twice a year we launch Retail Bootcamp and we step by step in Retail Bootcamp, go over the six layers of your retail business. After working with thousands of retailers, we realized that these six layers, in order, are the tried and true way to really make and build a sustainable business that also allows you to have the profitability that you want and the life that you want to live. So inside of these six layers, we're going to dig into everything from your operations, your team, your company culture, even if you're a solopreneur. We're going to talk about what happens and how the business can run without you. We'll talk about how to build more profitability, manage your products, your inventory, your cash flow. We'll dig deep into your marketing, into your content planning, every single social channel, your e commerce website, sales strategy, live sales strategy, Facebook ads, Google Ads, SEO, and a little bit of everything in between. Every single week for 14 weeks, Sarah Burks and I coach live in our retail Boot Camp group where you can come in, do key Q and A, follow the week's lessons, implement the week's lessons and get further down the road in your business. Plus, I am a big believer and it's not always what you know, it's who you know. So there's over 50 guest experts that join us to coach inside of Retail Bootcamp, each one of them with their very own high level experience. So I hope you have a chance to join us. I have the link in today's show notes if you want more information. Enrollment closes January 19th and this won't be Available again until June. So take a look at college for boutique owners, which is retail boot camp. I hope you have a chance to join us inside. Let's talk about your business strategy and the juicy details of what actually works, from mainstream fashion to fashion on Main street and the entire ecosystem behind it. How do we scale your company and do it with the balance and the happiness that we all seek? Let's hear from those insiders, experts, strategists, that actually make it happen. I'm your host, Ashley Alderson from the Boutique Hub, and I can't wait to chat. All right, guys, you are in for a treat today, because we're going completely behind the scenes today in the Hub, and it's with one of my favorite people, Ms. Sarah Burks. Hello, Sarah.

Hey, guys.

How's it going? So if you guys could ever be a mouse in the corner or a fly on the wall, Sarah and I get to travel quite a bit. And when we do, we're always talking business. Like, our brains function the same way. So today, we thought it would be fun on the episode to just go behind the scenes in a conversation that you and I have undoubtedly had a million times at, in our hotel room or at a hotel bar or you name it. But we are always talking about the questions we get asked from retailers of all sizes, of all shapes, of all backgrounds, and some of the most common stumbling blocks that we see retailers come across. And there's 12 main areas, and really, these are the areas that we kind of thought in detail about step by step, put them in a process, and ended up building retail bootcamp off of these 12 key areas. Kind of in a progression, would you say, Sarah, they all have to kind of go in order to make sense?

Absolutely. I think anything that a person decides they want to do, they have got to start at the beginning and build that solid foundation or they won't succeed. And that's the same thing with retail. And that's. Yeah, that's where retail bootcamp came from.

Yeah, I used to get the question, and I know you would get these questions, too. I'd always hear, help me with Facebook ads, or my Facebook ads aren't working. And I would go in to do that, but then I would find out, well, you really don't know your ideal customer and your branding needs help or your website really isn't working. And so we always ended up having to unpack things and work backwards. And so when you and I kind of sat down to build all this, we're like, hey, we have to Start at the very, very basics, which for some people you're going to feel like, really we have to talk about that. But don't you think in business so many times we are building the plane as we fly it and we just kind of figure out what's next and we run with it. And sometimes we leave a lot of loose ends that just have to be tied up in order to hit the next level.

Oh, absolutely, 100%. I get asked those kind of things all the time too. And I know I was just asked earlier today, you know, when do I know it's time for me to go to market? And so, you know, I said, well, where are you at in your business? And she said, well, I haven't really started yet. And I said, oh, well then let's not go to market until we know exactly what we're going to market for. You know, who are we buying for? What are, you know, what is that? Who's that customer we're actually serving? Well, sometimes that's not the fun stuff. Sometimes, you know, we get a lot of first time boutique owners or newbie boutique owners that just want to dive into the super fun stuff stuff and they realize once they do that then they not really sure where their cash is. They're not really sure who their customer is. They have all these oh my gosh, what now? Type realities and then they think, oh, shoot, yeah, I totally put the cart before the horse, you know, a year ago or six months ago and now I'm in trouble. And that's. Yeah, we, we built retail bootcamp for that to be able to build that super solid foundation which is just rock solid. So now we can get big and we can do it and scale it and manage it and be proud of it and pay ourselves and do all these fun things. And yeah, without the, I mean there's going to be burnout, there's going to be stress. This is retail that is 100% what retail. You know, that just happens. But absolutely, those foundation pieces and these 12 pain points, I guess, you know, that we are this down into helps tackle the whole big picture and make it manageable. So that's what I love about retail bootcamp and the testimonies that we've received from people, you know, they prove that. And yeah, that's. We love it. Absolutely love it.

You bring up a really good point. You said a lot of times, you know, you kind of focus on newbie boutique owners. They see, gosh, it must be easy to own a boutique. I see these people killing it on social media. And there's kind of like that, I would say they're into like the pretty part of the business. But you and I both know that there has to be, I don't want to say a pretty and ugly part of the business. That's not the analogy I was going for. But there's a right and a left brain for sure side of the business and even bigger boutique owners that we've worked with, multimillion dollar boutique owners that get lost in the trap of comparison on social media. And we're always looking at all these other boutique owners. They're going to market again or they're going to LA again or they're doing these things with influencers or they're opening multip locations. They must be killing it. So I have to open multiple locations too. And that trap of comparison is just crippling. And if I've heard one common theme so far this year from our community, it's been that it's time to scale back and understand what is actually working for me. And facing that harsh reality that it's not always the pretty things that people do on social media that really should be my focus, but it's the unpretty things. The times when I'm sitting at my desk and I'm going over reports and numbers that make my head spin and I really am analyzing where are my margins and what are, what, what's my GMROI like, how do I know what vendors are actually turning in my store and where I should be really placing my, my orders? Right. Wouldn't you say those are the areas of focus that we don't want to focus on? Cause it doesn't look great on social media. It's not the FOMO part of the business, but it's the most important part of the business.

Oh man, 100%. And you know, you know, I'm a sports buff and I, and I talk a lot about sports and you know, when I'm listening to what you're saying, it resonates with me because yes, it's not just the newbie boutiques, it's the boutiques that have been in business for 10, 15, 30 years. Right. And retail changes every day. The strategies that need, that need to succeed today are different than they were five years ago. And that's where these existing boutiques are finding that need for that continued education also because things are so, you know, they're turning quickly, trends are turning. Yes, we know that happens, but so is marketing and strategy and a lot of these tools that are here today that are make this almost an easy button for boutique owners. They weren't there five years ago. And those are, you know, we partner with so many experts in the field to bring those strategies and those services to you through Retail Bootcamp that it's a win. And, you know, we really pride ourselves in making sure we're going out and we're finding the in the know, the must, you know, be in the moment, things that can help you scale your business today and sets you apart from, you know, everybody else and, you know, just gives you that leg up to be able to succeed. Because if you do stick in the same rut that you were trying to run your business in, say, five years ago, you're really going to get. You're going to get passed and you're going to get passed quickly because the people that are truly in the know that have the time to do the shopping around are your customers. And we're noticing that there's so much being thrown at them that, you know, if you're not where they live and if you're not speaking to them in the language that they speak today, you know, you're going to get passed up. And that language is different than it was five years ago. And so, yeah, it's newbie boutiques, it's existing boutiques, but, oh, man, you're right. When you, when it's changed, it changes and it changes fast. And, you know, we really want to make sure we're bringing that new, vital information to help everybody win and succeed. And yeah, that's fun. But I would say one other thing on that, you know, the, on the sports analogy is we see guys on, you know, we see the big NBA players, we see college athletes, and we see them succeeding and we see them getting interviewed and we see them, you know, maybe on a T shirt or all that kind of stuff. And that's awesome. And we like, oh, man, all these little kids, I want to be that guy, I want to be that girl, whatever it is. But what we don't see is those 5am Morning practices. We don't see the injuries, we don't see the setbacks. We don't see them getting, you know, beat down and trying their hardest to survive in this very competitive world of, you know, of sports. We don't see that. We look and we, we choose to focus on the tennis shoes that they're producing or the T shirts or the commercials or whatever it is or the sports. You know, the going to an awards show with the, you know, really beautiful woman on their arm. That's what we look at. But the truth is there's all this stuff behind the scenes and that's the same way it is in business. And I feel like social media can give such, you know, we all, you know, we all know that, that there's a lot of catfish out there that are saying they're this, but they're, you know, the truly are something else. So we know, we talk a lot about that in retail boot camp of know who you are, know what lane you're in, know who you're serving, focus in on that, you know, and do those hard things to be able to reward yourself for the successes later on.

Oh, you're so spot on, spot on. And if I could add one thing to, to what you're saying, it's a, you know, we see, we see these people that we think again, are killing it, like you're saying these athletes and everything else. And we think, hey, what's the easy button? What's, what's the one thing? What's their one secret? Right? You're, tell me more in depth. Go in depth. There's got to be more, there's got to be more. And the truth is sometimes the answers of how to get from point A to point B and where you're going in business, it's not a secret. It's the really, really basic things that you already know that seem like they're no brainers, but you just have to do them and do them better. But it has to fit where you are at in your business today. Like, the secret for one boutique is not going to be the same secret as what might grow your boutique. So just taking in training, whether again it's bootcamp or any training online or any blog post online or any speaker you listen to, listen for the one nugget that's going to make sense for you and your business. That's all you need is one nugget to take action on and to do the hard thing. Like you said, Sarah, that's the thing that's going to grow your business versus just trying to have that instant gratification that our society is so used to and finding the quote, unquote secret from some other business.

Yeah, 100%. And I think that's where these 12 modules really came from. You know, going back and deep diving into those, you know, 12 categories or 12, 12 positions within a business and making sure there's tools for individual boutiques to succeed in those places. Because a lot of times that's where there's Big cracks in the foundation, and that's where there's a loophole or where you. Bad decisions are made. And a bad decision today might seem okay, but you really see the ramifications from it five months from now and then that, you know, a crack in the foundation, it starts out small, it grows, or a leak in the bucket. You know, it might start as a very small little trickle of water coming out of there. Next thing you know, it's completely fallen apart. And we see that happen with. With boutique owners all the time, and they don't have a good balance, they don't have a good system, they don't have the tools in place. They don't have a community of support around them, all these kind of things. And yeah, it's. It's a bad deal. And that's why, you know, we're here to help that, and we're here to reduce that. And, and I. And so far, with the people that have went through retail bootcamp, we've seen a ton of success stories, and I'm very happy about that. It, you know, I love. I love listening to people talk about winning within their business and financially is great, but personally is even better. And, you know, for women to be able to have that business that they, you know, they walk home in at night and they. They're with their family and they have a success story to tell, and the kids see them being successful and they're making a difference in their community and they're making a difference in the lives of the people around them. I just. Yeah, it's awesome. I absolutely love it.

So let's start with pain point number one and area of focus number one. Because we're going to give you guys, whether you're in bootcamp or not, we're wanting you to walk away with tips and some nuggets and some strategy today. So focus number one is going back to just what you said, Sarah. Saria. Is that your name now, Sarah? Look at. We're not even at a hotel bar. I have not had wine, and your name is now Saria. Module number one is about business building and going back to the basics. Set me up, Sarah. Talk about, you know, one pain point that we see with boutique owners being the foundations of their business and just not having a great mission, vision, or idea of who they are and who they're serving and then where they're going.

Well, I think one thing that we really cover here in module one is that whole naming of your store, naming of your business. There's a lot of different things here, but building on a solid foundation and making sure you've got all your I's dotted and your T's crossed. And a lot of it is legal, right? A lot of it is the contractual part of your business and that legal entity of your business, even the name and how that name has got to grow with you, and it's got to set you apart, and it's got to work online as well as it does in print. It's got to be able to be branded, but it's also got to be yours. And what I find a lot of times, and you and I've had numerous conversations about this, a business jumps in, names their business, something, only to find out later, after they've had the sign made, the business cards named, all this kind of stuff, that they can't actually get the website because it's already somebody else has the domain or it's trademarked for something else, or they're getting sued now because they're. They're trying to build a business off of their name, which is actually somebody else's. So we go through an awful lot of that in module one. And, oh, my gosh, there's nothing more heartbreaking than seeing a person just invest so much money and time into building something, only to be found later that they can't. They've got to start back over.

Yeah, we've had that. Even established businesses that have been around for a while have come through that module and said, oh, my gosh, you know, I was so new when I started my boutique and I just kind of threw all this stuff together. The legal paperwork, the insurance, the contracts. There was no trademarking. Right. There was no mission, no vision. And as you start to scale and build a team and really start to reach a wider audience, those things become so vital. So we've seen a lot of people come back and consider rebranding or even just having more, I would say, dynamic and deeper conversations with their customers about really who they are and what they need and why they're shopping with them in the first place. Like, those foundations really do set the rest of your business tone. And it's important that everyone come back and revisit them at least annually.

Yeah. And this goes for brands as well as boutiques. Right. Because that whole trademark thing is huge. And you might. You might come up with a product and you might get it out on market on the. On the market, and you just kind of put the cart before the horse, so to speak, and it takes off like absolute wildfire. If you have no protection behind that, or you have no protection behind your name. There's nothing holding somebody else back there that's leaking in the wood in the weeds to go in and capitalize on that and then trademark it as their own. So there's so many things that boutique owners, brands, everybody, we really need to be thinking about and being mindful about it to deal with some of these really hard things, the strategic things, the things that are going to set us up for, you know, five months, five years, 15 years down the road that are going to protect us. And we talk an awful lot about that in module one. Yep.

All right. Area of focus number two in module number two is about retail mindset and productivity and really becoming the CEO of your business. And I'll start here and I want you to jump in with me, but I talk. Productivity and mindset are really probably two of my favorite topics to cover because I know what an impact it's had in my life. And I've seen firsthand how many busy, overwhelmed, stressed out, overworked families are stressed out boutique owners that come through. Whether it's been retail bootcamp or boutique bootcamp or one on one coaching. Like we've, we've seen some horror stories, right, Sarah? So I think nailing this part of the business is, to me, this is one of the most important that we work on on a daily basis because no matter how much money you've made, it doesn't matter if you aren't happy at the end of the day and if you aren't in a good mental state and you don't have a great family supporting you. So, so there's a lot of deep dive that happens here.

Oh, for sure. And you know, we have, we've seen a lot of horror stories here and you know, what is, what is it you're doing and why are you doing it and who are you doing it for? All these kind of things again, jumping in and putting the cart before the horse can kind of skip over some of these things and all of a sudden it's at a sacrifice for something else, your success moving somebody else. Second, you know, and you know, a real good reality check of what a boutique business looks like. You know, what are the time commitments and where's that time going to come from and how do you wrap your head around that? So important in module two. And you do some really cool activities in module two and some challenges here to get them to really dive in and take almost an inner assessment of themselves and their time and acknowledge you Know, where are their shortfalls, where are their strengths? You know, where is their time best spent in this business? To be the most productive human, I would just say, right? The most productive person. Not just business owner.

Yeah. I was just talking to a boutique owner yesterday, and she's a multi million dollar boutique and she's like, she was considering coming into Bootcamp and she's like, I would love to do it, but I just, I don't have time. Bootcamp looks like it's a big commitment. I feel like I don't have time. I've got a lot on my plate. I only have a couple of employees. I know I could have more, but I feel like I'm kind of a control freak. And as I was thinking about her, I was like, oh, my gosh. Like, module two is 100% what you need. And I think that's the hardest part of being an entrepreneur. And I know you can relate, Sarah, is we feel like we have to be the control freak of the business and no one can do things as good as we can do them. So in turn, we hold on to all this baggage and stress and we try to do it all ourselves. But we cannot scale a business unless we step into being a true CEO. And this is where I know you talk a lot in this module about what does it mean to be a CEO? What does it mean to do the one thing on your plate that day that is going to get you that the 20% of your list is going to get you 80% of your results. Right. The CEO isn't going to be out shipping orders. Yes, they can. And yes, it would be great for morale once in a while, but that's not where their time is best spent. So what does it actually look like to be productive so you can scale a business? Right. Because Tim Cook isn't building chips that go into your phone. He's got better things to do. So how do you do that into your business?

Amen. Amen. We preach on that a lot. And, you know, I think, you know, you can find this in. This is not just retail boot camp stuff, but the strategies that you're learning here. You're. I shouldn't say, not just retail boot camp stuff, the stuff just for your boutique. It's life skills. Right? And you don't want to just go through life spinning your wheels and, you know, kind of just 50% doing a thousand things and never really getting anything done. And we find that happening and we find the burnout and then we find the people that, like, are we say are those bottlenecks that are hindering the productivity and the advancement. And yeah, I think module two really. I've seen a lot of awesome Testimonials about Module 2 and how it has really changed. Like I said, their personal life as well as their business life and how the inner two can be married together and be healthy. I think that is the one thing I see a lot of people talk about this year is being more healthy. And that's not just phys fit as emotionally and mentally fit as well. And how that builds everybody up and, you know, if everybody's healthy, my gosh, the amount of success that you can really have, you know, if you look at the human body and you've got an illness or cancer or something, that just drags everything else down. And so when you can really up that game, that mindset and the productivity and know that when you lay your head on the pillow at night like you got some stuff done tomorrow, plan, and I have my time blocked and I know what my goal is and I know what I have the right players here that's helping me. Man, come Tuesday, you're gonna feel like you've got so much done, you know, whereas before, it might be Saturday by the end of the week, and people are like, what did I even do to this week? I don't even know. And one week passes and another week passes and next thing you know, a whole year has passed and you're just. It's all a big blur and you don't really have a lot to say that you've accomplished. So, yeah, retail mindset, productivity. Oh, my gosh. Module two, huge. And that's why it comes number two in retail bootcamp, because you cannot go forward and focus on some of these other things unless you've got that down.

Absolutely. I encourage you guys, wherever you're at in your business, and whether you've done Retail Bootcamp in the past or this is not for you, I just encourage you, wherever you are, to be a lifelong learner and to time block at least an hour of your week, every week to some sort of continuing education. Like, just make sure it's a priority that you are constantly filling your cup so that you can continue to fill others and to fill your business.

That's.

If there's any takeaway, please take that away and block that into your schedule each and every week in 2020. Module number three, Sarah, this is really your. This is where you go deep. And I would say module three and four are where people's eyes start to get really big and go, oh, crap, I have a lot to work on. So module three is the first talk about money, and we purposely named this module Money Matters. If you skip this module, you'll flunk.

Absolutely. Oh, my gosh. It's so funny because I see. And I can relate here because, right. I've been in retail since the early 90s, and there was a point in time in my retail walk that I'd print out a report, I'd scroll all the way down, be like, awesome, that number is a positive number. Perfect. Close that report, move on. And then there's other times I'd look at that report. I'm like, geeks, that doesn't. That's not a very large number. Or actually, that's a negative number. Okay, I'll look at that again next week. Maybe it'll change. That's like the kiss of death. I mean, right? I paused there because I'm like, oh, my God, I actually did that. That's so true, you guys. There's so many of you out there listening that I'm sure have done the exact same thing. And it's like, you want to avoid conflict. It's. It's. You look at things, you're. You're nervous about it, and you're like, I don't really understand it. That's all written in Greek or whatever. And I'm going to. You know, I just don't want to dive into it. I don't have time today. And what I learned in my business and what people are learning in retail boot camp is that money matters. That money is. It's hard to come by, right? And we need to track everything that's coming into our store as much as everything going out. And we need to be the very best investors of not only our time that we Talked about Module 2, but also our money all the way around, right? Every app that we download, that's important, every tool that we buy, that's important, every piece of inventory we invest in is important. Every person is important. When we take off and we hire somebody to come in, that's important. The hours in the day that we operate our business, they all matter. That all matters to our bottom line. So looking at those numbers on those days that I used to be like, oh, awesome, that's a positive number. Great. Well, I need to learn from that. I need to dive deeper into that and be like, why is that positive? What have I done here for that number to be what it is or crap. Why is that number negative? What can I do better to make it a positive number. How can I increase that? Right? These numbers tell a story. And the whole point here is if you don't start analyzing those numbers now, pretty soon there won't be any numbers to analyze. Your business will fail, right? You'll lose money, you will run out of money. And at the end of the day, our biggest goal for everybody that comes to retail bootcamp, and I'm gonna get an amen. I'm sure there's gonna be somebody driving in their car right now is like, yes, we want you to pay yourself. We want you to take a paycheck home, and we want you to be proud of that paycheck. And that's the big thing. So many times, boutique owners, like, I reinvest everything back into my business. Well, I think that's code to say I don't have enough money to pay my bills, and I need inventory. So we want to make sure that you are the. You're the best employee you have, you are the most accountable, you're the most efficient, you're the most. You know, you, You. The business needs you. We can't get along without you, so why in the world are we not paying you? So we want to. We want to make sure you have a plan, you have a process in place that that happens, right? And that you're paying your taxes, you're paying your bills, and you have cash flowing through your business. And we all. We do that through a number of different things. Understanding your. Your markdowns, learning from your markdowns, understanding what you're bringing in, when you're bringing it in, as far as inventory and when you're selling it, how long it's taking you to sell it. We dive down into all sorts of things as far as expenses and analyzing where there might be a leak in your bucket, where you're just bleeding out in your business, and we need to fix those things. But for the most part, when we talk about module three, it's understanding how to generate those numbers and how to read those numbers, right? We talk a lot about math formulas and a lot of that kind of stuff, but we give you some real good, solid advice on tools that you need to implement today to win back your life, to win back those 10 to 15 hours a week where you are trying to run your own numbers and do your own math and all that kind of stuff so you have a true, accurate report to look at, how to read it, and how to make good financial decisions going forward. Module three is all about reducing the guessing game in, in retail. So when you go to market and your feet hit the ground at Vegas or LA or wherever you're at, you know, what kind of money you're dealing with as far as if you want to go out for dinner, if you want to take in a show, if you want to invest from this vendor, if you want to stay at this hotel or that hotel, or you're going to take the red eye home, or you get to, you know, upgrade to first class, all those kind of things make a huge difference. And I see a lot of boutique owners just kind of winging it when it comes to the numbers.

Man. Amen. And it really, it flows right into module number four and pain point number four. And that's really like having gaps in understanding how to manage inventory. And sometimes I fear that there are some boutiques that really, you know, reports they think of money as just one big ball or one big section of the business, like, oh, I mean, I kind of know here and there a little bit. But we really have to understand the difference between managing cash flow and that whole reporting side of the business. Your income, your expenses, your sales reports, all of that. But then managing inventory and having an accurate buying strategy and understanding, are you overbought, Are you underbought, what's your turn rate, what vendors are really doing you justice, and how you can continue to build and grow and move forward. So talk to me about module number four and becoming a retail scientist, really with your inventory and your product.

So much of your success is going to stem right back here to your inventory, because that's the one thing we seem, you know, that's what we're selling. That's where our opportunity to make money comes from. Our opportunity doesn't make. To make money doesn't come from, you know, all these other little tools and things. It comes from our inventory. So we want to become the best investors of our money into inventory as possible, so we have a high return on investment. And one thing that I feel like is really happening this year is there's a huge concentration on quality of purchases, right. People like sustainable fashion people are liking some working with brands and companies that are, you know, giving back to society, that have, you know, some sort of a cultural experience with them as well. I think that there's a big turn or shift in what that customer is looking for, right? So that's a difference. That's a difference five years ago from today. So therefore, when people are buying, I like to say investing, but when boutique owners are going out and they're going to market to invest or buy an inventory. They have to look at that cultural shift, right? But they have to know who their customer is, what they really want, right? And so then they have to look at that brand or that vendor and see what they're offering is. And I see a lot of times people, first thing when they walk in, they walk into a booth and they say, well how much does that cost? And I will. Module four is all about, you know, understanding that you want a good return on investment, right? So it's not about what it costs, it's about what am I going to sell that for, how much is, am I going to make on this? Do I have a strong ROI here? Am I tying up my dollars in inventory that's going to give me the best return on investment, Am I bringing it in at the right time? All these kind of things. Working with vendors on terms, understanding an open to buy plan. We talk a lot about open to buy plans here in module four. And what is that? To be very brief and honest with you, I guess should say blunt is it is what it is. It's a plan, it's a, it's a non emotionally attached set of numbers that will tell you what to buy, when to have it delivered, how much of it to buy and at what price. So it takes a lot of that guessing out of it. It is a true, like it's a. You're not going to go build a house without house plans, right? You're not going to. So I agree you should not go build inventory without an open to buy an inventory management plan. And that's what it is. So a lot of times, and we're going to have sale racks every. I don't care if you're a grocery store, I don't care if you're the five and dime or the gas station or your Nordstrom's. There's sale racks there, that's inevitable. But you have to learn from those mistakes. Those are why you have markdowns. You have sale racks because they're buying mistakes. Nobody wanted it, so you have to reduce it eventually, right? So it teaches you how to learn from those kind of things. Help understand a pricing strategy where you're not getting into just a low price war with the person down the street. Because at the end of the day, retail is about making money and it's okay. You can't pay your bills and you're not, you're actually not going to pay yourself if you're not having a strong markup. Pricing Strategy to make money at the end of the day to absorb some of these discounts and things like that and absorb your expenses. So I could go on and on and on because I really am passionate about this. And where I find a lot of boutiques have that big hole or that leak in the bucket and they're just not cash flowing and they're not able to pay their bills, it's because they have not concentrated on module three and four. They've actually not been educated on that. And so I'm a firm believer in module 3 and 4 as solid, solid principles in building a boutique.

Absolutely agree. And as we start to get into module five, this is where, you know, kind of depending on the size of your business, this is where this information is going to touch you differently. Module five, as we get into it, is all about building your team. Right. And for those of you who are listening and you're like, well, I don't have a team right now. I'm a solo entrepreneur. That's great. But if you're going to continue to be in this business and grow, eventually you will have a team. And so it's so important now to know how to set them up for success and how to structure your business in a way where you have.

An.

Awesome and amazing supportive team around you that much, like you say, Sarah is like your basketball team and you're their coach. We have to understand how to do that right now so we can set them up for success later on. So module five, do you want to dive a little bit into kind of your analogies on coaching your team?

Well, just a little bit, yeah. Module five, I would definitely say it's all about building that team and Right. You might not have a sales staff or, you know, marketing team, so to speak, right now, but gosh, we sure hope you will, you know, we sure hope your business is flourishing enough where you're going to need more help. Right. And you can be more productive with more, more hands on deck. So making sure you have the right people in the right seats to fill those positions. So we talk about hiring and interviewing and running team meetings or huddles, as I like to call them. But one of the things that Ashley was saying is my analogy with coaching is I'm a big basketball fan and I've watched my kids go from that third and fourth grade basketball team up to, you know, that higher level high school basketball team. And I've seen where their teams have grown and they're capable of doing other things now that they're, you know in high school versus where they were in fourth grade. But I also remember that the strict instruction that that new. That new basketball team needed compared to that more advanced basketball team, right? They needed to know their roles. They needed to know specific things, some obvious things. As a coach, you think, why am I telling these kids this? They should know. They don't know. They don't know the difference between offense and defense. They didn't even know, you know, for the most part, which basket they were going to. I mean, how many times have you watched a fourth grader go and do a layup on a fast break to the wrong basket? It happens, right?

I mean, it's painful.

Everybody in the gym's like, no, don't do it. And anyway, the kid goes and shoots the basket. It's the only one the poor kid makes the whole day. They go crazy, and everybody's like, oh, no. Well, that happens with our boutique teams as well. They think they're winning and doing some amazing thing, and next thing you know, they've messed up a sale or they haven't. They haven't served the customer properly, right? Or they've missed out on selling opportunity because they didn't merchandise the store properly. All these kind of things, you know, it comes from training. It comes from that coach giving them the right information where they can really collectively serve your customer, make the sales, enter data, all these kind of things that make the wheel go round. And as hard as it is, a lot of times we're quick to blame society or quick to blame this generation of employees, but really, it comes back to us as the coach of the team, that when the team doesn't work right, it's the coach's fault. It is 100% the coach's fault. And that's us as the boutique owner, right? So we talk a lot about that in module five. And to take it a step further, for some of you that feel like you don't have a team, you're like, oh, that wouldn't necessarily relate to me. I would beg to differ. You might not actually have employees, but you do have a team. You have an accountant, you have a banker, you have a spouse or a significant other or a family. You have all these people that surround you in this business that play a role. You might not think they might not get necessarily a paycheck, but they are a team for your boutique, and they have a role within your boutique, right? Whether it's just to support you or to give you financial advice or to manage your books or to process Your taxes. They have got to understand who you are, what the story your boutique is, what your goal is, and help you align with that so you can succeed. So I think module five falls heavy on everybody, no matter where you're at in your business. Because let's be honest, there is not one sole person doing all of it 100% themselves. Maybe it's their. Maybe they're renting a space, you know, from. From. From somebody. Their landlord is part of their team. Because that guy's got to play along with you. That guy's got to offer an opportunity for you to advance. So there's skills within module five that run very, very deep across the team board.

Absolutely. Including employee handbooks, team meeting, team motivation, hiring, firing, interview questions, how to scale your team, how to keep your team accountable, all kinds of things. Let's talk about module. Oh, I'm sorry, what was.

Oh, no. Yep, that's why I was saying all kinds of things.

All kinds of things. Module six. I want to talk about module six a little bit. This is where I would say module six is a little more leaning toward brick and mortar store owners in the sense that we talk about merchandising. And for the life of me, I can't find another place on the Internet that has a great, like, retail merchandising course or like, training program. So I'm super proud of what's in here because I remember one piece of feedback we got from the last round of Bootcamp. One girl came back and she said, you know what? After module six, I went into my store, I completely rearranged it based on we do, like, floor maps and like, layout guides and traffic plans in this module. And she's like, just that one change alone more than quadrupled my return on investment from being in Bootcamp, which is crazy, right? In one weekend, she went back and just killed it because of this new layout and implemented some of these tools that she may have been missing. Just like one, for example I know we talk about is, you know, when, for the most part, when people come into your store, depending on your store's layout, there's a pretty common traffic pattern people follow. And a lot of times it's to the right. Right? So why wouldn't we be putting our newest, highest priced, best, freshest merchandise right there so we can turn that stuff quickly because that's where people are going to gravitate to first. Sometimes those little, like, no brainer, simple things make all the difference in the world. And I'm going to let you expand on Merchandising a bit. But I want you to listen. If you're an E commerce store owner, if you're an online store owner, merchandising is equally as important to you. Even though it might feel like a brick and mortar thing because every day we have to merchandise our photo shoots, every day we merchandise our social media posts, every day we merchandise our website. And a lot of the same principles apply. You just have to think about it in a slightly different light. And if you go to vendor events and you set up pop ups, whatever, merchandising also still applies to you. So even though it might sound brick and mortar, just know that it's more universal. And some of the strategy that's laced inside of this does go beyond brick and mortar.

Yeah, absolutely. I would quadruple that, that. A lot of what we talk about does resonate back with the E commerce site. And you know, we teach a lot of skills here. We teach a lot of, a lot of psychology behind the buyer. You know, what that, what that person that's coming into your store comes onto your website, what they're expecting, how they relate, you know, where their eye moves, all that kind of stuff. The successful merchandising doesn't just happen, there's an art behind it. And this is where I think it gets this, the course. And running a business gets really fun, right? Because I can tell you there was days when I was running the numbers, I was generating these reports, I was doing all these kind of things in my office and I just needed to clear my head. And so I would get out of my office, I'd go onto my selling floor and re merchandise, right? I would do my store window, I would do, I would do some photography for our website, something creative. Because I felt like this was my outlet and it's awesome to watch. It was kind of like a game, right? So you, you would do this and then you'd watch customers come in and how they interact and how they move and where they pause, what they pick up and what they don't. And so then you could make decisions on that and you could re merchandise again or pull things from this area that maybe was not having high visibility and put that in a better spot immediately watch it sell. And it was almost like a game, like you're playing with these people's emotions, but you're playing to the, you're playing to win, right? Because at the end of the day we're here to make money. So we go through a ton of strategy about that and answer people's questions here about, you know, what do I do with my leftover merchandise? Okay, well, let's go back. We talked about the inventory that you're buying and learning from these mistakes and discounts. But let's be a little bit further. When was the last time you moved it? Has it lived on the floor in the corner this whole time? You know, when was last time you brought it from page number four on your website, re photoed it in a different way, put it with a different item to show how it transitions season to season and put it back on page number one of your website? Have you tried that? You know, we do a lot of different, lots of different tips and things here, but so much of it is just getting excited about your merchandise and really showcasing it. I just, I challenge people in this module to look at merchandising. Every store they go into, again, I'll say the grocery store, the gas stations, the high end department stores, it doesn't matter. There's a science behind it all. And there's a thing called planogram and it's, it's a big, big business for major department stores. And you know, like if you walk into a Target or you walk into Kohl's, they have the same displays everywhere. Right. For the most part. I mean, depending on if you're in California versus Maine, they might be a bit different, but there's somebody telling them to do that. The cool thing about boutique owners is you all have that ability on your own. You can be super creative and come up with your own displays. Right. You don't have somebody telling you exactly how you have to do it and that this green pair of pants goes with this shirt and this on this mannequin in this particular part of your store. No. You get to be creative and expand your mind and do all these things on your own. And I love that art side of it. And that's why I think it gets so fun. But again, it's all done with the result of making a sale. So I think this deep dive science part for the art part is super cool within merchandising. And you know how we can increase that average order value, increase the sales, put more money in our cash register, we can pay more bills, we can invest in more inventory. Yeah. So wagons wheel circles around again and it all plays together.

And this is, you've got to get your fill of like the art side and the creative side of the business in this module. Because the next pain point that we hear from store owners that we cover in module 7 is not art and it's not pretty, it's actually really boring. But this can be a significant leaky bucket. And that is just your general operations things like handbooks, store policies, guidelines, operations schedules, planning, maximizing events, team guidelines, security, making sure you've got some theft, prevention, a lot of the like boring, mundane part of your business that we have to review, that's in module seven. So don't get bored and sleep through this one, please.

No, because these are the things that if you skip these, they really are going to come back and bite you later on. You know, when you need to have standards set, you need to have non negotiable standards set within your business. And some of those things you kind of forget about. And so this module is a great refresher. It's like that eye opener of like, oh my gosh, yes, I totally need to get that taken care of to protect myself. Because at this point we're hoping you've built a pretty good business, right? Like you are on the verge for success. So making sure you've not missed some of these key things along the way, you know, are very, very important. Protecting yourself and making sure everybody's on the same page, everybody understands the, you know, the playbook, the policies, the procedures, how to handle problems, all these kind of things. It is the nitty gritty of your business. So.

It'S the thing that as you grow, I think you just want to bury your head in the sand. I'll never forget like the first time we started putting employees on payroll because everyone started as contractors first with us at the Hub and I was talking to my father in law on the phone one day, who's our insurance agent? And I was like, what is this crapload of mail that has started to arrive in my box? Like, what is going on? And he's like, yeah, that's what most people don't know about having a business is all of a sudden you have to have a full time person just to handle this stuff that you don't think about on a regular basis. All the workman's comp and like all this stuff that just makes me want to bang my head against a wall. Thank God there's people who, oh yeah.

There'S some people super excited about managing that. And you know what? Perfect. Go find those people and let them do that so you can get back to doing the amazing creative stuff that you do. But nonetheless, you cannot avoid that.

Amen to that. All right, so if you can, please don't sleep through module seven. We will get into the fun part and that is module 8 where we talk about selling. We talk about the most important thing that we do on a regular basis and that is sell stuff. So from the psychology behind selling to hosting events, to understanding what promotions are working and knowing the difference between promotions and sales, we also have a brand new promotional calendar that we're going to be sharing with our boot camp students this year. Rewards programs. We talk about, again, going back to that psychology and then also traffic plans and how to break down. We've talked a little bit about this in the hub in general, the boutique traffic plan, but knowing if I'm going to sell a million dollars this year, how do I need to work those numbers backwards in order to get there? So we talk about traffic patterns going back to merchandising in your store or merchandising your website. How many conversions are we getting? What's our average order value? And then based on our marketing efforts, which we're going to cover in module 10, how much traffic do we need to drive footer online every single day to hit those conversion rates and average order values and make the sales? It's like where the number side of your brain and the creative side of your brain meet and have like a party in module number eight.

Oh, man. Yeah, a lot about upselling, you know, we talk about retention and yeah, you said we cover the rewards programs and loyalty programs, things like that, that, you know, all those touch points within sales and the whole art of serving with our customer. And yeah, you have got to be able to put this all in perspective and do it efficiently and effectively to pay your bills.

Right.

It's fun. I love it. This is a very energetic, I think, module because you can see a direct result very fast by the things that we implement here. So I'm excited about that.

Mm. I love it. All right, module number nine. Hello, online boutiques. We will be talking to you directly. And if you're not an online boutique, I know that in the next couple of years, can I just take a stance and say this? I think it's going to be really important that you are an online boutique. And I know there's a lot of multiple generation brick and mortar stores that are kind of dabbling into what is it like to have an online presence. And I'm not saying that everyone has to have like an e commerce powerhouse side of their business, but I think to be online and to know how to be found and to fulfill orders so you can continue to grow your business outside of your four walls is critical. And so in this module we talk about all things E commerce from the ideal site layout. We do talk about Shopify but but this is all relevant to no matter what provider you're working with. BigCommerce, whatever it is. But ideal site layout, traffic understanding Google Analytics and how to read the data and the reporting that's coming from your site. We're going to go deep, deep into SEO this round of Bootcamp which I'm super excited about. We've got a brand new SEO strategist on our team at the Boutique Hub who is awesome to work with. We'll be talking about how to do that in your business as well. And then lots of e commerce hacks that no one tells you conversion. We had a conversion rate optimization specialist join us a session ago or two sessions ago that has a great video in Bootcamp and we've got guest experts coming in all the time adding to that. Plus for those of you that are on comments sold, we do talk about that a lot in this module as well. We've had Brandon in, we've had Leslie in. I think we've got possibly Brandon coming back again. I'm not even sure the schedule but we'll talk more about SEO and using that as an E commerce provider as well.

Yeah and I think the one thing I just want to touch on here because this is Ashley's wheelhouse 100% but as a shopper I'll put myself back in the shopper role when I'm jumping around on boutiques websites or whatever on their Facebook page and all of a sudden I get something else that targets me back or a pop up here that has something relevant to something I might have been looking at or a way for me to stay in touch. And I think gosh, that's really cool. Or sometimes I'm like well that's really weird. How did that happen? Or sometimes it does. I don't even stop and think about it. I just like oh that's you know, I enter my information there or whatever it is. But the thing is I want to say is that doesn't just happen. Module 9 is going to really dive you into why that, how you can make that happen on your sites, how you can find other ways to target and re engage with customers through your E commerce platforms and get you get more conversions into your sales. I just think some so often, you know, the majority of the population remember your customers are not techie, they're not the boutique people that are, they're not the tech people, they're just boutique shoppers. They just like to shop for clothes. How all that stuff works on the back end. They don't even get it. But you need to be. It needs to be relevant with it on your site. Right. Because it is on the. On your competition, I guess I'd say so. Helping you understand how to implement those things all happens there in module nine, which I just think is a win win, because you're kind of setting yourself up first to be passed over if you're not up to speed on all those kind of things.

Amen to that. Module number 10. Module number 10 is a monster. So let's just talk about the monster of social media, for example, for a second. I know there's a number of you listening right now that are feeling like, I spin my wheels with social media. I'm constantly posting, I'm constantly engaging. Oh, yeah, Pinterest. I definitely should be on there, but I'm probably not optimizing it the way that I could. Oh, and there's this brand new thing called TikTok. Lord knows when I'm gonna maximize that. Right. It's always another thing and it's always another strategy and it's always another post. And so we try to demystify that a lot in module 10, and we talk about each individual channel individually in this module. So we have a Pinterest strategy. We talk about tailwind. If you're not already using tailwind to schedule your pins, I highly recommend that you get started there. We talk about Instagram, Facebook, Facebook groups, live videos, doing giveaways and how to do them right, the ideal content recipe, customer segmentation. And then I do want to talk a second about planning. If you have heard anything about our Content Sanity Masterclass or Content Sanity strategy that we created at the Boutique Hub. This is something I began to work on about a year and a half ago after hearing so many of the questions and being able to know that right now Sarah's wheels are spinning in her head and she's wanting to vomit as she thinks about all of this social media.

I can hear you laughing for all of you that are out there in the podcast land. And you're like, what in the Sam hell is she talking about? This is also over my head. You know what? I'm right there with you. But Ashley's Ashley makes it very. I'm gonna just say, dumbs it down. I like that. I don't. I hope that doesn't sound bad, but you do a good job, Ashley, of dumbing that down in module 10. And making this actually possible for the common boutique owner to adapt to and implement. So between yes. What you're tying in, these strategies. I love it. It. Because, gosh, let's be honest, there's a lot of us that have just, like, had this instant glaze over the last two minutes Ashley's been talking about. But she'll put it in. Don't. Don't stress. I hope you're not sweating. She'll put it in dumb, dumb terms, layman terms, whatever. And it will be manageable. I just want to keep. I want to say manageable. You can work this system, get a.

New stick of deodorant, and you are going to be fine. It's manageable.

All right, proceed.

Okay, so let's just go here. Here's how it's manageable. The content sanity strategy is where we talk about the six essential pieces of content that a boutique owner needs every week on social media. And that is live videos or recorded videos, try on sessions, product photos, new and aged quotes, personal stories. And what is the thing that I'm forgetting off the top of my head? I'm forgetting the sixth piece. Oh, collections. A featured collection. I couldn't count there for a minute. So we talk about how do you take those pieces and with what's working on social media right now, how do you implement them into your business? I will give you this warning, though, however, if you're coming into bootcamp and you're like, oh, my gosh, these strategies change all the time. I know they do. And so some of the things we really have dumbed it down in this module, we've gone deep, but dumbed it down to make it simple. Because then what Sarah and I do, we go live every week during bootcamp. We do group coaching. So if there's something that we feel like is the absolute latest and greatest, here's what we know is working right now, or here's what we've been testing, then we coach on that live every week. Even though it may not say that in the module. The module may be basic. Our lives may go more into depth because there's no way with the amount of information that's in here that we could rerecord it that often because there is so much stuff. So come in, find the one nugget that works for you, but don't feel like you have to do everything.

Yeah. And keep in mind you have lifetime access to this course.

Right.

So if you take retail bootcamp and you get hung up here on module 10, 11, or or even 12. That's okay, because you can continue to implement these processes throughout your journey in your. In your boutique business. It does not all have to happen in, whatever, week 11 or week 10 of Retail Bootcamp. Not at all. You have lifetime access to this, so you can circle back around whenever you need to circle back around.

Absolutely. And every time there's a change, and we do, because we have been updating some of these modules as we go, you. You get lifetime access to all the changes. So that's. That's a pretty cool thing. That's college that you don't have to pay for every semester, which is wonderful.

Oh, my gosh.

All right, module number 11, as we kind of get closer to the end Here, again, module 11 is, I would call, more of the traditional marketing and sales strategy. You know, so many times we think about growing our business and marketing in terms of social media, but we forget that there's a million other ways that we can also be growing from traditional marketing like postcards and phone calls and that personal touch that really can't be replaced with social media today, to things like email marketing and setting up the right automations, the right segmentation of your list. Right. The things that are going to help make you money while you sleep. We've got a lot on text marketing, and actually that module is going to be expanding this year because there's some new developments in that market space. We talk about using influencers and reps, and we've got sample contracts for you. We talk about PR strategy and how to work with your local news organizations, be it a newspaper, a magazine, any kind of media outlet, TV station, because that's awesome SEO. It's awesome traffic. That's a great way to build your brand reputation. Right. So all the traditional pieces of marketing are covered in module 11. And then into module 12. This is again where most people say, hey, let's start with Facebook ads. And then we're like, no, no, no. We've got a lot of work to do before we want to burn your money and light it on fire with Facebook, because that's what can happen. You know, so many people come in and they're like, I tried Facebook ads, and they didn't work. And really it is like, just take some money out of your pocket and light it on fire. You'd be better off to do that if you haven't, like, gone through these other processes in your business first. So we really do break it down here and this entire module, because Facebook's ads manager was all updated like 100% overhauled in the last year. This will be completely brand new this year. So everything from the Facebook, like a sales funnel. So how do we look at cold audiences, warm audiences and retargeting audiences, all the different types of audiences that we can create within there, how to then set up ads and the different types of ads that matter in different stages of the stages of the funnel and then how to track all those ads and to really understand what numbers are working and what's the ROI that I should be getting from Facebook ads. And I do encourage you, I think, you know, Sarah, you've coined this phrase for sure, do what you do best and hire the rest. And sometimes that is Facebook ads. It's hiring someone. But I highly, highly caution you do not hire someone to do your Facebook ads if you don't understand it at least a little bit yourself. Because it's so easy to get taken advantage of with Facebook, with SEO, with digital marketing agencies that come in and they want your money and they're going to charge you $5,000 a month. But they, they're proven they know exactly what they're doing right. They're going to do all your social media and your emails and your ads and please feel the sarcasm in my voice right now. Some of them are great and as long as you know how to guide them and have an educated conversation with them, you're going to find success. But some of them, if you don't know and you're just like, hey, run with it, you should light your money on fire now too. So I just really believe in the Bible verse, the Bible story about teaching a man to fish and feeding him for a lifetime versus giving him a fish and feeding him for a day. This is your opportunity to educate yourself. Even if you outsource this part of your business so that you aren't taken advantage of and you really get the ROI that you're looking for, would you agree with that, Sarah?

Yes, 100%. I think. You know, the one thing on all of this module 10, 11 and 12 that I want to make sure everybody understands is not only is Ashley going to be teaching you how to do these kind of things in a process that works, she's also going to be teaching you how to analyze and go back in and look at these. Just like I was talking about the report earlier in this, in this course, you're going to be able to go back in and look at your numbers and track what is it doing? What is that investment of data dollars doing for your roi? Where where are you making money here? And so much of this I see a lot of boutique owners, they'll run a Facebook ad, they will run and publish it and they'll do, they'll boost it, they'll do the deal and then all of a sudden they're like months later. Oh man, I wonder if I ever generated any sales from that, you know. And it kind of blows my mind how much you click that button and forget about it and not track anything. And everything we do in business needs to be done with a purpose. And that's like you taking this course in general retail bootcamp. You need to take this with the purpose of implementing what you're learning here and, and taking it in bite sized pieces wherever you are in your business. But certainly implementing the strategies and testing them and analyzing them. And that's the big thing I love about that bonus module that 12 is those Facebook ads because they're so easy to just think, oh, I'm going to boost it. I'm going to, you know, I'm going to run this ad and then not even know what to do with it. So I love it. I think, I think that those last three modules specifically for the especially I want to say that these are big modules for everybody. But I find one place where a lot of, I want to say veteran boutique owners fall short is here because they know it's necessary, they know they need to get on this bandwagon. They're just not sure how to do it. And something else I want to add here is don't be afraid to bring your manager or bring, bring your other go to person from your boutique in here to learn this and to help you manage these kind things. Because throughout the courses I will talk about open book management and like Ashley said, do what you do best and hire the rest. I'm not naive to think that you as one person can do all of this and do it all well, do it all 100% and still manage to sleep at night, cook supper, be with your family, whatever it is, or take in a movie and actually take a shower. I mean this is a lot. And so we know that it's going to take a support staff or it's going to take some team, right? Eventually the bigger you get, the bigger your problems. So you're going to have to bring in some other people. And I'm a big believer in the open book management strategy where you bring these other people in and let them know what your goals are and how you want to get there and have them help you along the journey. And so you look at any. I'll go back. You know, you were talking about the. The veteran boutique owner. And I watched, you know, NFL football. There's not an NFL football team that goes onto the field with one coach on the sidelines. There's not. There's so many coaches over there. There's so many people helping them along the way and seeing the field from a different view and reading the plays and helping them along the way. And I guess I just keep saying, you know, that's where I think retail Bootcamp comes in. You and I are eyes to the whole different level. You're in here with a community of other boutique owners that are taking Retail Boot Camp together, all collectively right in our. In our closed group. So they're able. Their eyes and ears and helping you understand where they're at in their business, where you can learn from them as well. And then also on the other side of that, you know, that helps you get that team put together, that can help you implement all of these strategies and not be overwhelmed by, you know, any of this stuff, the Facebook ads or other marketing strategies, things like that. Yeah, I don't know. I get so excited thinking about Retail Bootcamp and the opportunity that it creates for retailers in general. And then you listen to the testimonials that we have, and, yeah, I'm super pumped. And if I had my boutique over again, no matter what, I would want to be in a community like this to give me the, you know, the backbone support that. That Retail Bootcamp does.

I love it. Well, man, we have. We've dug deep into all the areas we talk about Boot Camp. Hopefully that was helpful, and hopefully there was nuggets of wisdom in there for you guys today, whether you're going to be a part of Boot Camp or not. Just to take those things home with you and work on them. A couple other things I just want to really mention quick so we don't forget about them, Sarah, but besides the modules we talked about, we've got. Oh, my gosh, we've got to have over, what, 20 guest experts inside of Bootcamp.

Now.

We're pretty big believers on if. If we don't know the answer, we're certainly not going to B.S. you on that. And we're not going to pretend like we've got it all figured out. We're going to find someone smarter than us to come in and give that answer. So that's why we rely so heavily on our friends and contacts in the industry to come in and help coach with us in boot camp. Just like you said, multiple coaches on the sidelines and every NFL game. But we also have lots of done for you templates and checklists too. So whether it's your handbooks or hiring and firing and all those processes, questions and guidelines, savvy retailer do's and don'ts checklists, retail acronyms and retail math cheat sheets, promotions, calendars. Gosh, what do we We've got customer survey things, we've got donation forms when people come in looking for donations and then plus we've got guided workbooks and modules or inside of every single module. So every time you're listening and taking notes, you can take it into the workbook as well and then print that out, put it in a binder and you've got it forever.

Absolutely. It is a university course. It is not a 100 level course. I mean there is, there's so much in here. And yeah, I think it is a definite tool for growth for any, any retailer foreign.

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