Growth, Diversification & Re-branding Your Boutique Business

Hey, I bet today you are going to want to hear from a boutique owner and hear her story of how she not only grew her business, but rebranded her business and went from one very specific niche into maybe a more general, but still very specific niche. Okay, I'm being way too broad. You guys, I am so excited today for you to meet my friend, Shelby Loveless, the founder of the Good Babes Co. She is someone I have personally look up to for a long time on Instagram. Also inside of the Boutique Cup. She's been a member forever, and we've also had her as a speaker at the Western Summit. And when you meet Shelby in person, you'll know she is as sweet and as genuine and as real as she is today on the podcast. She is someone truly to look up to in this industry. So, guys, I'm so excited for you to hear the story of again, growth and also rebrand. But something I really appreciate that Shelby's also doing right now is diversifying her business. And as you continue to grow, that's something you're going to want to think about as well. Boutique is really just one income stream when there's opportunity for so much more. Guys, you're going to love this one. Be sure to take some notes. I know Shelby will love to answer your questions. You can catch the podcast here or remember, you can always Watch us on YouTube if you want to see Shelby and I chat in person as well. I hope you love this one. Get ready to meet my friend, Shelby Loveless, the founder of the Good Babes company. 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 eco 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, and strategists that actually make it happen. I'm your host, Ashley Alderson from the Boutique Hub, and I can't wait to chat. Hey, guys, welcome back to the podcast. And we are back in video again this week. This has been an episode that's been a long time coming. Shelby, I think we've tried to schedule this so many times and we're both busy and it's gotten moved to the side. But I'm pumped because you're one of my personal favorite boutiques to shop. I love your style and I'm so excited to talk all about your business today. So, guys, Shelby Loveless from the Good Babes. Shelby, tell me just kind of Some backstory on the business, how you got to where you are today and how things are going right now.

Sure. So basically started with literally $2,000 out of college, broke college kid. Took all of my money that I had and started shopping around, basically and realized how expensive fashion was, and I wanted to bring a more affordable side to it. And so that's kind of why it started. We now have grown into a 5,000 square foot warehouse, and we currently do 1.5 million, and we have three employees now.

And.

Yeah, so that's where we're at now.

I love that. And you've gone through an evolution of the brand. I always think that one thing that sets you apart is you have such a unique taste and a unique style, and you've always been very true to who you are. And it was interesting to kind of watch from the outside to see your brand change names, you know, go through this whole process and get even more specific to your niche customer. Talk to me about, like, how the brand started and why you decided to rebrand and what it is now.

Yeah, for sure. So we actually started in a niche customer of the western market. So more of the flare jeans and, you know, prints. The western prints and whatnot. And when I was going and running errands, I was realizing, hey, that's not what I'm throwing on when I'm going to run errands. I want to also buy some stuff for, you know, that will cover all customer bases and kind of fit everyone's taste, but also still have that western flair that we can tie back in, you know, for fun styles to go out at night, et cetera, et cetera. So that's kind of where the rebrand happened. So my original name was Super Western, and I had it on my heart that, you know, there's a lot of negativity going around in the world. And so that's where the Good Babes co came from. It's basically just to push people. Hey, let's try to be the best person that we can. Um, and so that's kind of the background behind the new name, the Good Babes Company. So, yeah, that's where that came from. Yeah.

How did you approach that process and how long did it take, do you think, for your customers to, like, latch on? And is there anything in that time that you wish you would have done differently or do you feel like really helped with the rebrand to make that transition smooth?

Yeah, so kind of how I do with my collections that we drop, I hyped it up super Hard. You know, basically I let them know, hey, we have a huge name change coming that we're super excited about. And just kept the excitement going with every. Because if you're excited about something, your customers are going to be excited. And I fully explained why we were doing the name change and, you know, made sure everything was ready to go. And there was still some stuff like packaging. We still had a ton of packaging from the old name. And we just explained to people, hey, you know, there still might be a few things that you see with our old name on it, but this is who we are now. And when we dropped that new name on Instagram, that was still our highlight. Most liked post on Instagram to this day.

That's awesome. Did you have any, like, customer confusion for a while or pushback, or do you feel like it really generally went pretty smooth?

No, it went extremely smooth. And again, you know, we changed the email signature, but on the email signature, we kept formerly. And then we put the name that we used to be. And so we tried to do that when we communicated with customers, we kept it on our Instagram for a while just so that they weren't extremely confused, you know, when it came back across. Yeah.

Is there any tips you would give to someone who's, like, considering if they should change their name or not?

Whatever you are passionate about, do that. So if you're more passionate about the new name change that you want to do, go for it. That's what I would say.

That's good. That's good. So thinking about, like, if I think about your boutique and why I love to follow you on Instagram, and Instagram is your main channel, which you could probably tell everyone why Instagram's your main channel, because that's kind of a frustrating story.

You know, everyone gets super frustrated with the algorithm, but I try not to think too hard about that. I kind of just have fun with it, which, of course, that's hard to do sometimes in business. Right. You get stressed about numbers and all that, but just keep pushing. Figure out what your customers want to see. Don't go, you know, look at another boutique and say, oh, this is what they're doing. I'm going to try that. Pay attention to what your customers are looking at, and you can go look specifically at who they're following, store wise, et cetera. But we specifically like doing photo shoots and whatnot. And so that's kind of how we keep it going on Instagram and change things up a little bit at a time.

Yeah, you have such a strong Visual brand. And I wanna talk about that more in a little bit. But I think it's interesting to note that you don't have Facebook. Cause Facebook got hacked.

Yes, so Facebook got hacked probably four months ago. So we do not have Instagram shopping. We have none of those features. We don't have a Facebook business suite at all. So super frustrating. But long story short, yes, we've figured out how to make it work. And honestly, sales have not dropped from it, thank goodness. Um, but like I said, we've just kind of hustled a little bit more and made it work. So. Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, that's a scary thing. And unfortunately, so many people are going through that right now. And, I mean, you kind of came through that. Like, I have a choice. I can either let this take me down or I can do something about it. And you went all in and you did something about it. Talk to me about your Instagram game. Because you. You have mastered the art of, I would say, styling. And a lot of times I feel like when I talk to boutique owners, like, one thing that's always missing is they're posting clothes. Like they're posting a piece, but you're posting a style. And there's such a huge difference. And I feel like people are really buying the vibe of what you're selling. How did you. How did you kind of orchestrate that? How did you really build styling and to be core of your brand and who you are? And what does styling really mean to you?

So I'm sure for everyone out there, women wise, Pinterest is a huge thing, right? We love getting on Pinterest and scrolling. That's kind of where I start. You know, I'll find a picture that I'm like, I kind of want to base a photo shoot off of this, right. And I feel like it just shows your customers, hey, you can style this piece this way or we can go casual with it. I feel like it just makes them more confident to buy those pieces if you show them how to style it. And I think that's huge, you know, for so many reasons.

Yeah. Do you have a lot of people who come and just say, okay, I want the whole outfit? Like, do you feel like it's a huge average order value lift, probably because they're seeing how to wear something?

Yes, absolutely, 100%. I'll see, you know, we'll post an outfit or something and I'll see orders come through with the exact outfit that I had on. And I'm like, oh, I love it. Yeah.

How Are you. When you're like planning all of your buying. Right. If you're going to market or you're buying online, whatever you're doing, talk to me about the process in your brain of making sure you're buying in collection or, you know, you're buying pieces that are going to style well together. What's that process look like?

Yeah, so we basically actually pick a theme for the collection first. And for me, that's easier to buy because you know what to stick to. Right. You don't have a bunch of random pieces that you're trying to throw in and, you know, make fit. And so that's how we start. Start with the collection and then we just build from there. So we always try to have basics for that collection that will go with, let's say, a blazer that you have on or et cetera. And so we just build from that collection.

Okay, perfect. And then how often are you dropping collections? What's that cadence like?

We've actually moved to every Friday, which is kind of a rat race, but such as life. Um, so yeah, we are doing that. And we actually have a kind of side brand quote, unquote, that's coming soon that has to do with blazers. And so that will be once a month. So we have a lot going on, but I'm excited about it.

Cool. I want to hear more about that. Is that some manufacturing you're doing on the side?

Yes, kind of.

Awesome. Awesome. I'll leave it at that. So you're dropping collections every Friday? How many pieces are normally in a collection?

Anywhere from 20 to 50. Kind of depends. And I'm kind of watching the buying trends. So, like, we'll see. Since it is every Friday, you know your staple buyers aren't going to come back every single Friday. Right. And so we'll drop a smaller collection one Friday and then a bigger one the following Friday. Um, okay. So that's kind of our cadence with that. Yeah.

And then when you're thinking about, like, what's being pushed every week in social media and emails, I'm assuming it's a lot of hype.

Right.

I've seen the hype on Instagram of new collections that are going to be dropping sneak peeks. What about unsold inventory? What about the things that didn't sell last week? How are you working them into your marketing plan for the upcoming week?

Yeah. So we actually will restyle things three times before we put it on sale. And I love. I've seen this that you've posted a couple times or Mentioned a couple times on trainings and whatnot is why did you buy that piece originally? Let's go back to that. And hey, this isn't something that you weren't excited about. So find that prior excitement about that piece and restyle it with something completely different, you know, because maybe you need to try to reach a different customer base. And so that's what we do if we're still stuck with it. Flash sale. Hey, this is on sale. Hurry, hurry. Yeah, and that's kind of how we move that.

Perfect. When you think about like those photo shoots, you have photo shoots that go along with all those collections and your photo shoots are all like, they're different. It's not that you're doing the same thing every single week. And you said you're finding some of those ideas on Pinterest. What else goes into that process of setting up the shoot?

So of course trying to find models and we always try to too. Like I said with the theme thing, once we have a theme that we go off of, then we will pick location. And now that we have studio, it's making it a lot easier if you do have somewhere in your space to set up, you know, a backdrop. Those are so easy to change out. Right. Even a sheet that you can steam, you can put all sorts of fun stuff on there. And so I encourage people try something new because it's actually might spark something, you know, creativity in you that will make you appreciate those clothes that much more, you know, because you'll have fun with them. So yeah, I encourage people to just try something different one time.

I love that. Do you have some like main inspirations? Like you'll go, you'll find other boutiques doing things or big box stores or Pinterest and then just try to make it your own.

Yeah. I mean even all the way to. Macy's dropped a commercial this last year and it was in the sand dunes and they had mirrors everywhere and it was just super edgy and fun and we took that as an inspiration and you know, turned it into other stuff. But I mean, tv, anything like that I feel like you can find inspiration from.

Yeah. Are there any, like, if someone is just getting into photography, let's say they're just like trying to up level their brand and they need some tips on just making this brand edgy, cohesive. The photo is beautiful. Talk to me about just some tips for maybe the beginner side of things.

Sure. So I actually did start with a little tiny cannon. My husband took pictures for me, bless his heart. Love him to death for that. But since now we have switched to photographers that we use every single week. And it is 100% worth the investment. The amount of time that it saves you for them editing the photos and you not having to touch them, you know, just uploading them onto Shopify, that was huge for us. And so that's kind of what we scale to now and highly suggest finding a photographer, working with her and figuring out both of your styles and how you can mesh them and that's been huge for us.

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Right.

They know the vibe that you're giving. How have you taken that and turned it into organic growth on Instagram? Because Instagram is not just about posting a beautiful photo, but it's everything else that goes into it. So give me more of like the behind the scenes Instagram strategy.

Let's see. Honestly, the more content you can post, the better. And you know, I used to only post a certain amount of times a day and try to keep it, you know, scaled back, etc, but I feel like the more that you post and. But go for quality versus quantity though. Also I want to mention that make sure that, you know, I have an aesthetic that I try to follow on the feed and I feel like that helps a lot. You know, it just helps me keep organized and so kind of find a style that you want to go for with your Instagram and that's what people are going to start recognizing. You know, like I said, we try to use the same photographers over and over again and I think that that helps with Instagram. Stories, obviously are huge. I personally have never done a live, which is crazy. I'm a huge Instagram person, but I don't really like video content, which I'm gonna have to change my ways as far as because reels are huge right now. But yeah, that's kind of what we've been doing is just taking as many great photos as you can and figuring out, you know, we don't even post all the pictures that we take, but if you have them to choose from, then that's kind of where that comes from.

Yeah, I want to go back to what you just said about we don't do lives. And there's really these, these camps right at this day and age that think you have to go live. You have to be a big live seller. You've got to have this huge personality in order to be successful, but it's not that. So talk to me about your sales process and what it means to you to still be successful with just traditional e commerce, sending people to your website, tips you have.

Well, and I think, you know, not to put all eggs in one basket, but the same thing goes with live selling is don't get too stuck on one way of doing something. You know, if you leave it kind of open to try multiple ways, then I feel like that's going to set you up for better success and you're going to learn more by trying different things. Right. We personally, like I said, kind of we use the hype factor, right? So we get on our stories and we're like, hey, this is what's coming. And a few things, you know, will sell out. And people are like, oh, my goodness, that's gonna sell out this next week. So we gotta hurry and get it. So I think hype was huge for us and it still is, so that's helped a lot.

Yeah, it's hype, but it's also like, you are so core to know who your people are. Like, they know they love your stuff. Right. It's not like, oh, I just scrolled past this boutique and it's cute. It's. You really have your customer nailed down and focused. Is there other, like, when you think about your sales funnel, is it email marketing, Is it text marketing? Like, are there other pieces of your funnel you really focused on out too?

Yes, ma'. Am. So we actually just went to text marketing and we actually only have about 14,000 people on our list. But it's still done so great for us. I mean, it's huge for us. So I highly suggest doing the texting. And even if you just are starting to collect phone numbers, I still suggest that because that's free. Right. You can just put some sort of type form on there and collect phone numbers. But text marketing is huge. Yes.

Yes. I Love that you use Typeform. We use Typeform for so many different things in the hub. And that's such an easy way to do it. Just to collect, whether it's phone numbers or emails, put it in your system and get consistent with it. I want to go back to Instagram for a second. I feel like I have a couple more questions around hashtags or how many times you're posting on Instagram. Just like some of those mechanics.

Sure. So we actually, I try to stick to a schedule of 8:00am, 1:00pm and 5:00pm, I think. You know, right. When people are either getting to work or waking up. One of the two, they're right on their phones.

Right.

It's just unfortunately what we've gone to. And then, you know, lunch break, 1 o'. Clock. Ish. And then getting off of work, 5pm And I've noticed, you know, if you post something, people aren't gonna see it for a couple hours later. So if you post at five, someone sitting on the couch at seven. Right. They're gonna see your post, most likely. So, yeah, that's kind of the scheduling that we do. And then what was your other question?

Hashtags.

Oh, yes. So there's actually a hashtag generator that's faux free on the Internet and you can literally type in, so kind of whatever your brand is. Right. So we have like a boho modern brand. So you can go type boho fashion on this hashtag generator. It'll bring up 30 of the most popular hashtags. Copy and paste that right onto your Instagram.

Perfect. What other apps have been helpful for you with like Instagram or just content planning in general? Yes.

So there is an app called Plan. And I'm looking at my phone right now to make sure that I'm saying.

Yeah, Plan with two n's. Right?

Yes. There's a bunch of different apps that you can use. But for the aesthetic that I try to follow, I plan out my Instagram posts, stories. You know, we go by photo shoot. Right. And so I try to keep that collection based when I post on my stories. And I think that helps with organization stuff. So let's say you drop a collection last Friday. Right. And you want to repost a few things that are left. You can stick to that same collection when you repost it. So I just think that that's an easy way to keep it organized.

Yeah, I like that. How do you so mixing in with like the collection and the photo shoots and just some of the behind the scenes. Talk to me about how your Personal brand intertwines with the business's brand because you're, you know, you're like a professional woman, and people love to follow like the deer in your life and like.

All the behind the scenes that happens.

Right. How important is it to you to build that personal brand along with a professional brand?

I think people like to see, you know, it be more down to earth where it's not someone that's like, you know, this high up executive or, you know, something like that. I worked at Dell for four years, and that was always so intimidating for me, right? It was like, these people aren't personable. You know, they don't really want to talk to you. They just want to have something to do with the business. And so to me, that's important, you know, for it to be personal brand. And when people actually know that they're talking to me about, you know, styling or something like that, they love it. You know, they're like, I know she's helping me specifically, and she wants to help me. And so I think they kind of connect to that. So I think that that's big.

Yeah, that is really big. Are there other. Just like, knowing your demographic, are there other collection or not? Collections, collaborations, collaborations, giveaways, like partnerships, things that you've done that have been really helpful for growth.

Oh, my gosh. I'm glad you mentioned collaborations. So that's honestly how I really built up my following on Instagram was I literally reached out to brands and I was like, hey, do you guys want to do a photo shoot together? And, you know, the more people that you tag, you can even, let's say you have a pair of corral boots, right, and you tag them in your post. Hey, maybe they'll reshare your post or maybe they'll be interested in working with you. But yes, collaborations. I highly suggest them, you know, as you can collaborate with the jewelry company, which is what we do almost every week. Shout out to turquoise and teepees. But no, we. That's been huge for us as collaborations.

That's really good. So collaborations with brands, with makers, influencers, or brand reps, like, are those two things that are important to you?

Yeah. So I got into influencer marketing last year and I honestly didn't love it for my brand. Just wasn't for us. You know, it works different for every single person, so you just probably have to try it and see if it works for you. If it doesn't, don't try it again type of thing. Now, as far as brand reps, I do have a few that I absolutely love, but I make sure that they actually like my brand. Right. That they're not just putting on the clothes and they're like, hey, I got this from the good babes company. If someone tags me in a post of something they bought from me and then they reach out to me, I'm going to be more likely to work with them because I'm like, hey, they like my brand and they weren't just asking for something free. Right.

Oh, man, that's such a huge thing to actually have someone who's interested. And I think everyone gets those messages like, oh, hi, will you send me some free clothes? And you're like, delete.

Don't even my request. My request folder on Instagram is a little outrageous, but I'm sure it is.

How do you. So you. You mentioned you have a team of three, right? Or is there three of you total? You have two on your team or three?

Well, so we had four when we moved. We lost one girl to locally wise. Then we just lost another girl. So it's actually just me and my sister right now. Oh, family business at the moment. Yes. So kind of a madhouse. But we're figuring it out. We like working, so it's fine. Yeah.

Change is inevitable. Right. And there's always opportunity on your team. How do you manage that? How do you delegate and prioritize what's on your plate and how do you get things done?

Yeah, so I originally, the first thing I gave up myself was shipping. I outsourced that first. That just gave me more time to actually focus on the business side of that. So if anyone's wondering, hey, what should I try to outsource first? I would say with shipping and then money management wise and bookkeeping, I outsource that. Second, we use profit first for our money management, and I absolutely highly recommend it to anyone and everyone. And then I personally like to handle the social media because that's my passion, that's what I like. But that's also another thing that someone can outsource, you know, totally up to you.

So, yeah, perfect. I love the. The sequence of things. Let's go back to money management for a second. Yeah. Because I got to hear about your new warehouse that you have moved into and you did something so smart with this warehouse. And I'm just a huge believer, like, I think so many times on this podcast and in the hub, we talk about your boutique business. Right. But really in the grand scheme of being an entrepreneur and being a businesswoman, that's Just one revenue stream. Like having a boutique and selling clothes is one little thing. Yeah. As you grow property management and it's investment and it's all these other things that come with it. How have you started to grow and how has the warehouse specifically helped you with that process?

Yeah. So the whole reason I even started thinking of other, you know, income sources and that kind of stuff is, you know, I'm eventually going to grow out of the quote unquote boutique thing. Right. I'm not going to be able to hit my target audience as well as I used to, etc. And so I kind of started to think of other things. And when I had, you know, some extra cash that I wanted to put into something, I was like, well, we need more space because we were renting at the time and we kind of stumbled upon this super great deal with the square house that we got to build a suite. So we got to choose what we wanted to do with it. And so I separated out 2000 square foot for a studio and we are actually going to start renting that space out to other boutique owners, influencers, bloggers, anyone and everyone. We're calling it a babe cave. So there's going to be backdrops, like 10 different backdrops, record players, you know, all sorts of fun wallpaper, anything and everything.

I hope you guys love this episode with Shelby. Isn't she great? She's so humble, but she is doing big things in this world. Guys, if you want more information about how you can be a part of our community and continue to grow with the Boutique Hub, make sure you check out joining as a member this year@the boutiquehub.com and and if you want to meet us in person, don't forget the Boutique Summit is coming up March 20th and 21st and we would love to see you in person to connect with our community and all of the boutique owners inside of the Boutique Hub. So check it out, the Boutique Summit 2022 for more information in today's show notes. Hey guys, thank you so much for listening to this episode. We hope hope that you loved it. Don't forget to hit subscribe and leave a rating and review down below for a chance to be one of our featured listeners each and every week. For more information on our spirit of community over competition and how to access complete show notes and bonus downloads from our guests, head on over to the boutiquehub.com and join the community. We'll see you next week.

Sam.