How to Use Data to Grow Your Boutique & Advice on Selling Shoes

It's episode number 305 with Ashley Wakefield, the founder of Sophie.

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 and strategists that actually make it happen. I'm your host, Ashley Alderson from the Boutique Hub and I can't wait to chat.

I have to tell you guys, I am so excited for you to meet my friend, Ashley Wakefield, the founder at Sophie, because she is one of the longest time members of the Boutique Hub that we have. I remember when we very first started the Boutique Hub and meeting Ashley and getting to know more about her store. At that time it was called Sophie Shoes because she was a shoe specialist and built this beautiful boutique around shoes. Today, as her store has grown and evolved and changed and survived a global pandemic, a lot's changed. And so I'm so excited to sit down with her and talk about her strategy, how she became a boutique owner that's lasted this long, how she built a business around shoes and what other boutique owners should know about specifically selling shoes. But also now how she's transitioning into, into a bit of a different business model and also moving more online than she's traditionally been in a longtime brick and mortar guys, Ashley has been not only a longtime member of the Hub, but a student of retail Bootcamp and always been an ear and an eye for the Boutique Hub and what we can do more of and how we can continue to give back to boutique owners. So to see her on this podcast today, I feel like a proud mama because I think she is so, so awesome and I know you're going to think the same. Get ready to meet my friend, Ashley Wakefield, the founder at Sophie.

Hey guys, welcome back to the show. This week I it's Double Ashley week. First of all, Double Ashley on the show this week. My friend Ashley Wakefield's joining me today from Sophie and Ashley, I'm so pumped that you're here because before we got recording, I was thinking about asking you your boutique name, like officially, what do you call yourself? Because I always go back to Sophie's shoes. That's how I first knew you when you very first joined the Hub a million years ago. You've got this amazing brick and mortar man. We've worked together through bootcamp and so many other things and I can't Wait to tell your story today. Thanks for being here.

Yes. Thank you for having me. Like, I would have never thought that I would be called up, but I'm super excited about it.

Called up. I love it. Well, I'm super excited to tell your story, so let's start here. I want to go back. You are someone who's, you know, a number one. Like I said, been in the hub a long time, but you've built a really sustainable business. You've had a great brick and mortar store for a number of years. I'd love to hear the backstory of how you got the business started again, where you're at, to kind of give people some context and then we'll talk about growth strategies that you've had.

Yeah. So we opened back in July of 2007. It's been a hot minute. So I was a fashion merchandising major in college.

And.

And you know, I just, I worked at Express when I was going through school, and I just. The corporate retail environment was just not my thing. And I really valued the relationships and that social aspect of retail working at Express, but I kind of wanted to do it my way to where I could really, truly serve my customers.

And.

And so I was like a junior and I did my entrepreneurship class and I kind of did it as I was really going to do it, and I ended up doing it. And so I graduated December 06, and we opened seven months later. And it's been. I don't know if it feels like longer or shorter, but it's been 13 years and I love it. Um, it's a lot of work, but the relationships I've built along the way with my customers, with my employees, I absolutely love it. And I still love it. And you have to love it and be passionate about it to survive the stress and, you know, the ups and downs. But I don't, you know, it's one of those things. I don't know what else I would be doing. So. So, yeah, I've really enjoyed it, man.

I think about 13 years, right? The number of ups and downs that you have went through in 13 years. And I think about, man, 2020 was a crazy year. Yeah. And it was hard on everyone. It was also record breaking for some people. It was all over the board. And I think about, for those of you that maybe feel like you're on the brink, like, I don't know if I can do this through 2020. I just want to remind you, just like you're saying, Ashley, retail is so cyclical, like it's so up and down. Talk to me about some of the ups and downs you've had along the way and how you found the momentum and ability to maintain the highs and the lows.

Well, obviously opening in 2007, I probably picked before 2020, one of the worst times to open a retail store. Going through the 2007, 2008 and even lingering into, you know, 09, that recession that happened was, was rough as well. And it lasted kind of a little bit longer than I think. In the end, all of this will last, but it was definitely more gradual. This has been very abrupt. So, I mean, you're gonna have those times. You know, life isn't perfect. Um, economy is not always going to be perfect. So I mean, you're gonna, you're gonna have to go through those times and you're just gonna have to. I've always joke that somehow I've just made it work. And I feel like because we started, as I would call us, a shoe boutique, we pretty much. We have always kind of been that at the heart. But when we first opened, we were just shoes, accessories and bags. And to some extent that was strategic, to some extent was I love shoes. So that was kind of where my passion was and that was where we had the most opportunity in my area, especially at the time. And so one thing with shoes to some extent is you can reach more people. You know, people may not fall between a small to a large, but 90% of the time they're going to fall between a five and a half and a ten size shoe. So it was kind of one of those things. I could reach a little bit wider audience versus just doing clothing now. I little did I know I was getting into one of the hardest and most expensive categories to do. But we've done it and we've made it work. And there's definitely been learning curve there. Margins have always been something that I have struggled. Shoes are really hard margin wise. And so that's kind of always been something that for me, I'm constantly. I don't necessarily like doing the paperwork, nobody does. But I'm very much a numbers person in that I will look at the numbers and run them for probably longer than anyone really needs to. But I'm very kind of. Oh gosh, what's the word? I'm a little bit more investigative when it comes to that kind of stuff. And so that's probably been one area where it's a constant struggle to constantly be up on. Okay, where are we at on this and is it Is it worth it? You know, we've dropped out of shoes a little bit. We don't carry as many as we used to just because money wise, you know, it's, it is a harder category to do. It takes more investment, it takes up more space and the margins aren't as good. And so that was one reason other than customer requests. We started adding in the clothing was to kind of make up for that kind of leaner margin and shoes. But, you know, it's one of those things that I feel like people have to be really cautious of, you know, looking at those inventory. I had an inventory number issue for years. It was really hard for me to say no to people. Like when they would come in and say, oh, do you have this? It was so hard for me not to get on the computer right then and there and try and find it for them and bring in 12 pairs of shoes for this one person, which was just looking back at it, just crazy and dumb. But it's just one of those things, like sometimes you have to, you definitely have to find your niche and really focus because I, you know, I didn't do that for a long time. And inventory really, I mean, it controlled me. I didn't control it. And so it took several years. I mean, my first probably three to five years was straight out of college and definitely a learning curve. I know I've joked with you before that had, had, I had the hub the way it is now when I first opened, I might have a different business, but you know what? Life's not perfect and I've learned along the way. And you know, I just keep striving to be better and do better and that's, that's all you can do.

That's absolutely right. It's the, the overages and inventory I feel like are the investments we make into our business and our education every single day. Right. We learn from every dollar that we either make or we don't make.

Yeah, absolutely. And I've, you know, I've, I've, I've made the mistake too of just looking at the sales numbers versus really diving in deep and looking at, okay, yes, I was making great sales numbers, but my margins were crap. You know, I mean, it's just you. If you don't look at both of those things, I feel like you set yourself up to some extent for a really, really big wake up call and maybe not a great way. So I think looking at those two things very relatively, I mean, a great example is last month we were down, oh, a couple Thousand dollars, which, again, like I was saying before 2020, it's one of those, you know, if I can get that close, then I'm okay. But my margin was 10% better. So what I lost in those sales numbers, I actually doubled in profit. So looking at those two things not separately, but together, and really looking at how one affects the other and understanding that, I think is huge.

Yeah. I want to go deeper down this road because I think, Ashley, you're. You're a rare individual because you love this side of the business. A lot of boutique owners are really intimidated by this side of the business. So let's kind of work this backwards a little bit. As you're thinking about narrowing down your inventory to what's actually working. Talk to me about the reports that you're looking at, which sales reports, and how are you making those decisions of what's going to stay and what's going to go when it comes to reordering.

Yeah. And I think a lot of that, too, is having a great system that, you know, for a long time we. I didn't use. I started out with the old school QuickBooks, like pro, retail Pro or something. I don't even know if they make it anymore. But, like, I didn't use my software like I should. So really using the tools that you have in front of you, even just using them is big. But looking at, I use lightspeed now, and it gives me a really good snapshot of my cost profit margin kind of in my one total sales report. And I probably pay more attention almost to the margin anymore than I do even the sales, just because it does make such a huge difference. I mean, I can go back and look at, like, we had a stellar 2016 was one of our best years. And I can go back and look at those numbers. But then I look at my margins and I'm like, oh, yeah, that year was amazing, but my margins were not that great. Like, okay, I was selling really, really well, but it wasn't really making me as much money. And I wasn't coming, you know, out ahead at the end of the year as much as I could have had. I just had those margins better. So the margins report, honestly, is probably the one I look at the most with those overall sales. And then breaking down into my category, sales by percentage, seeing how that breaks down, which we're about 50, 50, and actually clothing is about to take over. So we're getting closer almost to a 55 sales, 60 on clothing versus shoes as far as selling percentage. But looking at those overall Kind of percentages more so than sales even, just because certain categories, you know, accessories, they're not as big of a percentage, but they're a lot higher margin. So they still have, you know, they still have good value as far as overall profit goes, but looking at it as more of a percentage versus like an overall number to me is a little bit more useful. But yeah, I am constantly. And I've kind of always been this way, but I feel like I didn't do what I should have with the numbers I was looking at 10 years ago. I just didn't. And so now really looking at those numbers and kind of seeing them for what they are and then doing something about them, you know, looking at those margins and if you're hitting a 40% actual sold margin, looking at, okay, where am I, where am I missing? What categories am I losing percentages in when it comes to my margin? And how can I change that? You know, looking at, is it my markup or am I discounting it too much? So things like that I'm constantly looking at. And then I've recently, I worked with Christine Gray earlier this year and did one of her one on ones. And I will say that, that along with working with Dan over at Management one for inventory, I would say those two things are probably the two things in the last few years that have really helped me. It's like I knew all the things they were telling me, but making myself kind of face the reality of what I needed to do about them. And I think that that's hard. I think that we can see the issue and maybe need to do something about it, but I think then actually taking action on it and making the hard decisions to change things, I. I feel like that's one of the hardest things to do as a business owner because it's. It's scary. You know, I. I could probably cut back on my shoes even more, but that's one of those areas that I'm known for that to some extent, I can never get rid of because it's. It's what makes us us. And so even though clothing is kind of taking over, I'll always have that shoe selection that I've had just because it's what makes Sophie, Sophie so. But outside of that one thing that I. I kind of refuse to change. Being able to act on those things that you need to act on and making the hard decisions, I think that's something that is hard for us to do but is very necessary sometimes.

Sarah always says this in Bootcamp. She always says Working with someone like Dan or. Or anyone at Management One and Christine, it's just like having an unemotional set of eyes on your business because we look at those things, like whatever the, you know, rack of sweaters or shoes or whatever it is in the store, and we get emotionally attached to. I remember being at Magic and I bought that, or it was after three margaritas. Why did I buy that? And it's easy to not want to put them on sale or move them out or not reorder, because maybe we like the vendor, maybe we love having that experience at market with the vendor, but we didn't realize that, you know what, that vendor's products just aren't turning for us. So I'm curious, are they also helping you break down sales by vendor? Vendor, and then also sales by category type, not just accessories or shoes, but say booties, sandals, you know, tall boots, sneakers, whatever it may be. How have you taken that even deeper? Dive into the actual turn by product or vendor?

Yeah, definitely. With Dan, I mean, I think we look at, I want to say around 16 categories, which is pretty deep. So we dive, you know, down into not just shoes, but down all the way into flats. Booties, boots, heels, sandals. We do break them down. We could even go deeper, but we break them down at least into one kind of, how they put it, child, class, or a subclass to really look at, okay, apparel looks great, but not all apparel is equal. So what are the ones that are doing the best and what are the ones that maybe are pulling the others down to where we could be even better? So really looking at that and digging deep down is really important because not all apparel is made equal, not all shoes are made equal. And going back to kind of what you said, I have definitely struggled with that emotional, especially for me. I have reps I've worked with for so long. I have a couple of my shoe reps that have been my shoe reps since day one. And so it's really hard when you develop those relationships to look at the real numbers and realize, shoot, that is not working as well as I would want it to. But, man, I hate to not buy from this person, you know, it's just.

It is.

It's so hard. So I think, yeah, having that person without those emotional connections to give you that real deal, raw look at the numbers. And, you know, sometimes. Sometimes you do need that emotional aspect too. Like for me, keeping the shoes, you know, someone from the outside in looking maybe would say you should cut your shoes back by 25% or consider getting rid of them completely. But for me, I need a little bit of that injection of the emotional just because they don't know your day to day either. So I think being able to look at that objectively too, you need to look at the numbers, but you also need to look at it from, you know, what the customers are saying every day when they come into your store. So being able to take that and make it work for you too, versus just only listening to what they're telling you and taking it fully to heart. I feel like you do some extent, have to find a happy balance in between.

Yeah, I, you know, it's funny that you say that because I feel like I've had this conversation with people before. It's again, it goes back to right brain. Left brain in retail where someone knows the business, they know the numbers, but you know your gut feeling and you know your brand, you know what your customers are really in it for. Right?

Yeah.

And those things have to speak volumes too. And I think it does have to go hand in hand. Just like you were saying, you know, you wouldn't be Sophie if you weren't with shoes. Your customers would find that to be odd if you eliminated shoes. Right. So how do you do that in balance? Right.

Yeah. And for me, that's been really looking at those subcategories and really looking at, okay, well, these items are selling well and they're selling off the bat.

Now.

Shoes are just. Shoes are their own beast. I mean, they just really are. We can get a piece of clothing in and it's gone in a day or two. We, if we sell a pair of shoes out, a box of shoes out within a month, that's like, whoa. Like, shoes just, they take longer. And you kind of have to have a little bit more patience to some extent with shoes. They're just kind of their own. They really are kind of their own beast because they don't necessarily go off the same norms as clothing. So that, that's one of those things that I've had to learn over the years and looking at that and being able to dive down into those deeper by vendor, by specific style or specific, you know, a open toe sandal or a flip flop versus a regular sandal or a wedge versus a heel. Like, how are those comparing to each other? And really going very granular in those categories and weeding out the ones that maybe I got them because I love this style, but traditionally, maybe like, I'm a heel girl, I love me some heels, but if I go much over two and a half inches, they just won't sell. And so being able to, again, kind of take that, take ourselves out of it and look at the raw data and say, okay, yes, I love these, but that's not what we're selling. I need to do more of X, Y, or Z versus this. And so being able to kind of have that objectivity to make those decisions and do what's best versus maybe what you want to do. And that's just in life in general. But I feel like it is a constant struggle. But you constantly have to be on your toes and looking at those things and making sure, because your inventory is your biggest investment. I mean, it can kill you. I mean, it can really, really stiffen your entire business. And so if you don't have that in check, then it's hard. It's really hard because I did it for a long time with letting my inventory control me instead of me controlling my inventory. And, you know, it. It's it. You just can't do it and survive and thrive and really grow.

Yeah. Oh, man. Thank you. Can I. I feel like I need to pay you to say this sometimes because it gets overlooked. Like, oh, I don't need to manage my inventory, but show me how to do Facebook ads. And I'm like, oh, no, no, we got to go back to the basics. I do get Ashley, and I know you've got a good point of sale system, but talk to me for a second about the importance of managing purchase orders and the process your inventory goes through from purchase order into your system, because I think that's a big place where people will order and they will forget what they've ordered or they just really aren't diligent about tracking their purchase orders.

Yeah. Oh, gosh, I've made those. I've made plenty of those mistakes over the years, too, where, you know, you go to market and you're so excited, and I still, I, to this day, am guilty of. I will plan, plan, plan, and I will set myself, my budget, and X, Y, and Z. And then I get to market, and it all goes out the window. And I'm like, oh, look at this. Look at this. Yeah, I don't even. You know, keeping that running tally in your head is sometimes so hard. And. And being able to know that, okay, wait a minute. I have to actually look at what I'm supposed to be doing here, not just let my. Again, emotions lead me through to all the cute things. So that is something that I think that no matter how long you've been Doing it like to some extent is a struggle. But yeah, that is definitely one of those things that having a great point of sale system is so helpful with because we use Shopify point of sale after we left our QuickBooks point of sale. And man, I struggled for a long time whenever I was the few years that I was using that because it just. I didn't have the data I needed and I couldn't do kind of what I needed. Now it's so much better. But this was when Shopify pos. I mean you could not even do a return or exchange on it. Like you couldn't do anything on was when it very first came out. And so it's a lot better. But those days were hard because tracking all of that manually I typically what I used to always do, I would always have an Excel sheet. And every time when I got back from market I go through I'd lay it out by brand and get my totals by month per brand and then kind of my overall totals for the season and by month and then I would typically put together a PowerPoint. And this is like aging me because does anyone even use PowerPoint anymore? I don't even know if it's still around. But I put together a PowerPoint and I take, you know, whether it was a screenshot off of a line sheet or whatever, I take them and I'd drop them into a PowerPoint by color and I'd look at everything. This was when I just did shoes. I'd look at everything by color and say, okay, I have too many flats in this color. I have too many heels in this color, vice versa, whatever. Or I don't have enough of one color versus another. Now with smartphones and all the technology that we have, I mostly do that via I'll take pictures of everything when I go and buy it market so that I can have that visual and go back and see, okay, I have too many black sweaters or I have too many black shoes, whatever. I can just kind of put together an album and do that. But same principle, but that's kind of how I always would put that together. Now when I come back, I put it into my lightspeed system and create those purchase orders by, you know, the date so I know exactly. I can expect this much in January, February, March. The struggle I feel like no matter how much you plan, vendors don't always play along with you. And so you know, things sometimes best laid plans don't always work out because things will get held up at port or things like Corona happens and you know, things don't ship for three months. So, you know, you always have to kind of, kind of plan it out, but be able to pivot when things don't come in when they're supposed to. So, like, for me, I kind of have a set amount that I tell my vendors I'll take in a week. So that I know budget wise, I always have a set amount that based on previous sales, I know that we can handle to take in. And I always know something is coming in, so I pretty much will tell them. And it's a little bit different with some of the more majors like the shoe vendors, the Z supplies that are a little bit more organized sometimes than the fashion go go type brands. I can say, you know, you can send me this much each week, I don't care if it's within a shipping window or not just that much each week. If something's not ready that's supposed to be ready, but something for the next month is ready, then ship it. So that way I know I'm always getting something in and it's, and it's staying kind of in that budget wise kind of frame. Even if it's a different T shirt than it was supposed to be. It's all kind of evening out because I got to where it's like they would have things ready early and then one thing would run late and then I'd end up getting 10 things at a time whenever it was supposed to be five one month, five the next month. And so I got to where I just kind of was like, okay, I don't care what you ship, just this is how much you can ship. And so I found that to be a little bit easier. It makes it a little bit more flexible for the vendors too. But I'm always, you know, I'm not, I, I'm not overly hard to work with when it comes to stuff like that. So I tend to want to, I know vendors will tell you not to tell them to do this, but I typically, I always make them call me before they ship because especially some of these fast fashion brands. You know, I placed an order at Dallas Market. This is a great example. I placed an order for some things back in June. They literally just called me trying to ship some of what I ordered in June. And so it's just kind of one of those things that you have to somewhat be flexible because things don't always happen the way they're supposed to happen. Or, you know, they'll tell you that these sweaters, when you're at June market and you're buying sweaters for September, October, they'll tell you that's when they're going to come in. And then they'll call you in July and say, oh, do you want, you know, 30 styles of sweaters? And it's like, well, no, I don't, because it's July and it's 100 degrees. But then when it comes time when they were supposed to be in the shipping window, then they're already sold out and gone. So you've got to have a little bit of flexibility with that. And so, you know, I kind of have my core brands, my brands that I always go back to, and then I'll use some of the fast fashion to kind of fill in.

All right, so we talked a lot about the numbers behind the boutique and shoes, really, but let's talk about how to get there. So what do you feel like has been a good selling point for you with shoes? Like, how do you kind of get into that process and help the shoes that you are carrying move faster with your customers?

Well, like I said, shoes are kind of their own beast, and it is definitely a harder process. There's a lot more fit that has to go into, you know, selling shoes than just a basic graphic tee. So there's definitely a lot more process to it. For me, being such a shoe nut, I kind of had that passion for it from the beginning and that kind of knowledge for the product already, because it's something that I love. But really kind of getting into that kind of trial and error and what works best for what people, what brands work best for what people. You know, if you tend to have an audience that maybe they are more into the plus size or the kind of a little bit larger category, they tend to have a little bit wider, a little bit bigger feet. It's just. It kind of is what it is. So knowing those brands that work better for those type of feet is. Is key. I mean, you kind of got to know your audience to some extent before you really. Of course I didn't. I learned it along the way. But before you. I feel like people that are looking to add shoes, kind of knowing who their audience is is key and kind of what they're looking for. You know, if you're a more southwestern store, that tends to be a lot more casual, you know, there's going to be certain brands that are going to lend themselves to that audience versus if you're in an area where you have more people that are really shopping for a lot of wear to work And a little bit more dressy attire, you're going to have brands that are going to lend themselves better to those customers. So kind of knowing your niche and knowing what your customers are looking for in general is really going to kind of help you find the best styles and the best brands that will really cater to those customers that you already have.

I love that. How do you, if you have a customer in the store, let's say, that maybe isn't there for shoes. How do you go about suggesting shoes as an add on? Like, do you keep them right by your dressing room or have you just like trained your staff that. That's another common question that they're going to ask. Or how do you make sure people are actually trying on shoes they may not initially be drawn to?

Yeah, I think with, with a lot of times clothing, you know, it's kind of like when I'm trying things on at home and trying to get an idea of what I'm going to wear the next day, it's like if my hair isn't done and my makeup's not on, it's like nothing looks right. And kind of the same way with shoes, you know, an outfit will totally change once you put that kind of final touch to it. And so we do not have shoes right by the dressing room. Just the way our store is set up, it just logistically wouldn't have worked. But it's one of those things that we're constantly, you know, if someone is putting something on, and especially if they're coming in looking for an outfit for a specific reason, we're gonna bring them styles that we think will work out for that outfit. And especially jeans, you know, if they're trying on denim and like this straight leg crop jeans. Right now some shoes look better with those styles than others. But so kind of automatically, if they're trying on certain denim styles, grabbing those shoes that we know work really well styled with those types of styles, just automatically bringing, you know, one or two out to them just so they can get the full feel. They may not buy the shoes with it. And we are very not, I guess pushy would be the best way to put it. But we're really, you know, like you guys say serve versus sell. We're very more about helping them find what works for them versus just trying to sell them something. And, you know, if we're not about, oh, you have to buy the whole outfit. But here's the option just in case, you know, if you don't have something at home that's going to work with this, too, then here's an option for you. But we make it very comfortable to where it's not like, oh, I'm going to bring you all this stuff, and I want you to buy it all. I come from Buckle at one point, which that was one of the things I hated about their philosophy back in the day. It was just push, push, push. And so that's definitely not the feel of it from a selling standpoint, but we make it very casual and very comfortable in that we're just trying to help them see the big picture and kind of understand the styling of things versus just trying to add on pieces. So I think if you make it really just informal and helpful, you know, they tend to buy the whole outfit anyways, where if it's kind of more of a pushy, I'm gonna bring you everything, and I want you to buy everything. You know, I don't think it works as well, but that's kind of our philosophy. And because we have always had such a great shoe selection, people know that, and they specifically. You know, they'll specifically say, okay, which ones of these shoes will work best with it? So, I mean, they kind of know that about us, and we'll kind of. That's why they come to us to some extent, too.

Yeah. That's so good. It's. It's trust. It's the brand that you've built, what your customers can expect, how you've been in business so long. Ashley, you know, talk to me about. I'm sure even in the Hub, you see, you know, certain businesses going a certain direction, and that kind of seems to be the norm. But you've definitely carved your own path. How do you feel like you've really stayed in your own lane and stayed unique to who you are and who your customers need you to be this whole time?

Yeah, it's something that obviously is way different now than it was before. I mean, gosh, when we opened 13 years ago, there were really no other boutiques. I think there was one that had been around for a long time, but it catered to a little bit older clientele, so there just weren't any options. I mean, I think we had barely gotten a target back then, so, I mean, it was just one of those things that we were really filling a void. But one of the things I have always driven for was to always have products that were unique to us and our area. I've always tried to. Even if. Even if I had it first, if I see someone else bring in the same Brand, which happens all the time these days because boutiques are just a lot more prevalent. I just stop. Unless it's one of my major vendors, I move on, I move on to something else. Now if it's a major vendor that do you know, they're a huge part of our store, it's a different story. And I always work with my vendors to try and make sure, hey, I saw so and so has this, you know, I understand the nature of the business, but can you please just make sure I get first picks at styles, you know, so that we at least have different styles than everybody, even if we can't keep the brand exclusivity. But most brands, especially the ones that we've worked with for so long, and that's why I think it's so important in today's retail climate to have great relationships with your vendors and your reps, because they will, they want to do business with the people that take care of them too, just like your customers do. And so I think having those relationships established and having that trust with them really helps in that aspect. But I'm constantly bringing in new brands, looking for new brands, because it's just the nature of the beast. I mean, it's gonna happen whether they do it on purpose or not. It's just, it does, it's gonna happen. And you just gotta roll with it and always be striving for what's new and looking for new things not only for your business, but for your customers, because they want to have something different too. And especially if you're in a small area that's saturated, I think we've got something like 30 boutiques in our area now within a 30 minute radius. And so when it gets really saturated, you just have to constantly be on your toes and really striving to be unique, to be different. Because otherwise it just makes it so much harder to set yourself apart. And we're lucky enough that we came up in a time when there wasn't a lot of boutiques and we were able to really establish our customer service and our relationships with our customers, which outside of making sure I have unique products, that is my number one, has always been. My number one thing is that I kind of joke that I want to be like the cheers of boutiques that, you know, you walk in and I say, oh, hey Ashley, how are you today? How was your trip? You know, things like that. And I'm lucky enough to have an amazing staff, that some of them have been with me for seven years, that they have the same philosophy and it's like so many of our customers are like family. And I think that, more than anything, I think is just so important, because it's one of those things. I've probably lost sales talking to my customers and just shooting the breeze with them, but I always know they'll come back. And so I think having that nature where it's more about the person than just selling to them, I think really just helps people trust you and keep coming back to you all the time.

That's so good. And it kind of goes back to. This is a conversation you and I had a while ago, but we were talking about how easy it is. You're talking about 30 boutiques in your area. And I feel like I see this a lot in the hub, especially with newer boutiques. So many of them begin to look the same and feel the same, and it's like they haven't really figured out who they are or who their customer is yet. Just like you're talking about you, you really have to be invested in that customer. Yeah, I know you get this question a lot, as do I. And it's like that finale of a question, like, what is the one thing that you would tell people? What's the one thing you learned? And I guess in boot camp, like, what's the one thing you took from Boutique Bootcamp that changed everything? And the answer is usually a lot of little things. Right. How do you answer that question when people ask you, what's the one thing that made it for you?

I would say kind of touching back on what I just hit on having that niche, kind of having something that sets you apart, that only you do, whether it's a certain product or a certain category of products or. Or honestly, the customer service piece, to me, if you're a brick and mortar now online, that's. It's harder. But brick and mortar, I think that customer service piece and really being invested in your customers as people, not just dollar signs, I think is infinitely important. And then knowing your business, knowing your numbers, you know, not letting that inventory control you, those are kind of some of the things that, you know, I. I probably would be in an even better place than I am now in my business if I had gotten my inventory under control years ago. And it is. It's hard. I've made just about every mistake that, you know, you teach in boot camp not to do, but it's really. Those things is so important from the selling side, the customer service part, and then from the business side, just having control of your numbers and knowing them and really taking what they tell you and learning from them and implementing the best strategy for what works for you and your business.

I love that. Spot on. Well, Ashley, I feel like we've covered a million things today and like I said at the very beginning, I appreciate you so much because you are the right and left brain both of retail and I think it's really important to emphasize how important both sides are. So thank you for all of your wisdom today.

Well, I, you know, I've, I've done a lot of things wrong, but I hope that I'm doing a lot of things right now. So, you know, learning from those mistakes has, has served me well. So. And I think you gotta constantly be learning from the mistakes because you're always gonna make them here and there, just being able to pivot and learn from them for the future. So.

Yeah, absolutely. Well, guys, if you want to learn more about Ashley, I've got her boutique linked up in the comments. If you have questions, shoe questions, data questions, Ashley's you're always so active inside of all of our groups, so definitely seek her out inside of the hub. But Ashley, again, thanks for your time today. This has been awesome to share your insight.

Thanks so much, Ashley for having me.

So many of you guys have been.

Asking questions on the daily about Instagram and in the last couple of weeks of the podcast we've shared Instagram tips and downloads and ideas. And this week I'm so excited to take it one step further because it is finally time in our Instagram Ignite Masterclass is now live for anyone who is a boutique owner, product maker, creative wholesale brand, or someone who's just ready.

To grow the gram.

If you have a product to sell and people who need to see it this week in the show notes, click on the link to learn more about the Instagram Ignite Masterclass built by retailers for retailers that walks you through everything you need to know about all of the updates that have happened to the platform and how to use it, how to create and manage and batch engaging content that's actually going to drive engagement, traffic, relationships and sales. And finally, how to grow the platform. Everything from the 531 method to the $80 method and what it takes to grow organically in a way your customers hang around for a long period of time. Not just someone who's going to jump on with a loop giveaway and jump off tomorrow. It's so much deeper than that, guys.

If you're ready to be serious about.

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