Mapping Out Your Best Year Yet

Hey, guys, it's time. We are back for a brand new season. Season number four of Boutique Chat, and I couldn't be more excited. This week it is you and I and we are talking all about mapping out the next year of your life and your business and how to get the most out of it. I hope you guys have had a good break and have been enjoying these quick tips. I've been missing you. So I'm so excited to be back. Let's make this season the best one yet. You guys, buckle up, grab a notebook. You're gonna want it this week. And tune in to the brand new season of Boutique Chat. 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. Hey, you're back. I am so glad you're back. Welcome to the newest and latest season of the Boutique Chat podcast. Man, it feels good to be back, you guys. I. I just want to start the season by saying this. We ended last season hitting a million downloads on this podcast, which absolutely blows my mind. But what that tells me is you found enough value that you came back week after week and continued to listen. And. And that means more than anything to me the fact that you have put your trust in me to bring you news and education and interviews and tips and all the things to help you grow your business. That is what I was put on this earth to do. So welcome back. Thank you for supporting this show and I cannot wait to dig into a brand new season with you. So to kick off this season together, here's what I am so excited about today as we launch the season. It's the start of a new year and there is never a more exciting time to look at how we're going to start this new year fresh and make this the best year yet. Now, I know after surviving 2020 and surviving 2021, you guys are ready for whatever is going to come your way. Like when it says expect the unexpected, you've lived through that times a thousand. We all have. And so I think sometimes when we think about the fears that really drive the actions and emotions and anxiety that we face every single day, it's usually the fear of the unknown and so as we enter a new year and I look back, I think, man, you know, the fear of the unknown, a lot of us have already faced some of the worst moments we thought we could have ever faced in our life and in our business. And when I think about that, really, it should empower us more than anything to know that we are stronger than we ever thought we were capable of being. We can handle anything that's thrown our way. We can change, we can move, we can be nimble, we can be creative, and we can create whatever is going to come next. And so I encourage you, as you think about planning the new year, to know that truly you can handle anything that is going to come your way, but you're going to be able to handle anything with even more confidence when we take this time together today on our new season opener episode to take a look back and really look at what worked well in the last year. What were the opportunities? What were the things that we did right? And then also, what were the lessons that we learned? What were the things that didn't go well? What could we do better? Where do we know there are gaps and even more opportunities to fulfill in the new year? Because I think in order to move forward, to plan and to be excited about the year ahead, we have to know that we're standing on solid ground. We have to know what worked, what didn't work, what what we overcame and maybe what we're still trying to overcome so we can continue to move forward. So today on this episode, that's exactly what we're going to do. We're going to go through several different areas of your business today, and I'm just going to guide you in a series of questions. So I encourage you, if you have a notepad or maybe you're listening to this episode with your team or significant other to maybe pause in between these questions that I ask you today so you can really think about the answers to these questions. What worked, what didn't work, what opportunities are out there. And this is going to give you a great place to jump in full force and map out all of your goals for 2022. Now, I'm also going to give you this so you can be thinking ahead toward the end of the episode. We're going to walk through all these questions together today. I want you to brainstorm them, but I want you to know that this is my favorite time of year. Oh, my gosh. This is my favorite time of year because one of the coolest things we do all year at the Hub is just around the corner. And that's called our best Year yet challenge. It's completely free. It's always been that way. If you are a member of the boutique hub already, there's tons of extra bonuses just for you. But if you're not a member of the hub, you can also participate. So there's something in it for everyone. But to me, this is a goodwill way to come together in community over competition, to lift one another up, to play, plan together and to map out how we're going to have our best year yet. And selfishly, I also really love this time of year because you know what we do, my family and I, Eric and the kids, we get together and we have a vision Board planning day. And so not only is it important for us to walk through all these things for our businesses, but it's just as important to do it for our families and our personal lives. And so I feel like, you know, it's such a. I hate the word balance. It's not balance because it's not like an equal sum game. But it's an opportunity to be strong both in your business and in your home. And I think when you're strong at one, it makes the other want to rise equally. So I encourage you to think about this for your business today, but also encourage you, as I get excited about our vision Board planning day as a family, to ask yourself, what does that mean for you two? How can you take these questions and also put them to work in your personal life so you can plan out what is ahead in 2022? So we will talk more about the best Year yet challenge at the end of the episode today and I'm going to give you some tips. I've got some free downloads, man. I've got some 2022 trade show calendars. I've got all kinds of things I want to share with you in the show notes today to help set you up for the best year possible. But before we do, before we get there, let's go through and let's take a look back to make sure we are taking a strong and powerful step forward as we enter a new year together. So I'm going to go through each of these areas of your business and we're going to talk through what worked, what didn't work, and where are the opportunities for the year ahead. So let's start this off with your business. Let's start with channels. As you look back on the last year of your business, I'm curious what channels were the most powerful for you where did your cash actually come from? Was it your live sales? Was it your website? Was it your app? Was it in person, events, or what were the channels that actually drove the traffic and converted the sales? And if you're unsure about this, this is where Google Analytics comes in. This is where all of your reporting metrics comes in. And it's really important to look back and go, okay, if I'm looking at how many sales did I make in the last year, I would love to break up. Where did they come from? How much traffic did each of those channels receive? And what was the conversion rate on each of those channels? I'll give you a real world example for us at the Hub. Something I find fascinating is Instagram's one of our biggest channels. I don't even know what we are at today. Maybe like 65,000 followers. It's grown so much this year. Highly engaged Instagram account, where you guys are blowing us up every single day. And I love that. Right? We try to motivate and encourage you every single day. But when it comes to actual sales, Facebook is really a sales channel. Instagram is really an engagement channel is how it looks for us. And so I'm curious, what is that for you? Where are your engagement channels, where you're getting a lot of traffic and engagement, but maybe not the sales? And what channels are you getting a lot of sales, but maybe not enough traffic? And when you look at what those channels are, I want you to take this a step further and then ask yourself, okay, how much effort did I actually put into each of these channels? So is it that Instagram didn't perform for me because I didn't give it any effort? Is it that TikTok was zero for me because I didn't give it any effort? Was Instagram simply an engagement channel and not a sales channel? And did I give TikTok too much effort? Was I spending four hours at a crack to make these freaking TikTok videos that resulted in zero sales? So analyze. What were your best sales channels and why? Where did you actually put in the effort? Where did the traffic come from and did the conversion rate actually follow? Huge piece to analyze where you can then take a step forward, knowing all this information and ask yourself, in 2022, what channels are going to be my top priority? How much more or less content and time do I need to provide to these channels? And can I outsource this? Is this an area that I can ask for help and I can have a college intern come in and help me create tiktoks or do I personally need to spend my CEO time on this effort? So all questions for your homework. So pause this if you need to take a couple notes and I'll jump into the next question. The next question is, what events worked for you last year? What events worked for you? Were these holiday specific events? Were these your store anniversary events? Were they online events? Were they in store events? Were they events that you tried to run online and in store and one worked and one didn't? And also what times of the year worked for these events? Was it winter? Was it spring? Was it summer? Was it J months? Where did you put in the effort to make events happen online or in store? And then where were the gaps? Where did you think, man, I could have really hosted an event here and I didn't? Where was there a slow time where your sales really dipped during the year? Where, you know, going forward, you really need to plan something to get a boost of excitement and a boost of traffic into your business to make those sales goals. So as you look back throughout your year and if you are someone who has a boutique boss planner, which. Where's my boutique boss planner, you guys? It's right behind me. I'm gonna like lose my microphone here if I move. Let me grab it for you. For those of you that are on YouTube, I know you can see me in person. So I'm going to just show this to you. Oh my gosh. And adjust my chair at the same time. What kind of train wreck is this season opener? I tip over the microphone. I about fall off my chair. This is real life season episode opener. Okay, those of you that have the boutique boss planner, when you go through and you ask yourself this question about what worked and what didn't work with events and traffic, every single month, there is a recap at the end of the planner that asks you that what worked? What didn't work? And then as you look at the trending data in your sales and you see the peaks and the valleys, it's important to go into those valleys and ask, why were they a valley? And what can I insert there to prove excitement so that I have more traffic and I have more sales and I can turn that valley into a peak. So that is why we ask ourselves about the events that worked. All right, next question. Related is what promotions worked in the last year? So if you go back and analyze the events that you promoted in store online. Pink Friday, Black Friday, your store anniversary, Christmas in July, whatever you did, what promotions did you run for each event and which ones worked and why? Now here's the real question and I think this is where rookie mistakes happen. So those of you that are rookies, listen up. Success is not sales. Oh, mind blowing. I know it. Success is not sales. Success is profit. Success is lead generation. Success is a brand value. Success is not just I sold a million dollars but I spent a million dollars to make it happen. Success is I actually put this money away, paid myself, invested in my kids education, I acquired a thousand new customers and I grew my business because of this. So when you're asking yourselves the real questions about promotions and what worked, go back through those events. What did you run? Was it a bogo? Was it Christmas cash? Was it a percentage discount in an overstock category that you had? What actually worked? Because I guarantee as you go back and look the times that you were so tempted to run 30% off store wide, you sold the diamonds with the dirt. And yes, the sales number looked good, but how did the margin number actually shake out then? What actually sold? Was it the old overstocked inventory you needed to move or was it the brand new good stuff that you could have sold at full price a week later? So analyze what promotions actually put cash in the bank last year? Next question to analyze what inventory worked last year? What sold? What were your top selling products? What were your top selling categories? What were your top selling brands? What were your top selling sizes? What actually worked and then what didn't sell? What items do you have on your website or in your store that you can look at and go, I had too many margaritas and then I purchased that crap. What was I thinking? Did I need 13 lavender sweaters? Probably not. It's because I had too many margaritas and I couldn't remember what I bought. So opportunity is how can I invest? Switch smarter next year. What would I do different with my inventory? Is there a brand that is just not cutting it for me? If I go back and I look at my inventory return rates, ooh, where am I finding quality issues? If I go back to comments sold and I look at what did people automatically like get on the wait list for what? What do those items have in common? If I'm on Shopify and I go to my reports and I look at what were people searching and clicking on but not buying, why is that? Why is that? So what inventory worked? What inventory didn't work in all those different classes, sizes, brands, vendors, all of that. And then how am I going to structure my investment strategy which most people will call buying? I'm Buying for my business, which makes you sound like a shopaholic. I know that some of us are right, but it's really investing because we're investing to get a return on our investment. So how could I invest smarter next year? Okay, next question. If you need to pause, if you need to take notes, go ahead. You can fast forward, you can rewind, you can listen to this with your team, with your spouse. Let's go through this together. Next question is with your brand. What worked with your brand last year? And when you analyze this, the question is, what photos worked? Right? If you look at products that actually sold, did they have a photography style in common? If you look at live sales that were successful, what did they have in common? Did they have a certain branding element? Were they from a certain place? Did they have a certain model? If you look back at all the models that you employed in the last year, what ones had the highest sell through rate when they were featured in your photos? That's important to analyze. So with your brand, what actually worked in terms of the aesthetics of your brand? Videos, photography, graphics. If you look back at the quotes and memes and the graphics that you shared across social media, which of them were most successful and why? What did they have in common? What actually worked with what you posted on social and its aesthetic last year? And then finally, how about post volume and timing, what really worked to build your brand? If you look back at the months across the year, and again, this is something, if you have a planner, you were able to analyze this month by month by month. And I look at say Instagram growth month over month, what months did I gain the most followers and why? And then I go back to those months and go, okay, what was happening that month? What was I doing? What was happening in my brand? What branded content was I creating that people were actually engaging with? Good question. All right, let's move on. Next category to analyze is your team. This is such a big one, you guys, such a big one. So I want you to think about your team. Maybe it's just you. And so when you think about this and this is just you, I encourage you to ask yourself the question, where do I need to invest in team? What are the tasks that I'm doing that are not CEO level tasks? Right? If I'm a CEO and I am doing $100 an hour tasks, what are the $10 an hour ones I can start to outsource so I can leverage money to create more time? Because money is an infinite resource. There's plenty of money to go around. But the only thing that we have limited access to is time. So we have to know how can we leverage money to create more time to accomplish more tasks which create more money? And this is the cycle of how we scale a business. So when you ask as a team and you're a solopreneur, where can I invest in more team? When you ask as someone who has employees, who has team, I want you to go through and look at your team, how it's divided up. Where are my A performers, B performers, and C performers, right? Where is the strength in my business? And where are there gaps that I know I need to address that I know someone maybe is not working in alignment with my core values? Maybe someone is not being the best versions of themselves. Maybe there is a crucial conversation I know I need to have, but I've been putting it off, right? Where is there an issue that we're not facing? And then I want you to ask, do I have the right people on the bus? Because as they say in Good to Great, if you guys have read the book good to Great, such a powerful book, they talk a lot about, do I have the right people in the right seats? We can always have different seats arranged on our bus, right? But the most important thing is to hire for the people first. If the people are right, we can put them anywhere in our business. The seats can always be arranged. So when we're hiring, we aren't hiring for position, we aren't hiring for a seat on the bus. We're hiring just to get you on the bus and then to put you in the right seat going forward. I always think about this at the Hub in terms of a puzzle piece. Our team is constantly evolving with these puzzle pieces. You know, someone may have this position today, but as we go along and we have more time with that person, we can refine that position to say, you know what, it would be better if we took this off your plate and moved it over here to so and so, because they have this skill that's really been evolving and then it can allow us to, you know, move something else onto your plate that really needs to be developed. So where is their strength based leadership opportunity to make sure we have the right people on the bus and our people in the right space. Seats on the bus. Next question. Next area to analyze this year is our operations and our systems. And I think this is a very unsexy word. It's a very unsexy thing that people don't talk about on Instagram. But this is critical and central when it comes to growing your business in the new year. So I want you to think about what systems that I put into place that worked really well in the last year. So this might be systems around shipping, receiving, who's doing vendor follow ups or taking in returns or sending back for quality issues, who's doing product uploads to my comments sold or my shopify, who's managing customer service and what processes have we implemented there? Who and how are we maximizing on our live team? Is the process of going live broken or have I really improved that in the last year? How about going to market? Is there a process or a system around going to market and how we buy, how we invest at market that we've really improved in the last year? My buying plans, also my social media plans, how we plan and schedule and create social content. So what are the systems and processes we put into place in the last year? What are the systems and processes that are working well? And then where's their gaps? Where is there this constant, oh man, that takes a lot of time. Oh man, there's always an issue with that. Oh man, I always have to go back and fix that. Where are there gaps in our operations and our systems and processes that we can enhance in the next year? All right, last category I'm going to ask you to review today. And that's financial. The financial aspect, this is huge, right? This is the fuel that drives everything. So when we think about our financial outcome of the last year, it's not just about what did I sell last year. If we are only judging our success in 2021 on a final sales number, and if we met this pie in the sky goal we set for ourselves, we're failing. I'm here to tell you that there's so much more to your business than that sales goal. Again, I know I said this already in the podcast, but I have seen so many boutiques say, oh my gosh, I sold a million dollars this year. This is amazing. And then I ask, okay, well how much did that cost? Right? What was your profit margin at the end of the year? Oh, well, you know, it cost me 950,000. You know, so maybe I walked away with 50,000 at the end of the year after I sold a million. Oh man, is that really effective? Or could I have a business that's selling $250,000 a year, but I'm actually profiting 100,000 of that? Right? So profit margin really is the metric we're after. So when I, when I ask you to look back at your financial systems, processes, outcomes, here's where I want you to kind of like deep dive and like think about what worked last year and what didn't work last year. So the first is, let's start at the very ground level. Basics. Our bookkeeping Systems. Was it QuickBooks? Was it how we were importing payments from Stripe and PayPal and comments sold into QuickBooks? Was that efficient? Did it work? Were there gaps? Or was there something holding us back last year? Was there something holding back the amount and quality of information we could get about our financials last year because these systems were broken? And then our bank accounts, did we have the right bank account set up last year? Did we have relationships with bankers set up last year? Did we have the right line of credit set up last year? Or did we rely on PayPal Capital, Stripe Capital terms and conditions from wholesale marketplaces to fuel our business? And then when we wanted to apply for an EDIL loan or a PPP loan coming off of the pandemic and we had to prove that we had a relationship with a banker to apply through a bank to access that free money because it was free money, did we have one? Or was there a missed opportunity because we did not have our financial institution set up properly? So where is there an opportunity for you to really build a team around your financial process that can set you up for growth and not just the size of business that you're at today? So is that a banker? Is that an accountant? Is that a bookkeeper? And then when you think about that team, how did you interact with that team throughout the year? Is there a way to improve that process and that relationship? Was this a relationship with an accountant who you basically threw a bunch of receipts in a shoebox and sent to them quarterly? Because if that's it, that is not how we run a business. If we want to have a soundproof business that can really grow and scale and we can work pro. Proactively instead of reactively, then this is something where we need to have a definite relationship with a bookkeeper or someone on our team who is acting as a bookkeeper, who every single month is making sure QuickBooks is up to date and is spitting out reports for us to read and analyze so we can adjust and understand is this budget versus actual, how are we actually performing based on our projections for the year? And I can adjust on the fly and move forward into the next month, but if we are not getting that information back because we're not putting that information in, in a timely manner, we are flying this plane blindfolded, totally blindfolded. So where is there an operation or an opportunity to improve the operation around your finances? And same is true for your accountant. Is this someone that you're just going to at the end of the year and saying, okay, file my taxes. Let's see what we owe this time? Okay. No. An accountant should be someone who actually acts as a counselor in your business. Someone who you can meet with usually about October, early November, and you can give them your actual financials, your P and L for the year, and they can come back and go, okay, based on this. And, you know, however many business entities you own, maybe you're someone who's grown and scaled, and you've got six, several different business entities. Now you have an LLC that owns your property. Maybe you have some investments, maybe your spouse has a business, and then you have the boutique business as well. Right. We want to really diversify our revenue streams as we continue to grow and scale. So our accountant should be taking in all of that information and then coming to us in October and November and saying, you know what? Here's the trend that you're on now. Here's how I think your end of year is going to shake out. And then here's what we need to do to prepare for that. Are you looking to have a huge tax liability at the end of the year? And if so, so are there things we can prepay? Are there investments we need to make in the business? Are there investments we can make in IRAs? Right. Or 529 plans for our kids? Are there equipment improvements that we need to make? Are there inventory investments we need to make? Or maybe it's, we need to sell off some inventory to free up some of that space in our business. So your accountant should be having that conversation with you at the end of the year to make sure you finish the end of the year as strong as you possibly can. All right, next piece of financial information. Besides your accountant and that process, that foundational level, is really understanding, where did my money go? Where'd my money go this year? If I look back and I look at the percentage of the money that I brought in this year, what percentage went back to inventory, what percentage went back to payroll, what percentage went back to operations, what percentage went back to advertising, and what percentage went back to rent, and were those completely out of whack with one another? How much did I actually pay myself this year? At minimum, it should be 10%. The standard in our industry is 10% usually comes back and if you follow the profit first model, you're familiar with that. So where did my money actually go? Where was I? Over in some categories and under in other categories. And how could I map this out with my projections and my budget that I'm going to create for 2022. And then on top of that, what reports was I really Diligent about in 2021? What reports did I really look through every single month? And how can I build onto that list for the year ahead? So besides my sales, did I also really analyze what was my margin? What was my initial markup that helped me get to that margin? What was the amount of discounts I took every single month? What was the split between the volume I did and the margin I did? And is there an opportunity to tweak to make that relationship different? What was my turn rate month over month or by brand or by category? What was my average order value? What was my average order value online, in live sales, in store? How did that average order value shift throughout the year? And where were my conversion rates? How was it in store? How was it online? Where is there more opportunity to convert a higher level of traffic? And how did I pay myself? Right? What did that investment look like in the last year? So what reports worked in the last year? What reports were you intimidated by in the last year? And what reports are you saying right now are going to be your goal to master in the next year? I think there are so many questions we can look back and analyze to help us step forward. And I encourage you, as you go through today's podcast and you write all these notes and you go through these questions with your team, to really look back and say, you know what, there was a lot of good. It was step by step. I ate an elephant one bite at a time. Look at all the things that went right and how can we build on them in the next year, not just what went wrong. And we set this pie in the sky single goal for the next year ahead. And that is a sales goal. A sales goal is no good in the new year if you don't have a plan to get there. And all the questions I asked you today are your plan. It is the nuts and bolts of your plan of how you're going to get to that goal going forward. So as you get together with your team, and this is something we're going to do together in our best year yet challenge, starting January 3rd, 4th and 5th, we're going to go through and we're going to map out your next 12 months we're going to ask all of these questions and we're going to go in and we're going to overlay. How are you going to use this information to create real goals every single month? Financial, operational, personal, traffic, inventory goals. How can we use this information to really maximize what's going to happen in the next year? So I added the link for you in the show notes. You can sign up for the Best Year Yet Challenge. Kick off the year strong with us again. You don't have to be a member of the Boutique Hub to participate, but if you are a member of the Boutique Hub, you're going to have a free bonus day just for Boutique Hub members with ongoing live Q and A with our entire team of experts so you can get your personal questions answered. And and you only get the replay of the best Year Yet Challenge if you're a Hub member, that will live in our training library for you forever, along with our downloads and our workbook that are going to support you in your best Year Yet Challenge. So all those perks if you are a Hub member, plus our daily accountability threads and tons of giveaways if you're participating. But again, this is open for everyone to watch along this webinar for four days, actually three days, fourth day if you're a Hub member, the very first week of January, January 3rd, 4th and 5th. And the link is in the notes. So one last thing I want to mention today as you're thinking about setting up this year, because to me, this is like the cherry on top of this conversation. We can go through and we can ask all these questions about how the business performed this year. But just like I alluded to at the very beginning of this show, one of the things I am most excited about right now in this season is not just planning what's going to happen in the business, but also taking this whole method and bringing it home to my family and setting aside a day where Eric and I and the kids can get together and map out our year as a family. We are going to create our family bucket list. We're going to create our family vision boards and our individual vision boards. We're going to talk about what worked in the last year as a family, what didn't work right where we had some major blow ups or issues happen this year and how we're going to live as individuals and as a family going forward into the new year. And so as you're asking all these questions, I encourage you to do the same thing with you and your family, but also you Individually, because to me, success and how we look back at the year that we just went through together, it's not about the metrics and the things we achieved in the last year, right? It's really not about that. It's about how I felt in the quiet moments of the last year. And as I go forward into the new year, I don't ever want to set the expectation that I will feel joy. I'll allow myself to feel joy when I blank, when I achieve this, when I accomplish that, when this project is complete, when that number is met. It seems like in our society we are so quick to kick the can down the road of joy and happiness, to be just on the other side of the next thing we're working on. And then we get to the next thing and we kick the can yet again. And there are so many of us in business as entrepreneurs that are walking around in a really deep, deep and heavy sense of sadness and loneliness and emptiness because we never allow joy to be a part of our day to day life. And so personally, I want to share this with you this year. This is really important to me because I've meditated a lot on what does this mean to me going into the new year. And I always create a new word for the new year. This is like how I'm going to live with intention in the new year. And to me this year, my word is joy. And it is to do all things with joy, right? In the quiet moments, in the little moments, in the smiles, in the car rides to school, in the team meetings and the sledding trips that our team makes when they're at our house at midnight just having fun. Joy is in every single moment. It is not on the other side of an achievement. So no matter the size of your business, no matter how experienced your business, I just encourage you to look for joy in all of the right places. And know that joy is not a number. It's not if you're a million dollar boutique or a $20 million boutique, or a $10 boutique. It is in success as you define it, as an individual in your life on a daily basis, in who you want to be and how you want to live. So with that, you guys, this is going to be your best year yet. And I am so glad. I am so thankful. I am so blessed to be able to be on this journey with you. So again, thanks for showing up to our season opener. Thank you for supporting us the entire last three seasons of this show. Thank you for being a part of our community at the Boutique Hub. We take so seriously the opportunity that we have to serve you every single day. And I can't wait to be back every single Tuesday to share this journey with you. So cheers. Let's kick off a brand new season of the podcast and a brand new year of your life. To what is going to be your best year yet. Thanks for hanging out with me today guys. See you next week. Hey guys, thank you so much for listening to this episode. We 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. Sa.