Sarah from Boutique Hub argues boutique owners should stop doing every event and start asking what they actually gain from it. Track your costs and results, then say no to events that don't pay off financially or bring real customers.
Hey guys. Sarah here with the Boutique Hub, Congratulations. It's day number 13 of your best year yet challenge. Today we are talking about annual event planning. Yes, as business owners we are presented with plenty of opportunity of events to take part in, right? And we want to get out there and get noticed in this crazy, noisy world of retail. But not everything we do is a good return on investment for us. Here's a few key tips to keep in mind. Time is money. Every bit of time that you spend prepping for an event takes you away from training your employees, selling, selling on your main selling floor, managing your website, ordering new inventory, tracking your other data. It takes time, right? And we all only have 24 hours in a day. So before you're quick to just say, yes, I'll do that, yes I'll do that fashion show or yes I'll sponsor this and participate and speak at this panel and yes, I will do a pop up shop here and yes, I will set up at the local vendor craft fair and yes, I will do a sidewalk sale and yes, I will do all these other little things that happen. Take a look at your overall schedule, take a look at your staff, take a look at your year as a whole. Because at the end of the day you only have x amount of resources available and you have to make sure you are putting your pawns or your players, your chess pieces in the best place possible for the best return on investment. Now you're going to take some risks throughout the year and you're going to just dabble in, you know, a few different things and that's fine, that's very healthy. However, don't let it come at an expense for the rest of your productivity within your store. So you kind of got to get a little bit greedy. Before you say yes, think about a few key things. One, what's in it for me? What am I going to get out of this as a business owner? Am I going to have a financial gain, new customers, new exposure, or is it simply a goodwill effort? There's nothing wrong with that either. Actually, I think that's pretty important. Getting out and doing some goodwill for your community, helping them realize that you are alive and invested in your local area. It might not turn around revenue wise within the next week, maybe not the next month, but over time, the more alive you are in your community, the more your community will be alive in your business. So looking at what's in it for you, what are your expenses going to be? And I don't just mean, I don't just mean inventory, think of payroll, think of advertising. You're gonna have to make a splash. You're going to have to build that, you know, fear of missing out vibe, you know, within the community or wherever you're at. So people take place place in these events. All those things cost money. So think about what's in it for you, what's it going to cost you? Time, effort, money, inventory, rental, space, all these kind of things. Insurance, are you covered there? So I dive a whole lot deeper into this in the download and I dive really deep into this in the retail boot camp. Events are a part of our business, but knowing when to say when, knowing when to say no is. Is huge. So my two things for you to take away are tracking these numbers and documenting everything so you have an opportunity to compare what worked today, what didn't work, and what you'd fix if you were going to do it again tomorrow. All right, guys, see you down the road. Bye.
