Quick Tips for Surviving the Holiday Season

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, guys, it's Jill. Just you and I today and I want to come to you for a very quick tip. I know as many of you are getting ready for the holiday season and deciding what promotions am I going to offer, what sales am I going to offer, what am I going to do for Pink Friday and Black Friday and Small Business Saturday and all of the big days of the year in the fourth quarter. And I know traditionally when you look.

At big box stores, especially this year.

When we're going to see so, so many big box stores take massive markdowns because they have so much unsold inventory, I just want to remind you of a couple quick things and leave you with a few quick tips today so that you have cash in your pocket at the end of the day. Right? Here's what tends to happen, I guess a lot in retail. I would say it is so easy to get so busy this time of year, planning, increasing your staff, doing all the marketing, the extra marketing, buying the extra inventory, planning for a huge fourth quarter. And unfortunately, there's a lot of retailers who get stuck on chasing one number and one number alone. And you know what that is? It's your sales number. And it's hoping that you have a bigger fourth quarter sales number or holiday season sales number than you did last year. But it is such a trap, you guys, because here's what happens as you're chasing that sales number and you're like, I just got to push more things out the door, right? You get to the end of the season, you get to, you know, last day of December or the day after Christmas, as you're sitting there in that lull week between Christmas and New Year's and you're analyzing those numbers and you're going, you know what? I sold more than I ever have this fourth quarter. But then you pull up your online banking and you go, oh, okay, but where's the money? Where did the money go? And then you get into January to go pay your January 15th quarterly tax bill and you don't have enough cash on hand you to pay your taxes, guys, it's a nightmare scenario that I see play out year after year after year. And unfortunately, so many of us get into retail. We get into this business because we want a couple of the same things, right? We want freedom, we want some time off. We want to manage our own schedules. We want flexibility. We want to be able to sit around the Christmas tree or sit at family dinner around Hanukkah, whatever it is, and actually be with the people we love. We want freedom and flexibility, and we want financial opportunity. We want to be able to buy our kids the Christmas gifts that maybe we didn't have the opportunity to have when we were little. But we can't achieve those things unless we're really smart about managing our inventory and managing our sales and our promotions come the fourth quarter. So in order to avoid that nightmare, what I want to happen instead is I want you to be planned ahead and prepared now so that you know what inventory you need, you know what markdowns you're going to take and why you're going to take them. More importantly, what promotions you're going to run and why you're not going to put a blanket sale in place and how you're going to plan your time accordingly. That so that come that time when you want to sit around and have a family meal or you want to sit around the tree together, you want to enjoy your kids opening their gifts, this year, I want you to have the peace of mind that you're able to do that and something isn't burning down without you. And more than anything, I want you to get to the day after Christmas when you go back to work and you're getting everything ready for the new year, and you go, dang, I actually have money in the bank. I have money in the bank not only for my taxes, but to take home some money at the end of the year. And because we know J months can be a little bit finicky, you have enough money to get you through till the next big buying season, which for a lot of people is that spring season. So one of the biggest tips I want to give you today in order to help those things come to fruition for you and your business is this quick tip, and that is, are you planning this season to run a sale or a promotion? And here's what they are and why they're different. A lot of times when you think of sale, you think of storewide markdown. 20% off the entire store, right? You think about Black Friday, and I've got to mark it all down to get people in the door or on the website. And and the fact is that is bonkers. Do not sell your diamonds with your dirt. Right? The idea of a sale is to get people attracted to your website or to get them in the door. But when they get in the door, they can buy the thing that's on sale or they have a choice to buy the full price brand new wonderful item that you're also offering. Sales are meant to attract people to your business, not to give away the farm you in your business. So my ask for you is to stop running sales, blanket sales in your business and instead think about promotions. And you can think about promotions in three ways.

Hey, real quick, are you already a member of the Boutique Hub? If you are, you know, I see you. I'm so pumped that you can join us each and every day to learn how to grow and optimize your business and to make a ton of friends along the way. But if you're not yet a member of the Hub, inside of the Hub, which is core to everything we do, we focus on three main parts of life and business. Number one, community. Because you know this is a lonely road. And each and every day in the hub we have 14 niche Facebook groups based on your business type and your business size so you can get the help and meet others that are at the same stage of business that you are. For daily connection tips and inspiration inside of our groups. The second piece that's so important to us at the Hub is education. Inside of the Hub, you have access to live guest experts every week, twice a week, plus our monthly training bundles, content, calendars, our weekly social media engagement ideas and graphics, our app so you can learn on the go and all of the live and in person training that we also do here at the Hub. Education is absolutely key. From a brand new business owner to a multi multi business owner, multimillion dollar business owner. There's training for each level inside the Hub. And finally, wholesale is a huge piece.

Of what we do.

With nearly a thousand vetted and trusted wholesale brands inside of the Hub. And and on hubventory.com, our brand new wholesale marketplace, we want to make sure that you're not just buying for your boutique, but you're investing and you're investing with trusted partners with awesome products you can't wait to share with your audience. So please join us now if you aren't already a member@the boutiquehub.com join and I'll see you inside the community.

You can think about promotions as an actual promotion. Come in my Store and get bogo, right? If I'm overstocked in denim, buy one, get one half off. If I went to the off price show and I got tons of great sweaters at below wholesale, then blow those suckers out, mark them down, make it a bogo, make it a Buy more, save more event. Reward people for what they are buying in your business in the category that you're offering it in. And if they want to also buy that full price sweater or jacket that you also happen to have on the site, so be it. You got that sucker at full price markup. So that is a promotion. Another idea of a promotion is a reward once people hit a certain buying milestone. So maybe you run an event and it's the first 50 people in the door get a specific markdown or they get to spin the wheel at checkout, they get to pull an ornament off the tree, they get to open an Easter egg come Easter season, right? Reward them once they've hit a certain threshold, they're the first people in the door, they're the first people to check out. Or it's free shipping over a lower shipping amount. $50, $75, $100. Reward them once they hit that threshold with a promotion. Another way to look at promotions is what are brand builders? So sometimes it's not about the discount that you're offering today, but it's about the discount you're offering tomorrow. If you shopped somewhere like Kohl's, you know about Kohl's cash. If you've shopped at Old Navy, you know every time you shop at Old Navy, you get that coupon for two weeks from now. So use this season, which is not just a shopping season, it's a buyer, a customer acquisition season. In the fourth quarter, more people are buying than ever before, right? Everybody is buying a gift for somebody or they're buying something for themselves. So everyone is buying. So use this as lead gen to build new customers, not just for today, but come January. So give them some sort of January bonus bucks or get back cash, boutique, cash, whatever you want to call it, and reward them for what they're buying today and give them that discount tomorrow. The third way to run a promotion in your business is by simply not running a sale, but to have an experience. People are attracted to the way you make them feel, the emotion that you give them in business. So bring in some entertainment. Whether it's your warehouse, whether it's your storefront, whether it's a Facebook live, make it about live music and food and drinks. And giveaways. Make it a men's night out in your business and give away a yeti cooler. Give them a reason to come and shop with you. That is an experience they can have that is not solely focused on the discount they're going to get at the end of the day. Because the truth is this, people are buying no matter what. Whether you give them a discount or not, they're buying no matter what. So be there and give them what they're looking for in terms of an experience and a reason to come and shop with you. So guys, at the end of the day, no more blanket sales. No more selling the diamonds with the dirt. Instead, get busy about running a promotion in your business this time of year. And then last tip is this. I want you to have cash in the bank at the end of the year. So remember, there are times to take important markdowns. And like Sheryl Crow says, the first cut is the deepest. So make it happen, right? Do not murder your price tags with 5% off and 10% off and 15% off and then 20% off if it still doesn't move. Nobody wants to see that, right? It's murdered. So. So make the first cut the deepest. If you know you have something like Santa Claus Tees and it is December 20th, you better get those suckers out the door at 50% off or 60% off, 75% off. Even if you have to lose a little money but still get a little cash out, it's better than those things sitting there and taking up space and tying up your cash for an entire year. Don't become emotionally attached to your inventory in the fourth quarter. These are $20 bills hanging on a hanger and your job is to figure out how to get it off the hanger and into your pocke. Not become so attached to that inventory and what you know the possible markup could have been or what the maintained margin could have been. Instead, get that money into your pocket so that you can invest it in something for the next season. Turn and burn is the name of the game in retail guys. I am wishing you the most profitable and peaceful fourth quarter possible and I also just want to make this quick invite to you. I will be here on the podcast with more tips. Thank you. Every week but also inside of our community at the Boutique Hub. If you're also a member, make sure to check out our Holiday Training section module of the Members Training Library. There's lots more holiday tips in there for you. Or if you want really nitty gritty, do this right now in this order to prepare for the holiday season type of tips, I have an entire program dedicated to just that. It's called Holiday marketing masterclass. It's holidaymarketingmasterclass.com you can check it out and it's all done for you.

You can watch it, do it as.

You go and you have lifetime access to the program. We have served several thousand retailers inside of Holiday Marketing Masterclass and if you'd like it, I'll link it up in the show notes for you today as well. So check that out. If you're a member, check out our holiday training module for our members in the training library. Or you guys, I'm right here every week giving you more quick tips. So. So make sure to shoot me a message over on Instagram @ajalderson, my personal handle, or at the Boutique Hub if you have more holiday related questions or questions you would love to see me answer here on the podcast anytime. As always you guys, thank you so much for listening. Thank you for being a part of this community and I am wishing you a fourth quarter full of profit and full of peace this season. Thanks for hanging out guys.

Have a great rest of your day. 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.

Sam.