Boost Your Boutique With Emily Benson

1:12.3: 20% is a lot of money for a business. But it's also not that hard. So let's think about what 20% would look like in the next 30 days for you.1:51.3: You need to make sure that you have inventory. Okay. If you don't have inventory, then that's okay.2:32.6: If your customer is already bought into something that's really working, then you're in a position where you have the opportunity to buy more in a different color and a different print and a bit of a different style and potentially charge a little bit more for it.3:34.5: But when you're pricing products, I find more often than not, people are pricing too low. 4:22.6: So many people don't want to charge more for like an everyday item when someone's going to get way more wear out of it. They think, oh, well, I'll charge more for like a nice dress that someone would wear to a wedding.5:00.9: I think that's the craziest thing because what you're doing is you're saying that the cost per wear of that item is going to be way better because someone migh

3:13.8: I was raised middle class in a blue state. And I think that generationally, I'm like two generations away from the Great Depression. And I am one generation, not even, I'm 10 years away from women getting bank accounts. 4:09.2: I want to recognize that things are changing in the boutique industry, especially because it is a woman-led business, and I'm sorry, I'm a woman female-identifying.5:07.0: I think this is a big piece of it is when you are starting to make more money, you have more access to things. You have the ability to really affect change when you have that economic power, when you have wealth when you have money, and for so many of my scale girlies out there, my scale people out there for you, you have so many opportunities to build wealth.6:49.6: That's where this stuff, this Underlying retail mindset stuff starts to come up around us being wealthier than our spouse, wealthier than our parents, making more money than family members. 6:56.5: The boutique industry is definitely a

3:13.7: I'm worried that so many boutique owners think there's one way to do things. 3:44.7:  It's just so important to be your unique self and only do the things that you want to do.6:34.5: One of the biggest things I see across the board and boutique land is this turnover. 8:16.2: This is a good double-check on, do I really need to buy this? So many of you are overbought. Even working with people who are helping you with buying plans. I'm shocked to hear how many well-established companies are having people overbuy.11:57.5: It's an opportunity for you to re-examine your business. What days you're open, how it's structured, what you do in your business. Do you do more events, uh, and have fewer store hours open, right? Do you teach classes on something that you're interested in?12:32.8: I think you're going to have to have a multi-dimensional boutique business. You're going to have to be able to scale up to the point where the business can support you.14:49.6: We need to continue to challenge

3:31.1: I turned 40 a week after my daughter turned one. So I currently have a 19-month-old at age 40 which most people would say is super old. I actually love it.5:02.8: I honestly think that women's healthcare after having a baby is ridiculous. The fact that they talk about baby blues and postpartum depression and anxiety and rage and all of that, like only being up to eight weeks after 12 weeks after you give birth, like. Oh, no way.6:31.3: I think the motivation to want to work after you have a baby is also not always high for people. 9:29.4: Focus on how you wanna grow your family. Because growing your family could happen in a lot of different ways, and it's gonna happen how it's meant to happen. So just focus on growing your family and that really reframed my headspace.16:27.5: I didn't realize how tough recovering would be, regardless of how you choose to feed your baby.20:01.4: I am still running a business, and that business is the backbone of our family. Like this business financially supports

0:32.2: I really want to help you understand that starting a boutique is not for everyone and going into it with a full scope of understanding what could go wrong and what could go right is really important. 1:01.5: I think one of the things people think when they have a mobile boutique is that things are gonna be easy. Like, oh, I'm gonna just pull up and sell things. And that's not at all what happened.1:58.2: My perspective is totally unique and I'm gonna show that perspective in my retail store, and so I'm not gonna worry about competition. 2:40.9: I think one of the things that I would not do again, would be to get obsessed with having this beautiful website if I had a brick-and-mortar or a mobile boutique.3:52.1: I think too many people think, oh, I'm gonna open an online store and have a brick-and-mortar and it's gonna provide the same amount of revenue as my brick-and-mortar. And to be honest with you, that's just not really how it goes.4:33.9: If you're going to do one thing, don't feel lik

50.7: A lot of people are getting into this business now, and they're not realizing the impact that it's gonna have on their life and what they're gonna have to do to be successful.1:01.6:  An online business obviously requires a lot of technical stuff. 1:33.4: If you're not tech-savvy, that's okay. Just know going into it that you're going to have to at least be adaptable and open to learning all this new tech stuff because once you learn it, you can totally do it.1:49.4: You have to be willing to be a DIY person and go through the tech, the struggles, and the annoying little things that happen 2:24.4: You're gonna have to plan your product assortment. You're going to want to identify your ideal customer, and you're going to wanna have a point of view if you don't have a fashion point of view for the person that you're trying to sell to. 2:42.2: And I think it's important to know that the stronger your point of view is, the more you have a direction with your assortment and, and what you'

Boutique Brilliance ClassesMay 15 Training Boost Your Boutique with Emily BensonBONUS Mid-June Boutiqueland UpdatesAll rights reserved Mentioned in this episode:Work on Your Shop Event- September 21, 2025Work|on your|shop is a one-day, in-person experience designed to reset your mindset and give you the exact steps to grow your boutique with more ease and clarity. You’ll leave with: ✅ A complete Fall/Winter (or Spring/Summer) buying and marketing plan ✅ A fresh perspective on your numbers and goals ✅ The energy and confidence to move forwardWork on Your Shop Event- September 21, 2025How To Start A Clothing Boutique Business - Free On-Demand WebinarHere is the link to register for the free, on-demand training:How To Start A Clothing Boutique Business

1:33.0: It's really important when you start your kid's boutique or children's boutique to focus, you cannot sell newborns to tweens. All of the things in between boys, girls, gender neutral, wherever you're headed with this, plus toys, blankets, it's a lot. You guys, you've gotta focus.2:14.8: I think that opening a children's boutique is a no-brainer because you're always gonna have customers. There's always babies being born.4:24.4: Is the wholesale high? Can we only get sometimes a 2X markup? Yes. But there's going to be places where maybe you can make more.4:52.7: Don't be ashamed if you have to charge what you feel like is a lot of money for kids' clothes. You have to find the right customer for that item, but I guarantee you will find those people.5:40.9: But from my perspective, children's inventory can be hard to find. But when you do find it, there is some really good stuff out there.8:43.1: Really, I want you to make money with your children's boutique because it's important, it's necessary. It's d

1:30.5: I'm seeing boutiques run ads and they're one of two things: They're either targeting me with “Come to our store opening” and they're in Virginia, I'm not in Virginia. Or they’re advertising denim, which I hate.3:24.3: This is the phenomenon I'm seeing in Facebook ads. It’s a video and two photos the size of your phone screen. In the video the boutique owner or model is pulling on the side of their jeans, basically showing they’re form-fitting but stretchy.4:43.9: In the past five years, denim has become really saturated in terms of how many boutiques are selling it. The main brand I’m talking about is Judy Blue. Because they're a wholesaler, they distribute to a lot of places.6:28.7: I'm the one that says, sell what you love. People fight with me all the time about this saying “No, you shouldn't sell what you love.” Yes, you should! 8:13.2: The way Judy Blue has grown in the past four to five years has been phenomenal. What did they do? They realized that people wanted stretchy jeans. They realized wo

1:36.8: Now a lot of boutiques will start online or they'll have one brick and mortar and there's all these opportunities to sort of rent a space inside. We see it a lot in salons.2:09.8: If you are just online, it's definitely a good opportunity for you to be in front of people and see what the sales look like and see how things can change for you from an assortment perspective and from an ideal customer perspective.4:22.5: My biggest question is how would I mark up these items where we are both making money on the deal? 4:34.9: She started listening to my podcast and taking courses and attending retreats, and she's grown from a thousand dollars, barely a thousand dollars a month to making at least $25,000 a month. And she's only open five days a week, six hours a day. 5:52.5: I would, number one, learn about who's the ideal customer in this pickleball situation. 6:33.9: You're going to have to build into every product a margin where he gets a cut and you get a cut. Now, how do we do that in a

2:05.3: The fundamentals of retail are the fundamentals of retail. They don't change over time. What does change sometimes is marketing or building a brand.2:44.3: I think it's important to take a step back and think about like, what about my business do I love? 5:51.5: So whether you're new or you are established, or however you see yourself in the scope of what boutique land looks like for you, I want you to know that there is always room to grow and there is always room to maintain and stabilize.16:36.4: Create an experience for your people, find them where they're at, whether that's social media, or online.22:01.8: I started to hear what was going on and I realized that boutique owners have very little genuine consistent support outside of potential friends and family. 23:57.2: And then combining it kind of with, with my experience in, in my own boutique, it was like people were doubling and tripling their sales numbers in three to 12 months. 24:25.2: I saw that scaling someone's business n

1:10.5: we're talking about meta, which runs both Facebook and Instagram ads. 1:33.8: I think this is something that you wanna do when you start to hit like three, five, $10,000 a month. So $3,000 to $10,000 months in your business. 2:45.3: Facebook ads are really an additional way to continue showing people who already like you more of your stuff more often.3:25.5: The easiest way for me to explain what a cold audience is, is that it's people who have never heard of you. They have never interacted with your brand. 4:18.9: I always recommend starting with a warm audience, people who know you. Advertise to them because they're just going to buy more.6:00.0: You will get a return. We have people who have spent a thousand dollars a month and they've made back $10,000. I once had a client who spent a hundred thousand dollars on ads that she and I were running kind of on the back end, just the two of us by ourselves. She made a million dollars off those ads one year.7:21.1: Between knowing what to r

2:33.4: And so I'm here to remind you that you are a very, very, very powerful being and that you get to decide, you get to have the choice about what it is that you want, where you wanna go. And so I want to tap into what might be holding you back.3:27.4: One of the very first ways that I see people blocking themselves from having a great boutique is fear. Fear of success, fear of failure. Fear of what will other people think. Fear of I'm not good enough. Fear of what if I run out of money? 5:08.6: It's okay to be nervous. It's okay to be in a space of feeling unsure about what could happen. It's okay. Feel that feeling. See it.9:20.3: Anyone can set up a schedule, actually. But what I will tell you is that it takes you sticking to that schedule and it takes you deciding that you're gonna show up for that schedule.10:34.4: I find a lot of people that start boutiques just aren't taking themselves seriously. They're not taking the business piece of it seriously. They think, oh, I can just dabble here and

Resources:Visit Boutique Training Academy - If you want to make more money in your boutique or retail business you're in the right place. We'll guide you step by step in your journey through Boutiqueland.NEW BOOK #TheRetailMindset available on AmazonLet’s be friends! Facebook IGMentioned in this episode:Work on Your Shop Event- September 21, 2025Work|on your|shop is a one-day, in-person experience designed to reset your mindset and give you the exact steps to grow your boutique with more ease and clarity. You’ll leave with: ✅ A complete Fall/Winter (or Spring/Summer) buying and marketing plan ✅ A fresh perspective on your numbers and goals ✅ The energy and confidence to move forwardWork on Your Shop Event- September 21, 2025How To Start A Clothing Boutique Business - Free On-Demand WebinarHere is the link to register for the free, on-demand training:How To Start A Clothing Boutique Business

2:03.3: When I was a new boutique owner with my business, the fashion truck, I avoided a lot of mistakes because I had corporate retail experience. That's why I'm here. I worked for over seven years for big companies like Abercrombie and Fitch Club, Monaco, in their corporate office as a buyer.3:20.4: First and foremost, I knew that I should not have something for everyone. When you have something for everyone, you have nothing for no one. 4:21.0: The more niche and narrow you can get with your ideal customer, really understanding who they are, how old they are, keep it tight, like 10 years. 5:27.3: I hate to say this, but most people come to me when they're really far down the road and they've bought way too much inventory. When you start buying inventory, you've got to track it.7:10.5: The other big mistake I see people make is that they just are on every single platform. They think I have to be on TikTok dancing and going viral. I have to be doing reels. I have to have a Facebook group, a Facebook page. I

Thanks for listening! I'd love a review and rating on your podcast player if you liked what you heard!Links you'll need from this episode:Maximizing Your Boutique's Growth Potential: Strategies for Success from a Retail Prohttps://www.boutiquetrainingacademy.com/maximizeOverworked and Underpaid Training: www.boutiquetrainingacademy.com/underpaidState of the Boutique Industry Webinar: www.boutiquetrainingacademy.com/stateHow to Start a Clothing Boutique On Demand Training: www.boutiquetrainingacademy.com/registration-pageMentioned in this episode:How To Start A Clothing Boutique Business - Free On-Demand WebinarHere is the link to register for the free, on-demand training:How To Start A Clothing Boutique BusinessWork on Your Shop Event- September 21, 2025Work|on your|shop is a one-day, in-person experience designed to reset your mindset and give you the exact steps to grow your boutique with more ease and clarity. You’ll leave with: ✅ A complete Fall/Winter (or Spring/Summer) buying and marketing plan ✅ A fr

Thanks for listening! I'd love a review and rating on your podcast player if you liked what you heard!Links you'll need from this episode:Maximizing Your Boutique's Growth Potential: Strategies for Success from a Retail Prohttps://www.boutiquetrainingacademy.com/maximizeOverworked and Underpaid Training: www.boutiquetrainingacademy.com/underpaidState of the Boutique Industry Webinar: www.boutiquetrainingacademy.com/stateHow to Start a Clothing Boutique On Demand Training: www.boutiquetrainingacademy.com/registration-pageMentioned in this episode:Work on Your Shop Event- September 21, 2025Work|on your|shop is a one-day, in-person experience designed to reset your mindset and give you the exact steps to grow your boutique with more ease and clarity. You’ll leave with: ✅ A complete Fall/Winter (or Spring/Summer) buying and marketing plan ✅ A fresh perspective on your numbers and goals ✅ The energy and confidence to move forwardWork on Your Shop Event- September 21, 2025How To Start A Clothing Boutique Business

Thanks for listening! I'd love a review and rating on your podcast player if you liked what you heard!Links you'll need from this episode:Maximizing Your Boutique's Growth Potential: Strategies for Success from a Retail Prohttps://www.boutiquetrainingacademy.com/maximizeOverworked and Underpaid Training: www.boutiquetrainingacademy.com/underpaidState of the Boutique Industry Webinar: www.boutiquetrainingacademy.com/stateHot to Start a Clothing Boutique On Demand Training: www.boutiquetrainingacademy.com/registration-pageMentioned in this episode:Work on Your Shop Event- September 21, 2025Work|on your|shop is a one-day, in-person experience designed to reset your mindset and give you the exact steps to grow your boutique with more ease and clarity. You’ll leave with: ✅ A complete Fall/Winter (or Spring/Summer) buying and marketing plan ✅ A fresh perspective on your numbers and goals ✅ The energy and confidence to move forwardWork on Your Shop Event- September 21, 2025How To Start A Clothing Boutique Business

Welcome to Season 7! Links you'll need from this episode: Overworked and Underpaid Training: www.boutiquetrainingacademy.com/underpaid State of the Boutique Industry Webinar: www.boutiquetrainingacademy.com/stateMentioned in this episode:Work on Your Shop Event- September 21, 2025Work|on your|shop is a one-day, in-person experience designed to reset your mindset and give you the exact steps to grow your boutique with more ease and clarity. You’ll leave with: ✅ A complete Fall/Winter (or Spring/Summer) buying and marketing plan ✅ A fresh perspective on your numbers and goals ✅ The energy and confidence to move forwardWork on Your Shop Event- September 21, 2025How To Start A Clothing Boutique Business - Free On-Demand WebinarHere is the link to register for the free, on-demand training:How To Start A Clothing Boutique Business

Links you'll want from this episode: State of the Boutique Industry FREE Webinar https://www.boutiquetrainingacademy.com/state www.shopboutiqueceo.com for The 2023 Boutique Calendar! Courses: www.boutiquebasicsbootcamp.com www.boutiquetrainingacademy.com/skysthelimitMentioned in this episode:Work on Your Shop Event- September 21, 2025Work|on your|shop is a one-day, in-person experience designed to reset your mindset and give you the exact steps to grow your boutique with more ease and clarity. You’ll leave with: ✅ A complete Fall/Winter (or Spring/Summer) buying and marketing plan ✅ A fresh perspective on your numbers and goals ✅ The energy and confidence to move forwardWork on Your Shop Event- September 21, 2025How To Start A Clothing Boutique Business - Free On-Demand WebinarHere is the link to register for the free, on-demand training:How To Start A Clothing Boutique Business