Welcome to the Spring Ahead series for boutique owners ready to get started on a profitable foot here in quarter one. Now, when is quarter one, you might be asking. Well, that for me in the retail industry is usually February, March, and April. Now, you're probably saying, where are we, Emily? Why do I trust you? Well, actually, when I worked in the corporate retail industry, our fiscal year ended on January 31st. And the reason that happens in the retail industry is because

January is a time for exchanges, returns, damages, inventory counting. It's kind of this like month where you get to catch up with all of the backend of your business. So you can start February really strong. If we haven't met yet, hi, I'm Emily Benson. I'm a retail industry expert and boutique consultant.

I've helped thousands of boutique owners start growing scale their boutique businesses and I'm excited to help you in this new series that I'm launching about how to launch into quarter one. So whether you're new or experienced as a boutique owner, I'd love for you to stay. It's gonna be a four video series. In the series, I'm going to be giving you a lot of detailed advice in each video, but in general, we're gonna cover a lot of the aspects of running a brick and mortar online pop-up shop, whether you're mobile or you have a stationary spot.

I'm gonna help you walk through what you need to be thinking about for the next couple of months. In this video, I'm gonna be breaking down the key themes, dates, and strategies you need to know to make the most of Q1 in your boutique. Why does the first quarter matter in your retail business? Well, here's the thing. A, it sets the tone for the entire year. We need to take what we learned last year and apply it to this year. It's really important for you if you wanna keep growing and you wanna keep scaling,

to look backwards. So if you're in a position where you have data from last year, this is the time where you're going to review it. In January, you're going to take the time to review those sales and understand what you might need to implement for the next year, for the upcoming year. Now you might be thinking, Emily, am I gonna sell a lot in Q1? Yes and no. Remember, this is gonna be location dependent. If you live somewhere that's really cold, just remember people don't wanna leave the house. I love doing pickup groceries when we have it this cold outside.

But if you're in a tourist spot or you're in the south, you're somewhere where it's warm, you're on an island, then this might be your high season. In general, we can expect customer behavior during this time to be a little bit tired from the holidays, so like not ready to spend a lot, but still looking for that fresh, new, fun item. So think about providing items that are in

pop colors or give a more rejuvenated sense for January, February, March. There's a reason why workout and athleisure tends to trend during this time because we're kind of like getting back on the horse. We're tired, yeah, but we're also have this like renewed sense of where we want to be. Now, again, in January, this might not be hitting quite yet, but by February and March, you should expect it to feel very spring-like in your store. So what's the vibe for spring? Again, depending on where you live, you want to have

seasonally appropriate merchandise. So meaning I live in the Northeast, I would love a lavender colored vest, right? We're doing things that are weighted appropriately in the right materials, but we're also doing them in new fresh colors. We're doing them in spring colors that represent rebirth, that represent spring. Remember Easter is all about like daffodils coming up and tulips coming up. In our stores, we can reflect that. We should reflect that.

The biggest part of a boutique is that it rolls with the seasons, which gives people more opportunity to come in. Now, I will remind you during this time too, when your sales are lower, I want you to try to sell less basic items. I'm serious. If someone's going to make a purchase right now, it's going to be well thought out. It's going to be something that they feel will like do it in their wardrobe and it's got to feel fresh. Whatever's on sale from December, all that stuff should sort of be gone or at least in the back and you really want to freshen up the front of your store.

That might also mean your homepage on your website or any sort of marketing across your social media platforms. Wherever you have an online presence, you also want to freshen up some of your graphics. You might want to redo your logo. Listen, there is so much more flexibility with how you present yourself these days. I think, yes, you should have like a style and a flair and a brand, but also it's fun to change that with the seasons. know, put your logo in a Fresh Spring color. Have it.

know, blossom out a flower or something. That's okay. You can have these seasonal additions. see Shopify do this all the time when they have their like winter 2024 season, right? They're even kind of trying to do it. So why not you?

Okay, so thinking about colors, really, it's pastels, it's Eastery colors, it's lavenders and yellows. We're not into the bright, bright of summer yet. We're still focused on florals and a light stripe and clean lines. This is the time where you wanna highlight a lot of these transitional styles. So how could you style something that you wear every day that's maybe gotten a little too winterfied and boring and depressing? How do you cheer that up? Even for me, that might mean that I add a scarf on.

Right like a bright color scarf just to make it more interesting. Let's talk about holidays There are some key dates that you want to remember in q1 first Of course is Valentine's Day like anything pink red white cute fun great time to sell it great time to Remark and I say if it's still left from the holidays any sort of Galentine's Day party self-love gifts bath bombs like again, you could do something really fun for Valentine's Day I find a lot of people will add lingerie and it just

adds a little mix, it sells really well, they sell it for like a month and then it's gone. That's perfect for Valentine's Day. And again, do what you can around gifts and giving back and this is a time to really focus on your community. Again, we come out of the doldrums of winter, January, and we are presented with remembering our heart and remembering love and that's great. So do that for your customers, okay? If no one else is loving on them, you be the light, you be the person who's like reminding them that

can smile and we can be kind to one another and come into our store and this is our vibe. Then we move on to St. Patrick's Day. Now you can choose to celebrate this or not. I have people who tell me I sell so much St. Patty's Day. They're definitely near Boston. But if that's a holiday that works for you locally, go for it. Add special styles, have a party, do something fun. I love the idea of

making St. Patrick's Day a thing in March because again, March is a long month and this year especially, you always have to look at when Easter hits because Easter is really when the customers start to think, okay, it's spring now. It's like, okay, spring has sprung, let's go. This year, it's in April. Okay, so it rotates from April to March. Last year we had it in March, but always check your calendar. Always know when Easter falls because I don't understand why this happens.

But when Easter is over, I swear to you, the next day people are like, it's summer, have you signed up for summer camp? What's going on, summer? And I just, need you all to be ready for it. And if you have felt that, if you've had a boutique for a while and you're like, my gosh, I know exactly that switch in energy that you're talking about, tell me in the comments below. I wanna know if any of this is resonating and if you are like, my gosh, I get it, that first good day of spring.

That first good day of spring is such a good one for sales, especially if you have a brick and mortar. Between St. Patrick's Day and Easter, we have a long time. So if you have any opportunity to celebrate St. Patrick's Day in a time where the span from Valentine's Day to Easter feels long, please do it. Now, again, you don't have to go overboard. You don't have to even honestly get super steamy things. It can just be about how you merchandise things, how you address it, just having something to offer someone if they're looking for it.

Right, you don't have to go over the top but address these things give people a reason to come in an event something to rally around so somewhere between February and March and April we also see a lot of spring breaks Resort wear if you want to do a capsule collection for that you totally can now again if you're doing pop-ups and things like that You're gonna have maybe like weird weather some days but show up bring your best stuff and try to sell because spring is

Again, it's a nice time where people are feeling excited, the weather is getting better, they want to spend money. When you're thinking about Easter, Passover, any other spring holidays too, remember people will maybe want to dress up for that. So what does that look like for your customer? What does dressing up mean? Do you want to add any extra jewelry or accessories, things that might be cute for your customer? Now let's talk about apparel markets. Apparel markets that are happening in Feb, March and April, we have magic.

New York and Las Vegas, we Dallas, have Atlanta, we have Kids World, we also have Magic in Nashville. So you want to be going to a show right now. If you want to know specific markets and market dates, you can always find them in my boutique calendar. We have the link below and this has all of the market dates inside of it on the days. It also tells you when to mark down. It gives you some of the things that we're talking about more specific, but that's all in my boutique calendar. Now let's talk about

if you are a startup versus an experienced boutique, what are you thinking about during these months? If you are a startup, you want to get started. Okay, if you haven't started yet, let's get started during Q1. It's a really nice time to get yourself out there. Start building your customer interaction. Start figuring out that customer profile, what vendors are going to sell and fit the best for your person. This

time period, it's pretty low risk time to test out some new inventory for spring because people are buying. So if you want to try that new sweater style, get a pack of it. If you want to try a new accessory, get a couple of them. The things that you test out now in spring are the things that we're going to come back to in the fall to understand how we're going to create our fall assortment. So I want honestly everyone to see spring as a test time period because we're building for the end of the year. Okay, remember,

the end of our year, like basically the second half of a calendar year is anywhere between 50 and 70 % of a boutique's sales for the year. That might not be your case, but we see that all the time. Maybe it's 50-50. But honestly, that end of the year tends to just be weighted more heavily. And so if we can test things out right now and see what our customer likes, vendor, fit, price point, if you can look at it like that.

thinking, okay, I'm in startup mode, I'm going to test things out, I'm going to try new messaging, I'm going to take different photos, like I'm just going to do my best to test different things out, not get attached to anything, read the results.

Then come later spring and summer, we can start to implement that stuff. But then also for fall, we have a game plan. We know what works, we know what you tested, and we're just not update colors and textures, right? So do dresses sell for you? What kind of blouses sell for you? This is a good time to start to understand that for yourself. Again, I would also say for everyone newer experience, this is the time to just go crazy on social media. Like it's free. I'm gonna remind you that forever. Post a lot. If I come on your feed and you don't have posts of your merchandise,

You are missing out on sales. Period. End of story. I see so many people's Instagram feed, whatever it is, whatever social they're using. It's so many graphics. It's so much other stuff. It's quotes. No, let me see your merchandise. I don't care if you're drop shipping, if you have the merchandise in your hand, if you're making it. I don't care. I want to see your product. That's what you're doing. That's what makes you money. Show me more of it.

Now, if you're an established boutique, you've been open for a while, you're making good money, this is the time where you just look at last year. You see, what did I sell last year? Sort of track it against the fall. Say, you know, was there any new ideas that we brought in for fall that really hit? Or was there anything that I decided to get rid of? I have a lot of people sort of getting rid of departments coming into this new year, and that's good. Refining your assortment is always good. And I would say on the other hand, expanding your assortment is always good.

Don't expand too far though. Think of a new year, we think, oh, we should add all this stuff, right? Like New Year's resolutions, no. Get better at what you do really well. Experienced boutiques right now should be kind of cruising into spring, if I'm being honest, letting yourself downshift for a few months and getting your nervous system reset because if you were in the holiday season doing 40, 50, 60, $200,000, a million dollars during those months, you're tired.

That's so much work. Give yourself space to like, take a deep breath. Just enjoy your consistent sales, right? Like do the work, don't stop working, like do the work, but like let yourself relax, okay? Experienced boutique owners in spring are, we're gonna just ease into the year, okay? Now, if you want to.

Spring is also a good time to just get out in the community. Maybe you like sponsor a softball team or you do some sort of spring market or you, you know, do something with the business association. Because you have a little less of like the in-store stuff going on, the in-store events, maybe you do some things outside. Again, maybe you also do some things inside, right? Events are always, always good. Even if two people show up, it's always good, okay? And even if two people show up to your event.

You are taking pictures of them so cropped that they look like you're just highlighting them. And there was lots of people there. No one's gonna know, okay? We've gotta just get brave, invite people in, host them in our boutique spaces, let them know it's a safe space for them to come and vent and try on clothes and feel good about themselves, okay? I know this resonates with you if you have a women's boutique because you understand you've been in the room when someone walks out of a dressing room.

Another woman walks out of the dressing room and they're just feeling themselves. That's what we're cultivating inside of our stores, inside of our online space, inside of our communities on social media. That's it. Okay, let's talk about what challenges might come up for you in the first quarter. I'm just gonna lay it out on the table. Weather is gonna be weird. You might be closed for a week. You might be closed for a month. We have seen wild things happen. So I want you to just be prepared for the unexpected and be okay with it.

We can't affect the weather the way that in my 20s working in New York City, I could not affect the train schedule. It just came when it came. I got there within enough time, right? But there's always going to be delays and that's part of the process. So when you have those delays, what are you going to do during that chunk of time? Will you rest? Will you work on your numbers more? Will you refine your marketing? Will you reorganize your website? These are the times and the spaces to do that work. I'll often have people come to me and say they want to switch POS systems. I always say,

Wait for January. Like don't do it now. Wait for January. Remember how I talked about you might be feeling tapped out after the holidays? Your customers might be feeling like that too. So not putting a lot of pressure on them to buy. Just again, we're offering what we have. We're offering our ideas. We're offering our kindness and generosity. I think a lot of people get caught up with boutique land, especially in January, you get into this really scarcity mode. Like I'm not making any money. I've made it out of zero day.

It's January, like this is how it is. Just be okay with it because you're gonna make money later. This is where we're smart with our inventory and this is why I always talk about by the end of the year you wanna be sold down as much as possible because when you have that cash in your pocket you can go out and get what you need for these spring months, right? But if you sort of overspend in December you're not gonna have the money to refresh the newness so you're gonna have to.

make things work. Like if money was tight by the end of the year, and I get that happens, money sometimes gets weird. And that's okay. Don't feel ashamed if like you don't have a lot of money to like pour into a new spring launch. It's okay to rework what you had. It's okay to like pull out things that didn't sell last summer. It's just about selling and the more practice you have selling them, you know, especially if you're more newer.

It might take you a little bit longer to get this going. The one thing that so many boutique owners lack and what they tend to quit and be challenged by, especially in this quarter, is their mindset. Is that they think it should be happening faster. They think they should be growing faster. I've said many times, like, it can take two, three, five years to really get going. Just depends on your learning curve. It depends on how much time you have. But what I will tell you, if you can capture the spring energy instead of feeling down,

know that spring is coming. This is the best part about retail is we're like a month or two or three or sometimes six months ahead where we are in current reality. And so it's kind of fun because a lot of you going to shows during this time period, you're going to see spring and florals and it's going to feel so good. You're going to feel refreshed. So that's why I always say during this time, go to a show, go to a show, take a break from your normal life, enter boutique land at a show and just really soak it in and enjoy it.

This is the time that you have like worked for and so I want as many people to be able to go to shows and experience it as possible. This is the time to do it. It's going to get you excited and refreshed for the new year. I think I would be skipping over a big part of what I teach too. I have this book called The Retail Mindset and it's all about the mindset you need as you're growing and scaling. So kind of after that startup phase, what are the challenges that you're faced with? And I think one of the biggest challenges for so many of you is the work-life balance.

How do we work and be with our kids and be a good partner? There's never a bad time to set new goals, to set new resolutions. Now, do you need big sweeping goals? No, but maybe you decide to have some new goals just for this first quarter. What do you want to accomplish by the end of spring? Pick three things. One should be inventory. I'm gonna take one away from you and I'm gonna say, I want you to work on your inventory slash product assortment.

I want you to go back and see what really sells. Be honest with yourself. This is the time to edit. I told someone the other day that they should just basically revamp their entire business, like logo, tagline, wallpaper, styles, prices, the whole thing. I was like, you should just restart. You already got your sea legs with this location, doing this thing you are doing and you need a change. Great, completely redo it. This is the time to do it. Spring is for rebirth. Spring is for refresh, okay? If you're going to make a big change, do it now.

So in terms of inventory management and setting financial goals, you can look at just the first quarter and say, how much money do I wanna make per month? What's now my budget for spending, for buying? How much inventory do I already have in my back room? And then also, how much inventory have I already ordered? Some of you guys already have like some orders out there. Don't forget about that, okay? You need to get a really good picture and handle on your inventory. And then...

Figure out what markdowns to take, if you want to run any sales. Maybe during February, one of the ways you kind of move through inventory faster is doing mystery bags or running a really deep sale. It's okay to do that during this time, okay? Now, don't go to 80 % off so people think you're going out of business, but you can always say, hey, we're having an end of season sale, an end of winter sale.

and everything is 50 % off, 60 % off. Don't go really deep and not really call it something. Give your sale a name. If you don't, this is the time when people go out of business and your customers will think, oh no, is everything okay? You just don't want them to start thinking that about you, okay? So analyze your inventory, take those markdowns and understand where you wanna be when you're going to launch that.

real spring collection, which should be somewhere between May 1st and May 15th. It might be earlier for you if you're in a warmer spot, but we're tethering it to that Easter date. So this year it's happening in late April. So I'm going to say like eight weeks before Easter is when you want to launch a spring collection and like have it be Easter focus, Passover focus, whatever, like dresses.

Because the other part about this is people are gonna start buying for graduations, baby showers, bridal showers, right? Again, I'm speaking to women, but this is the time of year that that happens. So make sure that you have whatever your people are wearing. Again, it might not be dresses, it might be nice blouses, it might be rompers, but you wanna make sure that eight weeks before Easter, you have some kind of spring launch. As you market that spring launch, start to reactivate your email list, start to tag people on Facebook. You can always post to post and then,

say at followers or at everyone, like use those tags on your social media to like reactivate and say hello to people. From a true like finances perspective, A, taxes are due soon, right? Like our big taxes personal. Start getting those together. If you need to hire an accountant or a bookkeeper, hire them. Just do it, even if you're new, okay? Remember, if you've registered your business in the US and you have an EIN number, even if you don't make money, you have to file a form.

with the IRS that says, I didn't make money. Just let them know. That's OK. But if you have an open EIN number, you want to make sure that you deal with that. You also need to set a goal. How much do you want to start paying yourself? How much do you want to have saved? Start understanding what that looks like. Because from my perspective, I want you to have a career boutique, meaning this replaces your income. This is a business that lasts.

But if you don't set it up properly and that starts right here in spring, this is the time where you could up your prices, you could find cheaper stuff. I don't care what you do. This is the year that you are profitable. This is the year that you start to really make money, start to pay yourself and take this thing seriously. Let's stop messing around. If this is for you, stay here with me. Like, subscribe to this channel, like this video, stay here. We're gonna keep going through this series. I have three more videos for you.

this one. We're gonna keep talking about spring specifically and I'm gonna give you more tips tricks and all that jazz so that you have like the best year of your life. This is your best boutique year. Thanks so much for watching to the end of the video. I will see you on the next one. Here's to making lots of friends and making lots of money this year.