Things A Boutique Owner Sees

Why? Why can they not do what they are paid,the magic amount once a month, for? Most companies have proceedures to follow, flow charts, lists, boxes to tick and they are all usually to aid these people to do the job correctly!

In July I contacted a brand of clothing that I wished to stock in my shop. A few days later they got back to me and told me that if I could fill a minimum of a £2000 order I could be a stockist.
Flights were booked and appointments set. I went, I ordered (considerably more than £2000)and then I waited on the arrival of the goods. I was not told until I arrived at the showroom that the stock would not be delivered to me until Febuary!!!! But this is now besides the point.

Anyway, It has started to arrive and it is all as lovely as I remember. I have even been back and ordered a further twice. So you can imagine my rage to recieve a phone call this morning to tell me that they would be supplying me with no more stock after spring?????!!!!!!!

It turns out that the girl who set up my account (shock horror) did not do her job properly!!! She did not do a postcode check. The brand will only supply to one shop per 10 miles, this is fair enough but I should have been told this months ago. A compettitor of mine is a stockist of the brand, she does not buy every season, but she gets the account!

Just another case of someone not fulfulling their role in the work place! I really am dreading employing someone to help me out...............

I love my job, I really, really do!!!!

I am having a good day, the weather has picked up a little. This has had a positive effect on my general mood. I feel optomistic, I feel positive about myself, my shop, the clothes that my shop is stocked with. I feel good......

The weather has also brought out lots of people. Some of them are browsers, this is good for my business. Obviously it is better when they are buyers, but browsers always have the potential to be buyers. But, there are lots of the lovely breed that are buyers, they are out in force. It has dried up after a week of drizzly rain and strong wind, and people (well some people) are desperate to get out and spend some hard cash!!!

In my positive mood I have been sketching ideas for a spring themed window display. Something nice for me to create and something nice for my customers to look at and most importantly be drawn to!!!!!

I cannot wait to see what kind of effects that summer has on my business........

In the last 3 years I have noticed some huge changes in my life.
One thing that marks the start of my life changing to be the life that I wanted to live, was my husband getting up and leaving one day! We had not been married long (11 months) we had an awful relationship, he was a bully, he had an addictive streak and he was (and no doubt still is) a born liar!

So, something awful (at the time) happened to me and I asked myself what I was going to do......
I decided that I would pick myself up and create a better life for myself. I started by trying to mend some broken relationships and friendships. This was not totally successful but it lead me to see that true bonds cannot ever be broken.

I started to change what I ate, I cooked more, I cooked the foods that I loved and that I wanted to eat. I embarked on a healthier lifestyle (it sometimes wavers but on the whole it has continued). And most of all, I enjoyed doing these things. I had at one time been ridiculed for loving to bake. Now the true friends that I had loved it when I turned up bearing a box of (still warm) muffins.

My sense of style changed a huge amount. I began to see that style is a unique thing. It is not the most expensive pair of jeans or the most expensive and most up to date coat. Style is what suits the wearer and the wearer knowing that they look fabulous.......

I am now the owner of a Chloe Paddington bag and I have vowed that I will use it forever and then pass it on to my daughter (if I am lucky enough to have one). To me it is a piece that is timeless and hugely stylish. My wardrobe, I feel, says a lot about me. For one thing it is a mess, there is no order to the way that things are hung up. But, it is a wardrobe full of good quality clothing, that suit my shape, my personality and my dressing style.
I do have pieces from cheaper stores, I am not a high end shopper either, I mix from everywhere.

I have even changed my attitude to perfumes and fragrance in general. I used to buy perfumes because I wa told they were popular or they were on offer at duty free. Now, I like to spend time smelling different fragrances and deciding what I like the smell of.

I recently was treated (by my amazing boyfriend) to a fragrance from Penhaligons. I was in there for hours. I wanted to know what all the base notes were. I wanted to know what was a popular choice, what was new and what the first fragrance was that they produced.
In the end I picked Quercus. I loved it the instant that I smelt it.

I am now looking forward to the next few years and what they throw at me. Going by the past, I will hopefully become happier, healthier, a nicer person to be with and to me above all more stylish.

I have not posted for a few days, my shop has been nice any busy, I know that this was down to Mr sunshine being out in full force, oh and that pay day had just passed!!

Anyway, change has come my way and I am deathly quiet! I know that everyday cannot be a busy day, but where is the balance? I know that I am still a newbie and that I am still gaining customer confidnece, but this is getting depressing!

I used to relish quiet days when I worked for someone else! Yippee, a chance to stand around and chat, surf the internet, have longer coffee breaks. It is a very different game when it is your own shop that no-one is entering. It becomes a personal attack. Am I a failure? Is this the beginning of the end?

I know that the answer to all of the questions is NO, but these are the things that run through my mind bashing into each other and causing greater confusion.
I am not good at keeping myself entertained or waiting for it to be my turn to be busy again.

Working for yourself is great and I do enjoy it very much. But no-one told me of these days where I would be near to tears and desperate for someone to chat to!!!

Standing in my boutique on a sunny February day, folding jumpers, organising styles in order of their sizes, and a more mature lady (65-75) came in....
The boutique has a large display window (large enough for three display models) which I change regularly and create themes with funky bits and bobs.....
Basically a blind man could see that I am not aiming at the more mature, formal market!

So, in she comes I greet her with "Hello" and a generic comment about it being a lovely day for the time of year. She wanders around touching very few of the garments, but doing it in away that would suggest they were melting the skin off of her hands! She began to make her way towards the door, I was ready to thank her for coming in and say goodbye.
However, she turned around and made her way to the counter (where I was now standing).

She asked me if I could please show her some skirts. I had no skirts out on display (as I did not have any in stock) and explained this to her. She then asked if she could please see some elastic waist trousers (informing me that she was actually looking for a skirt, but she would look at the trousers anyway). Again I explained that the tree styles that were hanging on the rails were unfortunately all that I had at the moment.

I was then treated to one of the dirtiest looks (the I have ever been on the receiving end of) before she began her full blown rant.
It went along the lines of her giving me a lecture on providing a service (she felt that I was not doing this). She told me that I should be stocking a wider range to serve a wider range of customers.

Again, as politely as I could, I explained that I was a small boutique stocking one off pieces from new/young designers and I did not want to go down the route of stocking the varieties that you can get in a high street chain.

“Good luck, we will see how long you are in business for.”
Was her parting shot to me as she walked out of the door!

I have since decided to be slightly less tactful, when ladies of this age range wander in. I now do not pander to them, in fear of offending them as it appears that I did just that anyway.

Why can some people not just accept things as they are? What gives some women (and men) of a certain age (mainly those you have lived through major wars) the right to say or do whatever they feel??

My boutique is very much filling a gap in the market in the area that my shop is situated, and it is very firmly aimed at the 18-35 year old style conscious woman!

I have a small independent boutique in a small town, I am lucky enough to have an international airport and a main train link station less than a mile away.
I get a fair bit of passing foot-trade, but mainly my customers are local people who know me or my family or who have just had a nice experience in my shop.

I have one customer who comes to see me on a semi-regular basis, she is not the customer I was originally aiming to, but I have altered what and who I was originally aiming to cater to. She is older than me, I think she is professional, she is a very nice person (she enquires about me and the business every time that she comes in) but she has no sense of style what so ever!

She thinks that certain colours, shapes and styles suit her, and they generally do not. She steers away from the basic clean lines that suit her shape. She is extremely lucky to suit strong colours, yet she thinks they make her look “funny”.

I love it when she comes into see me now, because after a few months I have almost bullied her into changing her ways. She has bought six to eight key pieces from me. She always tries them on and we chat about the look on her. She, to me, is so much more confident now and I now that she takes the tips that I give her on to other shops that she visits.

This particular customer is one of the good ones, she accepts the advice, she wants to move with the times and she can take criticism. If only more people had this open outlook to fashion. At the moment the thrown together and layered look are hot.
But, they just do not work for everyone and people need to accept that just because it is fashionable does not always mean its wearable!

Yesterday I was out of the shop, I was on a buying trip! This meant an entire day out for me!
I got my train at 8.30 am and arrived at my destination at just after noon, my appointment was not until 1.30, so i decided to skip lunch (for the short while)and look for a dress for this weekend! (Going to London to catch some of the Fashion Week Events)

Came across a high street store that I love, and that is not near where I live so I went in. I spotted a fab dress instantly and tried it on. Fit was great and so to was the price, £30. They only had the one dress in my size, so although it was the first shop and the first dress I decided to buy it!

Took it to the register, the cashier did not speak or smile, she took the dress scanned it, took the security tag off and asked for £35!!!
I explained that the tag clearly said £30. She looked at me and said "So do you not want it then?" This was not what I was getting at, I realy want the dress but I want it at the ticketed price!

I said to her that I was entitiled to get the garment for the price on the ticket, as it was their mistake. It turned into a big to-do, and I took the dress (at £35) but not before making a formal complaint to the manager. She was worse than the cashier, she could not have cared less if I took the dress or not!

So, my point is, what has happened to good customer service? Now I am not a believer in the customer is always right, but, I do think that a smile and polite efficient service is something that we are all entitled to, whether we are spending £1 or £1000.

In my shop I bend over backwards to help my customers and get them what they want! I want them to tell others not only about the fabulous top that they got but also about the fantastic service they had!

So, going on a stock buying trip will be easy? It will be fun? In fact, surely it will just be a big shopping trip?
WRONG!

I went into this aspect of my business totally blind! Mainly because I did not think to ask anyone for advice (I would not have know who to ask to be honest).

So, I turn up at the address that I was given, an office block in a city, I go to the doorman and explain that I am here for an appointment. So far so good. I get to the destination without any troubles, then the fun begins.

I met with the sales person (who is lovely, is a sales person and thinking of their cut!!!). They explain that the current range is laid out in a style similar to a shop, I then can pick out the pieces that I like and we will take it from there!

I know that this all sounds very straight forward and easy, it was up to this point!
I got my empty rail and pushed it around, just taking in what was on offer first. Pieces jumped straight out at me, I was excited by the fabrics, the colours, the styles. Before I knew it I had a pretty full rail and felt that I had a collection.

Next step was to place the order, the sales person let me know of cost prices, retail prices and what percentage of mark up I was getting. As he was giving all of the afore mentioned information he kept telling me what the delivery date was!
After the third item I had to ask, what did he mean the item was delivering in December?? It was August!

He kind of chuckled, and explained that the lovely collection that I had picked out was delivering late winter/early spring!
Blind panic set in! What was I going to do? My shop was opening that month, not in December!
He clearly saw what was going on and managed to soothe the situation. He produced a rail crammed full of things, and he explained that everything on the rail was available immediately.

Panic over I got my (small) collection. After placing all of the various orders I asked for some honest advice. Was I the only person who that had ever happened to? Were the lines that I picked ok? Should I take it as an omen, and that as I had clearly not researched my market enough, I was doomed to fail?

Very kindly (I think he realised I was on the verge of tears) he re-assured me that he had seen the same thing happen before, the range would be great and that it was all going to be fine, I just had to have faith in myself and my shop.
He gave me some other tips for my future buying trips, which have helped a huge amount and I still use.

It has always been a dream of mine to work for myself, mainly, due to many bad bosses with power issues.
I have always been interested in fashion, clothes, accessories and how people transform themselves with these objects.
So the dream became to have a beautiful little fashion boutique that people were drawn to, where they could find something a bit different without breaking the bank!

This year my dream became a reality….
I began trading early autumn 2007. After weeks of transforming the premises into the picture that I had in my head.

The colour scheme had to be just so. I had a vision of the classic “Tiffany” blue, but did not want to rip off someone else’s look, so I came up with a pale but bright turquoise.
The entire frontage of the boutique was painted in this bright and attractive colour, as was the internal display place and a feature wall.
The rest of the walls and wood work were kept simple and clean in white.
I decided that carpet was to be laid (in place of laminate or some other industrial material) for a feeling of warmth and comfort. I contacted a local flooring company and asked for information on hardwearing carpet options. I finally settled on a grey blue industrial carpet.

Displaying my stock was something that I took a lot of time researching. I knew instantly that I did not want the traditional hooks and racks that shop fitters had to offer. The rails were to look and feel like a wardrobe without the casing to create, the fantastic, feel of a walk in wardrobe. Therefore people could imagine the item that they wanted hanging in their very own wardrobe.

The small, finishing, touches were hugely important to me….. The chair in the changing room had to be aged, but not old. The mirrors I wanted to be just what you would have at home. Honest mirrors! Not the trick or slimming mirrors that some of the chain stores use.
The counter was a similar thing. After thinking that I wanted an aged table, I saw a 1950’s display cabinet and it was perfect! It is 50% glass and the other 50% is aged pale wood. It is just fabulous, has room to display my favourite pieces and to store all of the bits and bobs that I need everyday. The remains of stickers and old pieces of sticky tape only add to its character - I am fully aware that it has helped someone else before coming to me…….

The clothes were hung, the carrier bags were ready to be filled and finally it was time to open my doors!
The most nerve racking night of my life so far was the night I opened my boutique with a champagne launch. There was no need to worry, it went fantastically and from there word started to spread.

There were rumours of fantastic, unique pieces…but at high street prices……
I was so proud, excited and nervous I thought I might just burst!

I have decided to keep this blog to share my thoughts on being a new business owner, as well as, hopefully, share some of the funny stories that I come across!