Emily talks with Leaf Shea, owner of Leaf Boutique in Mansfield, MA. With over 35 years of boutique experience, this past year has caused Leaf to step outside of her comfort zone especially when it came to an online presence for her boutique. As part of the 2020 Mastermind, Leaf shared about her decision to move her incredibly successful boutique to her hometown and how she continued to thrive throughout the toughest months of the pandemic. 

Follow Leaf:
Instagram: @leafboutiquemansfield
Facebook: Leaf Boutique
www.leafmansfield.com

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505: A Lifetime of Boutique Experience with Leaf Shea

Looking to start or grow your boutique business? Tune in to Emily Benson's podcast! With 18 years of retail experience and a no-nonsense teaching style, Emily shares strategies and interviews experts to help you succeed. Whether you have a brick-and-mortar, online, pop-up, or mobile boutique, this podcast provides valuable insights to boost your business. From owning a mobile boutique called The Fashion Truck to being Associate Merchant for Girls' Accessories at Abercrombie & Fitch, Emily has turned her success into your success. Don't miss out on the secrets, tips, and best practices to grow a 7 or 8 figure boutique business.

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Do you want to make more profit from your products in 2024? I’m breaking down three secret ways to discover profitable products in 2024, tailored for boutique owners, wholesalers, and retailers.  ➡️ Get all the details and sign up for Profit Power Tools here If you’re a product seller who has had your business for a number of years and are doing well, but you want to generate enough profit to quit your 9-5 or hire someone, and get back to being calm and creative in your growing business - this episode is for you! I’ve had clients come to me worried they have to close down their business because they are so in debt and can’t see a way out. But within just 12 months, I’ve helped them get out of the debt and put cash in their bank account.  I’ve helped product sellers make 7% more profit year over year, or as much as $88,000 more profit in 8 months without using ads or relying on more sales. I’m going to walk you through some of those changes in this podcast episode.  ➡️ Ready to increase your profits in 2024 and beyond? Get all the details and sign up for Profit Power Tools here

3 Secret Ways To Find Profitable Products In 2024

Your Boutique Can Be Profitable: Everything You Need to Know About Profit Power ToolsBig news! Today, I'm sharing my excitement about my new Profit Power Tools program and its why it's a game changing program for boutique owners, wholesalers and independent retailers. ➡️ Get all the details and add your name to the waitlist here!• Introduction to Profit Power Tools program: Are you a product business that makes sales but is struggling to become profitable? Profit Power Tools is the solution to help businesses understand their financial data and make strategic decisions to improve profitability. • I share my own experience honing my financial capabilities and the impact of generational attitudes towards women and money. I highlight the significance of financial literacy for women and the different challenges they may face in managing finances.• I provide a detailed overview of the launch plan for the upcoming program, with the opening and closing dates, the live teaching schedule, and the availability of waitlist bonuses.➡️ Get all the details and add your name to the waitlist here!

Your Boutique Can Be Profitable: Sharing Profit Power Tools

11:45.1 We did what we wanted.  We did it pretty professionally and we did it with like a level of class and style where people took us seriously. 11:58.2 We had access to these amazing creative tools, professors who really pushed us, who gave us Tons of access and free time to play and explore with our art. And like our minds were just so rich. And I think you and I, and our whole friend group, we were all just like reveling in this. 18:36.7 I need to get in to see a client. I need to convince them that what I have to offer is a value. I need to find out how to make it a value to them because Sometimes they're not advertising in with my brands or sometimes they don't believe in the types of things I'm talking about.
18:52.4 So it's a process of getting in, building awareness, making sure they understand what I'm offering, and then trying to find those fits, you know, trying to find that right fit for my clients are all for it.
21:51.0 One of the reasons I want to have you on is because you and I are the type of people were just like, we have this idea and we're going to go for it and we're going to put the blinders on. We're not going to ask for permission. In fact, like we didn't even think that we needed to ask for permission, let alone even like, you know, skip that part. It was just like, no, we're going to do this and we're going to do this.
28:00.4 follow that gut, follow your intuition, follow your thought, follow your, you know, and there's so much of that that like, that's where the magic comes out of.
31:17.6 There's so much heaviness, I think that women are still carrying and processing just from that,  that you need good girlfriends, sisterhood. You need that so bad to be able to function, to be able to function and come out of this with any kind of head on your shoulders to get through any sort of day to day functionality.
33:29.9 Owning those choices, you know, as a woman and being informed and being involved in guiding those choices gives you so much agency and so much more freedom than I think it allows. It also allows me as a business woman to operate with a lot more levity. 
34:31.0 Our dynamics and the systemic structures that have been built are not really afforded the luxuries to women that may have been afforded to men in the past when they were the breadwinner, right? 
35:12.5 Because you are commission based in your ad sales, right? So very, very similar to a boutique in that you kind of never know what's coming, but you kind of do, but like one day you're making a ton the next day you're like, Darn that deal fell through. Very dry seasons. And then there's like Q4, which is bananas, right? Which is very similar to how retail works, right? 
36.24.7 there's so many things right that'll pull you off track so many little stressors so many flare ups, whether it's a, you know, client you didn't close or it's a sale you see walk out the door, you know,  It can be, it can be really demoralizing.
37:18.0 Go back to your toolkit and what works for you instead of going down the, let me beat myself up over what a loser I am because that sale didn't close.
38:30.2 If you can master a rebound, you can master the game. And that's what it's all about is not letting that little ops offset
40:35.0 The reality of us sitting here is we are very powerful women. We have created a lot of wonderful things in our life. What's to say that cannot continue.
43:25.6 Iowa didn't win because Caitlin Clark was the Michael Jordan of that team. Michael Jordan had to learn. He needed Scotty Pippen. He needed Dennis...

Chic Chronicles: Navigating 20+ Years of Fashion and Friendship with Noelle Auberger

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My Advice for Boutique Owners in 2024

0:54.6 If you're an influencer or if you are in a position where you are ready to start manufacturing your own clothing and accessories or you already do and you want a different take on it and you want to hear from people who are really in the day to day of what's coming next, they're a little bit right ahead of the curve, you're going to want to listen to this episode. 4:24.3 We're now working with influencers, which is super fun and exciting and new. And I think that's the greatest part about the business side that I'm on now is every day is different. Every day we have different products that we're touching, different customers we're working with and really getting to adapt and continue to grow and evolve our business as our customer base changes.
5:59.5 It feels like a lot of people who want to sell don't understand that a retail industry.
7:15.9 I think when you're talking about selling to the masses and especially for what we're doing with these influencers, you know, it is about mass appeal still. And so you have to be really conscious on that trend curve to not push too fast, too forward, unless again, That is your customer. 
9:36.9 I've been saying for a long time, I think wholesale is the biggest opportunity right now. 
11:15.5 I think the biggest thing when you're starting this out is. It's okay not to know. You're not going to know. So finding a trusted partner that can help take you through that process.
12:33.2 And the other part of it is selling, you know, and you know, it is, you can have a huge following and a bunch of eyeballs, but if you don't really like to sell, then  You're going to have a problem.
13:36.3 We don't want to ever push a customer into overbuying something and then have them fail. Like that's not a win for anybody. 
14:23.0 if you don't launch the right product at the right time, at the right price point. Well, guess what? You're not going to sell it.
15:52.4  I think it really all starts with that concept piece of starting to think of what kind of items could be right for you and your audience.
16:40.8 We don't want to overwhelm. We don't want to bring too much to market. Let's start with one drop. Let's figure out your customer, figure out your quantity, figure out your buy, and then. Put together a strategy and scale plan from there. 
21:05.5 I do think engagement is what's important. To be honest, I think you could have 10, 000 followers. And if you have Super high engagement. I don't think you have an issue selling 500 t shirts. 
21:26.6 Just like when you're shopping in a boutique, right? I mean, I love boutique shopping because it's unique stuff. It's different. You can't find it anywhere else. So it's taking all those exact same concepts, you know, to your own personal product and say, what is unique about this?
24:27.0 I think we also saw a lot of business where, but in really fun ways, I think women are absolutely dominating the world right now, which is super exciting. And I think they're doing it in style. So as you're going back to the office, as you're going to these events, having fun, fashionable stuff, trousers and blazers and all that kind of stuff.
27:17.1  And as a boutique owner, again, it's like making it accessible to your girl and finding the way that makes sense for your customer. I don't think it always needs to be this pushed fashion forward thing, but like, how do you bring that one piece in to incorporate and make it feel new?
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505: A Lifetime of Boutique Experience with Leaf Shea

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