Ep 4 | Boutique Leadership 101
In this episode we talk about the foundations of boutique leadership. All the different things we talk about on the podcast are the components and facets of what it takes to become a true leader in your boutique business so you can build a legacy. We zero in on three keys that catapult you into better leadership. These are core, foundational pieces for any small business owner who wants to have purpose and meaning, while growing their business and experiencing more success.
#1 Balancing the Business and Creative Side of Your Boutique
This doesn’t come naturally as a boutique owner because you didn’t start your boutique because you really loved financial reports. You started it because you might have wanted to provide for your family, or you love beautiful things, or you wanted to provide for the community something you saw lacking. Keeping up with your finances is a back-burner thing for you and being intentional about focusing on your financial data and organizing it from the beginning or from where ever you are right now, is going to payoff in the long run. Having a clear picture of your finances is what’s going to help you be able to make decisions on where you’re taking your business. If your business is profiting or it’s working out, you can’t make important business decisions until you see real numbers. You want to be able to make educated, data-driven decisions not ones that are emotion-driven. You don’t want to get caught up in bank balance bookkeeping, where you say “I’ve got this much money in the bank, now I’ll buy this” and you’re constantly checking your bank accounts to make sure you’re not in the red. You’re not going to grow as a business if you don’t have that clear picture of what’s actually happening with your business. Balancing the business side helps you keep up with your goals, and grow to where you want to be on the creative side as well.
#2 Knowing How to Manage Your Time Well
Knowing your priorities and what you value most in life really helps you manage your time in the right way. From here you can create systems and structure - and find freedom in that, knowing that you're not unorganized, all over the place, and in reactionary mode all the time. You can be in control of your schedule with your priorities in order - giving yourself enough time for focused work, but also time to be with your family - and when you're with your family you're able to be fully engaged, knowing you're exactly where you're supposed to be because you worked in the time blocks you planned. You’ve created boundaries around your time and attention so you're not always working or always distracted.
Now this doesn't mean that everything always goes as planned, or that you don't work later than expected, or that family emergencies or events come up and you need to take the time off and be there. It just means that you are being a good steward of your time, managing it well, have your priorities in place and a structure and routine that works for you and your family to work within, and still being flexible for the unknown, unexpected and spontaneous to come up.
#3 Remember Your WHY
Ultimately, when you have freedom from fear of knowing your numbers, when you're balancing the business and creative side of your boutique, and creating a high level of productivity through better time-management you are moving into true leadership. All of these things are not in and of themselves the end goal or your WHY for doing what you do. So, these foundational pieces of your life and business help you live out your "why" and build your dream and make it a reality! So we want to get you thinking about your WHY - to return back to this, to remind yourself why you're doing what you're doing, to direct you, and to help you lead and direct your team and to communicate with your customers and audience if you're online, to get them involved and invested in your purpose for doing what you do, too. Knowing your why and letting others know your why is how you stay aligned with your priorities and take right actions, and it makes others want to be a part of your purpose with you.
Maybe it's fresh in your mind because you're just starting out in your boutique business - or maybe you need to think back, but think about WHY you started your boutique business? It might've been so that you could leave your corporate job and be able to spend more time with your family. Maybe it was to dive into some of your entrepreneurial and creative gifts while also supplementing your husband's income for the family. Ultimately your WHY may be that you want to be a good role model for your children and to build a legacy to leave behind.
Through knowing your numbers, getting more strategic, becoming financially literate, managing your time and knowing your WHY, three huge things become possible for you:
1. You become a true leader in your boutique business.
2. You're able to build a legacy.
3. You start living your dream and the reason why you started your boutique.
If you want to dive deeper into content like this, join us in Boutique School - a membership training packed with modules on everything you need to know on boutique leadership and running a business.