I made a mistake opening a candle boutique
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- čas přidán 31. 01. 2023
- My name is Jeff Standley and I teach people how to make candles and create a business around them. Thank you again for watching. If you have anything you would like to see please message me.
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I made the same mistake with my first boutique and was also in a building that looked like an office building. I spent a lot of money on ads and stuff but it didn't make enough of a difference. When the time was right I opened in a new location and it made all the difference in the world.
I can't wait for our second location. :)
Thanks for sharing Jeff!
Absolutely! Learn by doing. 😂
You can walk inside and talk to the different businesses about leave flyers on the counter for the customers to take or read.
Hair salon, nail salon, dry cleaners, laundromat , grocery stores, restaurants, any place that you see other businesses leave the flyer or business information/pamphlet.
Be a walking billboard, screenprint your shop information on back of your shirt.
When I am board, I read the information on the back of people's shirt when I used to stand in line for grocery shopping.
Don't be ashamed to be in their face.
Best place to advertise or you advertise your business with a car wrap on your car for mobile advertisement. People pass you or park next to you will see you have a boutique and may help bring in more business. 👍👍👍😄
I moved from small premises in a side street to a bigger frontline location in the beginning of the pandemic , it was a really good decision, the new location is a huge improvement. No comparison.
Bottom line, you need to move location if you want the boutique to work.
Could do a shop hop. Get all the shops involved up the way and host a shop hop. Everyone has something small they offer or give away on a certain day and it gets people circulating through all the shops in the area.
There’s a few areas that do it in the area I’m in. It’s gotten me in a few places I didn’t know exist
You always make it work and come out on top! I’m going to inbox you a message on Facebook about a podcast starting tonight
Standley, you can print out flyers and post them on grocery store billboards.
Publix has community billboards, libraries have billboards that you can post your flyers on.
Asian groceries have billboards for the public to post their business flyers and advertise their business.
I have seen billboards in pet supply stores.
Look along the wall as you pass by aisles and merchandise, if not sure ask the store employees.
Laundromat is another place that allows you to post flyers to advertise your business or help wanted information.
Some people billboards to advertise rental properties .
Asian grocery stores have billboards outside and inside entrance/exit doors.
Ask first because some Asian stores will only leave it for 2 to 3 weeks then they pull it off so new flyers can be posted on board.
Im using a Vitural Office space as a popup space. Right now it's working well for me
I’m having the same issue in a great location for my warehouse but not for my store
I opened in an office complex but they are one story office condos with parking in the front. I do believe the area is what makes the difference. Where I live people are more mom & pop oriented and go to restaurants built in old houses. I built up a lot of reviews and that places me high on the Google search. So foot traffic has not been an issue. Also prime locations are no longer prime for retail. People do go to these locations to eat but really foot traffic is no longer guaranteeing sales to support the high rents. Im my complex we have a tanning salon, hair salon, a sports store and all of these business are doing good.
Hey Jeff! Have you considered offering pick up hours to get traffic from online sales to the store? Candle Making Workshops? Changing the name to Standley Handcrafted since you already have the clout involved with your candle brand instead of training around a new name? Just brainstorming as those might all help get foot traffic!
We just opened the candle making classes this past weekend and they're starting to fill which is nice.
As for the shop I'm starting to run more ads which I'm sure will help. I need to get better with facebook ads for sure.
We have local pick up hours which is a great thing and local makers are starting to find out about us. The Standley Handcrafted name does well online but very few locally know the name which is why I didn't go that route.
Side note. Timing is everything. Going from the economy of 2 years ago to today’s economy is a massive downswing. Not to mention supply chain turmoil. We’re waiting until the economy picks up to move forward. Washington state is a difficult place to run a small business at the best of times.
It’s crazy right now and I launched all this at the worst possible time too. 😂
These are my fears honestly. I'm disabled and want to open a boutique (combining small skill sets) for candles and nerd culture/tabletop stuff but it is NOT easy starting fresh. Location is a big thing, I feel like my ideas and products would work near or in a large city, but that is not an option. Hopefully, I can find work space for online stuff and also a shop for pickups/wanderers.
Sorry, tangent, just your video gave me even more to think about now.
Nothing worth anything is easy. It's both an invigorating and defeating truth
Have you tried doing a mall stand during the holidays?
We need one in Vegas. Please open a whare house in Vegas.
I’d love to open a warehouse in Vegas.
I would say move in with another maker or two, potters need a place to show ceramics, I think a small flower store, even a small book store. Items that could in fact be bought and combined into a gift basket. Complimentary.
Hi thank you sharing. I am about to open my fist gift shop and I am struggling. I have a small space that I don’t seem to be able to fully stuck up. I am a soap and candle maker, I make a lot of other craft products. How do you do it? I have invited other vendors to participate by selling their artwork, but now I need to think about accountability. Do I need to create agreements between vendors and myself? I’m very overwhelmed.
groupon is good for events like candle classes to drive traffic
Hi. How do you offer Groupon? Thanks.
Not having the best location is the main challenge you have. You figured out your issue very quickly. You need to be either in a downtown shopping area or at a Mall with multiple anchor stores that pull most of the traffic in. Its a better investment to take a location with higher rent if in key shopping areas. I have a small store retail store in the mist of larger retailers. If your not located in a shopping zone with larger retailers, its going to be a challenge running a successful boutique in this current retail enviroment. Your business needs to run as a Omni-channel organization which includes , Ecommerce, brick and mortor and social media which you are already and good at. I have been in a retail for 40 years. Your wholesale warehouse business so different, than a boutique. Candlemaking supplies is a destination location which is much less affected by location. I wish I had your candle supply wearhouse close to me!!!!!!! You should take a small section of your warehouse and set it up as retail store. JUST SPRING FOR THAT MORE EXPENSIVE LOCATION. You got the all the other channels going!
PLZ honest answer! When is M12 wax coming back, Jeff. Thxs
Still waiting to get word on a date. 🙂
hi jeff, id like to come and check it out where is the candle boutique???
We're located in Port Orchard, WA.
585 Bethel Ave
Suite 240
Port Orchard, WA. 98366
How do you select a location? Do you do traffic studies?
Next shop we open I will go check out the locations, watch them for a while. Spend a half day there and get to know the area better. I will also go talk to surrounding businesses to ask them how traffic is.
Why did you decide to name all of your businesses differently, instead of sticking with the name Standley Handcrafted for everything? Looking for insight on how you can have different businesses with different names, are they all under the same LLC, S-Corp, DBA, or do you have to get separate for each?
I went back and forth on a naming convention for everything and ended up with several for a couple reasons.
Standley Handcrafted was my candle line and my own last name. When I started the supply business I was trying to think outside of myself and if this was something that was sold decades down the line would my last name sell or would a catchier SUPPLY name sell better. Now I have no intentions of selling, but I was trying to think big picture.
When it came to the oils I wanted them to stand on their own as well. I wanted to have people recommend X name oils and not so and so's supply company name oils if that makes sense.
As for the company umbrella, Standley Handcrafted is the LLC, and all other companies are DBA's under that LLC.
@@StandleyHandcrafted Oh wow, thank you for such a thorough response! 💕
@@blaizenova You're welcome and this would make a great video talking about all this honestly. :)
@@StandleyHandcrafted Yes, please! I'd love to see a video talking more about this!! 😁
I am confused. You are a smart entrepreneurial guy, so why would you open up there?
I said it in the video, the warehouse was the original goal and it’s a good spot for that.
Real estate at the time was scarce as well.
Clickbait.
I’m sorry, how?
The title is mistakes I made opening a candle boutique, then I talk about the exact mistakes I made.
You went out of the way to take a thumbnail where you look distraught while the actual content of the video does not even slightly match that. The image you used is also not a screenshot from the video, which shows you know what you were doing and went out of the way to make it seem as if you had made a crushing mistake, only to immediately show that this is not the case.
@@adamcook9459 You mean I used a title that got people curious? Yea that’s the goal, make people interested in the topic.
The screen shot was absolutely from the video. That’s me literally scratching my head during takes and I thought it fit so I took the screen shot and used it. Lol
As light hearted or even slightly off what you assumed my level of being distraught was. I of course am concerned with the shop not bringing in the traffic like I want. I have an employee working there that the shop needs to cover. It’s not life or death but it’s absolutely something I’m thinking of on a daily basis.
@@adamcook9459 Anyway, no worries. I hope the next video is helpful.
I apologize for being rude. You videos are usually helpful and I purchased stuff on your supply site and am in general a fan. I just really dislike clickbait thumbnails, but I should have but my tongue as there is no need for negativity. :)