Introduction - Case Study When my daughter Meredith (in her late twenties) asked me about starting up a boutique recently, the best advice I could give her was to say nothing. I must admit that I didn't really remember what a boutique was. Sure, I knew it was a shop, but the exact type of shop eluded me. So instead of embarassing myself by letting her know that her infallible, omniscient father really isn't the fountain of all wisdom as she thinks, I searched the Internet for a suitable source of information. (Ain't the net grand?) I eventually bought her an ebook titled, "FabJob Guide to Become a Boutique Owner" written by Debbra Mikaelsen, who has, according to the book, "been a fashion industry consultant for the last eight years, and has been working in fashion design and production since 1986." Her, and a contributing author, Pamela Skillings have much more expertise than I have in the area and have written 226 pages of invaluable information that can be downloaded immediately. I quickly read the ebook to make sure it was as good as I had been led to believe it was and emailed it to my daughter. I asked her to read it and discuss her options and any questions with me. Naturally, my daughter was grateful and my status as father-hero continues .... More importantly, the ebook contained some critically useful information that helped my daughter move her mindset from the supposedly glamorous aspects of owning one's business, to some of the realities associated with cash flow, fixed costs and the rate of business failures. The ebook contains much too much invaluable information to list here, but to give you a general idea about how thorough it is, here's a glimpse: 1. The Boutique Environment
2. Planning Your Boutique (Including a section on business planning)
3. Preparing to Open (All about location and inventory acquisition)
4. Running Your Boutique (Merchandising, staff management, sales techniques and more) The title also contains example start-up budgeting information, inventory control documents, staff schedules, advice about customer files and setting up a website for your business. All well written, sensible, useful information for anyone wanting to start up a boutique, or in fact, any retail business. We were both impressed with the FabJob Guide and my daughter is now writing up a plan that will see her open her shop in November 2007. During the lead up, she plans to get some hands-on retail experience and do some statistical research about the demographics etc of the area in which we live. She now has a much better understanding of business ownership. She understands now the reality of boutique shop ownership as opposed to the dreams of huge sales and wealth. We need to take the same effort to choose our careers as we do our life's partner as either could last 30, 40 or 50 years. My advice is to: do your research; don't pair up with the first one you find; if possible, try before you commit; when you have decided, commit fully and keep in touch with new developments. Of course, in a career, it's handy to have skills and knowledge that allow some latitude to move within several similar careers. For most of us, more than one life partner at a time isn't an option. When you do your career research ... and you must do it if you care about your happiness, I highly recommend you include the appropriate FabJob Guide in your research. Copyright 2006 Robin Henry | First Published Feb 2006 |
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