We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Brooke Santos. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Brooke below.
Brooke, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Being a business owner can be really hard sometimes. It’s rewarding, but most business owners we’ve spoken sometimes think about what it would have been like to have had a regular job instead. Have you ever wondered that yourself? Maybe you can talk to us about a time when you felt this way?
I spent 25 years having a regular job, as an Executive in retail for great companies of Target, Tiffany & Co, Ann Taylor and Macy’s. I was well-trained, and well very compensated. But I hated it! I hated that year after year, time after time, I would have spent an entire year teaching and training a team, only to have to let them go because we needed to make the shareholders happy and that is easily achieved by cutting payroll to increase the share price.
I left national retailers and started my own company called I Speak Boutique llc, to focus on helping people with their businesses. My goal was to teach people the lessons I had learned, and that would help them overcome their learning curve quicker. I also knew that I was teaching vital skills to people who could continue to use those lessons for many years to come.
There’s a saying about how entrepreneurs are the crazy people who leave a 9-5 job to work harder and longer hours …. And that is very true! But I have found that I am happier now, and I am making a bigger impact…. And that is priceless!
Brooke, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
Many women love to shop, and they feel they have a style that will resonate with others, so they decide to open a boutique. A simple website, some social media posts and voila, they feel they have a business! What I have learned in the past 30 years of retail is that a business is so much more that what most people think. When I created the retail consulting business of I Speak Boutique it was to help grow businesses. We quickly realized that we needed a physical space to teach new entrepreneurs what it really takes to have a shop/boutique. We opened Pop Up Shop Galleria and we have hosted over 400 businesses as they learn how to have a shop and move through the learning curve of what all it really entails.
*Choosing the right products for your customer demographics and location.
*Presentation of products including pricing to get the right margins
*Understanding how promotions positively, or negatively, affect sales and margins
*Learning how to build a team of Brand Ambassadors
*Learning to work with others in your shopping center
*Leveraging your shopping center management team
*Correctly marketing your space, products and team
*Hiring and developing your team
*Understanding cash flow
*Realizing everything revolves around your customers needs and reacting correctly.
*Being confident on when to open another location
*Thoroughly understanding contracts
*Sprint verses marathon mentality
That list is just a few examples of what all we teach because owning a shop/boutique is so much more than liking to shop and wanting to own a boutique. Being a shop owner is hard work, and it can be very lonely and very stressful. We help solve that problem by creating a community within the Pop UP Shop Galleria where you feel supported as you move through your learning curve. Plus we have short term leases, so you don’t get caught into a long contract. All of these things make it a great place to learn the real ways to have a successful business.
If you are interested in learning more, please reach out at Brooke@ispeakboutique.com and we will chat about your goals and how we can help you achieve them.
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
Resilience and pivoting is a key lesson in retail/boutiques and shops! Before the pandemic I had 6 locations and hosted 87 small businesses at a time. I thought I was growing the business and helping so many people. But then the pandemic happened and we had to take a hard look at the business model and make some changes. I realized that having more locations was actually hurting my brand, and other peoples brands! I realized that I was spread too thin and I wasn’t actually teaching anyone anything…instead, I was just fighting fires and fueling my ego. I had to learn that having more locations was just quantity and not quality….and I had spent a lifetime on quality. So we decided to not renew the leases on 5 of the 6 shops.
Keeping the one shop, next to Nordstrom in the Houston Galleria, allowed us to be “tiny and shiny”. I now get to spend great quality time with the businesses we host and their businesses are growing by leaps and bounds. The pandemic made me pivot to a smaller scale but allowed for a greater impact!
Any advice for managing a team?
Finding people to work in your shop is a constant worry for any business owner. That person has to be trustworthy, dependable and a brand ambassador for you. You need them to sell your products with the same love and passion that you have for your business. I took the 30 years of lessons and skills that I have developed and wrote a book called I Speak Boutique, Run Your Business Like a Boss Babe. The book is available in our Pop Up Shop Galleria store and also on barnesandnoble.com/I Speak Boutique. In the book I spend time teaching how to look for the right person to hire, plus the questions you should ask, and the topics you should cover in the interview. Then we move into talking about the training process and the consistent coaching that needs to happen.
All business owners have to spend time finding the right team members. They need to be willing to wait and not just hire a “body to fill the shift”. Then once that person is on the team, you’ll spend hours working side by side with them, coaching, modeling the behavior, observing and giving feedback. Spending time with the new hire is a critical piece of the success of your business. But so is the constant follow up for weeks, months and years. Having a person on your team means you are constantly working with them on the small changes you are implementing and on the big goal of making all for your customers happy.
Contact Info:
- Website: Www.ispeakboutique.com
- Instagram: ISpeakBoutique
- Facebook: ISpeakBoutique
- Linkedin: ISpeakBoutique