We were lucky to catch up with April Pollock recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi April, thanks for joining us today. One of the toughest parts of scaling a business is maintaining quality as you grow. How have you managed to maintain quality? Any stories or advice?

The last 12 months have been a whirlwind! I remember when I would lay in bed at night sad because I didn’t get an order that day, and now we can barely keep up with our order demand.

One thing that has helped us maintain our quality with packing orders with excellence was that we designed everything to scale when we developed our systems. We knew that our team would continue to grow and the “one person knows it all in their head” was not going to work long term.

So we organized our office space to flow efficiently no matter who was working that day. We have an easy-to-follow inventory system with very clear minimum quantities so we don’t run out of stock. Our primary selling products are jewelry in nature, so we have found ways to store, see, and display everything.

We also started our “binder” to hold special instructions or reminders for common questions or mistakes.

We have done our best to scale with simple and clear guidelines of quality expectations, and we often “inspect what we expect”. We are also very impressed with technology and how we can use it to help make our lives easier.

Lastly, I will say – I am still very involved and enjoy packing orders and answering questions from our chat box on our web site. This keeps me very close to our customer’s needs and oftentimes I get more ideas on how to serve them better. So I suppose my advice is to stay close to the front lines for as long as possible.

April, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Ever since I was about five years old, all I wanted when I “grew up” was to get married, have two kids, and own my own business. Now, at 37 years old, I am living that dream. I married my best friend and seasoned tech executive Troy a little over 6 years ago. We have two beautiful daughters who fill our home with joy and a lot of sticky fingerprints on our windows. About 3 years ago, during COVID I found myself struggling with online shopping for clothing or quality products for my family. It seemed all the photos were photoshopped or had really unclear descriptions. So I decided to launch an online boutique to carry hand-picked, quality items for the whole family with REAL photos taken by me!

RAËLIV Boutique was born, and over the last 3 years it has change and evolved, but stayed true to solve the problem we set out to fix. We are proud to have over 11,000 customers who have trusted our brand to shop with their hard earned money. We still operate in the Sammamish, WA area with a small team and pack every order with care and love.

I know I am biased, but I think we carry the best gifts for any occasion supporting USA brands that partner with really special non-profits. It means a lot to be able to make a difference in the world by carrying other small business brands at our boutique. I would like to shout out The Beauty Of Hope and Freedom Studios – they are doing some great work ending human-trafficking.

We also specialize in reworking and up-cycling used designer charms. For example, we will curate a worn designer wallet, confirm it’s authenticity, then recycle the charm into a beautiful necklace to be loved all over again. This has been a joy for me specifically, because I get to create the designs and bring one of a kind pieces to life for men and women to enjoy. It also creates a sustainability loop while also making designer jewelry more accessible and affordable for everyone.

Lastly, in 2024 I designed a tarnish-free and waterproof jewelry collection. Since we have cut out almost all the middle-men, we are one of the most affordable brands selling waterproof jewelry. Each piece is priced under $50. This collection became so high-demand, we launched our Retail Partner Program where we provide this collection to retail stores for free and split sales monthly. If you are or know any business owners who would be interested in this program, please reach out to us! It’s been a joy to increase revenue for other small business owners all across the USA.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

We love every one of our followers and value their input tremendously. It is very common for me to jump on and ask our followers which earring design they prefer before I finalize the next season’s collection. We also have a small group of ladies who are “RAËLIV Partners” and we will send them free product in exchange for honest reviews and thoughts. This saves me so much time and money in the long run. I basically have a good sense of what will sell next season before I need to place my BIG order with my suppliers for all of our Retail Partners across the USA.

If you are just starting out, set aside about 30 minutes a day to engage with your audience and ask questions. Think of ways to “deposit” into them, whether it be…time, free resources, training, ideas, etc so when you do post products or services for sale – there are sufficient “funds” in the “bank account” to pull from.

Last piece of advice is to simply show up. I am continually amazed at how our followers don’t care much about perfection. Whether it be the perfect graphic or perfect photo. They really just want to feel connected to you, the mission, and the business.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

Before I started RAËLIV, I was part of a high-growth SAAS start-up and we moved at hyper-speed. Every day felt like I was on a rocket ship. So I thought that feeling was the feeling of success. What I have had to unlearn is that oftentimes success is a ssslllllloooooowwwww process. I needed to learn how to come to work every day without feeling like I was on a rocket ship. It just felt like another normal day. I often felt like I wasn’t moving the ball down the field.

But I can say with confidence, looking back – successes were happening all around!

Teaching myself how to look for the bright spots in our business every day has helped me enjoy this work more, and has helped me stay focused on bigger goals in the future.

So, do whatever you can to not give up on the hard, mundane, or slow days. Just don’t quit – remember the journey IS the destination.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.raeliv.boutique
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/raeliv.boutique/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/raeliv.boutique
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/raelivboutique/