I'm really excited to work with the owner of Inside Out, a quaint boutique in Snohomish's historic district in Snohomish, WA. It's a great home and garden store that does "after hours" events for their customers such as wine tasting, art shows, etc.
Allison (the owner) is part of Ladies Who Launch as well(www.ladieswholaunch.com) and also works at the same day job location as I do. ;) Her store is darling and when I saw her speak at a LWL event, I went up to her after and talked "shop."
She loved the concept of UB and offered to host an after hours party at her shop. We tried to get together before the New Year but with conflicting schedules it just didn't work. I try to NEVER GIVE UP, so I emailed her again and low and behold we're going to do a pre-Vday funk the week of 2/5/07! Persistence does pay off!
Her store is so dang cute I can hardly wait. I think the idea is pretty sound proof and would love for my team to duplicate it where it makes sense. For those of you with a brand new kit to pay off this one event could possibly do it! In fact I would consider making sure I had 3 of each product per person attending so that you don't run out. If you happen to run out, take down their recipe and offer to mail the missing item to them already mixed and ready to go! That way you still hit the sale and also have another chance to ask them how they like their product and include your business card and perhaps a coupon for 10% off thier re-order! I plan to give the store owner a free perfume for letting me have the event and if it's at least 8-10 people I'll make sure to give her the full set as a gift as it's basically the 10% I'd owe her anyway.
In keeping with the spirit of retail establishments, as I drove by our tiny town of Pacific Beach on the way to the beach house this weekend I saw a new store going in called 59 Main. It is SOOOO FREAKING CUTE! I dropped off the family and headed back down to look in the windows and see if I could get some scoop. Mind you this is to the dying embarrassment of my husband (thus I dropped him off LOL). He thinks it's nosy and just plain rude at times but he doesn't understand the true meaning of "networking" yet, or I know he understands it but it just isn't his personality. This is why we work so well together as a TEAM. Of course I laugh because as soon as the new neighbors were pulling in (they bought the house next door) he was outside ASAP! Wanting to get the scoop. "Hello!" How is that any different?"
Well to give you some background on this when we first bought a home up here we were looking to purchase in a new resort type deveopment called Seabrook (www.seabrookwa.com). We were on the waiting list for a year and the prices just kept climbing and climbing. Due to my impatience (and thank goodness for once) we found Highland Heights in PB which actually has an ocean view (www.pbavacationrental.com). Though it isn't quite as quaint, I love our view and investment wise it was a great purchase. But I've stayed in love with Seabrook this whole time and keep in touch with the ladies of Seabrook, including Robyn Roloff (mother to the owner and creator of Seabrook).
When I was peeking in the windows a young man (ok he's my age but I like saying that) walked out of the place and I said hello. I told him I noticed the Seabrook jeep parked next to the building and wondered who's store it was? He mentioned it was his Mom, Robyn's. "She's just across the street and will be right back if you want to come in." Wow! This is crazy!
What a small world. The place is darling. She is creating a sort of home and garden store with furniture for those that are coming in to buy beach homes as well. I handed her my card and suggested that we create a scent for her store called 59 Main. I asked her to take the test online and I'll then find out her scent personality, give her our list and find out some great scents she loves that I can create a scent for her or actually with her the next time I'm up here.
She's swamped with opening the store so I may just give it a shot but that would be a really fun way for her customers to remember the store and re-order, etc. I will work out with her the commission she would get (somewhere between the 20-40%) by selling the product and may even suggest she purchase a My Scents kit and the scents she needs to have her girls create the scent in the store? Just playing with the idea but regardless I will make sure she only sells it for the same pricing structure we have with UB to keep it legal. Now I need to think about creating 59 Main but first things first, she'll need to take the test, etc.
Hopefully this gives you some great ideas with working closely with retail owners to find ways to thank their customers (such as Inside Out's extra activities after hours) and for those in towns that are smaller and/or are tourist towns, this could be a great way to give custom scents to store owner that represent their taste and allow customers a great way to remember their experience.
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