Are you a boutique owner or aspire to become one?
Scout & Molly’s runs a franchise system where we partner with entrepreneurs who own our various locations all over the eastern U.S. Part of our mission involves training boutique owners how to run their stores . . . even without prior experience in women’s apparel.
One important concern involves making those critical end-of-year decisions. In this post, we’ll cover the basics you should have on your year-ending checklist.
The Boutique Owner’s End-of-the-Year Checklist
Prepare All Your Receipts
Much of our advice pertains to best accounting practices. That’s because it’s one of the most important factors in determining business success, especially within the first year of your launch. You should have the habit of keeping all your receipts, which you’ll want to organize by the end of the year. Tax season is just around the corner, and it’s better to have things prepared rather than to scramble at the last minute.
Meet With Your Accountant for The Tough Stuff
This is also a great time to meet with your accountant to go over everything, including all the pending accounts payable/receivable. Of course, with taxes, this is a bare-minimum necessity. It’s much better to talk to your accounting team at least quarterly. That’s how you identify and address tax liabilities, revenue shortcomings, and so forth.
Conduct a Thorough End-of-Year Inventory
How much merchandise is in your store and what exactly is it? If you can’t tell how much you have (or where it’s at in the store), then you’re bound to make poor purchasing decisions. You should do partial audits monthly, but also conduct a thorough inventory review at the end of the year.
Do Something About Stale Inventory
It’s not the same as running a business with perishable goods, but you may need to address ways to sell clothing items that have been around for a while. If there was a seasonal garment that didn’t sell very well, now’s the time to discount it and move forward.
Make Major Purchases Carefully
What does your store need? Remember that this covers clothing items AND store equipment like office supplies. Make sure you know what you need but avoid overspending.
Draft a Game Plan for Next Year
Here’s where you think about your improvement goals and “New Year resolutions.” Would you like to do better bookkeeping or make more online sales? These are the things to mull over at the end of the year.
Scout & Molly’s is happy to help you learn excellent business strategies, and a lot more, whenever you partner with us as a franchise owner. Our successful business model has worked in over a dozen places, including Denver, Colorado, Lakewood Ranch, Florida, and Westport, Connecticut. If you want to learn more about owning a women’s clothing boutique, contact us anytime.
Posted on December 15th, 2022