The 2019 February calendar is here. The sweet smell of roses, the taste of artisanal chocolates, and hopefully the sounds of your bank account going “cha-ching!” as new wholesale orders come rolling in!

2019 February Calendar

The first BHB semester in 2019 kicked off the last week of January, and we start February off with our first group call.  Open enrollment for GMP continues through the month with the live class dropping March 2nd. If you are a beauty brand thinking about enrolling, now is the time because we won’t offer this course live again this year.

And one final note. . . while the Lucky Break team will be holding it down, I will be on a boat in the Carribean with Mr. Barker for some much needed R&R.

You can download this February Calendar, along with all our calendar, to help you keep track of what we have going on, as well note some focuses for the month.

Make sure you are following along on all we have cooking this February via our mailing list as well as on Instagram! @lelabarker and @luckybreakconsulting

Opening a storefront as a maker and product designer is no easy feat! Today I’m here to share the top 5 things I learned by opening a brick and mortar shop.

Hi there folks! I’m Angie and I’m a member at Team Lucky Break. In addition to working with some of the planet’s best brands at LBC, I also run a thriving product-based business called bobo design studio and I’m here to share the…

5 Things I Learned By Opening a Brick and Mortar Shop

In May of 2018, I was offered the opportunity to be part of a landmark retail experience in Downtown San Jose. I was selected by the city and an organization called San Jose Made to be part of an inaugural group of up and coming brands and artisans to bring quality retail to the area. I’ve spent the last nine months nurturing that shop. As my lease comes to an end, I’ve been meditating on the magical, complicated, exhausting experience of running my own shop.

The process of opening and running this store has been an incredible learning experience that can only be described as trial by fire. This was not a traditional brick and mortar where I had to locate a retail space, obtain permits, etc. My experience and reflection in this post focus on the operational side, being a maker, and opening a storefront.

With that said, I wanted to share some of these lessons. I hope they prove helpful if you’re considering opening a physical store for your own business. And if this isn’t in your business plan, don’t turn the dial just yet! There are good tidbits here that you can still apply to your business.

No amount of planning or preparation will get you ready.

When I was notified of the opportunity to have the store, I had almost no time to put it together. Running a brick and mortar was not on my radar, but when your home city says “you would be a great ambassador to our community and help bring quality retail to Downtown,” you just don’t say no to that.

I had approximately 2 weeks from when the ink dried on the contract to the opening day which involved a massive street closure, big ribbon cutting ceremony, Mayor kissing babies… the whole nine. Those two short weeks was utter chaos. Creating enough inventory to supply an entire store, merchandising, finalizing packaging, and developing store operation procedures were things I had to learn and build quickly.

I could have easily obsessed over each minor detail and fussed over creating a wide variety of products to fill a shop, but the success is in being nimble as you go while staying true to your brand. The saying “done is better than perfect” could not be more relevant here.

You don’t get a return on the investment of a storefront unless you’re in it for the long haul.

There are investments you plan for, and there are others that you didn’t anticipate. There was so much I didn’t know about or factor into opening a store. The large amount of capital spent in setting everything up was rough to fork over. Even on my best sales weeks and months, if you factor everything in- fixtures, rent, parking, staffing, unforeseen maintenance, retail software packages, and insurance, there is a chance that you might not come close to breaking even. The investment in creating a quality, branded shopping experience in your store is one that pays back over the life of a lease that is closer to 5 years. But how many folks are ready for the risk of a 5-year lease?

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When I started my apothecary brand way back in 2003, I had precious little clue about what I was doing. I’d never heard of “GMP” (good manufacturing practices) for cosmetic companies. I understood that personal care brands in the U.S. were beholden to the Food & Drug Administration (FDA), and I was aware of the specific rules surrounding product labeling, but manufacturing protocols weren’t a primary area of focus for me.  That soon changed.

Over the course of the next several years, I worked hard to implement GMP protocols within my indie beauty brand. That work was a Herculean challenge, since these guidelines were written with huge corporations in mind (though even the tiniest of companies within the U.S. is obligated to comply with them). So I put my nose to the grindstone and crafted distinctive strategies for making these outsized regulations workable for a micro manufacturer like myself.

Teaching GMP to other beauty entrepreneurs has now become a cornerstone of my consulting practice. I often hear from indie beauty brands that they believe they’re compliant, though it’s apparent that they don’t truly understand the GMP mechanisms and how comprehensive they ultimately are. Here’s an analogy I often use to explain the actual scope and power of GMP…

IMAGINE THIS NIGHTMARE-INDUCING SCENARIO…

Imagine that you receive a call from a panicked gentleman who explains that his wife has been using your makeup remover. It was purchased at a local shop, and she’s having a bad reaction when it was applied as directed. He’s driven her to the ER and she’s being examined at the moment. Her eyes are red, swollen, and painful and she’s having visual disturbances. He needs you to send him all the information you can round up about that product ASAP.

That frightening scenario makes my blood run cold. If you own an apothecary company, I imagine that it makes your heart beat faster, too. I’m confident that you could send him all of your company’s contact information. You could probably send him an invoice showing when the product was sold to the shop, provided that John could tell you where his wife made the purchase. You really should be able to send him a complete listing of every ingredient in the product (I’m assuming your ingredient label is complete + accurate, yes?)

But could you send him…

• The date on which that particular bottle of makeup remover was made by your company?
• The origin of every single ingredient that was used in the formula (which supplier the ingredient came from, when the ingredient was received by your company, and the related documentation that shows it met your quality standards)?
• The physical record which displays the exact proportions of ingredients that were used and the conditions under which the eye makeup remover was manufactured?
• The results of any microbial testing that demonstrates that the product was free of bacteria and mold when you originally shipped it to the store?

I imagine that better than 90% of the artisan beauty brands in our sphere couldn’t provide that information. And that’s a HUGE problem. GMP applies to brands big and small. Brands that are created in your kitchen, in your home workshop, and in commercial space. In fact, there’s no brand that’s too big nor too small for GMP, according to the FDA.

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Price increases.
Delayed shipments.
Complicated paperwork.
Uncertainty in vendor relationships.
Welcome to life in the age of heightened tariffs.

When the Trump administration announced new tariffs with China in August of 2018, I was optimistic that this was a short-term problem that would resolve itself in short order before many of my clients felt any significant impact. Regrettably, we’ve had no such luck. The administration seems to be digging in its heels, announcing successive waves of new tariffs that have expanded both the scope of goods affected and the degree to which they’re affected.

Small businesses are beginning to feel the crunch, so I’m diving in to help decode the impact these new tariffs are having on our community.

WHAT IS A TARIFF?

Tariffs are a kind of tax leveraged on a particular category of imported goods. The amount of the tax depends on many factors, including the type of products you (or your suppliers) are importing and the country in which those goods originated. These charges are collected by U.S. Custom and Border Protection agents at all U.S. ports of entry, and the funds are deposited into the U.S. Treasury.

Tariffs aren’t some new taxation scheme. They were first introduced by the U.S. government in 1779, but 2018 saw a flurry of new tariffs assigned to Chinese goods in an attempt to “level the playing field” while renegotiating international trade agreements.

That might sound good in theory, but tariffs aren’t generally welcome news within the small business community, and economists have been putting in some serious overtime to analyze the current situation and fact-check the administration. No matter where you fall on the political spectrum as a voter, these tariffs are likely coming home to roost for you, too. I surveyed my community this week and discovered that 46% of my clients have already felt the squeeze.

WHICH PRODUCTS ARE AFFECTED BY TARIFFS?

There have been several waves of new tariffs enacted by the administration, with the most recent taking effect on January 1, 2019. Many basic supplies used by artisans were included in recent tariff expansions, including:

• Leathers
• Wool
• Yarn
• Silk
• Cotton Fabrics
• Buttons
• Glass containers
• Metal containers
• Citric acid + many common personal care ingredients
• Pigments, dyes, inks, paints
• Plywood
• Film
• Paper
• Glass beads

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Huzzuh! Give yourself a huge pat on the back because you have officially made it through 2018! We at Lucky Break have taken a breather from the big holiday rush and hope you have too.
 

However, it is now time to roll up our sleeves and get back to work. It’s a time to examine what worked, what didn’t, and how we can improve to grow our business for 2019. If you are feeling stuck and aren’t sure where to start, be sure to snag our Master Plan for My Best Year Yet. It’s the perfect guide to get you organized and ready to tackle your business smarter.

And if you are diving into wholesale, now is no time to rest. Now is the time to gear up for a big buying period starting mid-January. How are you preparing your outreach strategy?

Whatever you’re up to this month, know the entire team is cheering you on! Cheers to the start of a successful 2019!