What I’ve Learned So Far Running an Online Boutique

I have officially been running The Cheeky Lemon for over 3 months now! In the grand scheme of things that’s such a short time, but in my mind it’s been FOREVER! I really cannot even imagine a time before running my store. It’s my baby, and I am so excited I finally made the push and started it!

Top is from my store, and just went live today along with 9 other new arrivals! 

A few weeks back I had this idea to do a blog post about what it’s been like running the store. Honestly, I went back and forth about whether I should publish it or not.

I know this post could help a ton of new business owners, but also I don’t want any customers to not view my business as a legit business. I think that has been one of the biggest struggles I have faced, and something I did not intend on dealing with!

Owning and running your own business is amazing and so rewarding, but also comes along with the greatest sense of pressure. Every single decision for my business comes down to me, and only me. I don’t have a business partner, no accountant, no marketing strategist… It’s all up to me.

So with that, I wanted to share what I’ve learned so far from opening The Cheeky Lemon!

Being transparent with my business…

So as a blogger transparency is KEY! You want your followers to genuinely connect with you, and form a true relationship with you. So going into it, I wanted that for my store. I had this game plan to always share who I was, what I was doing everyday, and the true BTS of running the store. Then, I kind of thought about it from a business standpoint and completely changed my mind.

I thought to myself, if a new customer who doesn’t follow me personally stumbles upon The Cheeky Lemon are they going to be turned off that they know it’s just a 25-year-old girl running the store all alone, and packaging up every order after work every night in her office? To me, it seemed unprofessional in a sense. It’s still hard to explain. It’s not like I want to keep secrets from customers, but I also don’t want to overshare.

I’ve had to learn that what works for my blogging business doesn’t necessarily work for the boutique.

Strangers feel entitled to your business plan

Moving onto the other main issue I have had to deal with. Ever since launching The Cheeky Lemon my DM’s have been flooded with “friends” wanting to know how I did it. I’m all for helping other women create a success for themselves, but I think there’s a difference between asking for help and literally just asking for handouts. At the beginning of launching The Cheeky Lemon, I dealt with a negative situation with another boutique owner and told myself I would never be like that, and would share my advice.

If you come to me and have a specific question that comes from your own research, I am all for it! But when you come to me just wanting to know where even to start, that kind of rubs me the wrong way. It’s a business, and if your heart is truly in it, you will take the hours and hours to research!

Somethings you’ll figure out as you go

For the most part, I was pretty prepared at the beginning of launching The Cheeky Lemon but not everything you can prepare for! The first time I did taxes I had no idea what to expect, and was so nervous! There were a few small things that I hadn’t had all planned out, but once it happened it was easy to sort out. But, a lot of it has just been needing to figure it out once it happens, and then learning from there.

I’ve figured out what vendors I really like buying from, and from which one’s we will not carry anymore! Also figuring out certain return shipping polices, and how to email back about customer concerns! Again, nothing huge but also something I couldn’t really prepare for until it happened.

Pretty much the whole first year of business I think is going to be my time to figure everything out!

It’s a lot of time and hard work

Obviously, I knew this to an extent but I wasn’t 100% prepared for what it would actually be like! Again going with the point right before this 😂

When I launched The Cheeky Lemon I wasn’t working, so I was able to focus all my time and energy on it. Now, that isn’t the case!

Packing up orders actually takes up a lot of time, especially because I want them to be packaged nice and I write a note for each customer! There’s just a lot of little tasks that add up, and it never seems like I have enough time in the day.

Also, because it’s only me running the store, it’s only going to grow at the rate of work I put into it! So whatever I put into it, is what I’ll get out of it.

You can’t do it all (and sometimes you shouldn’t)

I’m a firm believer that if you have the money to invest in hiring out a task, then do it. I’m totally all for getting someone who is more talented at a job to do something for my business… BUT at the beginning every little penny I was making I was putting back into inventory, and monthly fee’s. I made my own logo, took all the photos, designed the website graphics, etc.

But, once the store was more financially stable I realized it was time to hire out tasks, and invest back into the store! I never wanted to design my logo, or be the photographer but at the beginning, it helped me cut major costs. So, it was a good idea at the time, but now it’s so worth it to hire someone else!

If there’s something that you genuinely hate that comes along with your business, pay someone else to do it! Chances are they’re going to produce something better than you could, and you’ll be happy that you didn’t have to take time away to accomplish it!

I still do 95% of tasks for the store, but I have hired a logo designer and have been working with a photographer this month!

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That’s a wrap on this blog post! I hope you enjoyed. Kind of just wanted to share my feelings on the store, and give you some background into what it’s really like!