January 8, 2025 • 34 mins
Ashley Lacer, the dynamic force behind Michelle Mae, joins us to share her inspiring entrepreneurial journey from a background in agricultural business to leading a successful women's retail brand. Discover how Ashley's grandparents' small business influence shaped her unique approach to prioritizing team culture and customer satisfaction. Learn how her initial ventures, including a wedding coordination company and the online community Ella Lane, paved the way for her thriving wholesale model that now reaches over 2,000 stores nationwide.
Uncover the secrets of a fashion entrepreneur who has revolutionized the industry with her commitment to size inclusivity, offering styles from extra small to 4XL. By focusing on working on her business rather than just in it, she highlights the critical role of strategic planning, expert hires, and building a warehouse to manage costs and enhance staff benefits. We engage in a heartfelt discussion on overcoming challenges, fostering a supportive company culture, and the pivotal moments that drive business growth.
Balancing the demands of work, life, and business growth is crucial, and our conversation delves into strategies for achieving this equilibrium. From finding the right accountant to building lasting relationships with boutique partners, the importance of trust, authenticity, and quality over digital marketing becomes evident. Ashley's insights on creating a sustainable business model offer valuable lessons for aspiring entrepreneurs aiming to build a stress-free, balanced, and successful work environment. Join us for this enriching episode packed with actionable insights and practical advice.
Ashley Lacer: CEO and Founder of Aspire Growth Advisors
Website(s):
https://www.michellemaewholesale.com/
https://ellalane.com/collections/michelle-mae-brand
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ellalaneboutique/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EllaLaneBoutique
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ellalaneboutique
#PodcastEpisode #Entrepreneurship #SmallBusinessTips #BusinessGrowth #WomenInBusiness #FashionEntrepreneur #RetailSuccess #TeamCulture #CustomerSatisfaction #WholesaleBusiness #SuccessStory #EntrepreneurialJourney #WomenSupportingWomen #WorkLifeBalance #LeadershipTips #AshleyLacer #MichelleMae #SizeInclusivity #SustainableBusiness #BoutiqueBusiness #SmallBusinessGrowth #BusinessCoaching #BusinessStrategy #EntrepreneurshipTips #BusinessPodcast #EntrepreneurSuccess #GrowYourBusiness #StrategicPlanning #SmallBusinessSuccess #EntrepreneurMindset #GrowthStrategies #EntrepreneurLife #OklahomaCity #SmallBusinessPivots #Success #MichaelDMorrison
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, welcome to another Small Business Pivots.
We have another special guestfrom around the world, and I
know that only the businessowner can say their name and
their business name like theywant it.
So tell us a little bit aboutyourself and your business.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Thanks for having me here.
My name is Ashley Lacer.
I'm the owner of Michelle May.
That is a women's retail brand,but we wholesale, so we
manufacture women's clothing.
We're in about 2000 storesnationally, so we sell to
retailers who then sell toconsumers.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Wow, 2000 stores.
That's incredible.
Well, how do you think we'regoing to help our listeners
today?
Speaker 2 (00:39):
I think some of the best things we can talk about
are things that might be not onthe radar.
Usually, business is about howdo I make more money or how do I
cut my expenses, and I thinkthat if we talk more about the
culture of your team and how youtreat your customer, that's
where we've put our focus andwe've seen really good results
from that.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
This should be interesting because a lot of
e-commerce is more focused ondigital marketing, and you
mentioned culture and otherthings, so let's introduce the
show.
We'll be right back.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Sounds good.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Welcome to Small Business Pivots, a podcast
designed for small businessowners.
I'm your host, michael Morrison, a small business coach and
founder of BOSS, where we makebusiness ownership simplified
for success, so that you can owna business that runs without
you.
To learn more, go tobusinessownershipsimplifiedcom.
(01:34):
All right, welcome back toSmall Business Pivots, ashley.
Any specific place you want tostart, because we don't
typically talk to someone in thee-commerce space.
But I also know that withbusiness owners, mindset is a
big deal Any trials,tribulations, growing up that
got you into entrepreneurship.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
I wouldn't say trials per se, but my grandparents
were kind of the cornerstone ofraising me with their small
business owners.
My grandpa was a land surveyor,one of the original ones from
Sonoma County, California.
He was part of the historicalsociety there too and they built
their whole life and built ourwhole family around small
(02:18):
business and treating thecommunity, giving back to the
community, and I saw what theirhard work did for them.
They were always there for meand so my whole life I've always
known that working for myselfwas kind of where I wanted to be
.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
Did you go to college at all?
Speaker 2 (02:34):
I did.
I went to Oregon StateUniversity and got my Bachelor
of Science there, but everythingelse has pretty much been
self-taught.
I didn't go to fashion school.
I didn't go to design school.
I actually have a major in agbusiness for agricultural sector
and I was an appraiser for manyyears and I'm also a real
estate broker.
So this whole thing wascompletely self-taught by just
(02:56):
learning as I went.
This worked, this didn't, and Ijust leaned into the things
that worked, rolled the dice andgambled a few times.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
And here I am that worked, rolled the dice and
gambled a few times.
And here I am.
You know, sometimes that's thebest way.
Some of our most successfulbusiness owners we've talked to
either didn't go to college, orthey went to college and the
business they own has nothing todo with their degree, or they
were an accidental entrepreneur.
But you know, those that aren'treally focused on a specific
(03:24):
industry usually turn out to bethe best.
So you started adulting aftercollege.
How did you get intoentrepreneurship?
What's the journey that youtook?
Speaker 2 (03:35):
Sure.
So I've always been a dreamerand I like to create things kind
of out of nothing.
And so for seven years I ran awedding coordination company
that I sold to the gal that Iwas training at the time, and
when I moved here to Medford, Ihad just had my second child and
I was having a really hard timeconnecting with women.
(03:57):
I didn't know anybody in thisnew town, and so I created an
online community from our retailside called Ella Lane an online
community from our retail sidecalled Ella Lane, and for a
couple of years that's where Ibought other brands and sold to
women directly.
I was working out of my livingroom, packing out of my living
room.
I eventually had to upgrade andget a PO box at the local place
(04:18):
, because my post guy is likethis is too much mail.
And then we got a littlewarehouse or, excuse me a
storage unit or more inventoryand did local events, and then
customers were asking where canI buy your things?
I want to come shop in person.
So then we got a storefront andthat's when I hired my my first
(04:38):
staff was when I started doingevents and a store.
So that was kind of how theretail side started and then we
quickly learned we were havingissues with quality.
Deliverables weren't coming ontime, we couldn't get things in
all sizes, and I thought tomyself I can do this better and
I want to serve this industryand create a product that other
(04:59):
women like me can sell toprovide for their family.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
Let's go back to that first employee, Cause I know
that a lot of business ownersthey're like when will I know
it's time?
Cause that's a big commitment.
I remember starting my firstbusiness two and a half decades
ago and I just couldn't pull theplug.
It took forever, Cause that's ahuge commitment.
How did you know it was time?
Speaker 2 (05:21):
When I knew that my customers weren't going to get
serviced unless I got help, andso, because I run a couple of
different companies, I couldn'twork a store full time.
So my very first employee wasBrittany, and she's still with
me.
I think it's her seventh yearwith me.
Now she's on vacation this weekand so she helped me with all of
my events to begin with.
(05:42):
Now she does a whole bunch ofother things, but she would come
to events with me and she wouldhelp me sell products and
create relationships withclients and she's always been my
teammate that can help with allthe online components of things
.
And then, when we got thestorefront, I added Katie, who's
my manager.
So my husband and her husbanddeployed together to Afghanistan
(06:03):
a number of years ago.
They're the only people we knewwhen I moved to this town and I
took her to coffee one day,which is now two blocks from our
new warehouse, which we justgot done building for ourselves.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
And she had experience in retail and I said,
hey, you don't really know me,but I've heard great things
about you.
Will you take a chance on me?
And she's now been with me sixyears and is like the captain of
the ship and nothing.
She is such a blessing in mylife.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
We talk about culture a lot in businesses.
How did you establish a cultureimmediately?
Did it take time to foster that?
Speaker 2 (06:45):
Yeah, I would say I've made a lot of mistakes
along the way, and I think thatpart of the blessing of my staff
is that they've been patientwith me and they see the bigger
picture and they too believe inthe brand, and they've stuck
through some really, really,really hard times.
And so for me, asking my staffmore questions has been critical
, and because sometimes hardconversations can be hard,
(07:05):
especially when it's aboutreflection on you as a leader
and your shortcomings or thingsthey need more of, and so I've
just really tried to instill inthem if there's a problem,
please come to me, because I'mimperfect and providing an
employment for them is mypriority.
And so over six to seven years,we've gotten to a really good
(07:25):
place of when there's issues orif I need to step up and do
something different.
They're really good aboutgiving me that feedback and, as
a leader and an owner of acompany, if you can't make a
safe space for your staff tocome to you and give you that
feedback, they're going to gosomewhere else.
And so trying to create an opencommunication line with them
has been critical, and I don'talways get it right, and but
(07:50):
they have patience and grace forme because they love our
customers and they love the teamand I'm just really
appreciative that they'rethey're sticking with me.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
Absolutely.
Communication is critical andwould you say that's that and
what else has made yousuccessful as a leader?
Speaker 2 (08:09):
I think just trying to think of like pivoting.
Ironically, so many times inthis company we'll be faced with
an issue and we have to figureout what to do.
So, for example, we just had2000 items delivered that were
shipped with another productthat had a smell to them.
We sell apparel.
We can't resell something thathas a smell to them.
So we tested a whole bunch oftheories.
(08:31):
The staff took some home andwashed them.
We hung some up to you know,hung them out to air them out.
We were trying all kinds ofozone machine to see what.
What solved the problem.
And what solves the problem isjust letting them air out, which
sounds like a simple task.
But they have to unpackage,unfold, hang air out, refold,
rebag thousands of units andthat's two people in the
(08:54):
warehouse.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
So pivot but it saved $60,000 of inventory.
It saved $60,000 of inventory.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
So let's talk about inventory, Cause we don't have,
like I said, very many guests onhere that that's in the
e-commerce space and on top ofthat that really have a lot of
inventory.
So can you share some insightson how to best manage that?
Speaker 2 (09:21):
I was hoping you could tell me.
So inventory has been achallenge and one of the big
things you need to watch out forespecially if you're a new
business or trying to scale isyour inventory is not considered
a write-off until your cost ofgoods is sold.
So at the end of the year, ifyou're over-inventoried, that's
(09:41):
considered income you made andreinvested into the business.
We got hit with that in 2021.
And we just got done gettingthrough that tax debacle because
the inventory was disparaginglyin one direction and my
accountant got it wrong, whichis a conversation for a
different day.
(10:01):
But inventory management can bechallenging and I think knowing
your cash flow, knowing whatyour basis is and knowing what a
good turnover is.
So we've kind of establishedthere's a certain dollar amount
of inventory we need to hold onhand because your in-stock
orders are really important.
If you're only ever doingpre-orders, if someone calls you
and says, hey, I need inventoryright now and you have nothing
(10:23):
to sell, you just lost a sale.
So there's a really finebalance between future orders
and future production, buthaving something right now for
the immediate customer thatneeds something today.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
You mentioned fashion earlier and that you didn't go
to school for that.
So how did you find what worksand what doesn't work?
That seems very complicating.
And to know how much and howmany to have, and different
sizes, and all that good stuff.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
Yeah.
So we're really big on sizeinclusivity, which is a big
reason of our brand success, sowe offer extra small through 4XL
, both XL and 1XL.
So the plus size market's veryunderserved in the fashion world
.
Most manufacturers stop at sizeXL, when the average woman is a
size 16 in America, I believeand so when it comes to
(11:11):
designing, I'm a mom of threekids, but I'm also a
professional, so I needsomething that is cute, classy
and casual and easy to wash andwear.
So that's what we focus on.
You can dress it up, you candress it down, you can travel
well with it and it just appealsto a really wide range of women
.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
What pivots have you made recently that you would
contribute to actually movingthe needle in your business?
Or was it by mistake?
Speaker 2 (11:39):
This one wasn't a mistake.
So one of the biggest thingsthat a business owner has
obviously is overhead.
How do you protect youroverhead?
How do you control that?
And I had a lease for manyyears and leases have escalation
clauses and cam charges.
If you don't know what a camcharge is, consider yourself
lucky.
But those costs can add upreally quickly for a small
(12:02):
business owner and you have verylittle control over what those
expenses might be.
So my husband and I decided tosell a home we had in town.
That was just a single familyresidential rental and we
actually 1031-ed it into a barepiece of dirt and we decided to
build a warehouse.
So we now own our own building.
(12:23):
So my overhead is secure.
It's not going to go up anymore, minus taxes and insurance.
And my motivation for that wasif I can pay less in overhead
for my space, I can compensatemy staff better, because they
are my most valuable asset andthey deserve the fruits of all
of their labor.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
And they're sticking with me because yeah well,
you're unique in the fact thatmost business owners are working
in the business and everythingyou just talked about probably
just flew right over all theirheads Business owners.
So it sounds like you'reworking on the business.
How did you get into working onthe business?
Speaker 2 (13:06):
If you don't work on the business, you won't have a
business to work on.
I think that's a really bigthing that business owners they
get.
So where's the next sale?
Where's my next dollar comingfrom?
Which is kind of more of ashort sighted goal or plan.
But you have to see one year,five years down the road and my
(13:27):
husband always asked me what'sour exit plan If, at any point,
life changes and you don't wantto do this anymore?
Like what's the exit plan?
If, at any point, life changesand you don't want to do this
anymore?
Like what's the exit plan?
And I was like I would neverexit.
What are you talking about?
But every business has to havea plan and while I don't have a
timeline of what that looks like, I'm here for the long haul.
I'm here to provide, you know,jobs for my staff as long as
(13:49):
they want to be here.
But I think that if you're, ifyou don't figure out a way to
work on all the behind thescenes stuff and it's not the
fun stuff, right, nobody lovesaccounting and if you do, that's
great.
But what do you want yourbusiness to be known for and how
are you going to get there?
Speaker 1 (14:10):
How did you shift your mindset?
Because we have business ownersthat come to us.
I'm a business coach and we owna business coaching company.
But we have business ownerscome to us and they're like I
don't want to let my team down.
If I'm working on the business,I'm not working with them and
they feel guilty.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
I try to communicate with them, Like sometimes when I
come here I say, hey, ladies,I'm like today I worked on an
affiliate linking thing and Ihad to phone a friend to figure
out how to do HTML code on mywebsite, because that's not a
strong suit of mine.
And so I think one of thebiggest things I've also learned
is ask for help.
I think as business owners, wenever ask for help.
(14:47):
We try to bear too much on ourshoulders for things we don't
have skill sets in.
I originally did our firstwebsite seven years ago and
guess what?
Earlier this year, it lookedlike a seven-year-old website.
So I called somebody, I hiredsomebody, they read it our
entire website and I can't takephotography.
I'm not a model, I am not allthese things, and so I find
(15:09):
those that believe in what we'redoing have the same culture of
putting others first, and then Ihire out the things I can't do
myself.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
I love that.
So it sounds like you reallyhave a lot of strategy in place,
so your team is on board withthe mission.
So do you have missionstatements and all that stuff?
Speaker 2 (15:30):
You know, what's funny is my manager and I, like
four years ago, started a maybethree years ago started like an
employee handbook and, to behonest with you, it's still in
draft mode.
But it's something that I thinkwhat's weird about us is we
don't have like a missionstatement.
We don't do the traditionalthings Like I think there's a
(15:50):
checklist for business ownersthey think they have to have.
I don't.
Usually I've never done thosethings which might be
counterintuitive to how mostpeople do business or coach
businesses, um, but sometimes Ifeel like you just have to put
out whatever fire is right infront of you at the time.
Life moves crazy fast, businessmoves really fast and there's
(16:11):
going to be distractions allover the place and you can't
tackle everything at once it'simpossible and so I really try
to just figure out what's goingto have the worst impact.
If I don't handle this now, Ihave to do that now and some
stuff gets pushed back a longtime, like our employee handbook
.
But the staff's okay with thatbecause they know what we're
(16:33):
trying to do and what prioritiesare, which is getting shipments
out and taking care of ourcustomers.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
How did you know these were the right fit for
your company?
Because I know that a lot ofbusiness owners today have a
hard time finding good peopleand then retaining them too, and
it sounds like you've done both.
Any tips on that?
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Your support keeps us going.
Now let's get back to ourincredible guest.
How did you know these were theright fit for your company?
Because I know that a lot ofbusiness owners today have a
hard time finding good peopleand then retaining them too, and
it sounds like you've done both.
Any tips on that?
Speaker 2 (18:13):
place of.
They're my most valuable assetand I try to remind them of that
, and I've made some pretty bigpromises about where I'm trying
to get the company to go.
It takes longer to get placesalways than you anticipate.
Our warehouse was a two-yearbuild.
It was supposed to be eightmonths way over budget, all the
kinds of things.
But I see the light at the endof the tunnel and I see all the
hard work that we've beenputting into where we're trying
(18:34):
to go and I really think 2025 isgoing to be a year of not just
stability but growth.
So people are always trying togrow your business.
Grow your business, make moresales.
For me, I would love just astable business that covers
everything I need to, becausework-life balance is really
important and I don't want topush the envelope all the time.
(18:56):
I have a family a husband,three children so for me, the
balance of work and life isreally important.
So we don't work weekends hereanymore.
Ladies leave at four o'clock.
If they have kids or sportsevents, they take it off.
We're super flexible on time.
Family should always come first, and so trying to just support
(19:16):
them when they need that, Ithink, is one of the many things
I've tried to do so they havethe flexibility to be there for
their families first.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
Is that one of many things that you do to build your
culture, because I know wetalked about that earlier.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
Yeah, I again.
I'm an imperfect person and Ialways think I have room to grow
and learn, but I'm soappreciative for them when they
give me good feedback.
I do offer employees that havebeen here a certain time to work
certain hours of 401k program.
I'm a really big believer inretirement and taking care of
people in that way as well, andso that's a product that we have
(19:52):
available for people.
I think that's.
If you can afford to do thatone for yourself, it's great,
because who doesn't love taxdeferred income for later?
Yeah, absolutely.
But it's also a great tool foremployee retention, because as a
small business owner, you'vegot to be competitive in the
marketplace, and so how are yougoing to be competitive and how
(20:12):
are you going to attract thegood staff?
You know you can pay them more,you can give them time off, you
can do 401k, but if they're nothappy with where they are, none
of those things matter.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
Absolutely.
I want to jump a little waysback.
You mentioned accounting andaccounting not placing something
in the right place, and we'rewe're huge on cost accountants
getting the right accountant.
What did you learn from thatand how did you move forward and
what's some advice you can giveon finding a good accountant?
Speaker 2 (20:47):
You get what you pay for.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
Love it.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
So I had an accountant that was a friend
from college.
I won't go into too much detail, but it became very quickly
apparent that my company grewand scaled past a point that she
was capable of handling and Ididn't recognize it in time.
And then I hired a professionalwho I thought could give me
(21:13):
good business advice, who actedlike a CPA and accountant but
was not.
And I got more bad advice andit kind of snowballed to the
point where one of my realestate clients used to work in a
really kind of like a high-endoffice here and I know they're
very expensive and I called herand I said well, they take me,
because I can't keep affordingthese mistakes.
(21:35):
So to give you a small idea ofhow bad it was, my 22s were just
filed a month and a half ago.
I hear that all the time.
Yeah.
So I'm on my fourth accountant.
They've taken over all of myaccounts for all of my
businesses.
I have four returns every yearbetween everything that I do and
, while they are expensive, thewrite-offs that they were able
(21:56):
to find me more than paid forthemselves.
And they're able to actuallystrategize and tax plan.
So when you're looking for anaccountant and a CPA, depending
on the size of your business andthe plan you're going with, you
need a plan, you need abusiness plan, you need an
accounting plan.
They need to be able to adviseyou on what to do or not to do
(22:18):
with income, expenses, thosethings, because what it looks
like on paper really impactsyour bottom line.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
Yeah, I feel like I just opened a can of worms,
cause my first accountant was afriend that supposedly a
bookkeeper but really wasn'teven a bookkeeper.
All they did was accounts,receivables and payables for the
company they worked at.
That's not even a bookkeeper,that's just somebody that pays
bills and enters bills andthings like that.
(22:46):
So listeners, heed that warning.
I went through the same thingthat.
That was back in the ninetieswith my first business and the
second year everythingsnowballed.
I started getting things fromthe Oklahoma tax commission,
where I'm at the IRS, and youdidn't file this correctly and
that, and then penal penaltiesand interest and it just it
(23:07):
didn't go away and finally hadto hire a good cost accountant.
And then, as the business grew,you mentioned something else
that's very applicable for everyis your accountant the right
accountant for the season ofbusiness that you have?
Because we went through that aswell.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
Yeah, I think the biggest thing is not only is
that they need to understand theindustry right, because your
cost of accounting that you haveto do and if those words are
foreign to you, I'm sorry, Ijust learned them myself in the
past 12 months and I've been inbusiness for, you know, seven
years with this company.
So I think when you're askingyourself, when do I need to stop
doing my own books?
(23:44):
And if you can't understand thepapers coming back to you from
your accountant, you're probablyat a level of business where
you need somebody who can trulyadvise you.
I didn't understand my ownnumbers.
I knew I had money in the bankaccount.
I knew some months were higher,some months were shorter, but I
had no true plan on what thatlooks like.
(24:06):
So with my new company nextyear we're going to work on
inventory management, purchasingplans, all the things with tax
strategic things in place.
So I'm hoping that next yearwill be a good tax year after
three very rough ones.
Speaker 1 (24:22):
Yeah Well, you're not alone.
I went through it and I alsowant to encourage other business
owners If, if, if, you're in aplace where it's more than one
CPA can handle, go hire thatfirm, because you will outgrow
one CPA.
In fact, we learned that thehard way.
(24:42):
We thought, oh, we'll just hirea controller and bring them
in-house.
And this was a multi,multi-million dollar company
with 100 employees and it wastoo much for them to even handle
and got us in a bad situation.
So we finally went and hired afirm.
The nice thing about a firmlisteners is they have
(25:02):
departments so they can run yourtaxes, your filings through
each department to scrutinize,assess and everything, because
not one person can know thewhole tax code and then know
your industry too.
So you make very good man.
That is.
That's very valuable advice.
Right there, I want to talkabout the process of e-commerce
(25:24):
in itself.
So you've got digital marketing, you've got online sales, but
you also have retail sales.
How do you manage all that?
For those that are wanting toget into inventory type
businesses, Sure.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
So to kind of get a little bit of background, if
someone's listening for, like,what is e-commerce?
Everyone knows what e-commerceis, but there's kind of two main
avenues of e-commerce.
One is the direct to consumer,so going to a website, placing
an order and it shows up on yourdoor in a couple of days.
You know that's like the retailside.
(25:58):
Then there's the wholesale sideof e-commerce, which is what
Michelle May does, and that isthe suppliers designing,
manufacturing and providingproduct to the retailers that
sell to consumers, and so it'skind of all like an inventory
chain, right.
Somebody buys the fabric andthen they assemble the fabric
(26:18):
and then they package it andthen it comes to us and then we
sell it to mom and pop storesacross the nation and then they
sell it to consumers mom and popstores across the nation and
then they sell it to consumers.
So for me, what's most rewardingis we're creating a product and
a brand that other businessowners are making their
businesses off of.
I'm feeding the small businessowners what they need to be
(26:40):
successful, and that is one ofthe most rewarding things I've
ever done in my life, because Ilove small businesses, I'm like
a champion for them.
I want them to win, and so Ihave a lot of retailers that buy
our product and they message mesaying you're the only brand
I'm selling in my store rightnow because of your quality.
My customers love it andthey're repeat customers.
(27:03):
I would say we have over a 95%repeat customer basis right now
for our retailers.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
Wow, so are these mostly boutiques or are they
department stores?
Speaker 2 (27:12):
Nope, we're in no department stores as of right
now.
We're only boutiques only.
Again, kind of a small businesschampion in that, and so if
that opportunity came down theroad, we'll see, but for now I'm
just enjoying working with thesmall businesses.
Speaker 1 (27:27):
Any specific areas where somebody could find your
products.
Speaker 2 (27:32):
Yeah, so we're actually going to be adding a
link to our website here prettysoon where you can find a bunch
of different vendors that carryour brand.
So our wholesale brand websiteis just michellemaywholesalecom,
and then our retail site, ifyou wanted to buy from us
directly, is ellalanecom.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
Okay, if you were in front of a group of business
owners all seasons of business,different industries what's
something that you could sharethat might be applicable to all
of them?
Speaker 2 (28:04):
Your staff is your biggest asset hands down.
Speaker 1 (28:08):
You heard it here first.
I love it.
It's communication staff and agood accountant.
Yes, are the three big bulletpoints that we talk about all
the time.
Do y'all have systems andprocesses, by the way?
I'm curious.
Speaker 2 (28:27):
We do but we don't.
So one of the main systems wehave is we run pre -orders so we
get an idea of demand before weplace an item into production.
So that's been a part of ourplan for a couple of years.
Sometimes it works, sometimesit doesn't, based upon economy
styles, season of year, butessentially if we're required to
(28:48):
make a minimum of X number ofunits but we didn't do a
pre-order and we only ordered Xnumber of units, what if the
demand was double that?
We just lost all of those salesof guaranteed income.
So by doing pre-orders on thewholesale side, we're 100%
guaranteeing all of those unitswill be put into production.
It's 100% sell-through ratebecause we've already have
(29:11):
pre-committed people.
We take zero money up front.
I'm not going to take a smallbusiness owner's money until I
have the product to deliver tothem.
So that's a risk because we'refronting the capital cost for
all of that up front.
But that's been super criticalin our e-commerce business is
getting an idea of demand beforewe make the product.
(29:33):
So it helps us know if we needto make less of something or
more of something and it'sreally really, really helped our
, our margins and profit bymaking more when they need more.
Speaker 1 (29:45):
How do you brand e-commerce, because I know a lot
of businesses are likeservice-based businesses and
they're having a hard timefighting for that digital
marketing space.
Do you have that problem, or doyou go directly to the
boutiques and do kind of aface-to-face sale?
Speaker 2 (30:03):
We do a lot of direct , so we're a lot of word to
mouth.
In fact, in the boutiqueapparel world there's fashion
markets.
One's called Magic.
It's in Las Vegas and New York.
We just went to our first showback in August and we did a
month worth of sales in threedays.
And so what I like about theword of mouth part is I'm not
(30:26):
trying to fight for a bunch ofonline space, because as a
consumer, it can be a bunch ofnoise and hard to trust.
What ad you're seeing?
Is that a lie?
Is this coming from?
Not where they say it's comingfrom?
And so we're starting to getmore into the digital space
because we realize it'simportant for people to, from
the outside, get to know andlove our brand too, not just our
(30:48):
retailers.
But we're reallyrelationship-based.
We'll text our buyers remindersfor orders.
We have a phone number they cancall and the human answers it.
Speaker 1 (30:59):
No, tell me no I know , shocker right, wow.
Speaker 2 (31:03):
But building that relationship with the people
buying from us, I think is moreimportant than trying to fight
in a digital space.
I know it's a little upsidedown to what people are doing,
but it's working for us and Ithink it's working because
people miss relationships.
It's getting to be toodigitized.
Speaker 1 (31:22):
I love that you're going against the grain on
almost every single businesstactic.
Speaker 2 (31:27):
Fingers crossed.
It keeps working.
Speaker 1 (31:30):
Where do we see your business in five years, do you
think?
Where do you want it to be?
Speaker 2 (31:36):
In five years.
I would like it to be where mystaff and myself feel like they
can breathe a little more.
We kind of always feel likewe're under a pressure cooker
because we're a small team andwe're pivoting all the time.
We had to redo our entire fallin three days because of a print
copyright issue, which isanother pivot we had to do.
(31:58):
So they're processing the lastof our fall arrivals right now.
Today, as we speak.
We're about a month late, whichfor this season is pretty hard,
but our customers are superunderstanding because of the
relationship and the honesty,and so we just keep pivoting and
we're just going to keeppivoting.
And five years from now, mygoal would be that we're all
(32:21):
maybe taking an annual vacationtogether or, um, just having
more joy and peace in businessversus stress and unknown.
Speaker 1 (32:33):
Yeah, I love that.
I love that.
So, if someone wants to followyou closer, are you on social
media email website.
Speaker 2 (32:41):
I don't use my social media a whole bunch, but I do
have one.
It's called Entrepreneur Ashley.
Okay, Surprisingly it's becauseI'm an entrepreneur.
You can kind of follow me there.
You can also follow MichelleMay or Ella Lane those are my
brands.
And then the EntrepreneurAshley link is basically me with
my family and we have a llamafarm here in Medford.
Speaker 1 (33:00):
So nice Serial entrepreneur.
Is there anything we didn'tcover that you think our
listeners should know orunderstand in business?
Speaker 2 (33:12):
I think my only advice would be just to ask for
help.
It's okay to not have theanswers to everything.
I think we put too muchpressure on ourselves to be
perfect and not make mistakes.
But you're going to makemistakes, you're going to need
grace, you're going to needforgiveness, you're going to
need grace, you're going to needforgiveness.
And if you try to just humbleyourself with your customers and
your staff, I think it's goingto go a long way for the
(33:34):
longevity of your business.
Speaker 1 (33:36):
All right.
Well, you've been a wealth ofknowledge and a blessing to many
.
Thank you so much for your time.
Speaker 2 (33:40):
Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (33:41):
My pleasure.
Thank you for listening toSmall Business Pivots.
Please don't forget tosubscribe and share this podcast
.
If your business is stuck, youneed help creating a business
that can run without you, or youneed a fast business loan or
line of credit, go to ourwebsite
businessownershipsimplifiedcomand schedule a free consultation
(34:02):
to learn why small businesssuccess starts with boss.
If you want to talk anythingsmall business related, email me
at Michael at Michael DMorrisoncom.
We'll see you next time onsmall business pivots.
All right, welcome to another Small Business Pivots.
We have another special guestfrom around the world, and I
know that only the businessowner can say their name and
their business name like theywant it.
So tell us a little bit aboutyourself and your business.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Thanks for having me here.
My name is Ashley Lacer.
I'm the owner of Michelle May.
That is a women's retail brand,but we wholesale, so we
manufacture women's clothing.
We're in about 2000 storesnationally, so we sell to
retailers who then sell toconsumers.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Wow, 2000 stores.
That's incredible.
Well, how do you think we'regoing to help our listeners
today?
Speaker 2 (00:39):
I think some of the best things we can talk about
are things that might be not onthe radar.
Usually, business is about howdo I make more money or how do I
cut my expenses, and I thinkthat if we talk more about the
culture of your team and how youtreat your customer, that's
where we've put our focus andwe've seen really good results
from that.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
This should be interesting because a lot of
e-commerce is more focused ondigital marketing, and you
mentioned culture and otherthings, so let's introduce the
show.
We'll be right back.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Sounds good.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Welcome to Small Business Pivots, a podcast
designed for small businessowners.
I'm your host, michael Morrison, a small business coach and
founder of BOSS, where we makebusiness ownership simplified
for success, so that you can owna business that runs without
you.
To learn more, go tobusinessownershipsimplifiedcom.
(01:34):
All right, welcome back toSmall Business Pivots, ashley.
Any specific place you want tostart, because we don't
typically talk to someone in thee-commerce space.
But I also know that withbusiness owners, mindset is a
big deal Any trials,tribulations, growing up that
got you into entrepreneurship.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
I wouldn't say trials per se, but my grandparents
were kind of the cornerstone ofraising me with their small
business owners.
My grandpa was a land surveyor,one of the original ones from
Sonoma County, California.
He was part of the historicalsociety there too and they built
their whole life and built ourwhole family around small
(02:18):
business and treating thecommunity, giving back to the
community, and I saw what theirhard work did for them.
They were always there for meand so my whole life I've always
known that working for myselfwas kind of where I wanted to be
.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
Did you go to college at all?
Speaker 2 (02:34):
I did.
I went to Oregon StateUniversity and got my Bachelor
of Science there, but everythingelse has pretty much been
self-taught.
I didn't go to fashion school.
I didn't go to design school.
I actually have a major in agbusiness for agricultural sector
and I was an appraiser for manyyears and I'm also a real
estate broker.
So this whole thing wascompletely self-taught by just
(02:56):
learning as I went.
This worked, this didn't, and Ijust leaned into the things
that worked, rolled the dice andgambled a few times.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
And here I am that worked, rolled the dice and
gambled a few times.
And here I am.
You know, sometimes that's thebest way.
Some of our most successfulbusiness owners we've talked to
either didn't go to college, orthey went to college and the
business they own has nothing todo with their degree, or they
were an accidental entrepreneur.
But you know, those that aren'treally focused on a specific
(03:24):
industry usually turn out to bethe best.
So you started adulting aftercollege.
How did you get intoentrepreneurship?
What's the journey that youtook?
Speaker 2 (03:35):
Sure.
So I've always been a dreamerand I like to create things kind
of out of nothing.
And so for seven years I ran awedding coordination company
that I sold to the gal that Iwas training at the time, and
when I moved here to Medford, Ihad just had my second child and
I was having a really hard timeconnecting with women.
(03:57):
I didn't know anybody in thisnew town, and so I created an
online community from our retailside called Ella Lane an online
community from our retail sidecalled Ella Lane, and for a
couple of years that's where Ibought other brands and sold to
women directly.
I was working out of my livingroom, packing out of my living
room.
I eventually had to upgrade andget a PO box at the local place
(04:18):
, because my post guy is likethis is too much mail.
And then we got a littlewarehouse or, excuse me a
storage unit or more inventoryand did local events, and then
customers were asking where canI buy your things?
I want to come shop in person.
So then we got a storefront andthat's when I hired my my first
(04:38):
staff was when I started doingevents and a store.
So that was kind of how theretail side started and then we
quickly learned we were havingissues with quality.
Deliverables weren't coming ontime, we couldn't get things in
all sizes, and I thought tomyself I can do this better and
I want to serve this industryand create a product that other
(04:59):
women like me can sell toprovide for their family.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
Let's go back to that first employee, Cause I know
that a lot of business ownersthey're like when will I know
it's time?
Cause that's a big commitment.
I remember starting my firstbusiness two and a half decades
ago and I just couldn't pull theplug.
It took forever, Cause that's ahuge commitment.
How did you know it was time?
Speaker 2 (05:21):
When I knew that my customers weren't going to get
serviced unless I got help, andso, because I run a couple of
different companies, I couldn'twork a store full time.
So my very first employee wasBrittany, and she's still with
me.
I think it's her seventh yearwith me.
Now she's on vacation this weekand so she helped me with all of
my events to begin with.
(05:42):
Now she does a whole bunch ofother things, but she would come
to events with me and she wouldhelp me sell products and
create relationships withclients and she's always been my
teammate that can help with allthe online components of things
.
And then, when we got thestorefront, I added Katie, who's
my manager.
So my husband and her husbanddeployed together to Afghanistan
(06:03):
a number of years ago.
They're the only people we knewwhen I moved to this town and I
took her to coffee one day,which is now two blocks from our
new warehouse, which we justgot done building for ourselves.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
And she had experience in retail and I said,
hey, you don't really know me,but I've heard great things
about you.
Will you take a chance on me?
And she's now been with me sixyears and is like the captain of
the ship and nothing.
She is such a blessing in mylife.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
We talk about culture a lot in businesses.
How did you establish a cultureimmediately?
Did it take time to foster that?
Speaker 2 (06:45):
Yeah, I would say I've made a lot of mistakes
along the way, and I think thatpart of the blessing of my staff
is that they've been patientwith me and they see the bigger
picture and they too believe inthe brand, and they've stuck
through some really, really,really hard times.
And so for me, asking my staffmore questions has been critical
, and because sometimes hardconversations can be hard,
(07:05):
especially when it's aboutreflection on you as a leader
and your shortcomings or thingsthey need more of, and so I've
just really tried to instill inthem if there's a problem,
please come to me, because I'mimperfect and providing an
employment for them is mypriority.
And so over six to seven years,we've gotten to a really good
(07:25):
place of when there's issues orif I need to step up and do
something different.
They're really good aboutgiving me that feedback and, as
a leader and an owner of acompany, if you can't make a
safe space for your staff tocome to you and give you that
feedback, they're going to gosomewhere else.
And so trying to create an opencommunication line with them
has been critical, and I don'talways get it right, and but
(07:50):
they have patience and grace forme because they love our
customers and they love the teamand I'm just really
appreciative that they'rethey're sticking with me.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
Absolutely.
Communication is critical andwould you say that's that and
what else has made yousuccessful as a leader?
Speaker 2 (08:09):
I think just trying to think of like pivoting.
Ironically, so many times inthis company we'll be faced with
an issue and we have to figureout what to do.
So, for example, we just had2000 items delivered that were
shipped with another productthat had a smell to them.
We sell apparel.
We can't resell something thathas a smell to them.
So we tested a whole bunch oftheories.
(08:31):
The staff took some home andwashed them.
We hung some up to you know,hung them out to air them out.
We were trying all kinds ofozone machine to see what.
What solved the problem.
And what solves the problem isjust letting them air out, which
sounds like a simple task.
But they have to unpackage,unfold, hang air out, refold,
rebag thousands of units andthat's two people in the
(08:54):
warehouse.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
So pivot but it saved $60,000 of inventory.
It saved $60,000 of inventory.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
So let's talk about inventory, Cause we don't have,
like I said, very many guests onhere that that's in the
e-commerce space and on top ofthat that really have a lot of
inventory.
So can you share some insightson how to best manage that?
Speaker 2 (09:21):
I was hoping you could tell me.
So inventory has been achallenge and one of the big
things you need to watch out forespecially if you're a new
business or trying to scale isyour inventory is not considered
a write-off until your cost ofgoods is sold.
So at the end of the year, ifyou're over-inventoried, that's
(09:41):
considered income you made andreinvested into the business.
We got hit with that in 2021.
And we just got done gettingthrough that tax debacle because
the inventory was disparaginglyin one direction and my
accountant got it wrong, whichis a conversation for a
different day.
(10:01):
But inventory management can bechallenging and I think knowing
your cash flow, knowing whatyour basis is and knowing what a
good turnover is.
So we've kind of establishedthere's a certain dollar amount
of inventory we need to hold onhand because your in-stock
orders are really important.
If you're only ever doingpre-orders, if someone calls you
and says, hey, I need inventoryright now and you have nothing
(10:23):
to sell, you just lost a sale.
So there's a really finebalance between future orders
and future production, buthaving something right now for
the immediate customer thatneeds something today.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
You mentioned fashion earlier and that you didn't go
to school for that.
So how did you find what worksand what doesn't work?
That seems very complicating.
And to know how much and howmany to have, and different
sizes, and all that good stuff.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
Yeah.
So we're really big on sizeinclusivity, which is a big
reason of our brand success, sowe offer extra small through 4XL
, both XL and 1XL.
So the plus size market's veryunderserved in the fashion world
.
Most manufacturers stop at sizeXL, when the average woman is a
size 16 in America, I believeand so when it comes to
(11:11):
designing, I'm a mom of threekids, but I'm also a
professional, so I needsomething that is cute, classy
and casual and easy to wash andwear.
So that's what we focus on.
You can dress it up, you candress it down, you can travel
well with it and it just appealsto a really wide range of women
.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
What pivots have you made recently that you would
contribute to actually movingthe needle in your business?
Or was it by mistake?
Speaker 2 (11:39):
This one wasn't a mistake.
So one of the biggest thingsthat a business owner has
obviously is overhead.
How do you protect youroverhead?
How do you control that?
And I had a lease for manyyears and leases have escalation
clauses and cam charges.
If you don't know what a camcharge is, consider yourself
lucky.
But those costs can add upreally quickly for a small
(12:02):
business owner and you have verylittle control over what those
expenses might be.
So my husband and I decided tosell a home we had in town.
That was just a single familyresidential rental and we
actually 1031-ed it into a barepiece of dirt and we decided to
build a warehouse.
So we now own our own building.
(12:23):
So my overhead is secure.
It's not going to go up anymore, minus taxes and insurance.
And my motivation for that wasif I can pay less in overhead
for my space, I can compensatemy staff better, because they
are my most valuable asset andthey deserve the fruits of all
of their labor.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
And they're sticking with me because yeah well,
you're unique in the fact thatmost business owners are working
in the business and everythingyou just talked about probably
just flew right over all theirheads Business owners.
So it sounds like you'reworking on the business.
How did you get into working onthe business?
Speaker 2 (13:06):
If you don't work on the business, you won't have a
business to work on.
I think that's a really bigthing that business owners they
get.
So where's the next sale?
Where's my next dollar comingfrom?
Which is kind of more of ashort sighted goal or plan.
But you have to see one year,five years down the road and my
(13:27):
husband always asked me what'sour exit plan If, at any point,
life changes and you don't wantto do this anymore?
Like what's the exit plan?
If, at any point, life changesand you don't want to do this
anymore?
Like what's the exit plan?
And I was like I would neverexit.
What are you talking about?
But every business has to havea plan and while I don't have a
timeline of what that looks like, I'm here for the long haul.
I'm here to provide, you know,jobs for my staff as long as
(13:49):
they want to be here.
But I think that if you're, ifyou don't figure out a way to
work on all the behind thescenes stuff and it's not the
fun stuff, right, nobody lovesaccounting and if you do, that's
great.
But what do you want yourbusiness to be known for and how
are you going to get there?
Speaker 1 (14:10):
How did you shift your mindset?
Because we have business ownersthat come to us.
I'm a business coach and we owna business coaching company.
But we have business ownerscome to us and they're like I
don't want to let my team down.
If I'm working on the business,I'm not working with them and
they feel guilty.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
I try to communicate with them, Like sometimes when I
come here I say, hey, ladies,I'm like today I worked on an
affiliate linking thing and Ihad to phone a friend to figure
out how to do HTML code on mywebsite, because that's not a
strong suit of mine.
And so I think one of thebiggest things I've also learned
is ask for help.
I think as business owners, wenever ask for help.
(14:47):
We try to bear too much on ourshoulders for things we don't
have skill sets in.
I originally did our firstwebsite seven years ago and
guess what?
Earlier this year, it lookedlike a seven-year-old website.
So I called somebody, I hiredsomebody, they read it our
entire website and I can't takephotography.
I'm not a model, I am not allthese things, and so I find
(15:09):
those that believe in what we'redoing have the same culture of
putting others first, and then Ihire out the things I can't do
myself.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
I love that.
So it sounds like you reallyhave a lot of strategy in place,
so your team is on board withthe mission.
So do you have missionstatements and all that stuff?
Speaker 2 (15:30):
You know, what's funny is my manager and I, like
four years ago, started a maybethree years ago started like an
employee handbook and, to behonest with you, it's still in
draft mode.
But it's something that I thinkwhat's weird about us is we
don't have like a missionstatement.
We don't do the traditionalthings Like I think there's a
(15:50):
checklist for business ownersthey think they have to have.
I don't.
Usually I've never done thosethings which might be
counterintuitive to how mostpeople do business or coach
businesses, um, but sometimes Ifeel like you just have to put
out whatever fire is right infront of you at the time.
Life moves crazy fast, businessmoves really fast and there's
(16:11):
going to be distractions allover the place and you can't
tackle everything at once it'simpossible and so I really try
to just figure out what's goingto have the worst impact.
If I don't handle this now, Ihave to do that now and some
stuff gets pushed back a longtime, like our employee handbook
.
But the staff's okay with thatbecause they know what we're
(16:33):
trying to do and what prioritiesare, which is getting shipments
out and taking care of ourcustomers.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
How did you know these were the right fit for
your company?
Because I know that a lot ofbusiness owners today have a
hard time finding good peopleand then retaining them too, and
it sounds like you've done both.
Any tips on that?
You're listening to SmallBusiness Pivots.
This episode is proudly broughtto you by BOSS, where business
ownership is simplified forsuccess.
(17:00):
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(17:43):
Your support keeps us going.
Now let's get back to ourincredible guest.
How did you know these were theright fit for your company?
Because I know that a lot ofbusiness owners today have a
hard time finding good peopleand then retaining them too, and
it sounds like you've done both.
Any tips on that?
Speaker 2 (18:13):
place of.
They're my most valuable assetand I try to remind them of that
, and I've made some pretty bigpromises about where I'm trying
to get the company to go.
It takes longer to get placesalways than you anticipate.
Our warehouse was a two-yearbuild.
It was supposed to be eightmonths way over budget, all the
kinds of things.
But I see the light at the endof the tunnel and I see all the
hard work that we've beenputting into where we're trying
(18:34):
to go and I really think 2025 isgoing to be a year of not just
stability but growth.
So people are always trying togrow your business.
Grow your business, make moresales.
For me, I would love just astable business that covers
everything I need to, becausework-life balance is really
important and I don't want topush the envelope all the time.
(18:56):
I have a family a husband,three children so for me, the
balance of work and life isreally important.
So we don't work weekends hereanymore.
Ladies leave at four o'clock.
If they have kids or sportsevents, they take it off.
We're super flexible on time.
Family should always come first, and so trying to just support
(19:16):
them when they need that, Ithink, is one of the many things
I've tried to do so they havethe flexibility to be there for
their families first.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
Is that one of many things that you do to build your
culture, because I know wetalked about that earlier.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
Yeah, I again.
I'm an imperfect person and Ialways think I have room to grow
and learn, but I'm soappreciative for them when they
give me good feedback.
I do offer employees that havebeen here a certain time to work
certain hours of 401k program.
I'm a really big believer inretirement and taking care of
people in that way as well, andso that's a product that we have
(19:52):
available for people.
I think that's.
If you can afford to do thatone for yourself, it's great,
because who doesn't love taxdeferred income for later?
Yeah, absolutely.
But it's also a great tool foremployee retention, because as a
small business owner, you'vegot to be competitive in the
marketplace, and so how are yougoing to be competitive and how
(20:12):
are you going to attract thegood staff?
You know you can pay them more,you can give them time off, you
can do 401k, but if they're nothappy with where they are, none
of those things matter.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
Absolutely.
I want to jump a little waysback.
You mentioned accounting andaccounting not placing something
in the right place, and we'rewe're huge on cost accountants
getting the right accountant.
What did you learn from thatand how did you move forward and
what's some advice you can giveon finding a good accountant?
Speaker 2 (20:47):
You get what you pay for.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
Love it.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
So I had an accountant that was a friend
from college.
I won't go into too much detail, but it became very quickly
apparent that my company grewand scaled past a point that she
was capable of handling and Ididn't recognize it in time.
And then I hired a professionalwho I thought could give me
(21:13):
good business advice, who actedlike a CPA and accountant but
was not.
And I got more bad advice andit kind of snowballed to the
point where one of my realestate clients used to work in a
really kind of like a high-endoffice here and I know they're
very expensive and I called herand I said well, they take me,
because I can't keep affordingthese mistakes.
(21:35):
So to give you a small idea ofhow bad it was, my 22s were just
filed a month and a half ago.
I hear that all the time.
Yeah.
So I'm on my fourth accountant.
They've taken over all of myaccounts for all of my
businesses.
I have four returns every yearbetween everything that I do and
, while they are expensive, thewrite-offs that they were able
(21:56):
to find me more than paid forthemselves.
And they're able to actuallystrategize and tax plan.
So when you're looking for anaccountant and a CPA, depending
on the size of your business andthe plan you're going with, you
need a plan, you need abusiness plan, you need an
accounting plan.
They need to be able to adviseyou on what to do or not to do
(22:18):
with income, expenses, thosethings, because what it looks
like on paper really impactsyour bottom line.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
Yeah, I feel like I just opened a can of worms,
cause my first accountant was afriend that supposedly a
bookkeeper but really wasn'teven a bookkeeper.
All they did was accounts,receivables and payables for the
company they worked at.
That's not even a bookkeeper,that's just somebody that pays
bills and enters bills andthings like that.
(22:46):
So listeners, heed that warning.
I went through the same thingthat.
That was back in the ninetieswith my first business and the
second year everythingsnowballed.
I started getting things fromthe Oklahoma tax commission,
where I'm at the IRS, and youdidn't file this correctly and
that, and then penal penaltiesand interest and it just it
(23:07):
didn't go away and finally hadto hire a good cost accountant.
And then, as the business grew,you mentioned something else
that's very applicable for everyis your accountant the right
accountant for the season ofbusiness that you have?
Because we went through that aswell.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
Yeah, I think the biggest thing is not only is
that they need to understand theindustry right, because your
cost of accounting that you haveto do and if those words are
foreign to you, I'm sorry, Ijust learned them myself in the
past 12 months and I've been inbusiness for, you know, seven
years with this company.
So I think when you're askingyourself, when do I need to stop
doing my own books?
(23:44):
And if you can't understand thepapers coming back to you from
your accountant, you're probablyat a level of business where
you need somebody who can trulyadvise you.
I didn't understand my ownnumbers.
I knew I had money in the bankaccount.
I knew some months were higher,some months were shorter, but I
had no true plan on what thatlooks like.
(24:06):
So with my new company nextyear we're going to work on
inventory management, purchasingplans, all the things with tax
strategic things in place.
So I'm hoping that next yearwill be a good tax year after
three very rough ones.
Speaker 1 (24:22):
Yeah Well, you're not alone.
I went through it and I alsowant to encourage other business
owners If, if, if, you're in aplace where it's more than one
CPA can handle, go hire thatfirm, because you will outgrow
one CPA.
In fact, we learned that thehard way.
(24:42):
We thought, oh, we'll just hirea controller and bring them
in-house.
And this was a multi,multi-million dollar company
with 100 employees and it wastoo much for them to even handle
and got us in a bad situation.
So we finally went and hired afirm.
The nice thing about a firmlisteners is they have
(25:02):
departments so they can run yourtaxes, your filings through
each department to scrutinize,assess and everything, because
not one person can know thewhole tax code and then know
your industry too.
So you make very good man.
That is.
That's very valuable advice.
Right there, I want to talkabout the process of e-commerce
(25:24):
in itself.
So you've got digital marketing, you've got online sales, but
you also have retail sales.
How do you manage all that?
For those that are wanting toget into inventory type
businesses, Sure.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
So to kind of get a little bit of background, if
someone's listening for, like,what is e-commerce?
Everyone knows what e-commerceis, but there's kind of two main
avenues of e-commerce.
One is the direct to consumer,so going to a website, placing
an order and it shows up on yourdoor in a couple of days.
You know that's like the retailside.
(25:58):
Then there's the wholesale sideof e-commerce, which is what
Michelle May does, and that isthe suppliers designing,
manufacturing and providingproduct to the retailers that
sell to consumers, and so it'skind of all like an inventory
chain, right.
Somebody buys the fabric andthen they assemble the fabric
(26:18):
and then they package it andthen it comes to us and then we
sell it to mom and pop storesacross the nation and then they
sell it to consumers mom and popstores across the nation and
then they sell it to consumers.
So for me, what's most rewardingis we're creating a product and
a brand that other businessowners are making their
businesses off of.
I'm feeding the small businessowners what they need to be
(26:40):
successful, and that is one ofthe most rewarding things I've
ever done in my life, because Ilove small businesses, I'm like
a champion for them.
I want them to win, and so Ihave a lot of retailers that buy
our product and they message mesaying you're the only brand
I'm selling in my store rightnow because of your quality.
My customers love it andthey're repeat customers.
(27:03):
I would say we have over a 95%repeat customer basis right now
for our retailers.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
Wow, so are these mostly boutiques or are they
department stores?
Speaker 2 (27:12):
Nope, we're in no department stores as of right
now.
We're only boutiques only.
Again, kind of a small businesschampion in that, and so if
that opportunity came down theroad, we'll see, but for now I'm
just enjoying working with thesmall businesses.
Speaker 1 (27:27):
Any specific areas where somebody could find your
products.
Speaker 2 (27:32):
Yeah, so we're actually going to be adding a
link to our website here prettysoon where you can find a bunch
of different vendors that carryour brand.
So our wholesale brand websiteis just michellemaywholesalecom,
and then our retail site, ifyou wanted to buy from us
directly, is ellalanecom.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
Okay, if you were in front of a group of business
owners all seasons of business,different industries what's
something that you could sharethat might be applicable to all
of them?
Speaker 2 (28:04):
Your staff is your biggest asset hands down.
Speaker 1 (28:08):
You heard it here first.
I love it.
It's communication staff and agood accountant.
Yes, are the three big bulletpoints that we talk about all
the time.
Do y'all have systems andprocesses, by the way?
I'm curious.
Speaker 2 (28:27):
We do but we don't.
So one of the main systems wehave is we run pre -orders so we
get an idea of demand before weplace an item into production.
So that's been a part of ourplan for a couple of years.
Sometimes it works, sometimesit doesn't, based upon economy
styles, season of year, butessentially if we're required to
(28:48):
make a minimum of X number ofunits but we didn't do a
pre-order and we only ordered Xnumber of units, what if the
demand was double that?
We just lost all of those salesof guaranteed income.
So by doing pre-orders on thewholesale side, we're 100%
guaranteeing all of those unitswill be put into production.
It's 100% sell-through ratebecause we've already have
(29:11):
pre-committed people.
We take zero money up front.
I'm not going to take a smallbusiness owner's money until I
have the product to deliver tothem.
So that's a risk because we'refronting the capital cost for
all of that up front.
But that's been super criticalin our e-commerce business is
getting an idea of demand beforewe make the product.
(29:33):
So it helps us know if we needto make less of something or
more of something and it'sreally really, really helped our
, our margins and profit bymaking more when they need more.
Speaker 1 (29:45):
How do you brand e-commerce, because I know a lot
of businesses are likeservice-based businesses and
they're having a hard timefighting for that digital
marketing space.
Do you have that problem, or doyou go directly to the
boutiques and do kind of aface-to-face sale?
Speaker 2 (30:03):
We do a lot of direct , so we're a lot of word to
mouth.
In fact, in the boutiqueapparel world there's fashion
markets.
One's called Magic.
It's in Las Vegas and New York.
We just went to our first showback in August and we did a
month worth of sales in threedays.
And so what I like about theword of mouth part is I'm not
(30:26):
trying to fight for a bunch ofonline space, because as a
consumer, it can be a bunch ofnoise and hard to trust.
What ad you're seeing?
Is that a lie?
Is this coming from?
Not where they say it's comingfrom?
And so we're starting to getmore into the digital space
because we realize it'simportant for people to, from
the outside, get to know andlove our brand too, not just our
(30:48):
retailers.
But we're reallyrelationship-based.
We'll text our buyers remindersfor orders.
We have a phone number they cancall and the human answers it.
Speaker 1 (30:59):
No, tell me no I know , shocker right, wow.
Speaker 2 (31:03):
But building that relationship with the people
buying from us, I think is moreimportant than trying to fight
in a digital space.
I know it's a little upsidedown to what people are doing,
but it's working for us and Ithink it's working because
people miss relationships.
It's getting to be toodigitized.
Speaker 1 (31:22):
I love that you're going against the grain on
almost every single businesstactic.
Speaker 2 (31:27):
Fingers crossed.
It keeps working.
Speaker 1 (31:30):
Where do we see your business in five years, do you
think?
Where do you want it to be?
Speaker 2 (31:36):
In five years.
I would like it to be where mystaff and myself feel like they
can breathe a little more.
We kind of always feel likewe're under a pressure cooker
because we're a small team andwe're pivoting all the time.
We had to redo our entire fallin three days because of a print
copyright issue, which isanother pivot we had to do.
(31:58):
So they're processing the lastof our fall arrivals right now.
Today, as we speak.
We're about a month late, whichfor this season is pretty hard,
but our customers are superunderstanding because of the
relationship and the honesty,and so we just keep pivoting and
we're just going to keeppivoting.
And five years from now, mygoal would be that we're all
(32:21):
maybe taking an annual vacationtogether or, um, just having
more joy and peace in businessversus stress and unknown.
Speaker 1 (32:33):
Yeah, I love that.
I love that.
So, if someone wants to followyou closer, are you on social
media email website.
Speaker 2 (32:41):
I don't use my social media a whole bunch, but I do
have one.
It's called Entrepreneur Ashley.
Okay, Surprisingly it's becauseI'm an entrepreneur.
You can kind of follow me there.
You can also follow MichelleMay or Ella Lane those are my
brands.
And then the EntrepreneurAshley link is basically me with
my family and we have a llamafarm here in Medford.
Speaker 1 (33:00):
So nice Serial entrepreneur.
Is there anything we didn'tcover that you think our
listeners should know orunderstand in business?
Speaker 2 (33:12):
I think my only advice would be just to ask for
help.
It's okay to not have theanswers to everything.
I think we put too muchpressure on ourselves to be
perfect and not make mistakes.
But you're going to makemistakes, you're going to need
grace, you're going to needforgiveness, you're going to
need grace, you're going to needforgiveness.
And if you try to just humbleyourself with your customers and
your staff, I think it's goingto go a long way for the
(33:34):
longevity of your business.
Speaker 1 (33:36):
All right.
Well, you've been a wealth ofknowledge and a blessing to many
.
Thank you so much for your time.
Speaker 2 (33:40):
Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (33:41):
My pleasure.
Thank you for listening toSmall Business Pivots.
Please don't forget tosubscribe and share this podcast
.
If your business is stuck, youneed help creating a business
that can run without you, or youneed a fast business loan or
line of credit, go to ourwebsite
businessownershipsimplifiedcomand schedule a free consultation
(34:02):
to learn why small businesssuccess starts with boss.
If you want to talk anythingsmall business related, email me
at Michael at Michael DMorrisoncom.
We'll see you next time onsmall business pivots.
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