Don’t you kinda feel like you’re always in the spotlight?
I mean, you kind of have to be, right? When you own a business, you need OTHER PEOPLE to know about your business. That’s how it works.
There is a very fluid line between my personal life and my business. For instance, I am always sharing my store’s promotions, blog posts, and updates to my personal Facebook account. Equally, I like to be the model in my business’s Instragram photos and let my customers know a little about myself.
I keep business personal.
I may seem like “an open book” to my customers, but I am still running a business and sometimes business decisions have to be made that may seem like a left turn to those consistently following my brand online.
I’ve had my boutique since 2013 and since then I have already had to make a few of those “Left Turn” business decisions. For instance:
My First Big Shift:
I opened my brick and mortar boutique in 2013 under a licensing agreement similar to a franchise. I was part of a group of stores that were connected by inventory and marketing, though my boutique was independently owned. Within my first year I realized my growth was being held back due to this arrangement.
So Kristi put on her big girl pants and relaunched the boutique free of the licensing agreement.
At the same time as the relaunch, I launched the online store, which was a passion of mine I couldn’t explore while still being part of the licensing agreement. Now that I was independent, I had the opportunity to mold the boutique into the business I WANTED TO OWN.
Sounds liberating, right? But tbh, I was scared. I had worked so hard and sacrificed so much to bring the boutique to where it was. I had loyal customers and people who believed in me, and let’s not forget people who invested in me. Like with their real money. My business was only a year old and this whole relaunch idea was foreign and confusing to me.
I was flooded with doubt. I mean, would people even understand a brand new store going through a relaunch? How would I explain this? Is my message clear? Does it sound like I’m lying? Covering something up? Being flakey? DO I SOUND CREDIBLE?
But honestly, I was worried about my customers.
I couldn’t help but ask myself: Are my customers going to abandon me? Am I wrong about needing to separate? Am I misreading what my customer wants? Do I not understand them like I think I do? Did I make a huge mistake?
But my biggest concern: Did I just abandon my customer?
Holy shit, I was nervous.
But at the same time, I was up for the challenge. Because this was a time of growth and ultimately this was a GOOD THING. I couldn’t be afraid to do something big.
And So Here’s How I Got Through It:
God is good, I gracefully made it through what could have been the crash-and-burn ending of my business.
Here’s what I did to prepare myself for this Relaunch:
1) I created a schedule.
I put a date on the calendar that would officially mark the relaunch date. I gave myself a 2-month lead-time and worked backwards to trickle the messaging through social media channels, my email list, and through word-of-mouth.
2) I practiced and perfected my message.
I am not kidding you that I practiced how I spoke about my business in the mirror. I mean MY BUSINESS WAS CHANGING! I had gotten into a routine of how I talked about my store almost to the point where it was a script. But when people would ask me about the relaunch, I would fumble over my words.
It was embarrassing because I felt like I lacked confidence in my new business. So I nailed down my message, and I practiced what some call my mini “elevator speech.”
3) I created a positive, clear written message.
I called this “My Bible.” I wrote down exactly how I wanted to talk about my business on social media, in blog posts, and in emails.
The reason for this was because there were a lot of ways I could have packaged this relaunch. I could have said, “I’m breaking away from the licensing agreement!” or I could have said, “My inventory is going to be different!” or a number of other ways to package this change.
I decided to only focus on 2 messages:
- New Name
- Online Store
I felt like all other information was an over-sell. It confused the message. And honestly, it was information that the majority of audience didn’t really care about.
4) I got my audience involved.
Since my relaunch involved slightly changing my business’s name, I decided to hold a contest to help create my new logo. I ran a contest on social media asking for submissions to help us choose our new logo, and the best logo design would win a $100 gift card.
To be honest, none of the submissions we received were even remotely useable, haha. But that wasn’t the point. The contest was just a fun, unique way we could talk about the relaunch without just saying, “Hi, we are changing our name. Please pay attention to us.” It gave us another reason to get in front of our audience, and it was successful because the message was outside of our normal monotonous posting habits.
5) I was open.
I hate those brands that try to sneak something past you. Like, you wake up one day and everything is different (cough, cough– Instagram). But seriously, how much do you throw a FIT when Facebook starts tweaking things? Or even something small like Instagram changing it’s logo? Everyone was pissed. Why? Because we woke up one day and couldn’t find the app we were looking for on our phone. It was confusing and frankly annoying.
I knew I didn’t want to be that type of brand, and so I was pretty open about discussing in detail the changes with people when they asked about it. If they wanted more info about the relaunch, I saw that as a good sign. And an opportunity to turn them into a mini brand ambassador.
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The Relaunch of Envy into 522 Envy has taught me that it’s not really about what happens to you, it’s about how you handle it. If something isn’t working, change. If you need a do-over, do it. But there is a way to successfully relaunch your brand while saving face and maintaining credibility.
Just remember, change isn’t due to failure, it’s due to growth.
