Cash Back

Some department stores like Kohls offer Kohls cash every time you spend so much money. I believe that it would be a great idea to offer this at my store. There are not many boutique shops, that I have noticed, that offer such things. By offering something like “Golde cash” this would draw in customers and make them excited to buy more things since they would know that they were getting cash back to use to buy even more items. Since your customers are buying more this could only mean that this will cause an increase in profit for your business!

Feeding the Homeless

                Turkey Day is right around the corner and everyone is gathering with their families to enjoy a big feast. So many people are unable to enjoy the simple luxury of a warm meal due to various unfortunate circumstances in their lives. Vintage Golde will make a large donation to the homeless shelter and  in order to personally make a difference in the lives of these people I intend to donate my time on Thanksgiving Eve to help serve them a meal with a friendly smile. In this way I hope to remind them that they are not alone at this time of year and that there are people who care. I have been very blessed in my life to have always had love and companionship in my life and I could not imagine what those less fortunate than I go through every day. As a business owner I want to always put first the needs of my community.

Warm and Cozy

                The fact that the holidays are approaching and many people are trying to stay warm and cozy in this wintery weather got me to thinking. How nice would it be to sit by an open fire and enjoy a nice glass of wine with your friends while there are a few Christmas tunes playing? As the owner of Vintage Golde, I will offer this attraction to my patrons during the cold winter months. I feel that this will help set me apart from my competitors. It will make my business not only a place to shop but also a social gathering place.

Online Shopping

                In today’s generation when everyone’s life revolves around social media and cyber communication, online advertising is one of the best ways to reach your customers. One of the main ways is to have a website for your business. After doing some research I found that there are several free website builders available to choose from. When building the website you must keep in mind that it should be easy to navigate, if not some customers may get irritated and not bother to see what you have to offer. By offering online shopping you can reach other customers who may not be near your area or are unable to get out and about; this will greatly increase your customer base. Therefore in today’s world making online shopping available to your customers can increase your businesses chance of being successful.

Deals and A Friendly Smile

                As we near the holiday season everyone is looking forward to what has become one of the biggest shopping days of the year, BLACK FRIDAY! Many businesses will be competing with one another to see who can offer the best deals. Most shoppers begin shopping around midnight, therefore offering complementary coffee and other refreshments would set you apart from your competitors.  This will also throw in a healthy dose of good ole southern hospitality to boost your customer’s holiday spirit. There’s nothing that will relax your customers more than to be greeted with a warm cup of coffee and a friendly smile as they walk in from the frosty air into your warm shop.

Location is Key

                The location of your business is very important! If you don’t live in a busy city then you must look for the most populated area near you in order to help build a good customer base. It helps if there are some other businesses around you to give your customers a variety of shops to also explore. If done right, businesses can feed off of each other instead of always having to compete with one another. Window shopping is a great tool to help draw the customers in so being located in a well-traveled area is a great advantage. Passersby who might not normally even think to come in and look around can be drawn in as they drive by with a good window display.

Unhappy Customers

                Have you ever had to deal with unhappy customers? Owning your own business it’s guaranteed to happen! What if one of your best customers had a bad experience with a new pair of name brand boots that you had sold them. The brand was most popular for the leather holding up and lasting so long, well hers fell apart within a few months. What do you do? You’ve already bought tons of these boots from this company and sold over half of them and haven’t had any complaints yet. Do you give the customer a full refund, store credit, or nothing at all since you did not make the boots why should you lose money by taking them back? Personally, I would give the customer a full refund and let the company know since they may have had a defect. You definitely want her to know that you care and that you are trying to help her and also keep her happy so that she will want to return back to your store. What would you do?

Forever Vintage

Vintage clothing and accessories are definitely making a comeback in today’s fashion industry. The quality, however, of today’s merchandise is not even comparable to the old stuff that it is being fashioned after.  My goal in having a vintage oriented store is to focus on quality as well as being fashion forward. I want to establish a long standing relationship with the customers that enter my store by providing them with a good quality product and in this way setting myself apart from my competitors. Many businesses offer fashion forward merchandise but the merchandise is poor quality that doesn’t withstand every day wear and tear.  They eventually will lose their customers because people will get tired of buying products that don’t last. Therefore, when opening a business you must consider not only cost but also quality in order to build and maintain customer relationships.

Presentation

             What is it that attracts you to a store? If you see an old run down shop at the end of a nasty street, do you think you would be interested in what they had inside? The presentation of your store is extremely important! How you do you expect to bring customers in if there not already at least somewhat interested. You must make sure that you have a nice clean area out front that offers them a little taste of what you have to offer. Be creative and unique, decorate a little, maybe hang signs up about a sale that you’re having for the week. It may be spring time and you’ve set out gorgeous flowers along the walk way to your entry door. Anything that would catch the eye of your customers and make them curious of what’s inside!

Being Different

 

                Today while I was brainstorming I was thinking about how many clothing/fashion stores were already out there. There are quite a few that is for sure. It is very important that I make sure that my store stands out from all others, which this goes for anyone and their business. If you do not do something different and unique with your business you will just be another store along with the others. It is very important for my business that I maybe have a different style, offer special discounts, or anything at all that would make my store standout to my customers. When it comes to fashion you absolutely must have everything up to date. Everyone will be searching for the newest styles out. Perhaps if your store could somehow get your products in faster than others your customers would know exactly where to go to find their new outfit as soon as possible before anyone else was wearing it!

Nostalgic Momments

I am feeling very nostalgic this afternoon. I know that I often talk about the old vintage styles like my grandma wore and how these styles are starting to come back.  I love this because all those old clothes that I got from her after she passed away are precious memories of her that I wouldn’t give all the money in the world for. Because these styles are coming back, I can now take some of her old clothes and with a little tweaking, enhance my closet with beautiful new pieces that I can wear and not only look stylish in but also feel close to my grandma through the sweet memories of childhood that the clothing brings back to mind. These are clothes that at one point in my life I thought I would never ever wear anything that even looked close to it because they weren’t “cool” clothes; however, now that I am older and these styles are coming back I realize that she wasn’t as out of style as I once thought.  One day I hope to carry a line of clothing in my store that will replicate the clothing that my grandma wore throughout my childhood and in that way always keep her memory alive.

High Prices Cheap Quality

 

Have you ever noticed that some of your old clothes that you may still have put up in a box somewhere may actually be in much better condition than the shirt or pants that you just bought a year ago? Seems to me like you more than likely just paid twice as much money for cheap material that will wear out easily. I actually have a few old shirts of my mom’s that she had when she was a teenager and there isn’t a hole one. Most of the clothing that I have now already seems to be worn out. I believe that you not only must have good style but most importantly have good strong long lasting material! Once your customers start noticing that the clothing and products such as shoes also start falling apart they won’t be buying them from your store much longer! I think that if you start out buying good material in the beginning your business will be more successful in the end!

Keeping Up With Ideas

                I am all the time keeping record of ideas that I may find, whether it be searching the web or just snapping a picture of something that catches my eye. Anything that I see that I may have the slightest idea on how to make it better or even just come up with something completely different, I keep pictures of it on my phone in a specific album. I constantly have ideas running through my head all day. Sometimes I’ll even Google a certain something just to see what ideas I can get from it. My friends and I were shopping a few weeks ago in Huntsville and went in a store called Altered State. Their merchandise was very unique and classy but however the items seemed a bit pricey. I thought to myself I could make some of those same things for half the price at what they were selling it for. So I took at few pictures of their clothing and household items to keep for myself for later on when I will be brainstorming.

Trash to Treasure

Today I found an old pair of shorts that I hadn’t worn in forever. I had thought to myself what can I do to maybe bring this item back in style but with a slightly different new look? Then I remembered that I had a roll of lace that was thin and see through. I took the lace and hand sewed it around the front pockets of the shorts. With the shorts already being a little worn out adding the thin lace gave it a comfortable but classy look. Instead of just having a pair of plain old blue jean shorts that I would normally wear with a t-shirt, I had pretty much a new pair of shorts that I could now wear with one of my more dressy tops. Not only is it a great idea for a new style but I used something that I already had just to give it a try with not even spending a penny!

The Start Up

I‘ve always wanted to design vintage clothing and jewelry.  I think it’s a very classy and elegant look for women. I’m very excited with the designing process, taking the ideas that I have and creating my own piece of work is very gratifying. I really hope the public will enjoy my work as much as I do. My first goal is to design a piece of clothing and also accessories to match to give one that vintage look they are looking for. I have a wide range of style ideas for both young and old, everything from head to toe. My inventory will impress all!