How Much Does a Boutique Owner Make?
Since starting in 2009, Text2VIP has been fortunate enough to serve hundreds of boutique owners and have helped countless stores grow their business over time with our texting platform. During this time, we have been able to see how much a boutique owner can make as well as the different business models that they can operate from.
Boutique Owner Salary
According to ZipRecruiter, the national average salary for a boutique owner is $78,233/year. This translates to roughly $38/hour.
You can expect to earn different amounts based on the different business models you choose for your boutique.
Boutique Owner Business Models
In order to understand how much you can make as a boutique owner, you first must decide what type of boutique you want to (or currently) operate. There are three types of boutique business models:
Online Boutique
In this model, you will only be selling online. You will not need to worry about the overhead of a brick and mortar location, but you will need to think about where you will store your inventory. If you have a large enough space in your home, it can all be ran from there.
This sort of model can be great for beginners as you can dropship your products from a supplier once a customer has ordered, which can save you from buying bulk inventory and using a lot of up front cash. The downside to dropshipping is that it can cost a bit more to purchase one piece at a time than what buying in bulk would cost.
You can expect to have the expense of state and sales taxes, website, inventory/POS system (if you decide to buy in bulk) and then any cost on advertising such as Facebook or Google.
Brick and Mortar Boutique
In this model, you will be selling from a physical location. Since the prime spots for a physical location are in the busiest areas of a city, you can expect to pay a good amount of money for your rent. You will also need displays and decor to make the storefront welcoming, so expect a budget for those. You will also need to stock up on inventory for your store, so that too will require some up front capital.
As you can see, right out the gate you will need a good amount of capital and a solid understanding of your local market before just renting a space and expecting your business to boom. We are talking about tens of thousands of dollars in up-front cash required to start this business model.
Some expenses will be state and sales taxes, rent, utilities, insurance, payroll (should you decide you ever want to go home), inventory/POS system and any sort of advertising expenses.
Online and Brick and Mortar
The last type of boutique business model combines both online and brick and mortar business models.
You can expect to reach a much larger audience with the online aspect, but still have a central location for your locals to enjoy. You will also have a place to store your online inventory and can enjoy the benefits of a place to store that inventory.
These types of models can build a large community fast and with the current technology such as live-selling, you can see steady growth.
You can expect to incur a mixture of the expenses for this model.
What Can You Expect To Make As a Boutique Owner?
You can expect to make as little or as much as you are willing to put into the business.
I know this answer may be a little on the vague side, but there is truth behind it. Not all boutiques started will be the same. A small town brick and mortar boutique should not expect to be raking in millions of dollars with just a brick and mortar storefront. A dropshipping boutique that you manage two hours a week should not be expected to do that either.
Many boutique owners have found success in all three of these business models, but they were willing to throw all of their cards in to make it happen. We have also seen boutique owners earn a good living by simply working a few hours a week dropshipping, but were great at marketing.
It is best to know your strenghts and weaknesses as well as how much risk you are willing to take before choosing your business model by which to pursue.
How to Start a Boutique
A solid path we have seen over and over again is by beginning with dropshipping. Make a little money and then invest in inventory. Do that a few times and keep reinvesting the profits into inventory and marketing to grow you customer base. You will also want to stay in touch with past customer over time to help them continue to buy from you. We have found our text marketing software to provide some of the best results for boutiques.
Once you have built up enough cash reserves, then you can look into expanding to a brick and mortar store. Continue selling online and now you can also focus heavily on a local market and start building a name for yourself. After that, the sky is the limit.
Going about it this way will alleviate a lot of risk of using personal funds right out of the gate and allows you to continue to invest in your business over time to grow it.
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