Today, I’m thrilled to share with you an interview with Sharon from Your Style Your Story online boutique in Ireland.

She is an accountant and a mom to two young boys in addition to running her boutique and is incredibly inspiring.

If you’re looking for some motivation to get your boutique started, you’ll definitely want to read and watch my interview with Sharon below.

1) What is the name of your boutique?

Your Style Your Story

2) What type of boutique do you own and where can we find you?

My boutique sells women’s clothing, jewellery and handbags.
Our clothing collections are handpicked to help women find something a little different to wear to work.

I chose quality brands as I strongly believe in “buy better , buy less” and I want my boutique to have a positive effect on the environment.  Some of our ranges include knits that are created from seawool and each knit is made from 15 recycled plastic bottles that are pulled out of the ocean.  The jumper is so luxurious and soft but has a positive impact on the environment with each purchase.

Our handbags are from the Shona Easton collection and I chose that brand as all of the handbags are handmade in an ethical rural farm in India.  The handbags directly support the income of 200 women there in this rural village who otherwise would have to leave their families and children to work in the big cities.

My boutique is only online www.yourstyleyourstory.com It is based in Ireland but we deliver globally.

Facebook : www.facebook.com/yourstyleyourstoryonline
Instagram : www.instagram.com/yourstyleyourstory
Twitter : www.twitter.com/ysysboutique

3) What inspired you to start your own boutique?

I am actually an accountant and as a working mum with two young children I find it impossible to go to physical boutiques to purchase my clothes for work and weekend smart casual wear.  My job involves a lot of presentations and I am always at my most confident when I am wearing the right clothes for me.  Mornings can be hectic with organising the school run but once I dress into the right work wear I immediately feel back in control and the chaos of family life is eased.  I am free to just get on with delivering my work.

A lot of online shops have a huge product range and it is difficult to quickly pick just what you need.

I was inspired to set up a boutique style webshop online with beautiful collections but with only a limited product range so customers can quickly see online and pick what they need.  Orders are despatched that day and in Ireland most of our customers our wearing their purchase the very next day.

Being a working mum can be tough sometimes and we always put our needs to the bottom of the list.  So I decided to wrap all orders in beautiful gold wrapping and deliver in a box so each purchase feels like a little to gift to our customers for everything they juggle in life.

4) What resources have been most helpful to you as a new boutique owner?

I am a member of an online network of women – Women’s Inspire Network which has been a fantastic support.  We sponsored and showcased recently at one of their events. I have sourced social media experts and my photographer also from this group.  Plus they actively cheer other members on and consistently share and retweet each other’s’ posts.

All of the models on my boutique are my friends.  I asked them to be my models as they are beautiful and all different shapes and sizes and I wanted women to be able to relate to my models and see how our clothes will really fit.  These friends have been such a support as the photoshoots were a brand new experience for me to have to co-ordinate and get right and it was great to be able to do it in such a supportive environment with all my friends around me.

5) How did you feel when you made your first sale? What did you do to celebrate?

Well my website was due to go live on the Monday.  However I set it live over the weekend just to be sure that the payment facilities had plenty of time to set up.  When I woke on the Saturday before there was a message on my phone saying congratulations on my first sale.  I called my children in to show them and we jumped up and down on the bed for about 20 minutes screaming with excitement!

The feeling was amazing as it was just so unexpected and gave me the confidence to announce to everyone that day that my boutique was now live.

6) What was the final push to follow your dreams and start a boutique? What was the “aha” moment for you?

The final push was the day I met with another female colleague for a business lunch and we were both wearing the same shirt. The shirt was patterned and so it was very clearly the same and we looked like we had dressed ourselves in matching clothes in the restaurant.

This wasn’t the first time this had happened to me and I decided that Ireland needed to have some new clothing ranges online to give a bit more options to us women.

7) Tell us what a “day in the life” looks like for you now that you’re running your own boutique business!

It is great!!! I am so motivated each morning now.  Before I would hit the snooze button about five times.  Now I’m excited and do some yoga online (very simple movements) before getting my boys ready for school.

Every morning I try write out 3 aims I would like to achieve in the day to build my brand.  Depending on these I could be discussing radio or podcast interviews, meeting with my photographer or attending and showcasing at a network event.

I spend at least an hour of every day discussing with our social media team to plan our next posts, what is working, what do our customers want to know about and what is currently topical?

My afternoon is spent co-ordinating orders, talking to customers and researching for our next blog topics.

Depending on the time of year I could be meeting with the brands we stock and choosing our collections for the next season.  It is always so exciting to see what styles they have coming for our customers.

The end of the day is family time spent with my boys.  Followed by some more research in the evenings and then I wind down watching Working Moms on Netflix.

8) What has been your biggest challenge as a boutique owner and how did you overcome it?

My biggest challenge has been controlling my perfectionism.  My need to have my branding perfect, my packaging perfect, my website perfect, my collections chosen exactly right and so on and so on…

Then I realised I needed to look at what really mattered.  What did my customers really want and focus all my efforts into delivering that instead.  If I waited until everything was perfect would I ever really launch?  What if I missed something along the way? How would I have the ability to handle that unless I allowed for the fact that yes not everything would be perfect but I would adapt and fix and learn continuously along this journey.

Once the motivation for everything I was doing came from the right place then customers would forgive if my branding had a slight colour difference on social media platforms or if I missed a full stop somewhere on my descriptions.

Stopping aiming towards perfection has been liberating and helped me make decisions and move forward with my boutique so much more quicker.

9) How do you stay inspired and motivated to run your boutique?

The early days after the launch are hard.  You think if you build it everyone will come.  Some days there are no sales and it is disheartening.

Every day I wake with a positive attitude and remind myself this is a journey and not a destination and then you see the comments people are making on your social media posts about how they loved the products they bought, how your blog helped them and came just at the right time and it gives you that hug inside to know you are doing the right things and creating something that is positive in the world.

I have had customers send me messages to say that my boutique is just the distraction they need from their hectic life and is a great escape for them to just browse through or have a read on our blogs.

10) What’s the best part about being your own boss?

Being able to make a change to people’s lives.  Seeing how things can be improved, brainstorming ideas and then getting to see the positive contributions I can make to people’s lives – be it one customer or one hundred customers.

11) What’s your go-to favorite podcasts or blogs that you’d recommend to other girl boutique bosses?

Kirstendebouter.com.  I love her podcasts – The every year itch.  It’s about living life differently and she has interviewed some fantastic people who are showing how to live life outside the normal rules.  She recently interviewed me for her podcast which was very exciting.

12) What is your number one piece of advice for aspiring boutique owners?

Find a women’s in business community – online or offline and embrace all the support they can give you to promote your business, give advice or just be a friendly listening hear as we are all going through the same trials and uncertainties.

Questions about Sharon’s boutique? Comment below!