Sarah Timmerman: I think it's just constantly about measurement and trying new things. You don't know what you don't know. You just got to keep trying things. It's a really fun time in your life and your wardrobe is so much more when you're at that age as well, because it is all about the photos you take and the memories you make and that's what makes clothing so special and fun. I think people of all age groups are loyal to someone that's loyal to them. I think it comes down to what you offer people outside of a paycheck.
[Voiceover]: Welcome to Add to Cart, the podcast that Express delivers all you need to know in the fast moving world of e commerce. Every month, Nathan Bush from 12 High and an E commerce industry expert will share the news, research and insights that you need to know to keep you at the top of your game and of course, keep your customers adding to Cart.
Nathan Bush: Hello and welcome to Add to Cart. My name is Nathan Bush, host of Add to Cart and director at e commerce talent agency eSweet. Do you remember what it was like being 25 years old? Because I don't. But for today's founder, she has to stay connected to those fresh faced bags of energy with an insatiable appetite for partying. Sounds like a bloody nightmare to me if I'm honest. But today I am speaking with Sarah Timmerman, founder of Beginning Boutique, the women's online fashion destination that closed the festival goers, the pool parties and all those other style conscious memory makers in between. Started in Sarah's spare bedroom in 2008, Beginning Boutique has attracted a cool 1 million Instagram followers and now employs more than 75 staff over three locations. In this chat we discuss how Beginning Boutique coped when their biggest event of the year got cancelled, how they're challenging the notion that fast fashion is a dirty word. And we hear Sarah's secret to inspiring loyalty in your team. So thanks to our partners Shopify plus and Signet, here's our conversation with Sarah Timmerman from Beginning Boutique.
Nathan Bush: Sarah Timmerman, welcome to Add to Cart.
Sarah Timmerman: I'm so excited to do it. Thanks and be on it.
Nathan Bush: So excited. We're recording this on a Friday afternoon when we should be at a long lunch. But we all know retailers don't long lunch anymore.
Sarah Timmerman: Yeah, you have to be in real estate for that.
Nathan Bush: I think that's right. Or a vendor.
Sarah Timmerman: Oh yes. Yeah, it's true.
Nathan Bush: Where do we find you?
Sarah Timmerman: I'm just in our Fairfield office. Today. I'm back in the office after a week of Work from home. So it's nice to be around people again.
Nathan Bush: Yes. Yes. Now, I am going to assume about our audience that Beginning Boutique. There's going to be a section of our audience who know Beginning Boutique and love Beginning Boutique and Rusted on fans. And there are some people that are like, oh, that sounds cute.
Nathan Bush: What's that?
Sarah Timmerman: Is that baby store? Yeah.
Nathan Bush: Can you give us the overview on Beginning Boutique, who you are and how you started it?
Sarah Timmerman: Yeah. So beginning when started in 2008, it was actually not what I thought my company would be. So our company name is Renew Body and Soul. And that was because I thought I was going into health and wellness, not into online e commerce. So the idea came about when I was 21. My mum offered me a plane ticket or a party and I took the plane tickets.
Nathan Bush: Wise choice.
Sarah Timmerman: And I had already been married that year, so I got married when I was 20, which is just nuts. I know. So I'd already had a big party so I didn't need another one. So went to Paris and went to this incredible store that no longer exists anymore. But it was this beautiful shopping experience and they were selling CDs, using iPods and like just stunning mesh of technology and product and there was nothing like that in Brisbane. So I wanted to do something like that. But there was also no shops available on James street. So I went online and that's how Beginning started. It was a cold fusion custom code, not very good website to begin with. That didn't really work. And we have iterated to where we are today on Shopify, plus who I am. I am a founder that's trying to transition into a CEO.
Nathan Bush: That's interesting because normally you're finding a founder trying to get out of the CEO role.
Sarah Timmerman: Yeah. I mean, it is definitely an interesting challenge. So I do really love leading the company and I love the vision and strategy work and I think it's actually incredible to have a team where I have the permission to move into more of that because they can do what I used to do better than me, which is.
Nathan Bush: It's really fun and you would have seen so much change. You mentioned they're going from a Cold fusion website to Shopify. Plus that you're on now. What are the. What else has been. Give us a sense of timeframe. So when did beginning boutique start?
Sarah Timmerman: Yep, 2008. And we've had five or six warehouses since then. Like, we have moved so many times. We just kept outgrowing spaces and having to move things to fit and not be a fire hazard. We've had four different platforms in that time. So we went from coldfusion to Interspire to Shopify to Magento, back to Shopify pretty much was on. I don't know if I should go into store.
Nathan Bush: Come on, come on.
Sarah Timmerman: Well, I don't want to bag vendors because the software is only as good as the user. But about a month into using Magento without something like varnish and without a cdn, we realized how screwed we were and needed to get back to Shopify. But that was a complete brand new rebuild. So it took us a while to get back there again.
Nathan Bush: And was there a conversation when you had that Magento moment that you went, we've either got to re engineer our team or re engineer our technology?
Sarah Timmerman: Yeah, definitely. We had to re engineer the team. I don't have massive backing in terms of. We don't have millions of dollars to just go, oh, we'll just put that dev team on that. While our other gov team does this, we had to re engineer the team and the processes and the team did a phenomenal job of coping with that and they always have. And in the meantime, so we re engineered the processes and what we were doing so that we could get breathing space to do the build.
Nathan Bush: Makes sense, Makes sense. And how's Shopify plus going for you now?
Sarah Timmerman: I love Shopify plus simply because I can sleep every night, all night, knowing that my cart isn't down. Because I just remember, you know, there would be times when we were on Magenta and I'd be like, oh my God, what has happened to the site? Is the cart down? And like your first instinct is not like, oh, maybe that's sold out or this has happened. It's like, is the website running? So I do really love that aspect and I really love the fact that we have the ability to run our website as if we had millions of developers. Because it's just so easy. Not that it's perfect. It can keep on developing.
Nathan Bush: I think it's really interesting because how many countries are you in now?
Sarah Timmerman: So we have three Shopify stores.
Nathan Bush: Yeah. All running separately.
Sarah Timmerman: Running together.
Nathan Bush: Together. And one warehouse.
Sarah Timmerman: One warehouse, yeah. So our inventory is split through some custom software that we wrote.
Nathan Bush: Yeah. Nice. Okay, cool. And from what I've seen at Beginning Boutique, you guys are the masters of kind of big bang events, whether it's big promotions or anticipated launches. Obviously from a technology point of view, it's great to have the cloud infrastructure and the scalable technology like Shopify behind it. In your experience, what else is critical for planning in lead up to those
Sarah Timmerman: Big Bang events, a high stress tolerance threshold. I definitely think every big event comes with its own level of stress, and you learn from every single event and you just keep on getting better. So I think in terms of, like, from a PR perspective, you need to make sure that you've got excellent plans in place. You've got A, B and C backups happening. We've had everything happen to us from a bus refusing to go up a driveway filled with guests for an event through to. And solving that issue through to, like, just pretty much everything you could ever think of. And I think that the key to making a great event is keeping a smile, keeping focused, and being able to have all the solutions in the background. In terms of monetizing, I think it's really important to make sure that you have excellent content because you can do everything you want, but if you don't have content that's relevant to your customer, you might as well have not done it.
Nathan Bush: Tropeaka is an Australian nutrition brand born on Shopify back in 2016. Such a long, long time ago. Four years later, volumes have increased. B2B has become a priority, and it
Nathan Bush: was time to scale.
Nathan Bush: This meant a transition from Shopify to Shopify Plus. And what a transition it was. With the addition of personalized discounts, cart optimizations, and a custom checkout, Tropeaka were able to increase their average order value from $89 to $94 across 15,000 orders per month.
Nathan Bush: That is a sign of a very healthy partnership.
Nathan Bush: To read more of Tropeaka's story and see other case studies, visit the customer section on shopify.com.
Nathan Bush: And so we're recording this in June. Are you already getting content and promotions ready for Black Friday in November or is that not on the radar yet?
Sarah Timmerman: Yes, of course. We've actually done the lookout planning for that and shot everything.
Nathan Bush: It's just as well playing.
Sarah Timmerman: We do have plans. Like, don't get me wrong, we've got excellent plans that are in negotiation and there are things that are being lined up currently. But we wouldn't shoot that far in advance just because our product range can change can change so much. So we have a really short lead time to market. So we're trying to make everything as tight as possible whilst not killing our team. So our focus is to make sure we can do an excellent job with the minimum amount of lead time. So we probably wouldn't start shooting for November until September. October.
Nathan Bush: Yep. Okay, that makes sense. And how did being I don't. Do you call yourself Fast fashion, I mean, it's a bit of a dirty word, but is.
Sarah Timmerman: It's not a dirty word in my opinion. I think it's like fast fashion is what makes it possible for girls to go out and have a great weekend. It doesn't have to be dirty. It's. If you choose to do things dirty, nice.
Nathan Bush: All right, we're going to get into that a little bit, a little bit later. But given I'm not passionate about that at all, it didn't come through at all. But if we're talking about an industry where you've got to be so responsive and you've. I assume you've got your supply chain so tight because it would be global as well. How did Covid impact all that planning?
Sarah Timmerman: I was steadily watching things from December, and I just remember messaging with some of, like, my oldest suppliers and asking them, you know, what's happening in China? How are things feeling? What's it looking like? And it quickly snowballed from being nothing to starting to be something serious. It was really incredible to watch that progression, really, in February and March, because I remember being. Going to a major event in Paris, desperately trying to scramble to get suppliers outside of China. And the only suppliers that I found were in India, which was no better. Quite quickly, but so I remember being on a flight, my first international flight ever with like six people on this 747, and it was wild. And then coming home and I was the only one wearing the mask. And, you know, it's. Yeah, it was a really interesting experience. And then I guess it just really kicked into like the world. We are shutting down. We lost a lot of sales. I mean, we just spent the biggest budget we've ever had on shooting Coachella 2020. It was the most phenomenal collection. It was truly stunning imagery and videography. And our team had literally pulled. They flew from Brisbane to la, got off the plane, scoped the location, shot the first girl, slept, shot the next girl, shot the third girl. I don't even know if they slept a second night or if they flew back that night so that they could get home to edit and put it together. And we just like smashed this epic project. And the day of launch was the day that Coachella was canceled. And so it was like, what are we an events based business? How are we going to survive? What are we going to do? And you have a question later that this word is very relevant to, but we just had to pivot. And the point of pivoting has not stopped. I think we are a Better, stronger business for it. But it was heartbreaking. Like it was. I, we had gone from thinking that 2020 was going to be this record year where the pressure was finally coming off. You know, we, we had gotten to this tipping point where we could really do cool things. And then I had to put team members on leave. I stopped taking a wage myself. We had like all of these things happen and no control, no control over stock. Nothing coming in. All our stock is late. All of our stock was wrong. Because who wants a festival outfit when they can't leave their house? So it was, it was wild. But we are definitely a better business for it. Like we are a stronger, smarter team that are less reliant on external influences.
Nathan Bush: Are you able to give us some examples when you say we're a stronger business because of it? I think that's really interesting. What tangibly has changed for you since
Sarah Timmerman: COVID So our product range is so much more diverse. I think we aren't hoping, waiting, wishing on Splendid to be on. I can't wait for those days. But like we're not reliant on other people's events to push our sales targets. We've got a team that understands our customer more than ever. Because when you lose everything, when you lose everything you stand for, you have to go fully back to square one and think like what the heck does she want and how am I going to give that to her in a way that she wants it or he wants it? And I think it's just made us smarter.
Nathan Bush: Yeah. Nice. And when you say an events based business rather than a fashion business, is that because you see it as customers are buying fashion for events?
Sarah Timmerman: 100%. So you know, I think beginning would quite easily be known for dresses, festival and swimming. And when you are not dressing, you are not partying and you are not going on swimming holidays, you know.
Nathan Bush: Yeah. Awesome. And you mentioned there your customers having to take a step back and look at your customer and what they want. Can you give us an overview of who your customer is and how you stay relevant to them?
Sarah Timmerman: Yes. Our customer is 18 to 24. She, they I should say because I know that we have some sort of fabulous customers of any gender orientation. They are absolutely incredible. They are working out, they are intelligent, they are first job or at uni. They are looking to make memories. You know, it's all about having this incredible experience with their friends. You know, they're not suckers like us with kids thinking about when can I book in that two hour fun time. Like their whole life revolves around their friends or their family. And it's a really fun time in your life. And your wardrobe is so much more when you're at that age as well because it's, it is all about the photos you take and the memories you make. And that's what makes clothing so special and fun for this customer.
Nathan Bush: Yeah, I've slipped full into dad mode. I'm embracing it now. Big straw hats. I got my whole lawn mowing outfit. It's fantastic. I love it. I couldn't go back. I couldn't imagine.
Sarah Timmerman: Do you have Crocs?
Nathan Bush: No, no, don't be silly.
Sarah Timmerman: It's full dad mode. Not achieved.
Nathan Bush: That's true. I shouldn't be ashamed of it. But I don't have Crocs. I pretty much own like three or four of the same pieces of clothing. And Em, our business partner is like, do you own anything else? I'm like, yeah, like they're all different. I'm not wearing the same piece of clothing every day, but I just, I don't have the brain capacity to think differently every day.
Sarah Timmerman: Just doing a Mark Zuckerberg.
Nathan Bush: Yeah, but without the money and the brains, How do you stay relevant to that customer? How do you get inside that customer's head?
Sarah Timmerman: I cannot say that it is a one man journey. We have an incredible team of people who are, this is their passion. Like they are excited about making relevant addictive content. Like it's not addictive in a bad way, but in a way that just gives people some happiness. Like it's, it's pretty simple. Like she, if she likes it, she's gonna tell you she likes it. And if she doesn't like it, then you know, you, you're just sitting there with a piece of content you've created. So I think it's just constantly about measurement and trying new things. You don't know what you don't know and you just gotta keep trying things.
Nathan Bush: And there's that outside view, right, of generation bashing. And I think it happens regardless of it's whether Gen Y, Gen Z, whatever it is, there's always the older generation going. The younger generation doesn't understand how good they've got it and how easy life is. Like that just continually goes on. If you're not in that world every, every time of that 18 to 25 year old, what do you think would surprise people outside of that world about the attitudes and the behavior of that younger generation?
Sarah Timmerman: I actually think it's a really incredible generation that is deeply connected to the future of this planet and having A much bigger vision for the entire world rather than just where they want to be in 25 years. They are short term in terms of like their personal goals, I find sometimes, but so passionate and dedicated to what they set their mind to. And I think it's also a generation that you can have some really deep conversations with. We're constantly talking at the beginning about self improvement and self, self care and, you know, like, people want that in their life, I think, no matter what generation they are. But this generation is not afraid to talk about it.
Nathan Bush: Yeah. And do your team at Beginning Boutique, are they younger as well?
Sarah Timmerman: So most of our team is under 35.
Nathan Bush: Yeah. And have you had to change anything about your management style or the environment to make them more engaged and loyal to Beginning Boutique?
Sarah Timmerman: No, I think, I think people of all age groups are loyal to someone that's loyal to them. I think it comes down to what you offer people outside of a paycheck. Like why should someone stay at your business or why should they be passionate about your business if, if you're just giving them a salary? Well, they can get that anywhere. Like, are you going to be, are you going to care when they're having a bad day? Are you going to get them extra education? Are you going to pop some toast in the fridge? So if they forget lunch or if they don't have, you know, everyone's been there right when they. It was too tight and you had to buy noodles for a little bit, you know, like, like just thinking it outside the box. We're not a Google office, obviously, but I try very hard to hear feedback and to implement and make this place a great place to work.
Nathan Bush: That's awesome. And if we asked your team about why Beginning Boutique is a great place to work, what do you think they'd say?
Sarah Timmerman: Oh, Sarah, just Sarah, just the energy,
Nathan Bush: the intelligence, the excitement that she brings.
Sarah Timmerman: I know that Kim will be listening to this. So Kim as well. Sarah and Kim. Oh, yes. Yeah. I think people love working here because it is dynamic. We are not afraid of trying things and we are not afraid of doing cool new projects. We have an appetite for risk and we want to be the best we can possibly be. And I think people are really drawn to that because at the end of the day, who doesn't want to be the best that they can possibly be in a workforce that all wants that you come up with incredible results and like people just don't want to be mediocre in a situation like that because they love their team and respect them as well. So I think that's what people would say. I actually did this with my managers this week and they were just saying about how they love how fast paced it is.
Nathan Bush: Yeah, brilliant. What's the biggest risk you've taken recently?
Sarah Timmerman: Oh, what can I say?
Nathan Bush: Yeah, what can you say?
Sarah Timmerman: This was not on the list.
Nathan Bush: What do you mean? There is no list. You don't know what questions I'm going to ask. We haven't discussed this before. We record. This is all off the top of my head.
Sarah Timmerman: Yes, of course. This actually has been off the top of your head for most of it. So that's good. It's fun. Biggest risk. We are investing into some projects pretty significantly and really backing my managers, I think. And not that that's a risk, but it is a financial investment and who knows what's going to happen in 2021. I do believe that it's going to be a great year. But, yeah, my biggest risk lies in my investment backing all of my managers with their massive ideas for this year.
Nathan Bush: Yeah, that's awesome. And people, I think, are underplaying it, but companies and businesses who continue to spend and invest in 2021, that is a risk. Doesn't matter what industry you're in, you're taking the risk by being in the game and chasing growth.
Sarah Timmerman: Yeah. 100%.
Nathan Bush: Now, you mentioned there before, is that obviously really important to younger generation and hopefully people in the older generations is sustainability and that fast fashion doesn't have to be a dirty word.
Sarah Timmerman: Yeah.
Nathan Bush: What are you doing at Beginning Boutique to foster sustainability in the fashion industry.
Sarah Timmerman: Yeah. So I remember when the bushfires were on and I know that this isn't my fault, but I just had this deep sense of guilt and responsibility to that situation. And we've always been trying to do things better and implement more things, but I was just like, we have to do something massive and it's got to be now, I think as well, having two young kids, I'm like, what the heck does it matter if. If we make money, if there's nowhere for us to hang out, like, if there's no planet to live on, what is the purpose of all of this? So what we have been aiming to do, we have made all our offices are actually carbon neutral. We've got composting in our litten office, which has the majority of our staff currently we've got. At Fairfield, we've got as much recycling as possible. Got so solar energy. We've changed all of our packaging or in the process of changing our packaging to biodegradable. All of our tags, FCs, everything we can possibly do in every touch point has been moved to a sustainable option, which we are constantly reviewing. We are changing our fabrications of our clothing, which is a massive feat. It's very hard to do that at our size where we can put in decent orders. But, like, for someone like K2, you know, they can buy 30,000 meters or something and it would be done for us, you know, we've got to keep looking for different meals and things like that. And then I think one of our largest projects is we donate 1% of revenue to charity, and that's like cash. So we've donated over $400,000 this financial year, and that money's going to Green Fleet, who does forestry in Australia. So I want to be carbon neutral by 2025. And yes, and the other charity we support is Stars Foundation. They support Aboriginal young women in high school, completing high school, which for me is such an important thing, because I do think that what you get out of high school sets you up for your entire life. And the things that they have to do to go to school is nuts. Like, they. They can't see their family, they don't have contact with their family because there's no reception. Like, they need support. And that foundation is doing such an incredible job of taking care of those young women and setting us all up for a better future, because our kids are our future.
Nathan Bush: That's brilliant. And it's such a wide spectrum of impact that you can have there. Right. And it touches so many areas of the business. What parts in there after you saw the bushfires and you had the come to Jesus moment. What parts were the easy pickings, where you went, oh, great, we can kind of get real impact and cut through that really quickly versus the things that are going to take longer. And you mentioned there about fabrics.
Sarah Timmerman: Internal office, 100%. Like, you can, you know, we check all of our event catering has no plastic involved. Like, it's. It's actually crazy easy to make internal office changes, getting people to turn off their computers. Like, there's so many changes you can make. Literally call your electricity company and change all your power sources to green. And that doesn't even cost you more anymore. Like, there is. There were things we could turn on straight away, which was awesome.
Nathan Bush: Yeah. Nice, nice. And what is your milestone? You said carbon neutral by 2025. Are there other.
Sarah Timmerman: Yeah.
Nathan Bush: Any other indicators that you're going, when we do this? I know we'll have, you know, hit our mission.
Sarah Timmerman: It is like a Ball of string. Right. Because if you want to be a purpose led business, there is always more you can do. And I think my number one priority is my commitment to my staff. So I have to. I am committed to helping them live their best life possible, but then committed to our environment and then committed to helping other foundations as well. I think in terms of milestones that mean you've kicked it. I don't know if there is one because like, we'll just become carbon neutral and that'll be like, okay, let's become carbon negative. Like, how can we, how can we repay all the carbon that we put out for the last, you know.
Nathan Bush: Yeah.
Sarah Timmerman: However many years? So I think that's the one thing about being a founder to a CEO. Founders are never. That they don't ever settle in terms of like, okay, clap, clap, let's go again.
Nathan Bush: Yes, exactly. And the founder can have the big idea and go, I don't know how we're going to do it, but the CEOs got to work out how it gets done, right?
Sarah Timmerman: Yeah, yeah. Or the team.
Nathan Bush: That's true. That's been a CEO's being a real CEO.
Nathan Bush: Given the chance to create my own packaging, I'm not sure I'd be able to refrain from creating a box with my winking mustache face all over it. But for the team over at Liquor Loot who sell premium gin and whiskey
Nathan Bush: tasters, discretion was key.
Nathan Bush: During COVID their orders increased tenfold and made their delivery items hot property for hot hands. This is why they switched from padded mailer bags to Signet's own bubble mailer bags and along the way, reduce their packaging costs by 30%. It allowed liquor Loot to keep up with orders, save costs and stop the looting. Visit signet.netaublog to find out more. Can we go back to social?
Nathan Bush: Because you've obviously had such a great impact in social. You've got a million Instagram followers and we're really ahead of the game in social and the changes and from what I'm seeing with some of our clients, is that there seems to be in the last three or four months this real shift that people are feeling that the ROI on Facebook and social isn't what it used to be. They're finding it harder to predict what's going to work for them. Are you seeing similar or are you just on this train? Just bulleting ahead?
Sarah Timmerman: I'd say a bullet train. And the reason I say that is because it's. If you ever thought that it was easy to predict and there was only ever massive ROIs. You weren't stretching yourself in the first place. Like, you know, if you're not diversifying enough that there are some leaders and there are some loss makers, like, you're not trying enough things. So, you know, our team has been exceptional at diversifying us pre iOS changes because we were all concerned about that particular change. But because of their extreme work on diversification, we haven't had a bigger impact. But if we just sat back and like, watched and had a look, I think that we'd be in a lot of Trouble. I think TikTok, Snap and Pinterest are incredible platforms that we haven't even scratched the surface of yet. So there is so much opportunity. It's again, your risk appetite and your ability to come up with new ideas.
Nathan Bush: Yeah. Has there been a new social idea lately that you guys have tried that? You went, oh, shit, that worked phenomenally.
Sarah Timmerman: I know that we're in some beta testing for linking in Instagram ads and I believe that's doing exceptionally well. TikTok and Snap is outperforming our expectations. So that's doing well.
Nathan Bush: Yeah. Awesome. And what's your view on the future of social and commerce coming together? Obviously, we've seen a huge investment and a push from all platforms. Do you feel that those platforms will be as good transactionally as web in the future?
Sarah Timmerman: Well, I do love hearing what's going on in China and WeChat video live selling is incredible. I think that's such a cool opportunity. I do. It's so nuts Later. That's like Telcel, like.
Nathan Bush: Exactly.
Sarah Timmerman: Yeah. So I think it's just an incredible opportunity for customers to really interact and to become more involved. I'm interested to see where the future of SMS goes and I know that that's not really social, but it is in a way. Like WeChat is used as a social platform in China and what's the potential of that here? So I think the convergence of the two is a essential for relevancy because if they stay in their separate lanes, it's like having a storefront in the wrong place. Like, ultimately you got to be where your customer is and they don't care about, like your URL. They're where they want to be.
Nathan Bush: Seems like a lot of it, the link between it all is the mobile device. Right. Is that it's all coming back, whether it's web, social, live, streaming, SMS, the devices with them all the time.
Sarah Timmerman: Yeah, 100%. Because now I think we only use our computers for work. Right. Like, I don't know when I ever pop on my computer to just have a look around. You can't even look at Instagram on your computer. So, like, when you're on there, you're shopping for something on someone's site. That's too bad on mobile.
Nathan Bush: Yeah, yeah. And what about payment? So obviously buy now, pay later, I'm assuming would be hugely popular with your customer segment.
Sarah Timmerman: Yeah, it is an incredibly important part of our business. But we are really interested to see how Shop Pay is becoming more and more popular with customers. And the other very cool thing about Shoppay is they offset your carbon emissions for your delivery. And that's not even on us. That's part of their offering. So just seeing that, that uptake is massive.
Nathan Bush: Yeah, nice. Now, Sarah, we've got to wrap up, but if you had one tip for. Oh, actually, that's. What's a question I can ask? I'm gonna let you go without asking this. Did you ever have you ever spoken to the owners of that store in France that gave you the inspiration to start Beginning Boutique?
Sarah Timmerman: No. No, I haven't.
Nathan Bush: You should make it a mission to find them and tell them what you've done since, like, being inspired by their store.
Sarah Timmerman: Yeah, I should. I've never just.
Nathan Bush: Cause you got nothing else to do?
Sarah Timmerman: Yeah, my PA is back next week. Off Matt leave. I'll add to her to do list. I'm sure Rachel loved that.
Nathan Bush: Sorry, Rach. Cool. All right, so if we've got people listening to this and going, love Sarah's story, love Beginning Boutique. I'm not in the game yet. I know E commerce, but I'd love to start my own store. What's the biggest lesson that you've learned over those years?
Sarah Timmerman: That you'd pass on, guard your cash, and do everything yourself first. So read E Myth. And I'm not saying don't delegate, but read the book E Myth and then systemize yourself out of job. But, like, one of the biggest things I lost money on was a large corporation offered to do our advertising. And, you know, my total startup budget was like 100k. And that was for stock. That was everything. And I don't even think it was. That might have been 60k. And I gave this company 15 to do my advertising and we had zero ROI. And so just don't believe what people tell you. Test it for yourself first. Like, you know, spend $100 a day on Google, AdWords or Facebook or whatever and, like, build up your knowledge and don't be afraid to reach out to people and Ask some questions. People are more willing to give advice and you probably even have time to take their advice.
Nathan Bush: Yeah. And I think from externally, just seeing the way that you've operated in the community as well is like you've always been willing to put yourself out there and share your journey as well, which I assume would then make it easier for you to ask other people for advice if they've seen you put yourself out there as well.
Sarah Timmerman: Yeah. You get what you give, right? Yeah.
Nathan Bush: Yeah. Nice. Awesome. Sarah, what is next for yourself in Beginning Boutique?
Sarah Timmerman: Okay, so we have an incredible US Growth strategy that's currently underway. That's probably one of our largest investments. And you know, when you were talking about risk before that, that is one of the largest ones there. We'd like to be in market next year. We have major influencer contracts underway at the moment, major events planning, which is so exciting. I can't wait to see our next big event.
Nathan Bush: Are you going to be at Splendor?
Sarah Timmerman: Oh, God, I hope so. I really hope so. I mean, who knows what's going to happen with that festival, but yeah, I hope so. I hope so. You know, we're designing for both hemispheres right now, so we're just really thinking about our business in a much more global way. And for me personally, like I was saying before, I'm stepping out of being a founder to being a CEO and you know, really having such a key team that is excellent at their jobs has enabled me to start to think about the business in a more length way, which is. It's really nice.
Nathan Bush: Yeah. Awesome. Awesome.
Nathan Bush: Now, if people have heard this and
Nathan Bush: they are hugely inspired by your story, which they should be, and they either want to join the Beginning Boutique team or speak to you about potential partnerships, what's the best way to get in touch with yourself or the team?
Sarah Timmerman: We do have a careers page. If you have a look@bb.com aucareers and I am terrible on LinkedIn. I was going to say LinkedIn but I am actually terrible. But please do message me on there and I will endeavor to get better. But I hate it. I just get so many cold. Hey, did you know that you should use this platform instead of Shopify? I'm like me. Come on.
Nathan Bush: Yeah, exactly. Why would you do that? Sorry for sending you that.
Sarah Timmerman: At least buy me a drink.
Nathan Bush: It's easy. It's easy. Easy doing business in Brisbane, right?
Sarah Timmerman: It is. I love Brisbane.
Nathan Bush: Awesome. Sarah, thank you so much for joining us on Add to Car.
Sarah Timmerman: Oh, thanks for having me.
Nathan Bush: The best episodes of Add to Cart for me are the ones where the first founders are totally open and honest with their successes and their challenges. And I feel like we got that in spades from Sarah today. I left the conversation just in awe of the pace and how dynamic her business is and I suppose how dynamic
Nathan Bush: it has to be.
Nathan Bush: Shooting products one month out from the biggest event of the year. Changing warehouses six times. That's once every two years. Making fast fashion carbon neutral by 2025. There's no sitting around waiting for the world to change at Beginning Boutique. They're in a demanding, competitive environment and they can't take their foot off the pedal even if they wanted to to stay relevant and even if we're not in fashion. I think it's a great reminder and a challenge to see if we are really pushing ourselves to the pace that we should be now, if you want to check out the Beginning Boutique experience, Sarah has given Add to cart listeners 10% off site wide. Sign up to the Add to Cart newsletter at add to cart.com and you'll get the code to enter at checkout and you'll be ready to go for when the next festival opens the doors. Bring on Splendor to finish up, I have three resources for you. Firstly, if you're a first time listener of Add to Cart and you want to stay up to date with new episodes, head over to addtocart.com and you can sign up for our weekly newsletter. We'll let you know every time a new episode drops, as well as giving you my three takeaways from each episode and a link to the transcripts so you can know that this is an episode episode that you want to dive straight into. Secondly, if you want a weekly roundup of the best e commerce case studies, tools and research, sign up to the High Five Friday newsletter which is delivered to inboxes at 8am every Friday morning. I read all the e commerce news and send you the bits that I think you can take action from. Sign up at 12 high 12 h
Nathan Bush: I g h.
Nathan Bush: And the last thing if you are looking to explore your next e commerce opportunity, head over to esweettalent.com we are a dedicated e commerce talent agency connecting the best e commerce talent with the fastest growing brands. Check it out. Sign up to the email and get in touch with me if you want to discuss your next move. Until next time, thanks for listening and keep those customers adding to car.
