Chaunte Roberts - Le Chic's Boutique Part 2

This is part two of Chaunte Roberts' owner of Le Chic's Boutique interview.  Chaunte continues to share her tips and wisdom on being a woman Entrepreneur.  Enjoy!

Transcript

Last week in the Women's Entrepreneurs Spotlight Episode One Part One, Le Chic's Boutique owner, Chaunte Roberts gave us the beginning insights of her boutique and some of the other businesses that she owns. And this is part two of this interview with Chaunte Roberts.

What marketing strategies have you used, or what have you used, and what has worked well for you?

You know, you can start any business, as long as you set your mind to it, you know marketing strategies can be as inexpensive as you know, Facebook. Its word of mouth is starting with your friends and family because of those friends and family, know friends and family and friends. Yes. It just spiders out.

Yes. It spiders out. When you think that you might be posting too much one day, you know what, the next day, somebody new might see that, and guess what? That's ten more people, 20 more people that might see that and say, oh, let me share that with this person or that person. Yes. And going back to don't think that you can't, or that it's too much just keep going forward and it'll be okay.

Right, right. Absolutely. So, you know, Instagram, these are all free platforms that you can use, you know, just again, just word of mouth, even. Community HOA that's right. Absolutely. I didn't even think of that, but you're right. And you also do a lot of lives. I do. Yes, I do. Which puts it out there. Uh, five, five and five.

Hey, here's this great cell phone, for one minute. Hey, here's this napkin. It's square, but guess what? Now it's a triangle, five. Here's this paper plate. Absolutely. At five minutes of your time, in the course of the day, you know, you spend five minutes every day looking at whatever on Facebook, scrolling through apps, and in Instagram, I'm, I'm all over too.
You're consistent. So has that helped you be consistent with your marketing, with your businesses? Consistency and follow-up are the key. That is the bottom line, right? Absolutely. And starting with that, patience to get you to where you are today too, and taking all that and then putting it all together.

Did you put a business plan? Did you put a business plan together? In the very beginning, I did. And, you know, I just actually had somebody to talk about that with me is like, well, business plan. I'm like, yeah. Okay. Yeah. And you know, I've got my bachelor's in business. Right. And that was actually one of my assignments to put together a business plan.

I'm like, wow, this is really, this is crazy. Right. This is crazy. It's it never, it never pans out the way you plan it. Do you feel though that it is a good tool from the beginning? Do you at least have something down on paper because it's going to evolve? Sure. Right. Sure. So, yeah. So just having, having that first outline and then having it evolve throughout, because I know for myself, I thought the same thing at the beginning of.

Uh, business plan. Why do I need a business plan? I'm marrying people and I've had to evolve myself from the beginning to having my little business plan too. And I keep working on it. And as I know that you do too, it's, it's a continuing work in progress. You know, it's a little thing. That could be that spoke that, that wrench in the spoke, right?

Exactly. Absolutely. That could cause things to just completely go off-kilter. So yeah, it doesn't necessarily mean you have to follow the business plan, have some type of outline or foundation to say, okay, Well, we don't need to worry about that, but let's, let's tackle this because it's a necessity, right?

Absolutely. And so you just have that one outline and as you said, you can evolve from there. So taking your business plan and starting with your cleaning company, was there anything that you would change in the beginning to start your business? No. No? Okay. No, because it's. It's your trips and downfalls.

It's the mistakes that allow you to evolve, right. To make things better because nothing, nothing will ever be scripted. Correct. Should I say, how can I word this? Yeah, let me think about that. Nothing will ever be scripted with how you actually planned it. And so learning, learning from your mistakes is probably one of the best things that you can do for yourself.

Absolutely evolve from there, you have a small business plan in the beginning. Did you start by yourself, was it just you? So I left my full-time job because I had a back injury. And I took a year to figure out what people wanted. I just like really set back and I thought about what my contractors wanted and I took it, you know, from there it wasn't, and it was a matter of.

Okay, let's go to the dollar store. And this was my cleaning company. Let's go to the dollar store and get some generic, whatever. And I think I spent $50. Oh my goodness. And my home vacuum cleaner. And I started with a contractor who needed this clean, who was like, okay. So I go in and like gangbusters cleaned this house all by myself.

Wow. Wow. And then somebody approached me. Do you do houses? And it evolved from there? Yeah. Yeah. What if anything, is there a downside to owning your own businesses, being your own CEO by yourself? I know you have a part-time employee at your store, but you really do work your businesses by yourself.

So it's like. I'm tired of working for everyone else. I'm tired of working retail. So she says,  tired of working 24/7.  Then what do you do is you start working for that person you're punching a time clock for, and you work for yourself and you're working. 24/7. If you're working in retail, you're working in retail, but you know what, the beauty of it all.

And I say like, wow, you, you might think, wow, she's got five businesses. When does she have time for herself? Absolutely. That's the beauty of it. That is the beauty if you think about it? I can work all of my businesses around my life. I don't have to ask for permission to go on vacation, right?

Yes. I can take my weekends off and spend time with my grandchildren. You know, it's, it's not asking for anything. It's Hey Deb, I'm sorry. Can I clean your house tomorrow? Right? Because this came up. And I know my clientele are okay with that. Yeah. And that, that is probably one of the biggest things of, uh, owning your own business is being able to tailor it to yourself and not to somebody else.

Absolutely. So what advice would you give somebody, another woman who is starting out with their own business, words of wisdom to that next young woman starting out? Be patient and do due diligence. And do your research, right? Don't feel like you need to rush into anything because you waited this long. Another six months or a year is not going to matter.

Most important is, you know, I've come across a lot of women, stop making excuses because those excuses are the reasons why you need to make it happen. Right. Nothing. Agitates me more. I love everybody. Don't get me wrong. I love everybody, but oh, I don't have money. Oh, my husband, oh, my boyfriend. This is free money on the table.

This is your opportunity. This is a tax deduction. Right? You can write your room off. Exactly. You know, you know, just stop, step off the ledge, take the leap and make it happen because as long as you are in your own way, as long as you have family telling you, you can't do something. Or friends telling you, you can't do something is all the more reason why I'm going to make it happen.

Exactly. Or they should make it happen. Right. Absolutely. And also, so with that, do you have support, do you have somebody that you can pick up the phone and say, I have this problem? Have you encountered this? Can you help me? I have tried everything. Um, do you have somebody that you, you know, that you can get that support from? My family. You know, my sister, my blood sister, my Mary Kay sisters, my spouse, my daughter. It's who you choose. Again, I go back to, you know, you can love everybody too. It doesn't mean everybody's in your corner, but this is the truth of it. 

So with that being said, again, let everybody know where they can find you on Facebook and Instagram.

So again, Le Chic's Boutique, 10 East Commerce Street, is just a few doors down from the Lemon Leaf, if you're familiar with the area. 302-241-9046 is my personal cell so you can get a hold of me.  Facebook, Facebook.com/LeChicsBoutique. You can reach me there or you can reach out to my personal Facebook, and then Bag Lady. I'm sorry @Baglady2121 on Instagram. Absolutely. All right, great. Just one other thing, if you were in a position to give somebody else support, would you, can somebody reach out to you and say, I have this problem, have you encountered that?  Can you help me with this? Absolutely. You know, I never, I know the struggles that I went through and, and how hard it was to get answers.

Right. So to be able to offer that for someone else and to be able to pick up the phone and say, Hey, just like you said, have you, can you. Blah, blah, blah. Exactly, absolutely great. And that is one of the things that I'm trying to do with the podcast, women entrepreneurs, and building that network of women who can help each other.

We have so much to offer each other and sometimes we don't have it, we don't know how to ask somebody else for help too. So I can be my own worst enemy, but I think, I think, you know, we need that. We need, you know, that other person that's in that position and giving some moral support, I will offer two programs.

If you don't mind there, go right ahead. Two things that are coming up, actually, a couple of things that are coming up. I'll give you a couple of dates.  April 14th, I have a Sip and Shop at my shop onMay 14. 4:30-6:00 at my shop. I'm doing a Sip and Shop the Tin Tavern will be there.

Go to, uh, the  Sip and Shop or you can reach out to me and I'll get you invited to the group. Say that you're going, you're going to get an automatic entry for a raffle, for a handbag. Okay. Come into the shop before the 14th and purchase. Not only are you going to get five additional raffle tickets into the raffle, but for every $10 that you purchased, you get an extra ticket for every $10 that you purchase.

Oh, fun. Oh, awesome. For a free handbag. Oh great. Oh yes. June 18th is Smyrna's Night Out. Will be another opportunity for you to come and actually visit and see me. Oh, okay. Great fun. Downtown music, different bands, various areas. Shops will be open with different vendors. Yeah, super, super, super fun. Last thing.

Okay. I'm running a program called Operation Gratitude. Operation Gratitude is also supported by the Gary Sinise Foundation. Gary Sinise. He's a famous actor and I am taking in donations through Mary Kay.

We do care packages for veterans, active-duty military, and first responders. So I'll be taking in the donations, and I'll purchase the product non-gender, or gender-neutral products, such as soaps. Bath, uh, shaving cream things as such, and we will ship it to the troops. That's awesome. So we've got May 14th, Sip and Shop with Tin Tavern We'll be at the boutique from 4:30-6:00.  On June 18th, we have Smyrna Night Out and then you have Operation Gratitude, which somebody can check out on Mary Kay on your Mary Kay site. They can actually contact me. Not so much to the Mary Kay site, but just contact me for the complete tax deduction.

Okay and as far as the Sip and Shop, I'll be partnering with the Blush Salon next door.  Thank you. I am so happy that we finally got to do this. I look forward to seeing you again. I wish you all the best in the business. You're a great lady. Thank you so much. Thank you for listening today.

I hope you enjoyed Shantae Robert's interview owner of Le Chic's Boutique. If you have any questions, you can contact me at Debra@weddingdayceremonies.com. Or Chaunte @LeChicsoutique.net. I'm Debra LaMotta. And this is Women Entrepreneurs Spotlight. My next interview will be with the owner of Comfort Zone Clothing.

Stay tuned.