Emily Grey of The Flourish Market: Strategic Delegation Is the Only Antidote to Burnout for Independent Brand Owners

As part of our series about the future of retail, I had the pleasure of interviewing Emily Grey.

Emily Grey is a seasoned speaker, business & retail consultant, and serial impact entrepreneur devoted to encouraging American consumers to use their purchasing power for good.

As a former Wall St. exec-turned-7 figure boutique owner, Emily now teaches makers and brand owners how to get their products onto store shelves. She shares invaluable insight into wholesale industry trends from a retailer’s perspective, and turns those trends into straightforward and tangible recommendations for makers to increase their income and impact.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?

Prior to experiencing what I call my “third of life crisis” when I decided to step away from my corporate career and pursue entrepreneurship full time, I was the Vice President of Communications and Change Management for a large Investment Bank. I lived and worked all over the world, and In my role my main responsibility was to help coach middle and senior managers to lead their employees through change.

I took the “Change Manager” skillset I had honed in corporate and decided to apply that to launching a small business that felt deeply purposeful. Six years ago, to everyone’s shock, I quit my corporate job and launched a fashion truck. With zero background or experience in retail, it was a mini boutique on wheels for which I had only learned of the concept while searching for tiny house designs for fun on Pinterest.

I started by carrying clothing and accessories from 10 brands, with the products all made by women who had overcome extraordinary circumstances. I wanted to ‘test the market’ to see if women in my community would be interested in using their purchasing power to drive positive social change. The uptake was immediate and a year later I opened my brick and mortar store, The Flourish Market. We now have a 3,500 square foot store in Downtown Raleigh, NC and carry products from 200+ social good brands.

I have an amazing team that runs the day to day operations of our storefront and ecommerce business. This enables me to spend most of my time helping makers and indie brand owners navigate ever changing retail trends by making straightforward, clear, and actionable recommendations that deliver tangible results to their bottom line.

My love for leading people through change is at the root of everything I do.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career?

On the morning of April 8th 2019, I was about to take live a big announcement and press release that I had been hinting about to our customers for a few months. At the same time, I had been going through a divorce that only a small handful of close friends knew about. I was privately struggling with grief and anxiety, not knowing how I was going to pull off the logistics of our big announcement: that we were moving our store and building out a 3,500 square foot shop.

A few minutes before I pressed the “post” button on the press release, I thought “let me add a link where women can sign up to help with our move.”

Asking for help has never been easy for me, but I knew my team and I needed a lot of support. I pressed the post button, and the excited comments started pouring in. And in less than an hour, 150 women from my community had signed up to help build furniture, pack up our inventory, deep clean the floors of our new space, bring dinner to volunteers, unload our U-Haul — everything was covered.

The six weeks that followed of building out our new store together with our customers will always be one of my most cherished career memories. In fact, on the hardest days of doing business in a pandemic, I often reflected on that season in business to remind myself that a whole community of women had our back.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson or takeaway you learned from that?

In my early days when I was running my business out of the fashion truck, I was invited to an event hosted on a grassy field. The area for my truck was uneven, so the right two wheels had to be driven up onto raisers. Everything was going great until an hour into the event when the wheels rolled completely off the stands. The heavy rains the day before had caused the raisers to sink and flip over.

It all happened so quickly, with about 10 women inside the fashion truck. We all grabbed onto each other as the truck tilted and the necklaces hanging on the wall of the truck went flying, as did the clothes and the complementary raspberry mimosas most of my customers were holding.

Thankfully, no one got hurt and we all laughed with each other as everyone pitched in to get things cleaned and reset.

The lesson I took away was how important a solid foundation was — for my fashion truck wheels, but also for how I needed to build my business in general. And also? To always make sure my business liability insurance is up to date!

Are you working on any new exciting projects now? How do you think that might help people?

We are currently working on a quarterly subscription box that will contain three purposeful products as well as an online component.

With subscription boxes being a big trend and something our customer base has continued to ask us for, we wanted to bring to market a box that also met the deeper needs of our target consumer.

While I want to keep most of the details secret at this time, there will be an “out of the box” mental health component to our subscription box that offers access to meaningful workshops with professional therapists who can help women create positive change in their lives, and in the lives of others..

Which tips would you recommend to your colleagues in your industry to help them to thrive and not “burn out”?

In my work with makers and independent brand owners, I have found that many — if not most — have already been through several rounds of burn out. One of the first recommendations I make is for them to delegate the $10 / hour work they’re currently doing. This work looks like making their products, answering customer service emails, packing and shipping out orders, and other operational tasks that can be handed off to an intern or part time employee.

I receive initial push back when I recommend hiring and paying someone to take on these operational tasks because many business owners do not feel like they can afford to pay someone else when they’re not currently paying themselves a solid salary. If they don’t seek out support in running the day to day activities of their business, they’ll keep running on a hamster wheel straight towards burn out.

A big source of burn out in the maker and brand owner community is working hard, putting in the hours, and not seeing a return on time investment. There’s a big difference in $10 / hour work and $1,000 — $10,000 / hour work. Translated another way: there’s a difference between being busy in your business versus focusing on activities that actually strategically move the needle in your bottom line.

A big shift away from burn out happens when business owners delegate that $10 / hour work, even if it that means starting out by hiring someone for only 10 hours a week. By investing $100 — $150 per week in payroll, they get back 10 hours in their work week that they can spend focusing on tasks with a better return on investment to their bottom line such as pitching new wholesale accounts and putting together a strategic social media content plan.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person to whom you are grateful, who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?

My employees. Anyone who comes into contact with our business would tell you that my colleagues are the heartbeat of our business. We now have a team of 16, and these women keep me laughing every single day. I feel immensely grateful to work alongside such a group of smart, talented, and driven people. We have so much fun together. We’re even been known to create music video parodies for social media to get our customers excited about promotional weekends at the shop.

And we could not be more different. We range in age from 16 to our 50’s and represent different backgrounds, skill sets, personalities, countries, cultures, and lived experiences. I believe that diversity in the workplace is very important, and I have seen this be a big contributing factor to our success as a business.

How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?

Anytime someone shops at The Flourish Market online or in store, their purchase funds positive social change. They could be buying clothing made by sex trafficking survivors in Nepal, bracelets that support childhood cancer research, a leather bag made by women crushing the stigma of HIV and Aids in Ethiopia, earrings made by women transitioning out of addiction recovery programs, or even a children’s book that helps women escape domestic violence.

The women who create the products we sell are actively fighting for healing and social change in their communities. Their leadership has challenged me to be a change agent in a way that allows me to relate to and serve others from my lived experiences. I hope that part of my legacy is that I helped women feel less alone in their struggles. In a world that still has such a stigma around mental health, I want to play my part with my public platform in talking about anxiety, stress, and grief so that anyone struggling in private knows that therapy and help is available.

Ok super. Now let’s jump to the main questions of our interview. The Pandemic has changed many aspects of all of our lives. One of them is the fact that so many of us have gotten used to shopping almost exclusively online. Can you share a few examples of different ideas that large retail outlets are implementing to adapt to the new realities created by the Pandemic?

As large retailers have been able to corner the market of online shopping to meet consumer demand, there are other new realities created by the pandemic that are coming out in more recent studies. As an example, research is showing that we have never felt more lonely and disconnected as a society.

As a small retailer, I believe that we can run our business in a way that first supports the deeper needs of our customers during this continued challenging season, and we can trust that sales will follow.

In an effort to help our customers feel less disconnected, we have been hosting free gatherings in our shop where groups of neighbors, friends, or co-workers can come to hang out for two hours, enjoy complimentary mimosas, and have 10% of their purchase donated to the hostess’ favorite nonprofit. These parties have really helped raise morale with the women we get to serve, and they have been a catalyst for attendees to schedule future in person gatherings with each other. By the end of this year, we will have hosted more than 150 in store parties, accounting for a projected 25% of our total sales.

We’ve also focused on creating a phenomenal in store shopping experience. We want our customers to feel safe, both physically and emotionally, while picking out gifts or clothes. For many of our customers, their bodies experienced changes during the pandemic and they have come to us for professional help with fit and styling. The new realities created by the pandemic have presented us with additional opportunities to serve our customers with a more personalized approach, something they cannot find online with large retailers.

In your opinion, will retail stores or malls continue to exist? How would you articulate the role of physical retail spaces at a time when online commerce platforms like Amazon Prime or Instacart can deliver the same day or the next day?

I believe that malls will struggle to survive in the coming years, but I’m confident that small independent retailers will continue to thrive because of our commitment to providing an exceptional personalized shopping experience in our physical retail spaces.

I do believe that consumers want convenience and deals. That’s what they’ll find with Amazon and Instacart. But to think that the majority of consumers would choose to only shop with large retailers and have their purchases sent directly to their doorstep would be shortsited. Humans are complex and want to feel seen, known, and connected. Small retailers need to stay focused on personalizing the in store experience for their customers to meet these complex needs.

And for a growing number of consumers, they want to see the impact of their purchases, and to know who their dollars are going to support. You can see that trend being noticed by giants like Amazon; in the most recent Amazon Prime Day, Amazon offered a $10 credit to members who spent $10 on select small business products and brands based in the U.S. Why did they offer this? I believe because they are feeling the pressure and increased demand of consumers wanting to “shop small.”

When thinking about Amazon vs. small independent retailers like my store, we are truly serving two different purposes and fulfilling two different needs.

The so-called “Retail Apocalypse” has been going on for about a decade. While many retailers are struggling, some retailers, like Lululemon, Kroger, and Costco are quite profitable. Can you share a few lessons that other retailers can learn from the success of profitable retailers?

I think the real point here is not to focus as much on what other profitable retailers are doing, but to instead spend most of your time focusing on the customers you serve, and their changing needs and desires. Customers vary from one business to another so what works for one retailer may not work for your business.

Your customers have the best insights and if you engage with them and ask them for their feedback, common themes and recommendations will arise. For our business, this looks like me jumping on the phone or sharing a coffee with a customer at least once a week. It looks like holding quarterly focus groups with 10–15 customers over dinner, which we were able to take virtual during the pandemic. We engage with our followers on our social media channels with voting options, and we also send out a two question survey every six months to our email list to which hundreds of customers respond.

Your customers want to help you be successful, and they have really great ideas. The big follow-up step most retailers miss when seeking the recommendations of their customers is actually showing them the action steps you’re going to take based on their feedback. If you can show how you’re following through on even a few of their collective ideas, your customers will feel positively tied to your brand and will become your walking billboards.

Amazon is going to exert pressure on all of retail for the foreseeable future. New Direct-To-Consumer companies based in China are emerging that offer prices that are much cheaper than US and European brands. What would you advise to retail companies and e-commerce companies, for them to be successful in the face of such strong competition?

Don’t compete on price; you’ll lose every time.

I think businesses make a fatal mistake when they focus on Amazon as their main competitor and attempt to keep up with what the giants are doing. Instead, my advice is to throw your focus on your specific target customer and understand how you can show up to serve them well.

I like to use a Venn Diagram model when planning out the next steps for our business, which has been especially helpful during the pandemic. In the left circle my team and I write down the needs and ideas we’ve been hearing from our customers. In the right circle we write down the ideas and resources we have to show up well for our customers. We think of the right circle as “the secret sauce” we bring to the market that differentiates us in the client experience. Whatever ideas land in both circles and thus overlap, make it onto our consideration list for action planning.

My last piece of advice is that in the face of strong competition, the riches are in the niches. When you can identify a very specific customer base you want to serve with a catered product suite, the broad marketing and lack of customer care offered by discount brands will not be able to compete for your customer.

Based on your experience and success, what are the five most important things one should know in order to create a fantastic retail experience that keeps bringing customers back for more? Please share a story or an example for each.

You can find it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cu-sj-fXZWA

One of the biggest struggles I hear from retailers right now is how hard it is to find new and unique products and brands that meet the changing needs and expectations of their customers. Never before have we been challenged as retailers to expand the breadth of our product offerings in order to keep our customers coming back, both in store and online.

With that said, there has never been a better time for makers and independent brand owners to pitch retailers. We are looking for you and your products, and we cannot find you!

Here are five changes we’ve seen in retail strategy due to the pandemic, and corresponding recommendations for makers and brand owners pitching us.

1. Retailers are making smaller, more frequent buying decisions. We’re still in a very uncertain, ever evolving environment and we’re taking precautions to minimize the risk of getting stuck with inventory that does not sell. We also need to be more agile with our buying budgets so we can be responsive to consumer demands. Recommendation: Lower your minimum opening order amount to $150 or less (unless you sell luxury products). Gone are the days of opening orders of $500 — $1,000. If you want to get into the doors of new retailers in 2021, you need to minimize their risk. If your products perform well in their stores, you can still expect to make $500 — $1,000 in sales over the course of the months that follow. Additionally, you’re going to want to ship out quickly. Same day shipping or next day shipping to your retail partners is preferred. Because we are keeping a low amount of inventory in stock, we’re more likely to find ourselves in situations when we unexpectedly run too low on inventory. When we’re in a pinch, we will prioritize placing orders with brands who consistently get our products to us quickly.
2. The role of online shopping + curbside pick-up has increased, even with small retailers. It’s not only big retailers who have elevated their online presence; providing a seamless online experience became a new “must do” for brick + mortar shops. Now, you’ll find the large majority of products in any given physical store also available for purchase in their online shop. Recommendation: Elevate your product images. Consumers associate the nicety of your product with the nicety of your product images. Now is the time to allocate a portion of your budget to hiring a professional product photographer, or to do your research on upgrading your DIY photography. Many retailers will now no longer buy from brands who do not have readily available professional images of their products because we know the merchandise won’t perform well online, and subpar images will downgrade the perception of our online shop.
3. Product breadth over depth, and a focus on new arrivals is our priority. As retailers constantly released new products to their customers during the pandemic in an effort to test what would sell, consumers got used to seeing weekly new arrivals. And now? Retailers can’t go back. We must consistently meet consumer expectations with new products each time a customer visits us in store or online. Recommendation: Offer new product collections 4–6 times per year. Prior to the pandemic, brands would traditionally introduce two collections per year: Spring and Fall. But to keep orders consistently coming from your retail partners, you’ll need to get in front of us more often with new products. If you don’t have the bandwidth to launch 4–6 full collections in one year, consider offering mini collections in two to three month intervals. By doing this, you’ll generate more sales with your retail partners, as well as with your direct to consumer base.
4. Consumers want to shop their values, so retailers are prioritizing their buying budgets with brands embodying conscious consumer trends. Whether it’s Made in the USA, sustainable, handmade, Black owned, female owned, LGBTQ+ owned, eco-friendly, fair trade — retailers are being held accountable by their customers to get these products onto their store shelves quickly. Recommendation: Ensure that your brand values are at the forefront of your marketing. This includes the homepage of your website, every product page, your “about” page, your social media bios + posts, your marketing materials, and your pitch emails. And most importantly for your brick + mortar retail partners, make sure your product packaging and supporting merchandising materials include these important details. Product packaging that displays a conscious consumer trend also helps position your products to customers as great gifts for friends and family.
5. We are more open than ever to being pitched by new brands. In fact, we welcome your pitches! It’s such a feeling of relief when an email lands in our inbox that contains products our customers will love. Recommendation: Pitch us! If you’ve done your research on a retailer and you believe that your products would sell for us, please don’t wait for us to find you. We need your products to be successful! My most important tip when pitching retailers is to “show them you know them.” The biggest mistake I see made in pitch emails is having the focus be about you and your products. Your email should actually open by talking about the retailer. This will not only catch the retailer’s attention because it’s not a classic copy and paste email, it will show them that they’re worth your time and that you’re going to be a great partner.

Thank you for all of that. We are nearly done. Here is our final ‘meaty’ question. You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

I think all of us as women have told ourselves untrue stories about our worth. As I’ve had the honor of getting to know the women who create our products at The Flourish Market, I’ve realized that they are actively living out the counter narrative of the one society has created for them. It’s powerful to see them tell a new story with their lives.

When we break free of the untrue stories playing on repeat in our heads, we get to offer that freedom to the women around us.

The movement has already started. I just hope I keep leaning into courage to be a part of it.

How can our readers further follow your work?

You’ll find helpful free resources for makers and brand owners on my website at www.emilygreyco.com. And if you enjoy business tips along with seeing the (sometimes hilarious) behind the scenes of running a retail store and consulting business, make sure to follow me on instagram at www.instagram.com/emilygreyunderway.

This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!