Felix: Today I'm joined by Rachel Huntington from Bonjour Fete which sells modern party supplies and gifts for the everyday host and hostess. It was started in 2014 based out of Studio City, California, and is a seven-figure business. Welcome Rachel.

Rachel: Thank you so much. I'm so happy to be here.

Felix: Yeah. So the idea behind this business all started with your daughter's birthday party. So tell us about that party. Like what did you find out during the planning process?

Rachel: Well, I think it really kind of came to the forefront of what I wanted to do because I was living in Canada at the time, and if you've ever spent much time in Canada the amount of stores and the type of stores, especially niche stores, they're not as abundant as they are in the States. When it came time for my little girl's birthday, I went to a local store that had party supplies, and everything was matching, like matching princess cup, matching princess plates. It was the same image barfed on 25 things. So I just thought that we could be a little bit more original than that, and really started looking into it and found this whole other world of partyware that existed that I just couldn't find. So that's kind of how it got started.

Felix: That makes sense. So this whole other world of partyware you mentioned that you discovered, was it online? Where did it exist that you saw out in the world that you didn't feel like you had access to it, and probably others like you didn't have access to it?

Rachel: Well, I was really focused on not finding commercial themes. I really wanted to encourage creativity. You see that a lot in kids' toys. They'll have a very commercial themed toy, and then you can also just get plain wooden blocks. And some people just have the kids that like to play with the bag that the wooden blocks come in. So I just thought having some good basics that looked nice and performed well and were stylish; I just couldn't find any. 

So I, in the beginning, couldn't afford to go to a lot of trade shows and research what products were out there. So instead I just followed the trade shows on Instagram and really kind of combed through who they were tagging and what the brands were that they were tagging. I would look in the directory for the trade shows to see who was showing there and then research those companies one by one. It was a long process. It would've been much easier just to walk up and down the aisles of the trade shows. But it was a good way to start without spending much money; it just took a lot of time.

Felix: I like it. That's certainly a lot of entrepreneurial problem-solving. So rather than paying to go to these trade shows or having to take time to fly out to one you just found them online, and then you found out who the vendors were at these places. And I'm assuming you reached out to them directly. What was that conversation like to get them to essentially do business with you?

Rachel: It was like, "Hey, I saw that you were exhibiting at New York Now. I wasn't able to make the trade show, but I'd love it if you could send me a PDF of your catalog." I mean, really it was just that on repeat. The information is out there; you've just got to dig for it.

Felix: And you were looking for this information for yourself, or did you just have the idea that, "I'm focused on actually starting a business, and I want to try to work with these vendors at scale."

Rachel: Are you saying why did I look for those specific vendors?

Felix: No, just more like if you, at this stage when you were reaching out to these vendors on social media, on Instagram, were you reaching out to them with the intention of sourcing inventory from them, or were you just kind of wanting to know how can you buy this yourself for your own kind of party planning?

Rachel: Exactly. In the beginning I was doing it to see if they offered wholesale. When I started in 2014, Etsy was still a giant. And the problem I was finding with Etsy is that you would order something, and it would take like four to six weeks to get because someone was making it in their basement. So it'd be really exciting finding somebody that could do something that could be customized, but sometimes it just took a really long time to get it. Party supplies, there were a ton of part supplies on Etsy, and handmade and beautiful ones. But getting a bunch of them at once was quite a challenge. So I just pre-purchased a bunch so that my clients could come to me and find it already made and didn't have to wait four to six weeks for somebody else to make them.

Felix: I think i saw you had mentioned to that you had a party planning business that you started with. What was your introduction? Or did you first look to source this inventory because you wanted to sell it on a store?

Rachel: I actually started in production at Warner Brothers. And I think the background that I had, when you work as an assistant in the entertainment industry you just learn how to get things done. You never say no to anything. Can't is not an option. So finding things, being resourceful, and making things happen is your everyday task list. 

So when I was challenged with finding all these great products while living in Canada, which shipping was difficult to find people that would ship to you, especially small mom and pop shops on Etsy, I just kept going at it. I just really kind of I guess honed in on a few people that I wanted to carry their line, and really just formed a relationship with them and started kind of hoarding products. That's really how it started. I wanted to throw a great party for my daughter, and I really enjoyed the process of curating everything. And so at the end of it I had the knowledge of where to get everything, so I said, "Let's do this for my friends, and let's do this for my family and my neighbors." And all of a sudden I'm looking into Shopify.

Felix: Got it. Okay. So talk to us about this transition then. Because you went from, it sounds like, almost a service-based business where you're doing this party planning, but then also sourcing all of the material in for the party itself, and then getting to a point where you then decided to get the party supplies directly to customers rather than to potentially clients of yours. So when did this transition happen between service-based business where you're doing the party planning, into more of a product-based business where you're selling the products itself?

Rachel: As anyone knows that orders wholesale, nobody will really let you buy one of things. So everything has a minimum, and some companies have quite large minimums. I was kind of forced to purchase a certain amount per vendor, and because of that I had a lot of extra. So it was finding something to do with the extras that really kind of drove the entrepreneurship of the start of this business. It was putting together the package. In the beginning we started with party kits. So if you were having a mermaid themed birthday it'd be cups and plates and napkins and everything all together in one place so that you could take the guess work out of it. It was all done for you.

I quickly realized that people liked to decide for themselves what each item was, so I got out of the party box kit very quickly. In fact, the beginning of my business the company was called Boite Fete, and it literally just means Party Box. But I realized that nobody in the US could ever say the word Boite, and it didn't sound great, so Bonjour happened because I was just trying to figure out a word that Americans could say and could recognize, and that was the first one that popped up in my head.

Felix: Nice. So I would've assumed to that the kits would've been the right approach because you're doing party planning already which is super kind of hands-on done for you style. Now you're transitioning to selling products. Like why wouldn't someone out there want to also buy something that's mostly done for you, but of course they have to piece it all together and do the majority of the planning, but everything's pieced together. So when did you learn or what did you see that made you realize that that assumption or hypothesis that people wanted a party box was not the right approach?

Rachel: No, it was just the email questions. "Oh, I'm having this many people. Your kits are only for 12, but I'm having 16 people, and I don't want to have to buy another box just for four other people." It was, "I really like this theme, but I have my own napkins." Or "We're not using cups; we're using water bottles." There was just always something. So just after just the email maintenance, which anyone running a business knows that they would love to have less emails in their inbox, I just found that offering them as individual items was just way easier.

Felix: Right. Makes sense. So during this phase where you are sourcing inventory early on, what were the kind of first types of supplies or type of inventory that you're stocking and also eventually selling on your own site? Did you have lots of SKUs at first, or did you start off with just a few categories? What was your focus?

Rachel: In the beginning, it was very basic. I had tassel garlands, they're these little handmade tissue twisted strips. Those were really popular. It was very basic. There were maybe 10 themes, and I just tried to curate different products that fell into those categories. But yeah, no, it was pretty basic. Now it's a little different. Now we have almost 9,500 products, different SKUs. It's kind of insane. So obviously it's a challenge to keep track of that, but I know every single product.

Felix: Wow. Yeah, so I definitely want to talk about managing the inventory in a second, but one thing I picked up on was that you moved away from the box parties, but you still gave some direction to customers by having these themes, and within the themes they can kind of pick and choose from within this almost safety of the theme. Is that the idea?

Rachel: Exactly. So within that category or that collection on Shopify, when you clicked it there would be different options within that color palate or within that genre.

Felix: Makes sense. Okay. So let's talk about the 9,500 products. You started with I'm assuming less than 20? What did you start with? Talk to us about how this grew to such a large number of products.

Rachel: In 2016, I moved from Montreal back to LA, and that was really when the amount of products kind of took off. I was always limited in Canada with what I could receive and what companies would sell to me. So when my husband's job was done in Canada and we moved back to LA, I had all these products in my basement. And I still have some of the storage containers that they're still in. And we put them on a moving truck, and we brought them out to California. So I want to say we probably have like 40 bins worth just within those themes. What was the question? Why do I now [crosstalk 00:13:28]

Felix: I guess the more important question is how did you decide what new products to add? What was your thought process when you start growing the catalog? How'd you decide what kind of new products you should go after next?

Rachel: Well, I think it's really just demand. When we moved to LA and I opened the first retail store, it was talking to clients. I'm never going to be able to compete with the amount of products that a Party City has. If you go there, it's a superstore of just partyware. But because of that, people only had that to compare us to. They were used to 50 styles of forks. So at the end of the day I had to kind of accommodate at least 10% of that, just because it was necessary to grow our business. We had to have a lot of different options. 

Felix: So what were you hearing? Were people just saying, "How come you don't have this kind of fork?" What was the actual words that were coming out of their mouths that made you pay attention to write down, "Okay, they want this thing. Let me go after this next."

Rachel: Well, I also just think more products became available. There has been a great increase, which this is just so wonderful, of eco-friendly options, wooden and bamboo and things like that. Some companies are now adding color to the bamboo. It was really needing to have everything in every color. Our store's very rainbow-focused. Our shelves are color blocked, and because of that we kind of need every single item in every color. 

Felix: Okay, makes sense. Let's say someone reaches out to you, or you have decided to pursue adding a new product. What's that process like once you've decided that you want to add something new to your catalog? What's the process you follow today to source the inventory?

Rachel: I usually just start with a minimum quantity and try it myself, ask the girls that work in the store what their thought process or what the feedback is on those items. It's trial and error. It's not often that something just doesn't work at all. And the majority of our products are under $10, so there's very little risk in that regard to try something new. So if I meet somebody that's passionate about their brand, I want to try it.

Felix: Got it. Okay. So you mentioned that you ask the team in the stores. Now, you're talking about the physical stores, the physical retail stores, which we haven't gotten into yet. So let's get into it. So you were still doing e-commerce at the time. What made you decide to open a retail store?

Rachel: I ran out of room in my basement. I had a wall of storage bins. And I just loved it. There was one moment where I said, "Am I actually going to do this? I know nothing about retail. I work in entertainment. This is crazy. This is paperware and partyware." But I think because I lived in LA, and LA is a city where you can get anything. It's a huge city, and people have parties all the time all year-round. It's not often that there's weather restrictions, and people like to entertain a lot. And it blew my mind that I couldn't find any of this stuff in a retail store anywhere close to me. So it was really searching for like-minded stores and not finding them that I said, "I have to do this. It has to happen."

Felix: Okay. So was that first step then to set up a retail store? Because it's obviously a huge undertaking, much larger than just opening up a website. So talk to us about the steps that are involved, or that were involved, in opening your very first retail store.

Rachel: I have no shame in saying that I Googled how to do everything. I did not know the difference between a SKU and a barcode. It was trial and error all the way. I just dove in head first. The other thing that happened was a spot on a street near my home became available. So seeing that empty and seeing the for lease sign and getting excited about what these products that are usually stuffed into bins would look like on a shelf. I'm very visual, so it was all I could think about. There was no stopping me.

Felix: Yeah. If someone out there has an e-commerce store or e-commerce business that's growing and they also have this inclination that, "Maybe I should open up a retail store," what is the either cautionary tale or number one advice that you would give them before they set off on this adventure?

Rachel: Oh my goodness. Well, I think if you knew what it would take to start a business you would never do it, because it's way harder than you can imagine. But I think for me what it was also was I had these customers that were taking the time to go online to pick out their tableware and their decorations for their kid's party or a baby shower or wedding shower, and sometimes I would pack up their orders and it didn't quite all go together. Or I would be like, "Oh man, I wish I could've talked to that person and suggested this, because this is the one thing that this order is missing." And you can't really do that when someone orders something online. You don't want to write them like, "Hey, bad choice. Let me suggest something else." But you kind of can do that in a store. And the fun part about it is that our clients come in, and they grab things off the shelves and they lay it out on our counter, and they see it all together. That was never something that I was going to be able to offer online.

Felix: I see. So it makes that not just more real to your customers, but it also sounds like it makes it more real for you, that you see the person you're impacting. You can have almost more of a consultative layer to the business that you're doing with your customer because you're able to be in front of them and help them out that way. So I can definitely see the appeal of that.

Rachel: If you're in fashion you want to see people wearing your clothes, and I think if you're in parties it's kind of satisfying to see and hear the stories behind why people are celebrating these events. And they're coming in to buy party supplies because they are celebrating somebody, and there's something very special about that. They're creating memories. They're spending money on somebody that they love. It's not an errand. It's not buying milk or eggs. It's exciting.

Felix: What were some of the biggest challenges or sacrifices that you had to make now that you have a retail store or you have multiple retail stores that you would not have had to face with an online only business?

Rachel: Well, when we started, the juggling inventory was quite a challenge, especially the first few months that we opened the retail store and I had very limited supply on the shelves. Because we were ordering six and twelve of each item, if somebody purchased something online during that day and I didn't pull it from the shelf then it was possible that somebody would come into the store and purchase it. And it happened many times where I would get the ca-ching from Shopify and I would see an online order and somebody was walking around the store with that item in their bag. I was like, "Oh, now I'm going to have to send an email and say, 'Sorry, we're out of stock.'" 

So yeah, juggling inventory was a big deal. And then staffing. I am extremely passionate about what I do, and finding people that were equally as passionate is hard in the beginning. And because just taking on additional overhead is so overwhelming when you get started, it was a scary process, knowing that you're already taking on rent and utilities and all these additional expenses. But people were the most expensive and the most worth it. It allowed me to be able to pick up my kid on time and not have to put a 'Back in 15 Minutes' sign on the door.

Felix: So I think the metrics that you look at for an online-only business are much more straightforward. They're more kind of KPIs that you focus on. When it comes to physical store, are there different kind of metrics that you try to pay attention to that gives you a gauge of how well things are going? 

Rachel: I like to look at return customers. That's really important to me because it's built on relationships. Ideally, I'm celebrating somebody's baby shower, and then when they have a baby I'm celebrating their kid's first birthday and second birthday. So about one-third of our clients are repeat customers. And I think the benefit that we have there is that all these people are buying our products and then going home and having a party with their friends, the 20 friends. So it only takes a few friends saying, "Where did you get that," to then have people coming back to find you. I think if you're wearing an outfit on the street and one person stops you then you might've been able to tell the one person where you got your shirt. But at a party you're telling a lot of people. So I think that word of mouth has really helped.

Felix: So when it comes to word of mouth and also repeat customers, whenever I ask this question about like how do you encourage more of that, or what leads to more repeat business, or what leads to referrals, a lot of people say you have to have great products. So beyond that, what do you like to do or what do you think has a big impact on encouraging customers to come back or for them to refer your business to others?

Rachel: Obviously the products are important, but the products aren't going to stay the same for the same person. So they're not going to come back and usually they're not going to buy the same product. For us it's going to be a different theme. So we like to offer a good experience. We provide the inspo and the solution. A lot of our clients come in here with a Pinterest board of all the ideas that they want to happen in a two-hour span of their event. And it's kind of our job to help them visualize and purchase everything that makes that dream a reality. 

Felix: Does that mean when it comes to hiring, do you have to hire party planning experts, or do you train that kind of stuff? How do you get a staff trained up to be consultants for your clients?

Rachel: I would say that because we're a modern take on a Party City no one's getting inspired by the curation of Party City. I think the difference is when you walk into our doors we're genuinely here to help. We're here to offer an experience. We provide the inspiration and the solution. And I think that as soon as you've experienced that once then it's going to be the only way you'll want to shop.

Felix: Yeah. That makes a lot of sense. Because I think my experience when I walk into a Party City the approach is, "What's the cheapest thing we can buy that can piece it all together?" But you're obviously trying to move away from that kind of value proposition and more focus on, like you mentioned, cohesively planning the party. People come in with these inspiration boards from Pinterest, and help be a consultant basically to help them plan it all out. So I think that makes sense. That's what you mean by experience. Layering on that customer service allows you to get that repeat business and then, of course, the referrals as well.

Rachel: It's amazing to me how many people will come in to the store and walk around and say, "I'm not quite sure what I'm looking for. I'm not quite sure what theme I want to do for this event." And then we'll start to make suggestions, and then they'll pull out their phone and say, "Well, actually here's this Pinterest board." And I'm like, "You did. You knew. You knew exactly what you wanted. You have this. It's on your phone." So then we just kind of help them find the right items to make that Pinterest board happen.

Felix: That's funny. So you've now expanded the first store you opened. What were the circumstances that allowed this to happen? What made you decide, "We feel good with what we have so far. Let's keep on growing this thing."

Rachel: Well, I think in the beginning I was very naïve to think that I wouldn't have to do balloons. Balloons get big. They start out very small, but they get very big, and they take over a lot of space. So within a month or so of opening I knew that balloons were going to have to be a giant part of our business. Even today it's probably about a third of our business. Balloons take up a lot of space. So that was kind of the first nudge to move and expand was just to allow room for balloons.

Felix: I'm assuming expanding the store is probably easier than starting a brand new one, but I'm sure there are also potentially unique challenges that come with expansion. So talk to us about that. What were some of the challenges you faced with expanding a physical store?

Rachel: Technically, construction. In the beginning you're just using existing shelving or items that you can find that weren't necessarily made for you but you make it work. And I think as soon as you expand you need to be deliberate about every inch of your store, especially when you are paying a premium. So construction and learning how to make fixtures that work for you that are great for display, it was a huge learning curve. And eventually we landed on certain types of tables and bins that customers like to shop from that makes it easy for them and easy for us to clean up and keep organized too, because everything has to be organized.

Felix: Yeah. It sounds like you get a lot of feedback from just customers being in your store. You mentioned that you talked with a team that are working the floor at the store to understand what kind of products are resonating, what kind of products people like, and of course also about who they like to shop. How do you make sure that you're actually collecting this information, rather than just forgetting about it or not being conscious of these things that are happening in your store that you can take back and find ways to improve that customer experience? Do you have some kind of process that takes in the information that you're getting from the team, what you're seeing, and then turning into potential action items?

Rachel: Yeah. We use something called Wunderlist. Have you ever heard of it? Wunderlist?

Felix: Yeah, it's like a planning tool almost.

Rachel: Exactly. So we have that on our POS system up at the front. We just have an area where when somebody asks for something and we don't have it, it goes in the Wunderlist, and then we'll research it. And eventually if the same items keep coming up over and over we make it a reality. So especially with two different stores in two different areas of town, when the same thing comes up multiple times we know it's time.

Felix: Right. Okay. So let's talk about that second store then. What were some of the biggest lessons you learned from that first store or maybe the expansion of that first store that you knew you had to figure out or nail down before opening that second store?

Rachel: For the second store, we really just curated it even more. We took all of our best sellers and put those front and center. Our first store is double the size, so we can have more fun and experiment and provide larger quantities, which is why most of our party planner clients in town come to our Studio City store, because we just have a lot here. But in Palisades, we are in a development where people aren't necessarily planning a party that are walking in, but maybe they're going to a birthday party. And that kind of drove us in the direction of needing to provide gifts. So all of a sudden, instead of just being party experts we were learning to curate what gifts people were going to parties wanted to bring. That's a huge part, especially in the fourth quarter, gifts.

Felix: Right. Now, when you are running now these two stores, one that's been expanded from the very first incarnation, now the second store, and of course e-commerce business, how do you manage the e-commerce side with the physical retail side? How do you balance between which one you should spend your time on?

Rachel: I was extremely lucky because about a month before opening the second store the locations feature became a reality in Shopify. I had been following it for probably about a year. There have been rumors that you could add a second location. I was crossing my fingers every day. I actually don't know how we would've done it if that feature hadn't become available. But lo and behold, one day it popped up on my screen. And it is a challenge. When we receive merchandise we have to split it between the stores. It's very time-consuming, but it's necessary for us to have accurate numbers so we know what to order and the quantity and how to track it.

Felix: Makes sense. Okay. So now that, again, you have both sides, you mentioned to us that the most successful way that you've been able to market the business online is through Instagram, and specifically tagging the products to link right to the product page. So tell us more about that strategy. How do you create content on your Instagram in a way that shows off your products?

Rachel: Well, I decided early on not to showcase a lot of parties that my customers were doing or parties that I planned because I felt like they were really personal. They were people's real events. I felt like it wasn't my business to show off their home or what I did in their home specifically. So instead, I decided to do photo shoots of what it could look like. And I understand that it's not always in a realistic setting. I'm in a store early morning and have plenty of time to set it up. It's a little different than Saturday morning running around trying to set up a table when your kid keeps eating all the candy off the treats table. But yeah, I think styled photo shoots were really clutch. I found a photographer that I loved who lives very close by, and we just started scheduling holiday shoots. And every time we get new products we shoot them but as you would use them in a party, not just a clean product shot.

Felix: So you're basically creating inspiration albums and then having your products in there. And you're talking about tagging the products. You mean basically Instagram's e-commerce product feature where you can tag the products inside the photos themselves?

Rachel: The tag feature is fantastic. Whenever we do show a table setting or a decoration or a whole party setup, the ability to tag the items so that the person can just click on it and be led right to the Shopify link is so brilliant. And even in the Insta story, being able to swipe up to purchase, that's really kind of been our best marketing tool.

Felix: Yeah. So definitely want to talk about how you use the Instagram stories in a second. How many products do you usually put in these photo shoots? What's overdoing it? How much can you showcase in each of these photos that you put out?

Rachel: Well, we do parties so there's never overdoing it. That word doesn't really exist. The more the merrier. I don't limit it. I know that it can be confusing with tags to tag a bunch of things, so usually I just tag what the standouts are. But yeah, I think it just cleans it up and makes it easy for people. Sometimes it's hard to hunt for products, especially when you're searching by color and a million things come up that are that color. So it just makes it nice and easy. Just, "I want that," and then click it.

Felix: Makes sense. Do you have a process or a system for this? Is there a content calendar, or do you just find, "Okay, I have time this morning before the store opens. Let me put this together." How do you systematize this so that you are able to consistently produce content for your Instagram that has the product tagging?

Rachel: There's really no system other than usually at least four times a week between 7:00 AM and 7:15. It's the sweet spot of when I wake up and my kids are not quite yet up yet. I know that that is my moment to post. So if anyone wakes up early the post probably isn't going to happen. I do it first thing. I try to do it several times a week. And it's hard. Holidays are a big part of our business, so when it's nearing a holiday we start putting out that content a good six weeks beforehand to give people ideas and inspiration on how they would decorate for that season. 

Felix: When you do have the photographer come in, do you try to mass create the content, or are you just creating one shoot at a time? How's that work?

Rachel: We usually shoot one holiday at a time. If you think about it, there's actually a lot of holidays. I consider summer a holiday. I consider pretty much every month is leading up to something. September is really kind of the only time that it's a little bit stale. But other than that, there's Halloween and Thanksgiving and then Christmas. And then it's New Year's, and it just goes on and on. We try to do it by theme and holiday usually.

Felix: Got it. So what about the Instagram story? What's the strategy there? How do you decide what goes in there versus in the feed?

Rachel: People really like seeing Instagram stories for process pictures and videos. I think that a lot of times they like seeing that my office is filled to the brim in boxes or that we can barely shut our van door because there's so many balloons exploding out of it. They like seeing the good and the bad, and I like sharing the good and bad, because it's not always a pretty picture. Sometimes, as fun as it is to walk into a store and everything's done and sparkly and beautifully presented, it takes a lot of moving and unpackaging and pricing and all those things that no one really ever thinks about. 

I think seeing people's process makes me more invested in the people. It's nice to know what they were doing earlier in the day and that it wasn't always an easy finished look, that it was maybe a little hectic before the scene was set.

Felix: Right. Yeah, it definitely helps to give that, "Hey, you're a human on the end of this." It's not like just a completely staged photo that you're putting together; like you're showing them how you're doing it. I think that's important to show the process, like you mentioned. These are obviously great ways to engage and drive the customers to your store. How do you get people to actually follow your profile? How did you grow your following and get people to see the content in the first place?

Rachel: I think it was really organic. I've never used a service or an app or anything like that, so it was just doing all original content. That's what people like to see. People that were following our account knew that they were going to get original content. It's hard to stay ahead of the trends, and it's certainly hard to try to show a level of perfection at all times through a pretty picture. But just original content, and responding to people's DMs, and responding to the comments. It really just has grown very organically.

Felix: Were there certain types of content that seemed to work better than others to get engagement? I'm looking through your feed now. I obviously see the themed post that you're talking about, but there's also some where it's just like one product or maybe more like lifestyle shots. What kind of photography do you find for anyone out there that is looking to grow their brand's social media, their brand's Instagram? Original content you mentioned, but what types of content? What seems to work well to kind of kick things off for you?

Rachel: I think showing your products how you would use them. That's what seems to land the most for us. It's seeing a blank product picture is not early as fun as seeing a product in a party setting. So I do feel like I have a little advantage in that the products are being styled with very colorful other products. Color has definitely been the key to our success. The images just pop out in people's feed because we are selling beautiful decorations essentially.

Felix: Makes sense. So you mentioned a couple apps previously. Wunderlist. You mentioned the Shopify locations feature. Are there other apps that you rely on or tools that you really on to help run the business?

Rachel: I'm currently loving an app called Delirious Profit. It really helps me understand my profit margins and how many products I have. And what I like about it is it automatically defaults everything to 50%. So in Shopify right now you have an option to put in a cost price. When I started with with Shopify that was not an option. So a lot of our older products I relied on this app to just go ahead and put it at 50%. It wasn't always 50%, but at least we were starting off at a percentage that was close to what it was. So Delirious Profit I really love. Our store schedules and time off requests and availability and all that stuff, we use a company called When I Work, and it's really great. The girls can clock in and clock out that way. And I get sent a chart, and it makes it super easy to see, "That person is continuously late."

Felix: Sure. So it basically helps you manage the scheduling it sounds like for your employees.

Rachel: When I Work is great for scheduling, especially with two stores. It really makes it easy to make sure that you're covered. And then the last one that I really like is a company called Justworks, which does payroll processing and has HR benefits, which they've made it so much easier.

Felix: Awesome. So BonjourFete.com is the website. B-O-N-J-O-U-R F-E-T-E dot com. So you mentioned before, the holiday shopping season, the holiday season is super important for you guys. So what are you doing, as we edge up against the holiday shopping season, to prepare?

Rachel: This year we're actually doing an only-Christmas popup. We're really excited about it. You'll find all the Christmas items in one place with nothing else, so just all Christmas. We could not be more thrilled to launch that, and that opens on November 1st.

Felix: Awesome. Very exciting. Thank you again so much for your time, Rachel.

Rachel: Thank you so much. I appreciate it.