You Can't Afford Me
You Can't Afford Me
The Girl-Powered Business Model That's Taking Over Midlothian
A simple request from her niece for a "makeup spa party" birthday sparked something extraordinary for Cherie Smalley. What began as a favor transformed into SpaTacular - a wildly successful kid-focused day spa and retail store in Midlothian, Virginia that parents and daughters can't stop raving about.
Cherie's entrepreneurial journey reveals the refreshing truth behind business success: sometimes your greatest opportunities aren't what you originally planned. After 14 years in the cosmetics industry, she took a chance on an event planning course that unexpectedly led to mobile spa parties for young girls. Five years of operating from her home gave way to her first brick-and-mortar location, followed by surviving COVID and expanding to a stunning custom space that delights everyone who walks through its pink doors.
What makes SpaTacular truly special is its commitment to age-appropriate experiences. While many beauty products marketed to children feature unicorns and cute packaging, they often contain ingredients like vitamin C and hyaluronic acid that shouldn't be used on young skin. SpaTacular offers candy-scented facials, kid-safe nail polishes, and warm towel service in an environment designed specifically for children to feel pampered without growing up too quickly.
The business model has created remarkable loyalty, with girls returning year after year for birthday celebrations. Perhaps most telling is how former clients return as teenagers to work at SpaTacular when they turn 16 - a powerful testament to the lasting impact this experience has on young lives. Now expanding with a VIP section for girls 10-12, Sheree continues evolving her brand while staying true to her mission.
Ready to experience this magical destination that's creating memories for families throughout Virginia and beyond? Visit www.spatacularparties.com or call 804-516-4411 to schedule your daughter's unforgettable spa day or party. Trust us - one visit and you'll understand why this business model has entrepreneurs and parents alike saying "why didn't I think of that?"
www.themrpreneur.com
Welcome to the you Can't Afford Me podcast, where we skip the fluff and dive straight into the grind Real entrepreneurs, real struggles and the unfiltered journey behind success. Let's get into it. Hey guys, thanks for joining us on another episode of the you Can't Afford Me podcast Today. I'm super excited because I'm actually hoping this lady that's in the studio right now will let me invest in her business one day, which I'm going to kick off the podcast immediately asking her about that. But long-term client, long-term friend, she has a phenomenal business model that I think this is going to spark a lot of thoughts in people listening to this episode. So today we have Cherie Smalley with SpaTacular Sheree. How are you doing today?
Speaker 2:I'm doing great. Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. So, real quick, give everybody like a 30-second rundown of who you are and what you do.
Speaker 2:So my name is Sheree Smalley. I'm the owner of SpaTacular. I'm trying to get away from the word party, so much now just because we're so much more than a birthday party destination. I have a full retail store for kids, but a kid's spa and birthday party destination in Midlothian Virginia, in the heart of Midlothian.
Speaker 1:So I told you when I first met you and walked into your old space this is one of the smartest business models I've ever seen, like any woman with a daughter that I've talked to and explained this model to them, and it literally is like ever seen, like any woman with a daughter that I've talked to and explained this model to them and it literally is like 15 seconds. Like I don't explain as well as you do, but I'll basically say, hey, she has a day spa for little girls and the moms and wives go crazy when they hear that. How did you originally come up with this concept?
Speaker 2:So really I was had had my last child, Carter. Carter and really was wondering.
Speaker 2:But you have all boys, I have all boys, I'm a boy mom and just really wanted to stay home with Carter but was getting out of the cosmetic industry is what I wanted to do. But still wanted to do something, but not quite sure. And I just had a really good friend that said, cherie, you need to be an event planner. And I just had a really good friend that said, sheree, you need to be an event planner. So just got online, realized oh wow, university of Richmond has an event course that I could take for event planning. So I didn't quit my job right away because I was part time in the cosmetic industry still, and just took this course Eight weeks. My teacher there at U of R offered me a job to intern with her. So I did do that. I had about six weddings underneath me and right around that time my niece Caitlin said Aunt Cherie, will you do my birthday? And I said what do we want to do this year? She said a makeup spa party.
Speaker 2:That's where the spark really began, then posted those pictures on my personal Facebook page, and then somebody from high school reached out to me that I hadn't seen in a very, very long time and said, hey, could I pay you to do my daughter's party?
Speaker 2:And I was like, what is she talking about? So once I met them and then listen to what she wanted, and I thought, whoa, wait a minute, because once I set it up and then parents were dropping their kids off at the house for a sleepover and I did a makeup spa party, here you go, moms. Can I have your business card? And I thought, wow, wait a minute. Maybe my mom was right, maybe I am on to something. So that's truly where the spark began 13 years ago, started out mobile, did that for five years, found my first brick and mortar in.
Speaker 2:Sycamore square in midlothian, stayed there seven years, made it, of course, through covid and all those things, but I knew really in 2021 I needed a bigger home I needed to find something. So now we're in our beautiful location, right there in village square it is absolutely gorgeous.
Speaker 1:So a couple nuggets there I want to break down. I've been like a lot of nuggets there I want to break down. I've been like a lot of podcasts and books I've been reading recently like and I fully thought this before. I want to hear your opinion on this where you know a lot of people say, follow your passion and you'll never work a day in your life. I've come to start learning that I think that's a bunch of BS where I'm not saying, do something you hate for the money, but just strictly going after your passion I don't think will fulfill your life the way people think so. But I love the way that that kind of came together for you, where the business kind of revealed this ultimately from a little kid ultimately is where this started to spark. But this wasn't something that you were even thinking about at all and it presented itself. And then you dropped another nugget there where you didn't quit your day job.
Speaker 1:I think too many people number one, especially if you're a first-time entrepreneur, it's it's one thing if you've built a business before and kind of stepped out on your own, that's one thing. But like when you're doing it for the first time, like you and I both did over a decade ago. You, you need to see if this is something that you're really built for, because off off camera, before we started recording, you and I were talking about like. I ultimately believe entrepreneurs are born, that they're not made like. You got it in your gut or you don't. Just like I.
Speaker 1:Look at a guy like LeBron James. You could put me in a gym working out 15 hours a day. I will never be able to play basketball like LeBron James, like a part of that was just born into his DNA. So what are your thoughts on that in terms of like, because following your passion is one thing, but like I think you can agree that there's never everything in your business is not something that you necessarily enjoy doing. We have to do the things we need to do in order to make the business successful. So what do you think about following your passion strictly in terms of starting a business?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, I think for me there at that beginning I thought, wow, this is a passion. I love to decorate. I love doing skincare makeup. I was teaching women all over Richmond you know, how to apply and to do skincare correctly. But really for me I would say really probably seven years, in that I was like oh, this is much more than you know. You got payroll, you got marketing, you got all these different things, yeah, once I went brick and mortar Once you know when I was mobile doing it, you know, going to your home.
Speaker 2:Everything was in my home station you know that I was supplying and storing, but once I went brick and mortar I think that's where I went. Okay, now this is real like this is um, and really truly, I opened the doors in, you know, 2017 and probably about six months in was asking myself what have I done?
Speaker 2:Now this is, this is a lot more than what I expected, and I think a lot of people think you, you know, you open a business, you have this idea, you put a sign on a building and people are pouring in. No, this is, you know, for me a lot, a lot of hard work. I did it really truly all on my own, and I did baby steps with it, and now I'm looking, you know, like I said, 13 years in now. What's the next step?
Speaker 2:So, I see, you know, I've gone through so many different stages as a business owner, but now I'm really starting to see that, you know, I do have something really special. It's you know, a lot is kind of in the works. What am I going to do next? What's spectacular?
Speaker 1:You know. So when I, when I tell you, when I first like there are very few business models that I've looked at and I'm like this is like the very first meeting we had, like you broke everything down to me, I said to you, sheree, you got to let me be part of it. Like I understand you want to pay us on the marketing side. How do I get a piece of this pie? Because I'm like I haven't seen this anywhere else and I see the reactions of people when they walk into your facility, kind of break down your services a little bit more. So, like I have a say my daughter is seven years old. She wants to do a birthday party. Talk to me about the options that we have, yeah.
Speaker 2:So currently, right now, there's three birthday parties that you could reserve with us All Things Spottacular a Spottacular Many Petty Party and a Spottacular Makeover Party. Max of 12 girls. So you can it starts kind of her and five friends, and then each friend after that's an additional, but a max of 12. We really do everything. You just get the kids. They're there, you bring the dessert and we do the rest.
Speaker 1:And you got like the robes for the girls.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and hot towel. You know a warm towel caddy, just as if they were big girls you know, but we do talk them through our facials. It's a candy facial. Everything smells like candy and ice cream. Um, you know, we're adding a lot of fun things for spring break and the summer for them that we're getting ready to put out, you know, on our social media, um, and just trying to stay, stay ahead you know, with everything is where I am right now and um and the ingredients in your products aren't the same as like a woman, of an adult woman is not using the same nail polish.
Speaker 1:Talk about that.
Speaker 2:And that's what's really important that I really want to get across, because you know it's not, we're not to use stuff that's made for women. I see a lot of, you know, young kids come into my space and my girls are talking to them about skincare. You know, and I know they're going. They're going to some of our places that are here at our local you know, malls and stuff, but it's not made for them.
Speaker 2:Parents really need to read the ingredients, that what's in there. They shouldn't be using things with vitamin C and hyaluronic acid and stuff like that on their face at all. It's not that that definitely should not be used, even though some of the packaging this is what gets me is the packaging looks like it's tailored for young girls.
Speaker 2:You know it could have a unicorn on it, it could have a panda bear on it, you know, but really it's not, it's not for them, they shouldn't be using it. But everything is made and safe that we use. It's all made for kids, safe for young skin nail polish as well. You know, and those are really important things that parents should know. You know they're kids still, they're young. Let's keep them young.
Speaker 2:Let's, you know, not try to get, and I think that's what's so important to me as a business owner too. Doing what we do is that I don't want them to grow up fast. You know, that's why it was important in my new space to open up upstairs. We'll have a VIP. You know, 10 and over. You know, I want to keep them coming you know, 10 to probably about 12 years old.
Speaker 2:I want to teach them you know, when it gets to that time, the importance of how to take care of your skin. So I'm kind of going first, you know, back around from where I started 14 years in the cosmetic industry, teaching. I had a phenomenal, you know clientele and I think I do now with kids. You know, so I mean, these kids come back, parents come back.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you told me some stories where some girls have been there for the last few years for their birthday party every single year.
Speaker 2:Every year. I mean some of them I've seen at least four times in a row. You know, to me that speaks volume. It's you know, I love the fact that they want to come back and that's why it's important for that upstairs.
Speaker 1:I want to keep them coming.
Speaker 2:That's why I'm really excited to share some new stuff here very soon, and even some of the. I may be making this up, but I think you told me before, even aren't some of your employees, girls that used to come there and have parties? Now you're starting. Yeah, so I have.
Speaker 1:Well, pause right there for a second, because I want people to realize how amazing that is to turn someone from a young age as a client to now you are providing employment for them. Like that speaks to the depth of the brand, because not a lot of business can keep someone for two months, let alone 10 years. And the fact that they're so entrenched with what you're doing and how you continue to progress that they go from customer to employee like that's a phenomenal thing. So like share what you've seen with that.
Speaker 2:It is pretty touching. I will say, um, you know, I have had and I have probably currently on my payroll right now, three that I've done, whether they were 10 years old, seven years old. I just hired for this summer two new girls that will start in May. Um, same scenario, they were really young. Um, this was their, you know, getting a first job at 16. I mean, I'm going to work at Spotacular.
Speaker 2:Hopefully, you know, and just you know, listening to them share their story and how really truly we touched them at a young age is pretty special to me. And now to see them come to work and really they see the vision kind of like I see for Spotacular, I mean they see the big picture, like this went from something that was mobile, that went to its first brick and mortar, and most of the girls that have worked for me I really did when I was mobile only one, no, I take that back two of them I did when I was in my Sycamore Square location, my first brick and mortar. So I don't know, it is special, it really is. And I see them share their story, like Ms Cherie did my birthday when I was, you know, seven years old, and they're like wow you know and it's really interesting when young girls come in.
Speaker 2:They want to know who's the owner of this place you know, and everybody's looking and you know, and I want to work here when I get bigger, you know, can I come work here when I turn 16. So you know it's it's special and that shows.
Speaker 1:So that's the difference between having a business and having a brand. You have a brand now, where years go by and this is still a thought in their head like that's not even as much as I enjoy working with you on the marketing side. Building a brand to that depth has nothing to do with anything that my team's done. That's all a credit to your personality, how you've worked with clients over the years and your personality like people just love you and they want to be around you. So even if they're like, hey, if I can't, if I've aged out of being able to have my parties here, I want to work.
Speaker 2:I want to come work.
Speaker 1:I want to work with her. Talk about that too, with. I want to go back to that transition. When you first became an employee I mean an entrepreneur so you were still working your, your day job you started this on the side. When did you know? Because I tell people all the time it's never a moment where it's like, oh, I'm making 2x what I make during the day, I guess I should just quit my day job. It never works out that way. When did you know, hey, it's time to hang up the day job and guess I should just quit my day job. It never works out that way. When did you know, hey, it's time to hang up the day job and go all in on this?
Speaker 2:You know, truly. I think you know every time I went into someone's home, when I set it up. You know and I would hear.
Speaker 2:But I'm going to give credit really to my husband. I'll be honest, my biggest cheerleader he really was. He said, sheree, if this is something, I think he could really see how much I loved. You know whether it was. You know, when we were mobile, everything was custom made. So we were custom doing flip flops, you know, and bowing every fabric you can imagine to make every little girl's birthday exactly what she wanted. But I just remember Scott just said you know what sure you've got this, you got this, you know. But in the back of my head I was like I have a career that I've been doing for 14 years and I think what was scary to me, you know, was jumping out.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But I knew deep down, you know it's the right thing to do. It's the right thing to do. And I remember talking to my boss and he said to me Mr Gerlich looked at me and he said sure you've got something special. He said you're going to be okay. And I just looked at him and I said please tell me you take me back If all this went poof and I was a little nuts you know, and he looked and he said you're not coming back, Don't look back.
Speaker 1:You're not coming back.
Speaker 2:That's a good boss, and I just was like wow, and I remember him he doesn't live in Virginia anymore, you know, but I just remember him looking at me and you know, and I was one of the top producers here in Richmond and he, he looked at me and said you're not coming back, you've got something special. And I just always remember that and I always remembered every party, everything I ever. It was wow, wow. Do you do this for adults? Do you only do this for kids? Like it was just that feel good. And I always love to make people feel special and feel good and that is really what I'm doing with young kids.
Speaker 2:I mean, it's just when you see them with the pink doors. Parents want to take pictures. You know, when the doors open up, it's just this wow, and they feel good. And that's you know. I always say if you're having a bad day, come by my shop, come swing by. You'll immediately change your mood when you walk in a Spock-tacular. Nothing but smiling faces there.
Speaker 1:So when because that's something I had to learn early on as an entrepreneur is we have to trust our guts you do like when we, because you'll get opinions from all which ways and sound like your circle.
Speaker 1:you got probably more positivity than I did when I when I stepped out on my own, but Just knowing that A if this blows up in your face, you can always come back and get a job. You have a skill set that you've developed. So that was probably what gave me the most comfort when I stepped out was, you know, I stepped away from a career that I was part of for 10 years in the mental health space. So I was like, if I try this for the next year and it doesn't work out, I can always go back and get a job, always go back and get a job. So I hate when that's something that holds people back in terms of like they don't want to take the risk because they feel like they're giving it all up.
Speaker 1:Like if you were great at what you did before, somebody is still going to hire you. Let's talk about something where you and I think have talked about this a lot on the side in terms of work-life balance. I ultimately believe it's BS to have work-life balance as an entrepreneur. It doesn't exist. One area of your life is going to teeter-totter this way, that or the other. You I probably have said to more often than not Sheree, you got to get your people to deal with that. You don't need to be doing all that. Talk to us about that for you, as you continue to scale up how you're able to let control of certain things and find comfort in that. Know that, like, in order to take this thing where you really want to go, that you have to employ people and put people in a position that you can trust them and allow them to do their thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So you know, for me just finding the right people, and I will say I believe, as of 2024, 2025, I have the best team right now. Um found two wonderful people to step up and kind of kind of be me now, which is nice. Um, I'm totally blessed to have found both of them. Um which this is not an easy thing to do, by the way, to find the right people yeah.
Speaker 1:I, I'm like you. I feel like just now the right team's in place.
Speaker 2:So that's kind of it's taken that long. You know it's taken that long. That is one thing that I have really prayed a lot about you know is finding the right people. Um, you know, and just learning that you know, it's going to be okay, sheree. You know, even though I like to be at every single child's birthday party, every single appointment, I love to meet the people that come into my space. I love to let them know you know, I love to thank them.
Speaker 2:If I'm not going to be there now, believe me, they're going to know when I'm calling and just following up that I'm stepping away for the weekend. But you're in great hands and so and everybody's like Cherie, absolutely, absolutely, go and enjoy your weekend. So I think you know, but it has taken a long time you know it, this didn't happen overnight.
Speaker 2:Once again, you know, this is, this is 13 years of hard work and you know, and it's you know, you'll see people, you'll meet people that think, oh, I could do this or we could do this. You know, okay, yeah, no, it's a lot more than what people. It all looks glamorous and it all looks fun and pretty and um.
Speaker 1:I can tell you you can look at something that someone's built. Most, most people want the end result. They don't want the work that went behind that. Like I used Michael, I think, on the episode I did yesterday, I used the example of Michael Jordan, how to me greatest basketball player of all time, he was a horrible father. He wasn't present at home and you can't be the greatest in the world at something and also be the greatest dad at the same time. Like something has to give and I think a lot of people just don't realize. Like the areas of sacrifice, because if your husband wasn't so supportive, this business could have cost you your marriage. But you had a supportive partner. You found the right partner to grow with in life and in business.
Speaker 2:And I did. I do still. I mean, that's probably one little thing in the back of my mind too, you know. I you know, austin had kind of grown up a little bit, but then there's still Carter coming up. So Carter was really young when I started Spectacular. So there were a lot of weekends. You know, basketball games I didn't get to make too. You know I did go to all the practices during the week because I was able to do that.
Speaker 2:But then his dad videotaped a lot of things for me. But there were. There were a lot of things that you know I missed out because I was building Spotacular. But once again, like you said, I had somebody that was supportive and you know, I've had many talks with Carter and he's like Mom, you know, and just like the other day he was like what are you doing? He called me and I told him he was like are you looking for a second location? What's up with you?
Speaker 1:You know so.
Speaker 2:I mean, he has seen this baby. He has seen it grow.
Speaker 1:I think my kids are, you know, very, very proud of their mother. That's to me because I wanted to start the business, like when I came to the realization. I was about 29, 30 years old when I realized I wanted to be an entrepreneur. This is well before. I'd never met my wife before. Obviously, we weren't married and had kids and all that stuff.
Speaker 1:It was always a vision for me to start building so that when I had kids, I didn't have to miss everything.
Speaker 1:But the point you made there too and you just helped me realize in this moment um, because I can remember back like I played, uh, I ran track and did soccer in high school, and I can think back to times when, yeah, my dad, like my parents, had a great marriage, like they're always, grew up in a great household, um, but there were times when my dad had stuff to do and he wasn't at every single track meet and sitting here as an adult years later I'm not like, oh, my dad missed this, my dad missed that, like he was supportive in every way that he could be, but just understanding there are certain things he had as the head of the household, certain things he had to do, but I think the lesson that you showed your boys in terms of like look what mom did. Like you guys got to see the hard work firsthand, so they'll never like when they walk into a small business they have. That thought in the back of their head is like man, I know how hard my mom worked to put something like this together.
Speaker 2:It's funny when we get together. You know now that my kids are older and um, you know it's mom. What could we do? Let's start a business Like I think they really. You know, and we've talked, we've played off some different things, you know, but I don't know, We'll see.
Speaker 1:Both their parents are entrepreneurs.
Speaker 2:Yeah, her husband's an entrepreneur, you know it is. So it's wild. So maybe it is kind of like in the genes, the blood. I don't know, but both of them have definitely, you know, picked my brain about a few things, and so I don't know Love that.
Speaker 1:What would you say? Sitting here, 13, 14 years later after starting this thing, what would you say has been the hardest part of being an entrepreneur?
Speaker 2:Well, for me, the sacrifice I mean I have, I've sacrificed a lot. I've missed a lot of birthday parties, like I think about all the kids in my family growing up and I look now and I'm like how are you 21? How are you 23 already? Like where did all this time go, you know? So you know, like back to finding the right people to help me run Spotacular. I mean I made it. My goal was I'm not missing this little one's birthday.
Speaker 2:I've missed a lot of other birthdays. So my nephew, I didn't want to miss his little boy's birthday, so I made sure and it was a Saturday. I wasn't there. So you know just those type of things and two probably employees. You know just finding employees.
Speaker 1:That's my number one.
Speaker 2:That's the number. Is you got to find the right people? You know, and I think making once you do and working through those things like I have systems for my business. There's definitely systems and. I have learned what my systems are and if you know they, I've taught them correctly and how I would want Spytacular to be ran. If I was not in here that day, then it'll, it'll. It'll all run, you know, smoothly and good, but I would say the right people to the sacrifices that I've, I've given.
Speaker 1:So what would you say? Because I feel like I just found this answer out, probably within the last three or four months. What? What is it that shows you that someone is the right person? Now, as you think about that, I'll tell you my new process. So I have a three step process now for hiring someone. One, the first interview is via Zoom, because I'm not going to waste time even bringing you in here if I don't know you the right person and I want to have a deeper conversation. If you pass that interview, I then bring you in for a second interview in person and have other people on my executive team part of that conversation. Then the third is something new that I started this year.
Speaker 1:You've seen the movie Social Network, like the story about mark zuckerberg starting facebook. It was one scene in there where like it's like midnight or something like that, and like they got programmers sitting there and everybody's cheering and like the programmers have to take a shot like every two minutes when the bell goes off or something like that, and they're just coding as quick as they can. And then, uh, mark's just trying to see who can code the best and the fastest and you know, someone does it and he leans in, shakes their hand, says welcome to facebook. Um, I said you know what? Why am I not doing something like that in my business? Now I'm not getting people hammered during their interview, but why am I not putting them through a stress test? Because we work in an industry where I need you to think on your toes, because we may have a script and a game plan going in to shoot something for you one day. And then you're like hey, the sign, the sign didn't come in, so we can't do this. Like, what else can we do today? I need someone who can think on the spot and be able to accommodate what a client needs.
Speaker 1:So, third interview I have them film something for me, my personal brand, and I'll let them know. Hey, here's a subject matter I'm going to speak on. You got 15 minutes to conceptualize this. Use any part of the office outside, inside, whatever you want, talk to these guys. They're going to get you set up with whatever gear you want. We're going to film this. Is going to take less than 10 minutes for me to knock out what I need to knock out, and you got 60 minutes to edit this video.
Speaker 1:Holla at me once you're done with that and I may have like three people in that process during the interview, and I'm looking at all these different things in terms of is this part because, like I'm kind of sitting back, part of it is the video. The other part is let me see how they're thinking. Number two let me see how they're interacting with my other staff and let me see how my staff is interacting with them. Do they initially like this person? Is this someone that's going to vibe with them? So what is it that you do to figure out, because obviously over the years we've had a lot of the wrong people work for us. How do you now know when you have the right person?
Speaker 2:kind of doing a little bit, kind of like you are. I am going to. I don't do the zoom, but that's a good one. I probably should do. I do a lot of. You know. I'll meet you face to face first you'll come in and meet, but then I would like for you to come in yeah on the weekend during a party during a party. I want to see um, because that's really important. You people will say oh yeah, I love kids.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but then until you got 12 of them in my space yeah, and they're really excited and you have to control the situation and not let them be in control yep you know, just to kind of watch. That is very, very important to me is really making sure you really do like kids. I got to make sure that how you interact with my other staff and what I say. When I was saying earlier, having a great staff, I have girls from all over that work.
Speaker 2:For me, all of them have become good friends and it's really special to me to hear you know they meet after work and go have dinner. You know, and now I've heard you know I thought it was really cute Valentine's. You know, couples, you know they all went to eat and they didn't even the other didn't and I thought, well, that was really nice.
Speaker 2:You know, so I know that I've created this really fun, safe place, you know, for young girls to to work and meet and, and, you know, be all come friends. So but yeah, I do like the zoom thing. I think I'm gonna.
Speaker 1:I'm just more efficient with my time now in terms of like that is what, yeah, cause a lot of times I think if I get in person with someone, yeah, that conversation could go on for an hour. Yes, if I have them on zoom, it's a lot easier for me to cut off Because Zoom will automatically like if you create a Zoom invite or if you create something on your iCal or something like that, it normally automatically reverts to a meeting automatically being an hour. I've cut that off and I've told my staff when they're putting stuff on the calendar don't have me sitting and talking to this person for an hour. Like we don't even know if we can provide service for them. We don't know if they're a good fit for us. I don't need to waste an hour talking to this person. Let's have 30 minutes first and if that conversation goes well, then OK, let's take it to the, to the next phase with.
Speaker 1:Because your business is a lot different than anything I've ever done in terms of having a brick and mortar. Like everything I've done has been service based. You have a product, you have these different variations. Service base you have a product, you have these different variations. What would you say if someone's getting into a storefront type business? What is one of the number one things, or maybe give you a top three of things they need to know about opening up this type of business.
Speaker 1:Oh, all righty, so let's all right, she's about to go in the bag.
Speaker 2:Well, I, you really have to step your game up, because when I was at Sycamore and I thought you know these kids really like I would just have little things you know to pick up and I thought wow, they really like to shop. Then I realized mamas really like to shop too, you know, and then grandmothers, others, but I just I for me, finding the right stuff like what is it that they like? But you have to keep in mind these are my customers now, like these little ones are my customers.
Speaker 2:You know their ages really, from coming in for the first time at you know five years old. I keep them till they're probably about 12 years old. So I'm constantly thinking when I'm out, whether I'm at market or if I'm shopping wherever. You know I love to shop, by the way, so this is why I don't and I love the compliments. It's like, sheree gosh, you get the best things you know. Remember, I'm a mom to boys, you know.
Speaker 1:You're fulfilling the part of your life you never got to experience, you know?
Speaker 2:so it's, and being very girly girl myself, you know so it's like when I'm finding things, you know it's like, oh, this is what Sheree probably would have killed if she was younger maybe, but I don't know. You know, but it's. It's different when you go brick and mortar and when you step into that, that's a whole different. I mean, I'm in inventory, I'm buying a corset wholesale and pricing it correctly, making sure the store always looks good. I think people you know, when they come in it's like wow.
Speaker 1:Immaculate, immaculate. I've never seen a speck of dust on Cherie's floor ever, and I don't know how she does it.
Speaker 2:Well, and it's white.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And you know when, scott, you know when I said, you know I'm I'm really thinking of white epoxy he said you've lost your mind. And I said I have this vision, just roll with me, go with me, drawing it out exactly how I wanted it. I wanted it to feel like Sycamore Square. So when they did walk in but it is funny, you know, you'll have some kids they'll say I think I've been to a place kind of like this before, but it wasn't this place you know, and then when you start talking to young minds, you realize they're talking about Sycamore.
Speaker 2:So I think I did right by that, like just trying to make it feel. But I did make it more modern. We had rebranded, I knew what I was doing back in 2021 behind the scenes and but once again, it's a lot when you go brick and mortar. I mean constantly. You got to level up and I think that's where I'm at and where am I going to take it to. The next level is where I'm definitely at right now.
Speaker 1:Yep. So last thing I want to talk to you about before we wrap up. I know you've personally recently experienced this. I experienced this for the first time as an entrepreneur over the course of the last six months is using other people's money. I always had this in my head where, like I have to build this from the ground up, I don't need anybody else's dollars. Like I'll continue to scale this business up. I've always done it this way, I can continue to scale this way.
Speaker 1:And enough information started coming into my mind where it's like nah, bro, this isn't how businesses are built. Like you have to take on debt and there's a a big difference between personal debt and business debt. And it took a while for me to be able to program my head to understand. You know, you hear the old saying it takes money to make money. Like it really is true, but it's a very fearful thing when you've built a business and you didn't have to take a dollar from anyone.
Speaker 1:Because I think a lot of us take pride in knowing, like hey, I don't know anybody a dollar. Like I built this from the ground up. But like a gentleman I was interviewing the other day, he had to raise six million dollars for his first business. Wow Jeez, and I'm like man, I just took on like 50K or something like that, so it's nowhere in the same ballpark as what they've had to deal with. How has that been for you in terms of the times you're building the business with the cash flow that you had coming in, versus when you recognized, hey, I need to take out a loan, I need an investor, I need whatever to scale this thing up?
Speaker 2:So I always did it on my own. So I think that, like you said, that was always a proud thing, Like I did this on my own, I don't owe anybody anything.
Speaker 2:If the doors had to close today, I mean, that was my thinking during COVID, you know, I floated it, you know, and I thought, if it had to close, if I can't reopen, just remember Sri, you don't owe anybody a dime. You can lock the doors and walk away and that's it. But, like I said, I did know once. You know about 2021, I had outgrown Sycamore Square.
Speaker 2:It was time to start finding a new home. So, going off a little bit, I thought I found a new home, that I was going to build up the street, a new shopping center, but that for me did not work out, just because that was way more than I wanted to put myself into that was way more than I wanted to put myself into.
Speaker 2:But when I came across the building that I'm currently in now and I walked in that space and I went okay, I could make this work. But once you start calling in contractors, you start calling people in and you start getting quotes. You know those numbers come up real quick, those numbers come up real, real fast, and then you look and you go OK, I'm like how much is paint yeah, so I was. Yeah, I mean remember I think I might even told you paint.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Coming in almost ten thousand dollars just for paint. And I was like I can go to Lowe's and get a bucket of beer for twenty dollars. Like what are we talking about?
Speaker 2:I mean, I think we could pay. No, no, no, I was like what are we talking? About Scott Venturi. I mean I think we could pay. No, we don't. So long story short. Yes, when the prices start coming in, then that's when you're kind of like, all right, cha-ching, cha-ching, cha-ching.
Speaker 1:I might need to go and use somebody else's money.
Speaker 2:You know, and I love the fact that I've been with the bank as long as I had been with my current, you know still my bank. You use a local bank or one of the commercial banks. I use a local bank. I always advise entrepreneurs to do that. I use a local bank. I just was there two weeks ago. You're sitting in there's, you know, with the person with my commercial loan, and this is a new person, so she wanted to meet me in person and she was like.
Speaker 2:I went on your site and I thought are you kidding me? This is in our area you know, what are you doing with this baby? What are you going to do with this? This, you know so. Even when your bank sees that too, yeah, you know that this is a franchise model this is. This is definitely um. I have created it like that which is really wild to me, because you got to remember this was nothing. I thought, I would ever do, ever do. But my first CPA saw that in me.
Speaker 2:The moment she saw just when I was mobile, she was like Sheree, you created this. And I remember Joan telling me that and I said, oh, this is just a hobby, oh, this is just for fun, fun, I'm just making extra money. I'm just trying to figure out what I want to do because, I wanted to be home, a stay-at-home mom, with Carter and um. I don't know it's wild, but yes, back to money using someone else's um and I'm not ashamed to have had to go.
Speaker 2:Do that because I have taken it to where I want it to look like. We were just in there, you know, doing some work again early this week. I mean it's just going to keep getting better and better and better, and so yeah, what I've come to recognize is like in no way, shape or form.
Speaker 1:Form like on the personal side, like if we have any balance on our credit card. Like my wife is freaking out and ready to hyperventilate. Like it's okay to take the money over here and transfer it over here, like we're good to go.
Speaker 1:But I've recognized the fact that, like, when you use other people's money, it's the ultimate bet on yourself.
Speaker 1:Like cause I'm not going to take someone else's money, whether it's a bank or investor or whatever the case is, and faith and thinking in the back of my head like I probably can't pull this off, but I'm going to go ahead and do this anyway.
Speaker 1:Like no, if I accept that $40,000 check or whatever it's like man, I know I can do this and I like kind of feeling that pressure of like maybe that's a good thing or maybe it's a bad thing, but like I like the pressure of like being put up against the wall and saying, ok, all the cards are on the table. Because I'll joke with my staff all the time. I'm like because sales is like my favorite thing to do as a business owner. And I'm like, if you stick me in the room with the right person and this deal has to get closed, I'm Michael Jordan in the fourth quarter, two minutes left on the clock, I'm going to close this deal. I'm going to get the job done. So, like I think now that's where I take more pride, instead of like I built this thing from the ground up with nobody else's money. It's more like, hey, put me in that situation, I'll always come out on top. So I think, making that mental switch, like obviously you got to be smart about this.
Speaker 1:You got to get your education up. You don't want to just come straight out the gate, sometimes like man, I need to take a hundred thousand dollar loan. I think mark cuban's spoken on that before. It's like you're initially starting up a business and you know you have to take six figures out, depending on the model. Obviously, like restaurants and stuff like that, you have to. But he's basically called entrepreneurs idiots. Like if you're taking money straight out the gate and you haven't proven your concept or brought any clients to the table. Don't do that. But that took me a long time to get my head around that. In terms of like, I'm not a bad person for having to use other people's money. This is just the way the business is done. Sheree, this has been awesome. I've been wanting to talk to you about some of this stuff for a while. Thank you. If people want to get more information on SpotTackler, get in touch with you how can they reach you um?
Speaker 2:wwwspotacularpartiescom. We're on instagram, facebook, um, and then also 804-516-4411.
Speaker 1:that's our number if you are in the richmond area or you're in dry. I don't care if you're in the richmond area or not, they come everywhere. Yeah, I don't care if you live in tennessee, you need to come see this spot, because it truly is. I feel like it's like the Willy Wonka factory for little girls. It's like the second. The door is open. It's like, oh, and the sun is just pouring in, the lighting is just right the windows are incredible. Everything's just awesome. So, Sheree, thank you for being here today. Thank you.
Speaker 2:Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1:And we will see you guys on the.