Passion to Profit: A Journey into Creating a Successful Small Business

A panel of influential and inspiring entrepreneurs shared the challenges, strategies, and invaluable lessons they learned in building their thriving retail businesses. Here, we recap some of the key insights from featured speakers and MAGIC Social Club Ambassadors including Taylor Jones McClellan, Owner & CEO of Tiny Closet Boutique; Troyia Monay, CEO, Her Hustle Academy; Amaya Damme, CEO & Founder of Obtaining Social; Kayley Reese, Owner Savvy Kay Boutique. 

Taylor Jones McClellan, Owner & CEO of Tiny Closet Boutique & MAGIC Social Club Ambassador 

“Social media: that is how everybody makes their money now. Personal branding is what we’re really going to focus on here, because you have to be that person in your business. We’ve always talked about that. You have to have a face to your business; people are buying from people now.”

Troyia Monay, CEO, Her Hustle Academy & MAGIC Social Club Ambassador 

“I've had mentors in the past that I've paid, and I've had mentors in the past that I've just grown organic relationships with. One of the things that I did when it came to actually paying for mentorship or paying for some type of coaching is, of course, I wanted to just make sure that that person was truly an expert in that one thing. And once I started actually paying for mentorship and coaching, it transformed my entire business. Because if you really think about it, we've all downloaded eBooks and guides for free that we've never opened. But if you pay someone to actually teach you something, you're going to show up for sure, right? Because when you pay, you pay attention.” 

"You have to have a face to your business; people are buying from people now."

- Taylor Jones Mclellan, Owner & CEO of Tiny Closet Boutique 

Amaya Damme, CEO & Founder of Obtaining Social 

“When I’m trend scouting and trend reporting, I’m looking at my clients, competitors; what are they doing? What can we do better? And from there we pick and pull from some trends. But I love content that will go essentially viral at any time. So, I’m trying to make that evergreen content that’s going to last long. That’s more so about the high quality, about catching their attention within the first second… making sure you have really good content pillars so that you are able to create mass content.” 

Kayley Reese, Owner, Savvy Kay Boutique & MAGIC Social Club Ambassador 

“Something that maybe isn't talked about a whole lot is, at some point, entrepreneurship can be very isolating. You're doing a lot of things on your own… it's really hard to get yourself out there; you don't have to put on work clothes and drive somewhere. You have to hold yourself accountable, and that was hard to really get the hang of. Something for me, how I kind of got through that is that's when I started my photo shoots. Days that gave me something to hold myself accountable for. Like, this was booked. This needs to go up. It's what I look forward to all week. And so you just have to find those things to hold yourself accountable. Because it's tough by yourself when you don’t have somebody telling you what you need to do.” 

Curves in Commerce: The Business of Plus-Size Fashion

Experts in the size-inclusive space including Emily Benson, Host, Boost Your Boutique Podcast and Ashley Full, Founder Amour 781, discussed the current state and future of plus-size retail. 

Behind The Buy: Decoding 2024 Fashion Consumer Behavior

Leadership from MMGNET (MAGIC's Parent Brand), Teodora Nicolae, VP of Marketing and Courtney Hazirjian, Content Director, dissected the results of the 2024 US Fashion Consumer Report, exploring the intricacies of consumer purchasing habits and societal shifts retailers should consider when shaping their buys. For more consumer insight, access our newly launched 2024 US Fashion Consumer Outlook Report now. 

Teodora Nicolae, VP of Marketing, MMGNET

"What's interesting here, is for Gen Z, Millennial, and Gen X from across all three demographics, travel, electronics, and personal care come in as really important categories of note in addition to fashion. Relevant here too, is that more and more brands and retailers are taking note of these peripheral categories and trying to capture some of those dollars from the consumer. So, whether that's a retailer, expanding their assortment and bringing in travel accessories and potentially some beauty, there's also a lot of investment on the brand side around cross collaborations, across those types of industries to reach the new customer, expand the awareness around their brands, knowing that their target consumer, for example, is not just interested in fashion, they're also interested in travel.”

"Great news: womenswear and menswear are steadily growing at a rate of about 3%, with a 5% increase expected through 2027."

- Courtney Hazirjian, Content Director, MMGNET

Courtney Hazirjian, Content Director, MMGNET 

“The context with what’s happening in the general larger market—[there’s] growth of different sectors within the fashion industry, from women’s apparel, men’s apparel, to accessories and beauty. Great news: womenswear and menswear are steadily growing at a rate of about 3%, with a 5% increase expected through 2027.” 

We’re looking forward to bringing even more exciting and thoughtful speakers to our can’t-miss educational programming this year.

Be sure to follow our updates to stay ahead of what’s to come and Register Now for MAGIC Las Vegas this August 19-21, 2024.