303 | What Retail Shops Look for When Buying Wholesale with Ginger Diaz, Feliz Modern & Rancho Diaz

Opening a retail storefront is no joke. It's a whole lot of work and a completely different business model than selling products online or to the wholesale market. Brick-and-mortar retail requires different strategies, operational systems, and of course staffing needs. I know there are many of you who dream of someday opening a shop, in fact, we have many product brands that also have brick-and-mortar shops in our Proof to Product community.

So today we're going to hear from Ginger Diaz, the owner of Feliz Modern and Rancho Diaz in San Antonio, Texas. Ginger Diaz came to retail to bring her favorite artists’ and makers’ works to a wider audience. What started as one brick-and-mortar shop in San Antonio has expanded to a second shop, as well as their online store at felizmodern.com, for those national customers that they service. All three shops are centered around products that bring joy and some cheeky fun to their customers. It's a small business full of hundreds of other small businesses and makers from around the globe.

On today's episode, we're talking to Ginger about motivations for opening her stores, how relationships played a key role in their survival during the pandemic, and how Ginger's incredible staff has helped improve efficiencies in her business. We also talk a little bit about her buying preferences and red flags that she sees in manufacturers' pitches or outreach, and what she looks for when she's purchasing from smaller independent brands.

Today's episode is brought to you by our Is Wholesale Right for You private podcast! This free 12-part audio series will help you decide whether wholesale is a good next step for your specific business. After listening to this audio series (in less than an hour), two things will be true. You'll know whether you want to pursue wholesale for your product business, and you'll have the confidence and action steps to get started with wholesale. Sign up for the private podcast today!

The Motivation Behind Multiple Brick-and-Mortar Retail Shops

Ginger and Mario Diaz are artists at heart who saw a need for more access to artistic products within their home in San Antonio, Texas. In 2017, they opened their first brick-and-mortar, Feliz Modern. Due to her love of art, Ginger was always on the hunt for art by local artists, which wasn’t something you could easily come by unless you went to an art fair. In order to mainstream not only local art, but art by a variety of artists from all over, Ginger was inspired to open her storefront. To expand on the clientele and shopping experience, they brought in both art and gift products. Not long after, they expanded it with an online retail shop under the same name.

Two years after that expansion, they opened a second location of their brick-and-mortar. It wasn’t long before the pandemic happened, ultimately resulting in them negotiating their lease with their landlord. The relationship that she built with her landlord in the five months prior did allow for ease in negotiating, which is important when you’re running a brick-and-mortar store.

A year later, they were ready to open a new concept, Rancho Diaz. This allowed for Feliz Modern to have a specific style while Rancho Diaz became the more “grown up” version of Feliz Modern.

Sourcing Products: Red Flags that Retail Shops Look For When Buying Wholesale

As Ginger and her husband began sourcing wholesale products and art for their retail shops, they quickly learned what to look for in the artists they worked with. While 95% of the brands they come across don’t have any issues, a few red flags include:

Not keeping up with retail demand. Many artists aren’t fit to meet retail demand, yet there are ways to have a more sustainable life without cheapening your brand when you learn how to.
Not understanding the wholesale side of business. When an artist doesn’t understand the cost for wholesale, how to set terms, and how to set up easy reordering.

As a reminder to artists who are pitching wholesale to stores—a no is not a reflection of your work. There are so many other variables to consider. Whether they’ve already stocked a similar product or it may just not be the right fit for right now, don’t let that deter you from continuing to pitch your products to new stores or even coming back to repitch later.

Transitioning Out of the Day-to-Day Operations of a Retail Shop

When you launch a storefront, you typically don’t have a long runway of funds. This meant that Ginger and her husband were heavily involved in the day-to-day operations of the business with the support of a couple of part-time employees. Over time, she has been able to hire and scale the business, ultimately allowing her to transition into the role of an owner while delegating those previous tasks that took up so much of her time.

The decision for her actually came from the feedback of her employees, who shared that while they enjoyed her being involved in the day-to-day, the only person who is going to be doing marketing is her. They’re not involved in that aspect of the business, which meant she needed to give it her all. This shift allowed each employee to find their own lane, do the things they love, and excel at what they’re good at.

A few tools that have helped with delegating and managing tasks include:

One of the biggest shifts in this transition came when Ginger actually had to step away from the business and when she returned, everything had continued to run smoothly. This proved to her that she can let go, take vacations, and step away from business when needed—great employees will improvise.

The key word to entrepreneurship is agility.

After listening to this audio series (in less than an hour), two things will be true. You'll know whether you want to pursue wholesale for your product business, and you'll have the confidence and action steps to get started with wholesale. Sign up for the private podcast today!

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MEET GINGER

Ginger Diaz, owner of Feliz Modern, came to retail to bring her favorite artists & makers’ works to a wider audience. What started as one brick & mortar shop in San Antonio has expanded to a second shop as well as felizmodern.com for their national customers. All three shops are centered around products that bring joy and some cheeky fun to their customers. It’s a small business full of hundreds of other small businesses and makers from around the globe.

CONNECT WITH GINGER

WEBSITE: felizmodern.com | WEBSITE: ranchodiaz.com | INSTAGRAM: @felizmodern | INSTAGRAM: @rancho.diaz

Connect with Katie Hunt

Katie Hunt is a business strategist, podcaster, mentor and mama to four. She helps product based businesses build profitable, sustainable companies through her conferences, courses and coaching programs.

Website: prooftoproduct.com | Instagram: @prooftoproduct