#744: The End-of-Year Checklist Every Retailer Actually Needs

Boutique Chat

Ashley Alderson

Business, Entrepreneurship, Marketing

5 • 853 Ratings

🗓️ 30 December 2025

⏱️ 21 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

As we close out 2025 and step into a brand-new year, this episode isn't about pretty planners or lofty resolutions — it's about the behind-the-scenes work that actually sets your business up for success.

In this solo episode, Ashley Alderson walks you through the five critical areas every retailer must review before the year ends so you're compliant, organized, profitable, and positioned to lead — not just hustle — in 2026.

From money and inventory to operations, goal-setting, and leadership, this is your practical, no-fluff checklist for finishing the year strong and starting the next one with clarity, confidence, and peace.

You'll learn:

How to close out your money & accounting properly (and why your accountant should be a strategic partner, not a once-a-year contact)
Why year-end inventory counts are non-negotiable — and how they impact taxes, markdowns, and open-to-buy planning
Where hidden costs live inside your apps, subscriptions, and operational expenses
The importance of systems, processes, and community — and who you should (and shouldn't) be surrounding yourself with in the new year
How to set better goals using leading vs. lagging indicators so your plans actually turn into results

Join The Boutique Hub

Best Year Yet

____________________________

Ashley Alderson: Instagram

Transcript

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0:00.0	Business can be a lonely game, but it doesn't have to be.
0:09.0	Welcome to Boutique Chat, where we explore community over competition and how to scale your company with the balance and the happiness that we all seek.
0:16.0	We'll hear from product-based businesses of all types, retailers, e-commerce, and wholesale brands,
0:21.7	along with industry experts shaping the future of our industry.
0:25.1	I'm your host, Ashley Alderson from the boutique hub, and I can't wait to chat.
0:33.7	Hey, guys, it is you and me this week, and we are going to talk about all the things that I know
0:39.3	you're loving to get started on at the end of the year. Maybe you're loving, maybe you're not
0:43.4	loving some of these things. We're just going to pretend like it's all the same, because I want to
0:47.1	make sure that you close out 2025, right, and you are ready to bring in 2026. And now this episode
0:53.6	is not all about goal setting and filling
0:56.3	out your planner and all the pretty things that you want to do in order to set your Europe
1:00.0	for success. It's actually about the behind the scenes things that your business needs for you
1:05.4	to get done properly so that you're in compliance, you're ready to file your taxes, your books
1:10.5	are in order, and your operations of your business are ready to run sound inside of the new year. So we're going to go through, let me see here, one, two, three, four, five different areas of your business to make sure you're closing the year out strong and setting your new year up for success. Are you ready? All right. Let's jump into it. First, let's talk about
1:29.6	money and accounting, some of the most important things you do right before you close out the
1:34.5	year and head into a new one. And the first is, if you don't already have access to a great
1:39.8	accountant, somebody who understands retail specifically, this is very important. It's time that you start
1:45.5	thinking about it right now. You see there's lots of accountants out there in the world. There's
1:50.0	lots of accountants who will tell you they know everything about small businesses and they specialize
1:54.5	in small businesses. But retail businesses, specifically they deal with inventory, are a different
1:59.9	type of business that not
2:01.0	everyone is familiar with. And when you work with an accountant, it shouldn't just be someone
	...

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