On March 20th, we officially entered Spring – a season of new blooms, birds chirping, fresh air and full expression.

My goal here is to outline how you can harness the power of spring – thoughtful, active, air energy – in all areas of your retail life. At Feel Good Retail, we believe in part of building a sustainable small business is honoring the cycles of a given year by taking inspiration from nature, the moon and the seasons. As you know, no season in retail is quite the same as another. When you give yourself permission to ebb and flow, you are creating a more sustainable environment for your business to thrive – rotating your focus allows every area of your business to be tended too, but never overworked.

Spring is the “waxing moon” energy of our year. At this moment, we are reinvigorated by longer days, our energy is coming back to us – maybe we aren’t so miserable after all 😉 We feel ourselves coming back to life and are ready to make all of the quiet, “underground” work we’ve been doing visible. You may see this reflected in your customers too – sometimes it feels like in the Spring, everyone is one sunny day away from bursting into song. We are ready to tell stories, communicate our needs and be recognized.

If you think of the year as a garden (which can be helpful for those who love visual metaphors like me) this is the time buds appear, where we remember what was planted beneath the dark soil for months prior and realize that just because it looked barren, doesn’t mean it was.

Here are 5 ways you can embody Spring energy as a human who happens to be a retail entrepreneur this season 😉

1. Try A Slow Launch

Have you ever had a new product that you were excited to get out to the world and instead of giving it all sorts of love and limelight you frantically posted to Instagram once and then got sad that people didn’t see it and didn’t make nearly as many sales as you were expecting? 😅 Happens to the best of us! One of the best things about Spring is the slow burn – you seeing it coming from a mile away, but are still SO AMPED when it arrives. Try that with a product or collection launch – tease it, give some sneak peaks, tell stories of your process or the inspiration. Notice how that feels for you and how your customers react.

2. Amplify What You Want To Be Known For

It’s never a bad time to share what’s important to you, but I think we can all do without yet another “lots of new followers here, time for a re-introduction”. Instead, find ways to integrate your values, your vision and your inspiration into the work you’re already doing. Create the context around your wares by telling the stories behind products, bringing them into your decision making and sharing the process of stocking your beautiful space (digital or physical). If you weave together the what and the why, you won’t need a re-introduction 😉

3. Ask Questions

Spring is associated with air energy, which is often related to communication- both with ourselves and others. And what better facilitator of conversations than curiosity? This is an incredible time to send surveys, gather feedback and ask questions. You may regularly find yourself heads down, working on our business, unsure when the last time was that you even asked yourself ‘how does this feel?’ Of course, checking in with yourself is fantastic, but so is tapping your community of customers, vendors, collaborators and staff members if you have them to get a fresh perspective.

4. Build Systems That Work *For You*

Slow is smooth and smooth is fast! And there’s nothing more Spring energy than that. Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) might not be the sexiest thing to work on, but they will save you so much time, energy and brain space as you operate your business (and life tbh!). What may look like decisive action-taking is usually just the execution of a solid system. Whether that means crafting an opening and closing procedure so you aren’t constantly worried, setting a specific time and strategy to build your sales goals so you stop avoiding it or creating monthly content calendars in order to end the take “wtf am I posting today” anxiety, systems have the power to propel you forward.

5. Embrace Gentle Movement

Lastly, when it comes to taking care of your visionary self this time of year, nothing beats movement. Whether you prefer to flow through some vinyasa or stroll around your neighborhood, seek out opportunities to move your thoughts by moving your body. Take that phone call on a walk, dance off that weird customer interaction (might we suggest our Material Gworls or Shop Vol. 2 playlists) or try out a new sport. Movement will help you clear your mind and synthesize all the ideas and thoughts the warmer, busier days tend to unlock.

Have any other ideas? Any rituals or habits you find yourself coming back to this time every year? Share them in the comments.

Wishing you all an open, honest, refreshing & visible Spring. xx