Franchise owner Leslie Bryant shares her story on discovering Clothes Mentor and opening her own location in Arlington, TX. Motivated by buying and selling the brands she loves, Leslie first discovered the brand while shopping resale.
Franchise owner Leslie Bryant sits down with Brian Weatherford to share her story of discovering Clothes Mentor and establishing the Arlington, TX, location. Leslie provides behind-the-scenes testimony about the successes and challenges that accompany running your own Clothes Mentor franchise.
Brain Weatherford
Alright, folks, let's face it, a couple of things here, we always want to look our best, and ladies, I'm particularly talking to you; we men do too, but today we're going to talk about ladies. You want to look your best, and sometimes that can be expensive. It doesn't have to be. And on the other hand, you have some stuff that's still in great shape but just not really your thing anymore; it can help someone else look their best. Wouldn't it be cool if there's a business where everybody gets together and works together to make everybody look as good as possible? Guess what, that's where we are today here on the show. The name of the business were chatting with is Clothes Mentor, perfect name for a business, to be frank. Miss Clothes Mentor herself and my guest in the studio, Leslie Bryant, Hey Leslie, welcome to the show. How are you?
Leslie Bryant
I’m great.
Brain Weatherford
Clothes mentor, the name says it all, doesn't it?
Leslie Bryant
It does.
Brain Weatherford
Well, we’re going to get to that in a second, but I want to back up just a little bit because you’ve been doing the Clothes Mentor thing for a while, but before that, what was your background, and how did you slide over this direction?
Leslie Bryant
Well, I was in the food service, and we did a… I worked for a company that provided food services for college campuses with other services as well. But mine was mostly on college campuses, and we provided all the food service, so we did everything from catering to serving the president to serving the students, you name it, everything. I did that for 22 years, and I loved it. I loved the food business–so much camaraderie; if you’ve never worked in the segment, the people are wonderful, but in the last four years, they moved me into the position where I was traveling 100% of my time.
Brain Weatherford
Oh no
Leslie Bryant
And where it was a lot of fun, but it was also getting to be a little wearing, so I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do next and thought, well, maybe you know a franchise, but I had no idea where to look or what to do, didn’t have a clue what I wanted to do. One day, I was… I love resale. I walked into this resale store in Overland Park, Kansas, and was like, wow, what is this place? It has all my favorite brands, and it smells great, and it was really organized, and that’s kind of unusual for resale, and come to find out, it was a franchise, and so I started checking out like this is what I want to do.
Brain Weatherford
Now was the franchise based in Overland, Kansas, or is this just one of the locations?
Leslie Bryant
That’s just one of the locations, but we're based in Minneapolis.
Brain Weatherford
In Minneapolis, alright, so give me a timeline, so there the light switch went on, and this could be the business for me because frankly, you are going to get into a business that’s something you like anyway, so give me the timeline between walking in the door in Overland, Kansas and starting your own business in her in north Texas.
Leslie Bryant
Well, it was about two years only because it took us a while to find the location. The Arlington market wasn't open, and they had me looking into markets in Carrollton and places like that, and I just couldn't do it. So I kept waiting and waiting, and finally, they opened up the Arlington market for me so once that happened, we had to find a spot.
Brain Weatherford
A couple of things I want to back up; by the way, yes, I do have a background in hospitality. You’re totally right; if people haven't done that, they should
Leslie Bryant
Oh yeah
Brain Weatherford
If nothing else, they’d be a lot bigger tippers, but I'll pass on that for now. So you want to get into business for yourself because you don't want to travel anymore. You didn't want to live in Arlington and travel back and forth to Carrollton every day, but you waited your time, and boom, here we go, you were able to open the Arlington location. When was this?
Leslie Bryant
We opened to buy in April 2017 and had our grand opening in June. Because you have to fill the store before you can actually open and sell, it takes about 6–8 weeks.
Brain Weatherford
Well, let's talk about that because, uh, we touched on it a little bit in the intro; you’ve got two businesses. You got the one side to get stuff in and the other side to get it out, so when you’re opening, you got to get stuff in there, and then you worry about the next part, so how do you go about getting the word out about hey, here we are–what do you have.
Leslie Bryant
Well, now we rely heavily on social media, so are very active on Facebook and Instagram, and then, you know, in the beginning, we would send out the flyers and that sort of thing. We did some other marketing techniques, but it's amazing how when we first started, I was like, how are we going to get stuff in our store, and it's amazing how women will go and clean their closets and bring it in for cash, and we have a percentage for sales every day that we have to have you know coming in and at the end of the year were making that target–it works.
Brain Weatherford
Is the ideal customer the one that brings in stuff, and they get cash, and then say wait a minute, then heads to the rack and buys something else, and you get the cash back when they leave?
Leslie Bryant
Yes, we probably have about 60% of our women that buy and sell; about 60% do both, so they'll buy, and they'll sell to us.
Brain Weatherford
Well as you talked about when you first got here today, you personally, long before you’re in the business, you like doing the resale route, and you've been to a lot of different places. You gave us a little bit of a description; what are some of the biggest differences between Clothes Mentor and your typical resale shop?
Leslie Bryant
Well, the number one difference is we're not consignment, so with consignment, you take your things, and you have to wait for a check. You have to wait for a check first, so that’s the biggest thing. When you bring your items in, we go through those looking for the things that sell the best as far as very good condition, very good style, 2–3 years–because that's what our customers are looking for–things that are still selling in the stores. So we look through the styles, conditions, and brands and pay the cash on the spot. So there's no wait.
Brain Weatherford
They’ve got to love that!
Leslie Bryant
Oh yeah, for sure, and we buy pretty much all brands. We also buy luxury brands like Louis Vuitton and Gucci, so it’s a pretty broad spectrum. We buy pretty much all brands.
Brain Weatherford
Well, you’re rolling right along, things are doing great, and all of a sudden, the pandemic hits, and like so many small businesses out there, you had to make a decision. Here’s one idea: I can just crawl up in the fetal position and cry and eat Blue Bell ice cream, or there are other options out there; you choose a different option; talk to me about how quickly you were able to adapt and switch over to online presence.
Leslie Bryant
Pretty quickly. I've never been one to crawl up and eat Blue Bell, but yeah, that's not my M.O., so you know, like most businesses, we kind of went into panic mode a little bit. The government closed us on March 21. Our corporate office had already started testing stores for the online business, but they weren't opening that to everybody, but I begged and pleaded, and they accepted me into the fold, so to speak, and so we closed the 21st and 30th we opened online.
Brain Weatherford
Wow, that is quick! So, were you able to get the word out quickly to your customers and potential customers like we're still around, we're going in this direction, now come with us?
Leslie Bryant
Yes, of course, social media, Instagram, Facebook, and also through email marketing, we blast those out so they would know that we can do curbside pickup, or, you know, you can shop online pickup at the store, or we can ship it. And we’ve had a lot of customers, especially that just didn't want to get out, and so even though they lived in town…
Brain Weatherford
So, did you arrive at a situation where there's people spending a lot more time at home cleaning out their closets, and they realize wait a minute, I need to call Leslie. Did that happen? Were people now spending time at home when they realized, you know, I don't wear this anymore, so let's make some money from it?
Leslie Bryant
Well, yeah, a lot of ladies were cleaning out closets during the pandemic for sure, so lucky for us, we got to reap the benefits of that, but it's a year-long process. You know you spring clean, you fall clean, we like to…
Brain Weatherford
It just happens. Alright, I have to ask you an obvious question. It's bugging me. We've got about a minute to go as far as future expansion. Can men do this? Do you ever see getting into men's clothes, or is it just not going to work?
Leslie Bryant
Well, it's funny you should ask because we get asked that a lot…
Brain Weatherford
Good, it's not just me.
Leslie Bryant
The basic truth is men, for the majority, just aren't that into clothing, so…
Brain Weatherford
Well, not all men are on their own TV shows, but we’ll talk after the show. I'm just curious.
Leslie Bryant
There are a few out there.
Brain Weatherford
It seemed like a natural place to move, but for now, you take care of the ladies, and they're taking care of you, so it's a community you got going. Everybody is helping each other out, and I just think it's a fascinating story all the way back to the way you got into it. You wanted to get in and weren't sure what to do. You found this place, and it turned out it's a franchise, and BOOM, there you go. I am out of time today. Leslie, you've been a great story. I applaud you for getting through all the bumps and bruises small owners go through. You’re going to be just fine.
Leslie Bryant
Sure, thanks for having me
