Start A Bridal Shop Business with Avancy Bridal and Vanessa Trufin

Learn from the founder of Avancy Bridal how to start your own bridal boutique business helping brides have the best wedding ever. The bridal shop business caters to women all over the country who fly all the way to work with Vanessa Trufin and her bridal shop Avancy Bridal.

Today, I am excited to have Vanessa Trufin on the podcast. She owns a bridal shop and has many people coming to her from all over the country. Like Vanessa, you can be successfully unemployed.

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How Vanessa Makes Money Without Having a Job

Vanessa has had a dream of owning a bridal shop since she was young, and the passion has fueled her.

She is blessed to be able to make money while she is doing something she loves and she gets joy from providing beautiful value to her customers.

When someone leaves her shop, they have found the gown they are going to become a wife in. She is helping people every day.

What Vanessa Was Doing Before and How She Became Successfully Unemployed

Vanessa worked in marketing, right before she started Avancy Bridal. It wasn’t a matter of if she would work in the bridal industry, it was when. She knew she had a huge passion for it, but people just thought she had an obsession with getting married. She got married and the obsession didn’t go away.

When she went to school, Vanessa thought she wanted to be an orthodontist, because her version of success and her mother’s version of success for her were completely different.

Watch the Bridal Shop Business Interview Here:

When she was in high school Vanessa asked if she could major in wedding planning, but that didn’t exist.

Vanessa eventually chose advertising and public relations, because she utilizes those skills every day in her business.

After school, she worked in casino marketing for a few years, and it was fantastic. But, the creativity, sparkle, and pizazz that comes with weddings was missing. She then worked with a wedding planner, but she learned how not to run a business rather than how to run a successful business.

When Vanessa and her husband decided they wanted to travel, she decided it would be a good time to find a side hustle to make money and fuel her love for love. She got two part-time jobs, and for one she worked for a very well known videographer in Arizona.

On weekends, her days were filled with weddings, flowers, dresses, and brides and it gave so much life, because it energized her for the week.

In addition, during the week, after work, she got a job working for David’s bridal.

It was fun and she learned that connecting with women, hearing their stories of love and how they got engaged, what led them to her presence and her fitting room, and helping them find that dress is what led her to wanting to do this on her own.

When Vanessa was young, she didn’t think she would want to help women find their dress, but after only a couple of weeks, and learning that she was good at selling, she knew this was it.

Vanessa Trufin and Her Husband Spent a Year Traveling 18 Countries in Europe

On their honeymoon in Costa Rica, Vanessa and her husband were on a canoe and Vanessa said she wanted to travel and live somewhere else. Her husband patted her on the shoulder and said, “Okay, sweetie”.

When they got home, she fueled him with the adventure of being somewhere new and she convinced him to travel.

Vanessa’s husband is a financial guy. He runs their finances and her business finances and that is his passion.

However, it was Vanessa that sat down and figured out how much they would need to save per month and how much they could live off per month to be able to travel for a year.

He wanted to start traveling in five years and she wanted to do it in a year. He countered with three years and she pursued with one year.

Vanessa wanted to celebrate their first year of being married somewhere new. She doesn’t know how she convinced him, but they made it work. If she could do that all over again, she would. It was the best year and her husband admits that it was a good idea.

They look back on that time with fondness.

The Turning Point for Vanessa Trufin and Avancy Bridal

Vanessa has known forever that she loves love and weddings. In that sense, she was lucky to know that, because not many people know what their passion is or that being successfully unemployed is something they can achieve.

When it came to their last two months of their travels, Vanessa had to decide if she wanted to either start looking at jobs and send out her resume to get back into marketing or start doing research and figure out if she was going to commit and start her own business.

Vanessa knew if she got a full-time job, she would like the regular paycheck and when she leaves work, she would want to leave her work behind and be at home. It isn’t like that with a business, because you live and breathe the business.

Listen to the Bridal Shop Business Interview Here:

It is the last thing on your mind at night and the first thing you think about when you wake up.

When they got back, Vanessa got a part-time job online teaching English to students in China. It was fun, because she would do that in the morning and, afterward, she was awake and energized.

She dove into doing research and figuring out how to get her business started.

It Took Vanessa Trufin Eight Months Before She Opened Her Retail Location

Vanessa is a big fan of lists. She had many notebooks filled with things she needed to do, but half of those listed were research. She doesn’t typically over analyze or over think things, but she did with the business. She was doing research on everything and kept asking herself what would her bride do.

She took to Pinterest, wedding magazines, and following any and all wedding planners, videographers, and wedding venues she could find. She was looking at who the brides were, what ages they were, what were they wearing, etc.

Based off the styles she was seeing, she looked for those designers.

Vanessa always thought she wanted unique and different designers that you couldn’t find in the state of Arizona. She wanted to be the store that brought it in, but she later learned that wasn’t the way to go about it.

She learned from that mistake. She took to doing a lot of research to figure out where her location was going to be and looking at other stores.

Vanessa uses social media a lot. Using tools like Instagram was huge. She dove into creating a personality for her store and that is something that sets her apart from everyone else. You want to set yourself apart and be uniquely yourself in your business.

If you try to emulate somebody else, you are going in the wrong direction. Setting up that unique personality for Avancy Bridal was the hardest part. She started portraying that through her social media channels.

Vanessa Leaned on Her Mentor for Help Getting Past the Research

Vanessa connected with a designer she wanted to carry in her store, and the designer said her brand is exclusive to one shop in Arizona and she wanted to connect her to the store.

The store’s owner is a legend and everybody knows who she is.

Vanessa went to the store and met with the owner, and she is now Vanessa’s mentor. She helped Vanessa get over her fears and gave her advice to get over the research and get into the business side of things. This fueled Vanessa’s passion to commit and open.

Once it was real, she knew it had to succeed.

The Next Step to Open the Doors

When they first found the location, it was designed for offices. The lighting and carpet were bad and it looked horrible. Vanessa took pen and paper and started sketching what she wanted her store to look like.

She started imagining the flow of the store and how she wanted her dresses displayed, and she communicated all of this to the people doing the construction. Vanessa had a lot of times where people would look at her and told her that wasn’t how she should do it.

Vanessa grew a backbone very quickly. She had to put her foot down and say what she wanted for her business. It was hard, because some were people she respected and some she didn’t know. She had a lot of fun designing the space to fit how she wanted her bridal shop to look and feel.

Next, Vanessa had to figure out who her bride was going to be to find the different styles. Some styles work in New York or L.A., but she didn’t necessarily know if they would work in Phoenix.

Her mentor is 40 minutes away and the styles that work in her store don’t work in Vanessa’s store and vice versa. Vanessa has been in business for two years as of January 2020.

Vanessa Trufin Used Social Media to Connect with Her Brides

A few weeks before she opened her doors Vanessa had to figure out how to get people into her doors. She sat down with pen and paper and figured it out. The first thing she did was look at bridal shows. There was one in January, right before her store opened and she started to hype up the store.

Getting your name out there is the most important thing when first starting. Vanessa doesn’t think she did enough of that when they first opened. If you want to have a successful business, you need to do whatever you can to get it to thrive and succeed.

Vanessa had brides coming in when they first opened, but by year two it was much busier. Now, at the start of year three, she is doing things she never thought she could do with ideas to get brides and promote her business.

She is expanding her store to more of a lifestyle. If you go there, you will be a part of the Avancy tribe. There is a photo book of every single bride with her dress and the “I said yes” sign.

Vanessa is nostalgic and she likes looking back at all of the brides she has helped and all of the dreams she helped come true.

How Vanessa is Scaling the Business

Vanessa has had a mentality of why can’t you have it all. A few years ago, her mother asked her why would she quit her job making a lot of money to travel the world and have nothing.

Vanessa wants a good relationship and she wanted to see the world. Why not? She can get in trouble sometimes for dreaming too big and sometimes her dreams scare her.

Vanessa is not sure if she wants to open another store, even though she has had requests from brides in other states. She is thinking about taking her business back to the initial passion she had for weddings and expanding on that.

She isn’t sure what that will look like yet.

The Next Step for Vanessa Trufin and Avancy Bridal

Vanessa now has a team of seven people. When she first opened the doors, it was just Vanessa and her sister. There were times they would have six appointments on a Saturday and they were baffled.

Now, they can take 13 appointments on a Saturday. The bride comes in, looks at gowns, and tries them on.

Hopefully at the end of the appointment, she finds the dress she is going to get married in.

Designers make the dress and it is tricky handling the size of inventory. Vanessa needs to order dresses from each designer at least twice a year, which means more inventory and the bridal shop is only 2,000 square feet.

She is now trying to figure out what to do with those gowns and she considered opening another shop where people could buy off the rack gowns, but she can hardly handle what she is doing now. There is a lot of planning and research to figure out how she is going to continue growing.

How Vanessa Trufin Manages Inventory

Vanessa needs to have a wide enough variety of dresses to meet the specific needs of her brides. She loves ballgowns, but she can’t just have pretty princess dresses. Not everybody who comes into the store wants that.

Vanessa first had to find designers and determine if they were a good fit for her store. That is a contract and she usually needs to order a set amount of dresses twice a year. Vanessa has to pay for every single dress and then that dress is hers.

There are some rules about how much she can sell a dress for, but if a particular dress isn’t selling well, after a year she can decide what to sell it for. She wants to at least get what she paid for it.

When she first opened her shop, she wasn’t sure what type of bride she was going to get. When she buys a gown, she needs to figure out what color she wants and what size. Bridal gowns come in white, ivory, off white, champagne, and blush.

After starting year three, she has a system that tracks her best selling sizes. It is so different, because there are special markets where business owners can go and buy dresses.

She could be standing next to someone from California who is buying dresses in size six and size four, but that would never work in her shop.

Vanessa’s women are different than those at other stores and managing inventory has been tricky.

She now sits down and looks at the numbers and analyzes how well her designers are performing for her. She looks at the initial investment for a designer, how much profit she made, and how much profit she actually made after her investment.

Then she needs to decide if she wants to continue working with them. It is hard, because you get to know the designers and the representatives associated with that brand. Sometimes she needs to make difficult decisions.

How Vanessa Manages Her Employees

Vanessa has never interviewed anyone prior to this or trained anyone. Her husband had, so she recruited him to help her find the right people. When you work in bridal, the employees need to have a passion and be committed to the brides.

Buying a bridal gown is an emotional purchase and she needed employees who understood this. Her employees are phenomenal, because they know how she works and what she wants for her customers.

There are times you need to train employees and teach them how to have that excitement for your business. No one will love your business as much as you and no one will work as hard as you to make your business succeed.

If you treat your employees well and give them fun incentives to succeed, it will help you so much more.

The Next Step for Avancy Bridal

Right now, Vanessa wants to survive the busy season. She wants to continue growing Avancy Bridal. She has had brides come in from out of state to buy their wedding dress, and that is a huge compliment to her.

When brides have been following her on social media and they are familiar with her and come in and say, “Vanessa, it is so nice to finally meet you”, they are more inclined to buy. They are invested in her business.

Vanessa wants to continue growing on this.

When she was starting her business, her husband talked to her about TikTok. Her husband sat for hours thinking of what to call his. Vanessa decided to just jump in and create videos.

Her second video went viral and got over seven million views. They get messages and calls from brides all over the U.S. who see her on social media and ask her to send them a certain dress.

Vanessa never imagined this would happen and she just rolls with it.

Personally, Vanessa has some goals she wants to achieve outside of Avancy Bridal. Owning the shop will help her succeed. She also has www.vanessatrufin.com, which she is using to talk about a wide variety of things.

She talks to different people about all aspects of weddings and she is tackling issues she noticed as a business owner, such as body positivity and fear of missing out after you find the gown.

You have to be the one to love the dress and no one will love the dress as much as you will. She wants to excite people about the wedding industry and promote other businesses in the industry.

Successfully Unemployed Rapid Fire Round

How Vanessa is Making the World a Better Place and Giving Back

Vanessa has two big dreams. The first is that she wants to help as many women as she can. She wants to help men too, but she is a woman and she wants to focus on that first, and she wants to help women go to college.

Vanessa is working so hard to succeed and make money, because she wants to start a scholarship fund. Vanessa knew she wanted to go to college, but she didn’t know how she was going to pay for it.

She wants to help women make this dream possible.

The second dream is to buy her mom a house. Vanessa has seen her mom struggle with finances and that is the reason Vanessa is more cautious and frugal with her finances.

She made different choices than her mom, and she wants to buy her a home so her mom doesn’t have to worry about where her next paycheck is coming from and how she is going to pay her bills. She wants to make her mom’s life a little easier.

The Advice Vanessa Would Give Her Younger Self

Keep moving forward, push through, and dream big. There aren’t many things Vanessa would do differently. Everything she experienced with her business she needed to experience in order to grow from it and to learn.

Don’t be scared. This will hold you back from doing what you want to do. Take risks, because it will lead you to better places.

The Tools Vanessa Uses in Her Business

Vanessa loves writing things down. She has many notebooks where she jots things down that she wants to accomplish and the fears that are holding her back. If you see something consistently, you are going to want to achieve it.

The Steps Someone Should Take if They Want to Start a Business.

Ask yourself: Are you sure? It is a big commitment and you need to be prepared for the amount of hours and work that it takes.
If you are past that point and you still want to move forward, do some research. You have to know what you are doing, who your competitors are, who your target market is, and what your product is inside and out.
After that, create a plan of where you want to be in six months and how to get there. If you have a clear plan of what you want and what your business is going to look like, every decision needs to lead you in that direction.
Surround yourself with a team of friends, family, and mentors that are going to help you reach that goal.
Have your financial plan set and make good financial decisions that are going to help you succeed.

The Non-Fiction Book Vanessa Suggests

Bride Quartet series by Nora Roberts. This isn’t a business book, but it fueled Vanessa’s passion and excited her, because it was related to her industry.