SimpleConsign's Academy Helps Store Owners Grow Beyond Onboarding

When Michelle Martin, owner of Arrow + Bow, a children's consignment boutique in Lakeland, Florida, planned a two-day strategy retreat with her friend Kathie, who runs The Beloved Resale Boutique in a neighboring town, she wanted something educational they could work through together. She found it in The Academy, SimpleConsign’s business and software program, free to all customers, and it quickly became the backbone of their weekend.

Meet the Owner of Arrow + Bow

Michelle Martin spent 11 and a half years running a physical therapy clinic. She had always had a heart for young moms, and she knew how overwhelming early parenthood can feel, especially when social media is full of conflicting advice.

The idea for her store came from an advisory call where two women described the children's consignment shop they ran in California. Around the same time, she welcomed her first grandchild and noticed nothing nearby matched what she pictured.

So she built it. Arrow + Bow hosts a weekly story time, has a play area for kids, and offers a flex space for parties and baby showers. Moms come in to shop, and often stay to talk.  She launched and runs the shop as a solo owner. SimpleConsign, she says, made that possible.

"I would not have been able to open and run my business without SimpleConsign."

— Michelle Martin, Owner, Arrow + Bow

The Challenge

Eighteen months in, Michelle knew her shop was ready for its next stage. She wanted to roll out the price book and start live selling, but she needed to learn more first, and as a solo owner, finding the time was the hard part. Onboarding had been essential for getting up and running, but it covers a lot at once. In those early days, you’re focused on getting the doors open, not on what comes next.

She also wanted to hear from people actually running shops on SimpleConsign. She shares, "If I'm paying for something, I want to use every feature that I possibly can to make my life easier."

The Retreat: A Girls Weekend with a Curriculum 

Michelle and Kathie run consignment shops one town apart and call each other "boutique besties." Michelle had convinced Kathie to switch to SimpleConsign about nine months earlier, after another software was not working out, so now they speak the same software language.

Drawing on her years running a clinic, Michelle pitched a strategic offsite. Two days away to plan about the year ahead.

"We wanted to make it like a girls' weekend, but instead of watching Bridesmaids, we were going to watch videos that will help us run our stores."

Michelle discovered The Academy, logged in, and found far more than she expected. Here's how the two owners used it:

1. Divide and conquer. Each owner watched a lesson on her own, then shared takeaways. Michelle took the price book lesson; Kathie took one on sales.

2. Watch together. Over the next two nights, they watched lessons side by side, pausing to ask each other how it would work in their own stores.

3. Learn from other owners. They watched the business masterclasses, led by insightful industry professionals, hearing directly from people running resale businesses.

The masterclasses mattered most to Michelle and Kathie. Hearing from owners on the same platform gave the two a shared reference point and ideas they could act on right away. "I love hearing from other businesses that are using SimpleConsign. It just helps", she shares. 

Learning that Lasts Beyond the Weekend

The weekend didn't just give Michelle and Kathie a to-do list. It gave them a resource they can keep coming back to and a community of owners to learn alongside.

• An education, not a one-time training. The masterclasses gave them a business playbook from owners who have already been where they are. Those lessons shape how they think about running their shops, well beyond any single feature.

• A library to fall back on. The Academy is self-paced, organized by topic, and available 24/7, so they can revisit a lesson whenever a new question comes up. For Michelle, that matters most after onboarding, when the basics are in place and it's time to go deeper.

• A place to connect with other owners. The Academy includes a space where SimpleConsign customers can post questions, share ideas, and learn from each other. Michelle plans to join the conversation and help shape it into a positive go-to resource.

• A habit worth keeping. The two already meet quarterly for a full planning day, and The Academy now has a standing spot on the agenda. For Michelle, learning alongside owners on the same platform is what makes it stick. Tips traded between shops build on each other. "Those little tiny things seem like not a big deal, but they can be game changers."

About the Academy

The Academy is SimpleConsign's free 8-week program that pairs hands-on software training with real business coaching from resale operators. It's included with every SimpleConsign subscription, for brand-new and longtime customers alike.

• Product Mastery. Self-paced lessons take you from setup to consignors, inventory, POS, reporting, e-commerce and marketing that goes beyond your initial onboarding. With office hours available when you need a hand.

• Business Masterclasses. Sessions led by working shop owners and industry experts cover merchandising, pricing, marketing, loyalty, hiring and scaling, the playbook most owners learn the hard way.

• Learn on your schedule. Everything is available 24/7, so you can move through it week by week or come back to a lesson whenever you need it.

• A community of owners. Connect with other SimpleConsign customers to ask questions, share ideas, and learn from shops like yours.