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Communication Insights

Internship experience at Ish Boutique

Young Le

May 14, 2019

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Before I started this internship, I was oblivious to what an actual internship consisted of. I

have only heard about internships through friends and movies. From my previous knowledge of

what an internship is an assistant that is ready to learn from whatever business they are working

for. Ever since I was a young child, I have always had a passion for anything related to fashion

and beauty. Something about being about to express yourself and show people who you are

through fashion and beauty was exhilarating. This internship experience was more than what I

have acquired about interns and internships through other people and Hollywood movies.

Everyone at my internship was incredibly helpful and understanding that this was my first every

internship. The goal of this essay is to analyze and apply everything I have learned from this

experience. The skills and knowledge I learned from my internship will help me through my life

and career.

My first ever internship was with Ish Boutique in Ocean City, Maryland. I was a social

media marketing and retail intern for Ish Boutique. This internship was in the span of 13 weeks

during my final spring semester as a senior at Salisbury University. Ish Boutique is a small

locally owned business by Christina Lawson. She began this little boutique 8 years ago in Ocean

City, Maryland. Ish Boutique carries everything you will ever need in terms of a beach boutique.

This store has everything from jewelry, apparel, home, baby, and beauty needs. As a small

locally owned business, Ish Boutique needed to make an online presence, making their mark on

social media to get recognized. As of today, Ish Boutique have over 9,000 Instagram followers

from all over the United States, not just in our little state of Maryland. On their public Facebook

page, Ish Boutique have over 5,200 Facebook likes and over 5,300 people following their

Facebook page. This little store really knows how to make their mark on the world, all through

the help of social media.

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When I first arrived at the internship site, I had no idea what I was expecting from a small

business in a large tourist town. There were only a handful of employees that are behind the

scenes of this entire business. There was only one person that is in charge of the marketing for

Ish Boutique, one primary store manager, and one CEO boss lady at Ish Boutique. I became

extremely close to all three of these ladies. Working in an all-female office space really showed

me that “empowered women, empower women. At Ish Boutique, everything is completed from

start to finish in house, meaning that everything the business needs is done in one space. Many

large businesses outsource labor that does the hard work for them such as large retail companies.

Ish Boutique does everything in house, in the exact office space I completed my 13-week

internship experience. The three main women, Christina, the owner, Chelsea, the store manager,

and Whitney, the marketing manager, is the main core of this small business. Christina is an

entrepreneur, she created something that she had always dreamed about, her own store. She

created a work environment that she is proud of and loves to be in every day. Ish Boutique is an

open, team oriented, exciting work environment that employees enjoy spending most of their

time at work.

The communication between everyone at Ish Boutique was very honest and nothing was

kept a secret. For example, if someone does not like the poster banner that was made, everyone

would contribute more ideas to improve it to be the best it can be. Everyone here is encouraged

to speak their mind about anything they want. If someone has an idea for a social media

marketing strategy, the management team is supportive in making those ideas come to life. Being

able to communicate truthfully without judgement or fear of being looked down upon by the

boss is something I admire so much about Ish Boutique. Communication is so important

especially for entrepreneurs because it will improve their business tremendously with trust and
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have a common understanding. With trust and common understanding, the business owner will

motivate their employees in completely all of their tasks and goals with a positive attitude.

Everyone at Ish Boutique is a family, a home away from home, a place they don’t count the

hours until they are able to leave. Every day spent here I grew closer with them and felt like I

had become a part of the Ish Boutique family as well. I learned that truthful verbal

communication without judgement is the key for a successful business, which is something I

never knew about owning your own business.

Something that truly surprised me about my prospective career field of fashion and social

media marketing is the outcome as a result of a marketing strategy. I realized that this career that

truly amazes me is the level of creativity I can contribute for this career and the importance of

public relations. For a small locally owned business, I learned so much about social media

marketing as well as branding marketing from Ish Boutique. Whitney does all of the social

marketing for Ish Boutique, with the management from Christina. To market and create a brand

for Ish Boutique from scratch is something truly amazing to me. Many large brands already have

a brand they acquire from sponsors or endorsements. Ish Boutique is a local business that created

a name for themselves in this industry. Gaining thousands of Instagram and Facebook followers

is difficult, but Ish Boutique managed to gain thousands of loyal followers and customers. The

creativity that everyone contributes for their marketing strategy is what made them successful

today. The contributions of ideas from different individual working together in a group is an

important part of communication. Whitney is in charge of all things social media, from posting

to creating flyers, posters and everything digital. I assisted in the planning of creating daily

Instagram posts and stories. Using the mobile application called Planoly, we were able to plan

weeks in advance for scheduled Instagram main news feed posts and even Instagram stories. The
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marketing strategy Ish Boutique uses for Instagram is to post once or sometimes even twice a

day. The application plans out each post, what the caption goes with each picture and the ability

to schedule the exact date and time for an automatic post. Planoly also allows users to see what

the planned posts would look like and if it would fit in with the overall Instagram main post feed.

Each day of the week follows a specific order or theme of what the scheduled post should be.

This way, it doesn’t get repetitive or boring for the followers. Monday’s theme is Motivation

Monday, which allows a break between product marketing. Some followers might get tired of

seeing only product promotional posts. A break in between product promotion with more

engaging posts allows followers not to get overwhelmed. This strategy allows followers to

always stay up to date with what Ish Boutique is doing and help keep Ish Boutique in the back of

their head. The outcome of this marketing strategy is the increased engagement between Ish

Boutique and their followers. What truly amazed me about this industry is the freedom of

creativity with the marketing posts and the importance of public relations.

My experience at Ish Boutique during my final senior semester of college was more than

amazing. I was able to work alongside goal driven, inspirational women and also be in the

beautiful city of Ocean City, Maryland. I am proud of the woman I became because of those

women and this experience. My internship at Ish Boutique was a total of 17 hours a week with

an hour drive in between my house in Salisbury to Ocean City. During my spring semester, I was

also completing another online internship with Riddle and Bloom as an Amazon Prime Student

Ambassador at Salisbury University. This internship was around 5-8 hours a week while taking 3

classes altogether. I spent most of my time at Ish Boutique in Ocean City, I am proud of myself

for developing better time management skills than what I already had before. As this was my

final semester, I expected to be a lazy senior with no responsibilities, I was in fact wrong. Even
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though I wanted to be a lazy senior, I would not have traded this internship for anything. I loved

going to Ocean City three times a week to work at a place I felt comfortable at. I am also proud

of myself for being a better woman because I got to work with amazing empowering women that

only push each other to be their better selves. I can proudly say that I am more empowered than I

was before I started this internship. I, now, know what I am capable of and how amazing I am as

a person and business woman. Leaving this internship, I can say that I am proud of all the

projects I helped during my time at Ish Boutique. I helped with the opening party flyer for the

Ocean City store, and the Facebook events page promotions. I was able to model the entire store

and do a photoshoot in Ocean City. The photos came out amazing and was posted all over Ish

Boutique’s social media platforms. I was asked on multiple occasions for my inputs and ideas for

projects they were working on, which made me feel proud. Because of these experiences and

projects, I became familiar with retail business, branding, and social media marketing.

With all the things, I am proud from this internship, there are some things I wish I had

done differently that I am disappointed in. I wish I could have contributed more to the internship

towards the end because of both stores opening. I wanted to help with the preparations of the

Rehoboth Beach location but couldn’t due to the internship end date. A lot of the work was done

during the months of April and May, which I unfortunately had to end my internship at Ish

Boutique on May 10th, 2019. To improve for next time, I want to be able to stay longer to help

out with the hectic weeks of opening. My fall semester as a senior at Salisbury University, I took

a class on Digital design where I learned basic skills on all the Adobe CC programs. I used

Adobe Photoshop, Adobe InDesign and Adobe Illustrator. I became familiar with all the

programs but I did not become advanced in any. I wished I had more Adobe Photoshop skills to

better assist Whitney with all of the digital projects. For next time, I want to be able to learn
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more Adobe Photoshop skills and Adobe InDesign skills to further my creative abilities in the

social media marketing industry.

As an intern at Ish Boutique, my experiences have led me to become even more secure in

my career decision. Working in at a small locally owned business for a retail store had opened

my eyes and mind to all the possibilities that come with working for the industry. I have learned

that this industry and social media will always be growing larger and larger every day. As this

industry grows, I know that I will grow in this industry as well. All of the skills I have learned

from this experience will help me become even better at my job. I am more secure in my career

decision because I learned and explored my true passions of public relations and marketing for

the fashion and beauty industry. It has always been something I loved as a little girl. I loved

reading fashion magazines, shopping for new clothing items, and beauty. I am ready to pursue a

career I am passionate about and ready to take whatever life gives me. This internship helped me

realized that social media marketing and branding is one of the most important aspects of a

growing business. Every detail that is posted online is crucial for the public image of the brand. I

took a class at Salisbury University called Digital Public Relations, this class emphasized the

importance of a good public image and how to avoid or handle crisis. Branding and marketing is

what the public sees and thinks of when they see your branding or logo. Good public relations

help businesses grow in consumers and business engagements to gain more brand awareness.

This experience at Ish Boutique planted an idea in my head, someday I would like to

have my own business. Working for Christina has made me realize that I want to be my own

boss one day. I want to be able to create a better work environment for my employees. I want

them to be excited when they come in to work and not dread every day they are working. I would

like to have a business that is all about fashion and beauty that is all about social media
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marketing. Being in an all-female business empowered me every day because of the gendered

issues women face every day in the workplace. Women face issues such as sexual harassment,

unlikely to get promotions compared to their male counterparts. I want to be in a positive and

safe work environment which will promote self-love and awareness. Working in a positive

empowering environment will help my employees become motivated and happy, which will lead

to positive outcomes and goals.

Another important thing about my experience here at Ish Boutique is that small

businesses have a better and positive outcome from employees. I think that small businesses

have better outcomes compared to large corporate businesses because they care more about their

employees. In a large corporate business, some employees are just a number to them, they do not

actually care for their employees or become an actual family. Small businesses have a chance to

develop close relationships with the people you work with and become a work family. Maybe

one day in the future, I will have the opportunity to create and own my own business. It all seems

like a dream but Christina inspired me to chase after my dreams. She created her own business

and became her own boss. She made her dream become a reality and that is an important lesson I

learned from this experience. My time at Salisbury University as a communication arts student, I

have learned many useful skills that will help me in my career path. One thing I wished Salisbury

University did for me was to offer more hands-on courses for public relations and digital designs.

I think a course that is more hands-on such as having students actually doing the stuff we learn

instead of applying it to an exam would be super beneficial. Classes such as social media

communications or public relations marketing would be an interesting class for future students to

take. Overall, I did learn about of useful skills and knowledge that will help me advance in my

career field because of Salisbury University’s Communication Arts department.

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Everything I have learned from this internship experience at Ish Boutique have helped me

become more aware of my prospective career field. A career in the fashion and beauty industry is

hard to achieve without the right experiences and skills. From beginning to end of this

experience I have learned that you must pay very close attention to detail. As a small business,

we had to make sure every shipment was accurate and not damaged, as it would be a financial

loss. When each shipment came, we had to confirm the correct quantity and ensure the quality of

the product was authentic and undamaged. Many of the times, clothing vendors would make

mistakes that puts all the pressure on the Ish Boutique employees to find and bring to attention.

When there are large orders and shipments, mistakes happen often. When I was unpacking a box

from a clothing vendor, some of the clothing pieces had a snag on the fabric that customers

would notice and not purchase. Paying close attention to every, single item is very crucial for the

business during the first two weeks of receiving the order because it was during the return

timeline. If I had not noticed the snag of the fabric, the store would have had that item on the

sales floor and it would not have made any sales due to the condition of the sweater. I also

learned that businesses have to pay attention to their customers. Showing customers that you care

and doing everything to fix their problem will help the business prosper in the long run. Ish

Boutique engages with their customers online and offline which develops a bond between the

business and consumer. This is important insight I’ve gathered during my experience, paying

attention, being honestly and respond to customers will increase profits and loyalty to the brand.

This internship experience has been an amazing opportunity to work with the best people

in this industry. As my first internship, I can say it has exceeded all my expectations and more of

what an internship consisted of. I learned something that truly surprised me about my career

goals in fashion and social media marketing was that a positive outcome as a result of a
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marketing strategy is always the goal. This experience helped me realize that my career that

amazes me is the level of creativity needed and expected of you and the importance of public

relations in the business world. The goal of this essay was to analyze my internship experience

insights I have gained from Ish Boutique and how those insights and skill will help me further

my life and career in a positive way. I had the best time during my 13 weeks at Ish, it was fun,

exciting, and something new that I have never experienced before. I will truly miss everyone at

Ish Boutique and my experiences there. Although there were some tough days of endless

packages, I would not trade this experience for anything in the world. I want to inspire any

students that is looking for an internship to find one at a place you are passionate about. Don’t

just take any internships that come your way, be patient and the right one will come to you.