001 | Jen Pham Corbett & Lisa Towns, Farewell Paperie on product development, business partnerships, hiring and taking risks.

For full show notes and access to additional resources for this episode, visit: prooftoproduct.com/001

Jen Pham-Corbett and Lisa Towns, the founders of Farewell Paperie attended Tradeshow Bootcamp's very first Paper Camp conference in 2012, when it was just a handful of us sitting around on the living room floor of a bed and breakfast, and since then, they've had a ton of growth in their business. They've exhibited shows, expanded their product line. They've hired a team, and they've worked with sales reps. They've also been TSBC speakers for the last few years. These ladies are super smart business women and fantastic mentors to others in the creative field.

ON TODAY'S EPISODE:

[01:30] Farewell Paperie's story[05:00] Moving from custom work to off the shelf products[06:30] Launching to wholesale & reaching out to retailers[10:30] Exhibiting at their first trade show, SF Gift[11:30] Taking risks in business. When to jump and when to get to work[13:30] Product development strategies and deciding which ideas to move forward. Missteps made in the process.[19:30] Expanding beyond paper products into party ware.[23:30] Organic growth and creating a cohesive line.[24:30] Tips for managing a team & how Jen & Lisa knew it was time to hire.[31:00] Employee manuals & team systems.[35:30] Benefits of having a business partner, leveraging each other's strengths & splitting responsibilities.[47:00] Exit strategies, legalities & business formation[50:00] Diversifying revenue streams

KEY TAKE-AWAYS:

"Jump in feet first, not head first." - Lisa Towns

On product development consider "is this the right price point that we can sell this, do we have the margins that we need, how much inventory can we handle" - Lisa Towns

"There's so much hesitation and fear of failure, that people hold themselves back." - Jen Pham-Corbett

"When you delegate parts of your business, it opens up things that can provide a much bigger return for the business." - Jen Pham-Corbett

"At the end of the day, each of our products passes through three or four sets of hands and we have to pay every single one of those sets of hands to do that, so we have to factor that into the costs. Looking at it that way has changed the way we develop our product completely." - Jen Pham-Corbett

"Sometimes there's stuff that we love to do and we totally want to do it but we just can't do it because we can't make the margins on it." - Jen Pham-Corbett

"We probably should have hired a long time before we did, but we resisted because we thought about how we can afford to bring someone on? - Jen Pham-Corbett

On business partnerships: "You have to want the same goals and you have to want the same things for your brand." - Jen Pham-Corbett

LINKS:

Paper Camp

National Stationery Show

Farewell Paperie's retail shop

Asana for proect management

Google Sites for operations manuals

MEET JEN & LISA:

Farewell Paperie is a letterpress and design studio in sunny Seattle, Washington. Since 2009, Lisa G. Towns and Jen Pham-Corbett have been serving up letterpress paper and entertainment goods with their signature smart snark style a little sassy and a lot of truth. Every design is meant to be a souvenir from life's little inside jokes.

On our fleet of antique printing presses, including a 1905 Chandler & Price named Bill, and two Heidelberg Windmills named Helga and Blanche, the Farewell Paperie team puts handmade love into pops of colorful typography and friendly messaging that feels like you're saying it in person.

The Farewell Paperie line is carried in over 700 retailers internationally, including Paper Source, Papyrus, Urban Outfitters, American Eagle, Powell's Books and more.

Website: www.farewellpaperie.com

Facebook: farewellpaperie

Instagram: @farewellpaperie

Pinterest: farewellpaperie

Twitter: @farewellpaperie

JOIN THE TSBC FAMILY:

Interested in learning more about launching or refining a wholesale line or exhibiting at trade shows? Join us for our Paper Camp conference this September in Los Angeles. Get more details and register at www.tradeshowcamp.com/papercamp

ABOUT PROOF TO PRODUCT:

Proof to Product is brought to you by Tradeshow Bootcamp and hosted by me, Katie Hunt. Since 2011, TSBC has worked with hundreds of product based businesses to help them up level, scale, and build profitable sustainable companies. You can find our show notes and additional resources at ProofToProduct.com. If you like what you heard today, please head over to Apple Podcast to leave a five star review and subscribe. Thanks so much for listening. We'll be back next week with a new episode.