005 | Sara McNally, Constellation & Co. on juggling a manufacturing business and retail shop, utilizing interns and falling in love with letterpress

For full show notes and access to additional resources for this episode, visit: prooftoproduct.com/005

Sara McNally is the owner of Constellation & Co., a letterpress studio and retail shop based in Seattle. She attended Paper Camp in 2013 prior to jumping into wholesale and doing her first trade show. On today's episode Sara talks about juggling a manufacturing business and retail shop, utilizing interns and falling in love with letterpress.

ON TODAY'S EPISODE:

[01:00] From design school to Constellation & Co. [04:30] Falling in love with letterpress and following a dream.[06:30] Jumping into wholesale, moving away from custom work.[09:30] Product development & adding new product categories.[12:30] How running a retail shop has changed the way she manufactures products[16:00] Starting the Constellation & Co retail shop[20:00] Managing a manufacturing business & retail shop in tandem[22:00] Roles & responsibilities of the Constellation & Co staff.[23:30] Hiring for family help helps the business too.[27:00] Utilizing interns[29:30] Using the interview & application to hone in on the right candidates[35:00] Don't get in over your head with inventory.[36:30] Focusing on the higher level, revenue generating projects and hiring for the rest.

KEY TAKE-AWAYS:

"I'm too passionate and I'm too driven to allow someone else to burn me out at 23" - Sara McNally

"I just feel really grateful, that there were buyers that invested in me, when I had no idea what I was doing." - Sara McNally

"Like everything else that I've done in my business, my shop has been a learning experience and a little bit of kismet." - Sara McNally

I'm a big fan of delegating, whether it's for your personal life, or your business life or culmination of the two. - Katie Hunt

We always need to be professional, because this is a business but also realize that life happens. - Katie Hunt

You can't teach passion, you can't teach business acumen but you can teach technical skills. - Katie Hunt

"Don't get yourself in over your head with that overhead" - Sara McNally

LINKS:

Paper Camp

TSBC Deciding What to Delegate Course - Free!

Sugar Paper Los Angeles

Tina Fey's Bossypants

MEET SARA:

Sara McNally is the owner of Constellation & Co., a letterpress stationery company and retail shop in Seattle. She is a writer, designer, and letterpress printer (as well as wife, mom, podcast enthusiast and Seattle Sounders FC soccer fan). Sara is inspired by real life relationships and the words that help us express love and support to the people in our life.

Website: constellationco

Facebook: @constellationco

Instagram: @constellationco

Pinterest: @constellationco

Twitter: @constellationco

JOIN THE TSBC FAMILY:

Interested in learning more about launching or refining a wholesale line or exhibiting at trade shows? Join us for our next Paper Camp conference 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 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.