037 | Sarah Edmonds and Tammy Lawrence, Banquet Atelier & Workshop on taking risks with new products, letting passion steer business decisions and why this Canadian company exhibits at U.S. based wholesale shows

Sarah Edmonds and Tammy Lawrence are the owners of Banquet Atelier & Workshop, a Vancouver-based design studio. All of Tammy and Sarah's products are conceived, designed, printed and produced in Canada with a fine attention to affordability and environmental sustainability. They offer screen printed signed and dated prints, stationery, textiles as well as clothing and jewelry. They've also licensed work and collaborated with large brands such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Terrain, Anthropologie, Land of Nod and others to create exclusive products and designs.

On today's episode we're talking about taking risks with new products and why it took them over 4 years to bring their textiles to market. We also discuss why you need to follow your passions when making business decisions and why this Canadian company chooses to exhibit at US wholesale shows.

ON TODAY'S EPISODE:

• How Sarah & Tammy first met
• What prompted them to start Banquet Atelier & Workshop
• Making Banquet Workshop their full-time gig from the outset
• Utilizing their maternity leave to focus on and grow their businesses
• Balancing being a mom & running a business
• How they split responsibilities within their business
• The products they started with and the motivation to expand into other areas
• The reasons it took 4-5 years to get their textiles to market
• How they decide which new products to take action on
• Sarah's difficulty with letting go of creative ideas she's in love with
• Licensing work and collaborations and how they got those opportunities
• The wholesale side of Banquet Workshop and the challenges of doing US shows
• What advice they would give to someone just starting out in a product-based business
• What's next for Banquet Workshop

KEY TAKE-AWAYS:

"We left the other jobs. It was definitely the intention to work for ourselves and build the dream." - Tammy Lawrence

"As somebody that's so go, go, go, that [maternity leave] was a really nice time to focus on my family and also focus on building the businesses that I was trying to run because I wanted that to be my full time that I was working on." - Katie Hunt

"You just make due in those beginning stages of being a mom and starting a business. It's kind of a deadly combo, but an amazing combo at the same time." - Tammy Lawrence

"We want to try everything, and we want to make what we love." - Sarah Edmonds

"It does take a long time to bring new things to market. I think it's very important for people listening to hear there are a multitude of challenges." - Katie Hunt

"What we want to make, we just make it. Sometimes that's not the smartest business move but it's really being true to ourselves." - Tammy Lawrence

"Paper pays the way for us to move into these other categories." - Tammy Lawrence

"Ultimately, we're a business, we want to make money. We want to support our families." - Sarah Edmonds

"To be creative, to be an artist, you have to be somewhat self-indulgent, and I can't always." - Sarah Edmonds

"Being able to work with these companies is such a great opportunity to make things that we just don't have the resources to make." - Tammy Lawrence

"If you're going to make a go of doing the trade shows, you have to commit to being there for more than one year." - Sarah Edmonds

"Be weird. Stay weird. Follow your dreams." - Sarah Edmonds

LINKS:

Website: https://banquetworkshop.com/

Facebook: https://facebook.com/banquetworkshop

Instagram: http://instagram.com/banquetworkshop

Pinterest: https://pinterest.com/banquetworkshop

Twitter: https://twitter.com/banquetworkshop

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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!