032 | Jeanette Champion-Fanning, Sweet Perversion on gaining momentum in business, running a debt-free company and owning our mistakes

TSBC alum, Jeanette Champion-Fanning is the founder of Sweet Perversion a quick witted line of stationery and gift products. Jeanette got her start on Etsy in 2006 and has had over 20,000 sales there. She attend Paper Camp twice, once was to refine her wholesale program, and the second time was to figure out whether wholesales shows like the National Stationery Show were right for her.

She's had a lot of growth over the last few years and on today's episode we're talking about gaining momentum in business, running a debt-free company and owning our mistakes in business.

ON TODAY'S EPISODE:

• How Sweet Perversion got its start
• Gaining momentum on Etsy
• Seeing results from injecting her humor into her work
• The sales channels Jeanette is using
• How her focus in her business shifted at different times to accommodate life circumstances and the direction she wants to take her business
• Determining how much of a product to order, specifically when breaking into new categories
• Becoming more comfortable spending money in her business
• The importance of not comparing yourself to others on social media
• Pivotal times where Sweet Perversion received a lot of attention
• How she nurtures relationships with new clients
• Learning to outsource and being ok with it
• Why Jeanette came to Paper Camp twice
• The community she has gained through being a part of Paper Camp
• Her mindset towards copycats and how she avoids becoming one
• The advice she would give to someone starting a product-based business

KEY TAKE-AWAYS:

"Making money, and making smart decisions in your growth, bringing in new product categories is a big deal." - Katie Hunt

"I try and keep myself out of debt with this business. I don't want to be in debt with it." - Jeanette Champion-Fanning

"Social media is a stupid place to look at stuff because we all are working really hard to make ourselves look amazing on social media." - Jeanette Champion-Fanning

"We all make mistakes. We all make mistakes in our business every single day. Small, big, we all do." - Jeanette Champion-Fanning

"I have to keep reminding myself that honestly, the only goal for Sweet Perversion was so that I could work from home once we had kids. That was literally the only goal at the beginning, was to make enough money to work from home, and I'm doing it." - Jeanette Champion-Fanning

"I think the first time [at Paper Camp] was so good for me because I didn't know what I didn't know. I didn't realize I wasn't in industry standard for a lot of things." - Jeanette Champion-Fanning

"When you work by yourself, it's very easy to become stagnant, and it's nice to be around your people." - Jeanette Champion-Fanning

"I feel great about it [Paper Camp] because they came and spent two days with us, and they spent a lot less money than time and energy than they would've spent if they spent a year preparing for a show, and getting their wholesale line ready and thousands and thousands of dollars to only find out then that isn't something that they wanted to do." - Katie Hunt

"I try to remind myself that I am me, and nobody else is going to do things the way I do it, nobody's going to create the work I create, or design the things I design." - Katie Hunt

"When I have a new card design, sometimes I go and just Google it, and see is it possible that I saw this somewhere and that's why it's in my brain. Because I don't want to use something that I saw." - Jeanette Champion-Fanning

"Do your research, find out what industry standard is, keep yourself in line with cost too and with pricing." - Jeanette Champion-Fanning

"If you are new and starting out, don't randomly email someone and ask them where they get their stuff made, do the research." - Jeanette Champion-Fanning

LINKS:

Website: http://sweetperversion.com

Instagram: @sweetperversion

JOIN THE TSBC FAMILY:

Our signature Paper Camp program is back and we're now enrolling for Winter 2018!

Paper Camp Conference our 2-day, intensive conference focused on wholesale and tradeshows will take place March 1 - 2, 2018 in Los Angeles.

This program dives deep into product development, sales tools, trade shows, marketing and working with buyers, sales reps and press.

Our Paper Camp conference will only run ONCE in 2018, which is a change from previous years. And, we like to keep things intimate so you can get all your questions answered.

Get all the details and grab your seat 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!