048 | Laura Hooper Leader & Alyssa Bobbett, Laura Hooper Calligraphy on diversifying income, pricing custom projects and engaging with their 318k instagram followers

TSBC Alums Laura Hooper Leader and Alyssa Bobbett of Laura Hooper Calligraphy have served clients with hand calligraphy and stationery needs for weddings, showers events & more since 2002. These sisters have grown a dynamic business that includes their custom work, ready made product, calligraphy kits, offer in person and online educational programs and these girls wrote a book last year.

On today's episode we're talking about their business model including their process for adding new revenue streams. We dove deep into their custom work regarding pricing and how they've set better boundaries to provide a better experience for their customers. And, we talked about their strategies and goals for engaging with their 318k instagram followers! A little side note here — but they aren't happy with the IG algorithm changes either!

ON TODAY'S EPISODE:

• How Laura got her start in calligraphy and how her love for hand lettering turned into a business
• When Alyssa joined her sister at Laura Hooper Calligraphy and how she defined her role
• How having people on her team handling very specific tasks frees Laura up to focus on the creative side of the business
• The importance of investing in your business & outsourcing when possible
• What led to the diversity of Laura Hooper Calligraphy's product offerings and how they determined what direction to go in
• The start of their calligraphy workshops & why they decided to "train the competition"
• The custom work they are doing
• The systems & boundaries they have in place to standardize their custom work
• The strategies they use to engage with their followers on social media
• Laura & Alyssa's thoughts on the Instagram algorithm
• How they measure conversions from Instagram
• What's coming up next for Laura Hooper Calligraphy

KEY TAKE-AWAYS:

"I'm very logistical and Laura is very artistic. You could say that it was a good little marriage of skills." - Alyssa Bobbett

"I've never been afraid to take risks and step out and try something new. I like to look at what we're doing, what's working, what isn't working and what do we need to change." - Laura Hooper Leader

"You could spend a week researching something and figuring it out and doing it, but think of all the other ways that you could put your actual skills to use during that week if you outsource something." - Alyssa Bobbett

"We kind of let the people tell us what direction to go in. We listen to what our clients or potential clients are asking for." - Laura Hooper Leader

"People talk about the market being so saturated, which it is, but at the same time it allows you to kind of streamline what you want to do." - Alyssa Bobbett

"There's an endless number of weddings. There's an endless number of greeting cards at Paper Source or wherever. There's plenty of work to go around." - Alyssa Bobbett

"I want everyone to be happy, and that's just not 100% feasible. You have to have policies or you're just going to be miserable all the time. You need to enforce them or else people walk all over you." - Laura Hooper Leader

"We like to use our social media as an extension of our brand." - Alyssa Bobbett

"We don't consider followers or likes to be the goal. We consider conversions to be the goal." - Alyssa Bobbett

"We're not always trying to sell to our followers. We want people to follow because it's beautiful, but we don't want them to feel like we're just using them to make money." - Laura Hooper Leader

LINKSWebsite: http://lhcalligraphy.com

Facebook: http://facebook.com/lhcalligraphy

Instagram: http://instagram.com/lhcalligraphy

Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/lhcalligraphy

Twitter: http://twitter.com/lhcalligraphy

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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!