245 | Don't be afraid to take calculated risks with Lindsay Henry, Inklings Paperie
There are so many opportunities to take risks in your business in order to reach success, but is fear holding you back? In today’s episode, Lindsay Henry of Inklings Paperie joins us to share how her business has evolved over the last five years and why you shouldn’t be afraid to take calculated risks in your business!
Before we jump into today’s episode, make sure you check out Lindsay’s first interview on the podcast all the way back in episode 3 of Proof to Product! In that episode, Lindsay discusses how you can create a strong client experience!
The Process of Evolving Your Product Lines
Over the last several years, Inklings Paperie has evolved its product lines from greeting cards and games for bridal and baby showers to journals, vinyl stickers, postcards, gifts, and keepsakes. These additional product lines have opened the doors to expanding their target market and the retailers they can get their products in front of.
While expanding into these categories was a risk they took, one of the biggest factors that made it a success was putting an original spin on some very standardized products. For example, they offer paint by numbers with the paint in the paper, pop-up cards, and lunch box notes.
These products didn’t come to live overnight. They took years of thought, preparation, planning, and more to visualize and manufacture the perfect gifts and products that their customers would appreciate and use. With so many artists out there making beautiful products, it was important to Lindsay that the products had a unique spin that felt more custom to their brand.
Finding the Right Manufacturers for Unique Products
While offering unique products in your shop sounds glamorous, it also comes with it’s own hurdles. One of the biggest struggles that Lindsay and the team at Inklings Paperie faced through the expansion of their brand was finding the right manufacturers that could actually produce the products she wanted.
This meant reaching out to every single printer they knew, going through the trial and error process to get the product just right, until they finally landed with the product they now sell. This process can take a few weeks to months to even years. In being a small business, there is a plus side to being more nimble, as you have far less red tape to go through in getting approvals for productions of unique products.
How Business Structure Changes As Your Business Evolves
With the changing of businesses and product lines, you’ll find that other parts of your business can be impacted. Over the last few years, the shift in her business has moved away from retail and into wholesale. Wholesale growth now represents 80% of the business at Inklings Paperie.
With this growth in the wholesale side of the business, Lindsay is investing so much more time into those relationships through trade shows, conversations, and marketing to the wholesale connections they have.
Since COVID, Inklings Paperie has quadrupled their mailer production, as rather than going to every trade show available, they would send them out to all of their existing customers and to new customers who order from them. These new customers include those who find them through Faire as well.
When it comes to investing into the marketing they have, specifically in a virtual space, Lindsay’s team invested more into the product photography and videography that they have to better share the quality or use of the product since they’re not seeing them in person.
Even as they move back into attending trade shows, these tactics are only going to uplevel their sales and marketing in the long-term and help grow the brand. They’re not temporary solutions, but rather an investment into their future as a business.
Expansion of Team and Facility
In years past, when Inklings Paperie had a small team of two employees and worked out of their home, they adapted to what worked for them. As they began to grow, realistically both the team and the facility needed to grow and change. Now, they’re in a new studio with seven steady employees and ten seasonal staff members.
Within her team, each team member has their own unique role, yet is able to handle shipping or product making so they can support all team members. The roles that Inklings Paperie currently has include an Inventory Manager, a Wholesale Manager, and a team of part-time packaging individuals.
Originally, Lindsay was nervous about bringing on a team to help manage things for her. As business owners, we struggle with handing things off to others or giving up the responsibilities that we want to own in our businesses. Once she realized that the busy work was hindering her from growing her business, she had to stop and take a look at the bigger picture. How was the busywork in her business holding her business back overall? Finding the right people for the roles will help free up your time to put in the work that will help grow the business.
As mentioned before, with the growth of a team, product lines, and the business, this meant outgrowing the space inside Lindsay’s home that they’d been working out of. Essentially, the limited space was hindering their growth and causing more stress in the business. This meant moving into a larger studio space that allowed Lindsay to expand the team and product line even more, but also relieve some of the stress that working out of her own home held over her.
Taking Calculated Risks for Growth
Now that Lindsay’s team has been through the process of outgrowing their space already, she’s using her past experience to take more calculated risks. Rather than waiting to outgrow the space Inklings Paperie is currently in, they’re already looking to move so that they’re not hindered by the space when the time comes to expand again.
This shift in mindset shows the growth Lindsay has had as a business owner and the growth of the business from the perspective of cash flow and the ability to invest in the next steps ahead of time.
Today’s episode is brought to you by our free resources library, where you can find the tools to start, streamline, and scale your product business. From determining if wholesale is right for you, to designing a tradeshow booth that won’t break the back, to deciding what to delegate in three simple steps, we have the resources for you!
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MEET LINDSAY:
Lindsay Henry is the Founder and Creative Director at Inklings Paperie. Now in their 11th year of business, Inklings is based in Plymouth, Michigan and has been the recipient of more than ten LOUIE Awards including Card of the Year in 2021. Inklings has partnered with brands such as Starbucks, Anthropologie, SAKS, Paper Source and Target, as well as over 2,000 independent retailers within the U.S. and internationally. Before launching Inklings, Lindsay worked as a brand designer, helping corporate brands and non-profits connect and engage with their audiences through authentic brand messaging. She now lives in Canton, Michigan with her husband and two kids.
CONNECT WITH LINDSAY
WEBSITE: inklingspaperie.com | INSTAGRAM: @inklingspaperie
FACEBOOK: @inklingspaperie | PINTEREST: @inklings
Connect with Katie Hunt
Katie Hunt is a business strategist, podcaster, mentor and mama to four. She helps product based businesses build profitable, sustainable companies through her conferences, courses and coaching programs.
Website: prooftoproduct.com | Instagram: @prooftoproduct
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