236 | Lessons learned exhibiting at Atlanta Mart, Noted & NY Now with Christy Asper, Paper Baristas
Have you ever considered exhibiting at trade shows? As Christy Asper of Paper Baristas prepares her brand for exhibiting at NY Now, she felt it was important to share what goes on behind the scenes. In this episode, Christy is sharing about her experiences at Atlanta’s Mart, Noted, and now preparing for NY Now—including the things that have gone wrong.
Paper Baristas is a paper goods company run by Christy and her husband Jon. They started their business to create ethically sourced products by beautiful people for a beautiful cause. They are on a mission to help fight modern-day slavery in the supply chain industry.
This episode is part 1 of a 2 part series. In Part 2, Christy shares the results of exhibiting at NY Now!
Utilizing Wholesale as a Major Revenue Stream
You’ve created a beautiful product for your retail line, but how much could your business and life change if you expanded into wholesale to reach more customers and more spaces? Wholesale provides you with that opportunity. Today, we’re exploring Christy Asper’s experience in wholesale, but more specifically how she grew her wholesale business through trade shows.
In the last two years, Christy’s brand, Paper Baristas, went from selling to 22 stores to being carried in 1500 stores through wholesale. This exponential growth has brought so much opportunity to Christy’s business and allowed her to scale in a way she couldn’t have experienced in just 22 stores.
Christy attributes her growth in the wholesale category to the knowledge that she learned in Proof to Product’s Paper Camp and LABS. Paper Camp is the most comprehensive wholesale program out there and opens for enrollment two times per year. If you’re ready to dive into wholesale, make sure you’re on the waitlist for Paper Camp! LABS fills in the holes and cracks in your business and opens quarterly for enrollment. You can learn more about the difference between these two programs in episode 235 of Proof to Product.
Exhibiting at Trade Shows
If you’re just getting started in wholesale, a great place to find retailers is at trade shows through exhibiting. With so many options of trade shows to exhibit at, let’s highlight Christy’s personal experience at Atlanta Mart, Noted, and NY Now.
Atlanta Mart - Tradeshow at America Mart in Atlanta
For Christy’s very first trade show, she signed up for Atlanta Mart with two other Paper Camp members to share a booth. They secured a large booth and divided it into three different sections to create a cohesive booth.
When Christy signed up for Atlanta Mart in October, she didn’t have a greeting card for the January trade show. She went after what she knew could grow her business and created deadlines for herself to build out an entire line between then and January.
Christy wasn’t sure which direction her brand would take with greeting cards at the time, so she created three very different greeting card lines: Southern Sayings, a Male Focused Line, and a Baby Grieving Loss Line. There was no cohesion in her brand between these greeting cards, but she simply didn’t have direction. Despite the lack of cohesion, she still got 22 orders from that first show.
One thing she quickly learned was to not compare yourself to the people and vendors around you. Allow yourself to grow and encourage others.
Noted - Trade Show in Brooklyn and San Francisco
Christy kept those three lines until she exhibited at Noted in Brooklyn. At that smaller scale show, she was surrounded by all the right people at the show, so if they didn’t approach you, that said something about your line. Christy was asked to pitch what she did, that’s when she realized her product line was all over the place. She was speaking to three different audiences, trying to market to each, and trying to sell all three to one retailer each time.
She walked away from that show feeling like one of many. While there was nothing wrong with her cards, she was up against similar brands with similar lines that had been in the industry longer. A rep or retailer is going to go with the person with more experience in that case. Her biggest takeaway was that she needed to stand out. Either pivot or don’t do this business.
This began the shift her business needed. She bought a letterpress, learned how to use it, and shifted her product lines. When you find the thing you’re doing and you love it, it changes everything in your business. Despite having a tough experience at that trade show, it allowed her so much opportunity to grow, which resulted in the brand she has today.
Preparing for NY Now - Trade Show in New York
At the time of recording this episode, Christy was preparing to exhibit at NY Now. In preparing for this, Christy is focused on simply being grateful. This show has definitely not gone as planned.
Leading up to the show, there were a few non-show logistics that have impacted her experience. To start, her driver’s license got stolen (and passport expired), which meant she couldn’t buy a plane ticket until she got a new one, but the DMV is on a delay due to COVID. Now Christy is making the 16 hour drive to NY in a storm, so she’s leaving earlier than expected.
In regard to actual show logistics, Christy’s mailers to her wholesaler list came in incorrect so she had to reprint them last minute, which doubled her costs for mailers. Thankfully she was able to do some quick thinking and strategize how to take advantage of this and promoted a few shows on the one mailer. Her panels also came in wrong so she had to fix and replace those.
With time constraints and all of these logistical nightmares, Christy had to make a tough decision to forgo a catalog for the show and rely on a flier. As an exhibitor, one beautiful thing to consider is that when you’re planning for a show, no one knows what doesn’t get done.
You have your product line and those should speak for themselves.
Measuring Your Trade Show Success
You can’t always measure your trade show success from the sales of a show. Each and every trade show you attend offers you a lesson to grow from—even if it feels like a failure. Each show can help you craft a better pitch, adjust your product line, bring you new connections that may order in the future, or help you gain more experience for your next show.
This winter, we have 46 Paper Camp alumni heading to NY Now, including Christy! Make sure you keep an eye out for an upcoming episode, where Christy will be joining us again to debrief her experience at NY Now!
Today’s episode is brought to you by Paper Camp, where we’ll help you launch or refine your wholesale line so that you’re selling your products to retail stores big & small.
If you enjoyed today’s episode and are ready to add trade shows to your business plans this year, make sure you’re on the waitlist to join us at Paper Camp!
Important Sections in Today’s Episode:
Get to Know Paper Baristas (2:32)
Wholesale as a Major Revenue Stream (3:18)
First Trade Show Experience (4:23)
Atlanta Mart (4:22)
Noted (9:24)
Preparing for NY Now (14:56)
Not Completing Everything You Want Before a Trade Show (21:31)
Goals for NY Now (24:15)
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MEET CHRISTY AND JON:
Paper Baristas is run by a husband and wife team, Christy Asper and Jon Marc. They are an Ethically Sourced Brand whose mission is to create "beautiful products by beautiful people for a beautiful cause". Their focus is create high quality products that raise awareness and help fight modern day slavery in the supply chain. Paper Baristas started in August 2015 as a wedding invitation business that first swore off ever doing stationery products. Now, that is all they do and use their business as a platform to give back while doing what they love. Their desire to sustainably source has made a tremendous impact in what they create and how they create. Paper Baristas products are proudly made with fair trade practices, a love for details and value on the lives of the people creating their products.
CONNECT WITH CHRISTY
WEBSITE: www.paperbaristas.com | FACEBOOK: @paperbaristas
INSTAGRAM: @paperbaristas | TWITTER: PBaristas
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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