325 | How To Plan Out New Wholesale Product Releases With Divya Guruju, Mellowworks

I’ve been thinking a lot about how our past work experience and general lived experience shape how we start and build our businesses. For me, I spent 12 years in the corporate world leading business development and strategic marketing teams for large law firms before starting my product line. That time in my life taught me about project management, budgeting and how important relationships are in business. These are lessons that I carried into my product brand and also into the way we run Proof to Product today.

Our guest Divya Guruju of Melloworks, spent many years in the corporate world designing menswear in New York City. Today, she’s talking about how her time in the fashion industry led her to create her bold, colorful, and modern stationery and gift line.

In this episode, we’re talking about how Divya is expanding into textiles and home good products. She shares how she plans out her new product releases based on logistics she learned in her corporate job. She also shares how Paper Camp provided her a roadmap for the success she’s had with wholesale.

Through Melloworks, Divya sells luxurious wrapping paper, colorful and eye-catching notebooks, fun greeting cards, and cool gifts. All are designed to be color-coordinated for a stunning presentation.

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From Corporate Menswear to Modern Stationery and Home Goods

Divya’s journey into running her stationery business is not unlike many others inside our Proof to Product community. We have a long list of people who started out in the corporate world before leaving and venturing into self-employment.

A lot of these people started out with a hobby that transitioned into a full-fledged wholesale business.

Divya shared about her transition from designing menswear in the corporate world to establishing Mellowworks, a brand that specializes in modern stationery and home goods. As much as she enjoyed the work she was doing, she needed a bit more creativity in her work.

Wholesale Product Releases: Creating a Recognizable & Cohesive Brand Identity

Her focus on color and pattern started in stationery products and eventually expanded into pillow covers and all of this color and pattern is part of her strategic plan for wholesale product releases.

Divya spends a lot of her design time thinking backward. She starts at the end and considers how people will buy and combine her products. She loves the colors & patterns but recognizes that people will also want to mix in more neutral pieces.

This thoughtful approach reflects her keen understanding of her customers' preferences and lifestyle choices.

text overlay: "Product releases are all about merchandising. How do you make the collection cohesive? You always have to think about how it's going to look in the store, what it's sitting with."

A point of pride for Divya and any business owner is when their brand is recognized just by looking at the product.

Mellowworks is recognizable and cohesive. She attributes this to her design background and her corporate world experience.

Divya reveals that she meticulously plans her designs based on how they will fit in a trade show booth or a catalog, ensuring a cohesive color palette while avoiding repetition.

Careful planning, merchandising, and creating designs that go together are key to preparing for a new wholesale product release.

Getting Started With Wholesale

Divya explained that she didn't initially plan to focus on wholesale but quickly realized that wholesale would be the quickest way to scale the income for the business. Through wholesale, you can reach a wider audience and sell in bulk, which allow for better profit margins.

Now, Mellowworks thrives with around 95% of its business in wholesale.

Additionally, she gained knowledge on selling wholesale through attending Paper Camp, which provided her with a clear roadmap and community support.

She also highlighted the value of community support and learning from others' experiences in the business.

Valuable Lessons When Starting Out

We all go into business without much idea of what we are doing. Hindsight is always 20/20, and Divya offered some practical advice on what she would have done differently knowing what she knows now.

For starters, she would have hired support earlier on. This is a common thing we hear from guests on the podcast. Most people wish they had hired a team earlier.

However, we know that it can be scary to make an investment like that when you might be making very little income. That’s why it is really important to know your numbers. A bookkeeper is usually a good first hire because they can help you sort some of this out.

Divya shared a few of the roles she could have hired for earlier on:

an assistant for packing and data entry
bookkeeper for financial tracking and planning
Support in setting up systems earlier on

So, if you are a new entrepreneur, don’t be afraid to start hiring out, even if it is for just 5-10 hours a week!

text overlay: "Something that I should have done earlier on in my business is put processes and systems in place. I'm still not there, but it's important to start thinking about it early. And as you grow, the systems you need will grow and change too

Strategic Planning for Wholesale Releases

I enjoyed my conversation with Divya and hearing about all the ways her business has grown over the years.

I also think her strategy for thinking through new product releases is a smart and strategic way to create products that your customers will buy.

Her emphasis on thoughtful design, strategic planning, and continuous evolution resonates with many business owners looking to navigate the challenges of wholesale expansion and sustained growth in the retail industry.

Quick Links

Here is a quick recap of links to other helpful blogs and podcasts shared in this post.

Did you know that 49% of your customers want to hear from you on a consistent basis? Yet only a small percentage of product makers are actively sending monthly emails to their direct-to-consumer and wholesale customers.

When I asked our community why they don't send more emails, they said they weren't sure what to say or how often to send those emails, and their biggest pain point was perception. Nobody wanted to come off as salesy or pushy. They didn't want to bother anyone, so I kindly reminded them that if people don't know about your product line, they are not going to purchase it.

Email marketing is hands down one of the best ways to create long-standing strong connections with our customers. So, sending consistent nurture emails, leads to repeat orders and it leads to larger orders. But sitting in front of a blank screen can feel really intimidating.

If you have struggled with what to say or when to send those emails, how to plan out your email marketing strategy, I want you to grab our free email marketing guide that has helped hundreds of product makers plan out an entire year's worth of emails.

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MEET divya

Mellowworks is a woman-owned stationery brand based in beautiful Montclair, NJ. The brand is all about color and a playful mix of simple patterns and bold colors. A line of modern stationery and gifts designed by Divya Guruju. You will find modern, luxurious wrapping paper, colorful, eye-catching notebooks, fun and bright greeting cards and cool gifts, all designed to be color-coordinated for a stunning presentation.

Divya Guruju launched Mellowworks as a passion project in 2018 while still working as a menswear designer in NYC. “ I love working with color and pattern, and with my job in fashion, that was almost always restricted,” she says. Now out on her own, Divya embraces bold shades of coral and salmon, retro-inspired patterns like checkerboards and terrazzo, and sweet designs that aren't, you know, *too* sweet. “My paper is colorful,” but I still like to keep it clean and simple,” she says. “It's menswear-inspired, in a way, but also very me.”

CONNECT WITH divya

WEBSITE: https://www.shopmellowworks.com/ | INSTAGRAM: @mellowworksart

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