Today I want to share a case study with you featuring one of our Paper Camp alum, Zeba Parkar of Treleaf.

Before we dive in, I wanted to tell you about a free workshop that I'm hosting on February 18th at 10:30am Pacific Time.

This wholesale buying season has been really eye-opening. I've been in this industry for 17 years and I've worked with tens of thousands of brands. I've seen a lot of the same patterns show up again and again. Usually, these patterns tie to missed opportunities, outdated strategies or even small changes that we can make to enhance our sales.

I will also say the market is changing. Things are happening in the economy and in the world, and that's affecting sales and we can't be using the same playbook.

In this free workshop, I'm going to talk about how you can land consistent wholesale orders without over-relying on Faire without using bad wholesale pitches or discounting.

I'm going to show you what you should be doing and how you can optimize.

I'm also going to tell you about our upcoming Paper Camp program which we will be opening for enrollment soon!

You can RSVP for this free workshop at http://prooftoproduct.com/RSVP

Zeba's website | Follow on Instagram

320 | The Challenges Of Bringing A New Product To Life With with Zeba Parkar, Treleaf

388 | Leveraging Funding to Expand Your Business with Zeba Parkar, Treleaf

You can view full show notes and more at http://prooftoproduct.com/429

Quick Links:

Free Wholesale Audio Series

Free Resources Library

Free Email Marketing for Product Makers

PTP LABS

Paper Camp

Our Paper Camp alumni are doing incredible things and growing their wholesale businesses in a very intentional and meaningful way. Today's guest is Lesa Muehlstein from Birdie Mae Designs, and she is no exception.

I've been keeping tabs on Lesa's progress ever since she attended Paper Camp in early 2022.

Lesa added 200 new stores within 2.5 years of attending Paper Camp, and as she will share today, that number is even higher now.

Lesa came to Paper Camp in early 2022 and before our 4 weeks were up, she had secured 5 new stores, bringing her total count to 15.

During that time, she also raised her prices and refined her sales system. August 2023, she messaged me to say that she was now in 100 stores and that her brand had been featured in a national magazine in August 2024.

Just one year later, she shared that she was in 200 stores! This growth did not happen overnight and it was not without its challenges, but it is worth celebrating Lesa's successes every step of the way.

On today's episode, Lesa shares her startup story and we talk about inventory and product challenges, particularly balancing how much inventory to order when space and cash flow are constraints.

She shares what sales data she's tracking and how she uses that data to make decisions in her business, including what to discontinue or what to buy more of.

We also talked about the benefits of wholesale, specifically how we can systematize the sales, production, and fulfillment of wholesale orders in a way that makes the business work around personal responsibilities.

Today's episode is brought to you by our Paper Camp program. Paper Camp is our wholesale coaching program where we teach you everything you need to know to build strong wholesale foundations. Over the course of 4 weeks, we tackle your product line, sales tools, and marketing plan, and we even talk about how to exhibit at trade shows if that's what you want to do. We start with your product line and go into everything from how often you should be releasing new products to ensuring that your numbers are sustainable for the wholesale market and their price for profit.

Then we move into sales tools you must have for selling wholesale so you make a strong first impression with buyers like catalogs and your terms and conditions. Then, we cover marketing strategies and ways to reach various store owners.

Each week's teachings build on the previous week, and we host weekly live engaging coaching calls to answer all of your questions. We will open enrollment for our next round of Paper Camp soon, and we sell this program out every time we run it. Join the wait list and you'll get early access to enroll.

SIGN UP FOR THE WAITLIST

You can view full show notes and more at http://prooftoproduct.com/428

Quick Links:

Free Wholesale Audio Series

Free Resources Library

Free Email Marketing for Product Makers

PTP LABS

Paper Camp

One of my favorite things to do is to shout out our student wins and community wins from the rooftops. And part of that is also bringing people back to share their story.

Today's episode is with my friend Kate Murray of Quick Brown Fox Letterpress. She is back on the podcast to share where she's at now and all the new things that are happening in her business. Last time Kate and I talked here publicly was August of 2020, which feels like a lifetime ago.

As we all know, business can significantly shift in five years and a lot has changed for Kate.

She opened her own retail store and she's got a new leadership role with the Greeting Card Association.

In our conversation today, Kate shares her journey of launching a storefront, how she balances wholesale and retail operations, and the innovative ways that she's nurturing relationships with both key accounts and independent retailers.

She shares about some exciting wholesale collabs she's doing in the next year and the importance of patience for these types of collaborations to actually come to fruition.

Sometimes it's really about playing the long game with wholesale, which I know can be frustrating at times, but it is a really important reminder to us that good things do take time to develop.

Today's episode is brought to you by our Paper Camp program. Paper Camp is our wholesale coaching program where we teach you everything you need to know to build strong wholesale foundations. Over the course of 4 weeks, we tackle your product line, sales tools, and marketing plan, and we even talk about how to exhibit at trade shows if that's what you want to do. We start with your product line and go into everything from how often you should be releasing new products to ensuring that your numbers are sustainable for the wholesale market and their price for profit.

Then we move into sales tools you must have for selling wholesale so you make a strong first impression with buyers like catalogs and your terms and conditions. Then, we cover marketing strategies and ways to reach various store owners.

Each week's teachings build on the previous week, and we host weekly live engaging coaching calls to answer all of your questions. We will open enrollment for our next round of Paper Camp soon, and we sell this program out every time we run it. Join the wait list and you'll get early access to enroll.

SIGN UP FOR THE WAITLIST

You can view full show notes and more at http://prooftoproduct.com/427

Quick Links:

Free Wholesale Audio Series

Free Resources Library

Free Email Marketing for Product Makers

PTP LABS

Paper Camp