3 Things I Outsource as a Stationery Business Owner
As a solo entrepreneur, you learn how to wear a lot of different hats. I’m the CEO, CFO, accountant, designer, production manager, illustrator, shipping manager, and social media strategist. I oversee marketing, packaging design, product development, and a million other things. While I absolutely value learning how to do all of these things, there does come a point where you have to decide what is worth spending your most valuable resource on – time. Some of these things, I let go of early on. Others, it took me a while to figure out. Today I am sharing some of the things I have learned to outsource over the years and more importantly, why!
Printing: It is very tempting for a lot of new small businesses owners in the stationery world to take on in-house printing. It seems like it would be more efficient and economical to print in-house, right? When I was first starting out, I invested in a nice quality printer, and decided to print all of my own pieces myself. I didn’t really know where else to have things printed other than FedEx (eh…nope!), and I thought this would be a cost-effective way to print on demand. The thing is…I felt like I was constantly wrestling with my printer, and it was eating up a lot of my time to get the settings *just right*. I once heard someone say that they didn’t get into the stationery business to become a print shop and things just clicked for me. This particular task wasn’t bringing me joy and my current strategy just wasn’t helping my business grow. I joined the A-Z Directory with Biz Birthday Bash (RIP their fab podcast!), and learned about all of the places I could have things printed. It has everything from greeting cards to gift wrap and more! This was an absolute GAME CHANGER for my business. I’ve outsourced all of my printing ever since then, and have never looked back! If you want to join the directory, click here and save 10% off your first year of membership!
Wholesale Outreach: Once I had a good amount of products produced, I knew I wanted to start getting my goods into physical stores. I struggled to make headway because I simply lacked the time I needed to commit to reaching out to stores that could be a good fit. I joined the online wholesale platform Faire, but it was a slow burn since I was just relying on customers finding me organically. I didn’t feel quite ready to hire someone to help, but I also knew that this was the key to opening up this side of the business. I took that leap of faith and hired the most wonderful Virtual Assistant ever, Melinda! She took over all wholesale outreach and ran with it!! Thanks to her hard work, we are now in over 25 retail stores across the country in under 9 months! Interested in joining Faire and growing your wholesale business? Use this referral link!
Assembly: To be honest, I always kind of enjoyed the repetitive tasks of product and invitation assembly. Putting cards in sleeves, adhering envelope liners, applying postage…it can be kind of meditative and soothing. It does, however, take up a lot of time. This last year was my busiest year of designing and producing wedding stationery ever. Hundreds of suites needed to be assembled and mailed, so I knew it was time to bring on even more help! Having someone to take on these extremely time consuming tasks was a life saver!! It allowed me to keep designing, and running other areas of my business that I can’t outsource. While you may not be ready to hire someone permanently for this, it’s a great way to bring on temporary help and clear some things off your plate. I actually meet a lot of people who say they would LOVE to help in this arena as they find it soothing. It’s also a great time to catch up on Podcasts or your favorite tv show.
There you have it! What you decide to outsource might be totally different than what I chose – keep the things you love and that serve your business well, and think about outsourcing those tasks that you dread doing, or that just aren’t serving you as they are now. Have you already removed some things from your plate? Let me know in the comments!!
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