You have heard me say it before, and I'm gonna remind you again, strong businesses are built through slow, steady, intentional growth. Today's guest is proof of that. Jill Shephard is the owner of Ruff House Print Shop. She started her business in 2009, initially specializing in custom wedding invitations. She then spent 14 years prioritizing professional development, refining her business model, expanding her team, and strengthening her customer experience. In the process, she built a profitable and sustainable company that she is proud of.  Today, Jill and I are talking about her entrepreneurial journey from custom wedding invitations to a brick and mortar retail shop to selling wholesale to over 3,000 shops around the world. Jill also reveals her strategies for maintaining a thriving business, the importance of continuous learning, and the impact of participating in programs like Paper Camp, even as a seasoned entrepreneur. Today’s episode is brought to you by our free, on-demand wholesale audio series. In this audio series, I’ll walk you through the biggest mistakes and most common questions folks have when they are starting and scaling wholesale—so you don’t make the same mistakes myself and others did.  You can binge this audio series in less than an hour and you can listen on the go in your favorite podcast player.  No fluff here, just concrete action steps and answers to help you simplify and strengthen your wholesale sales.  SIGN UP You can view full show notes and more at prooftoproduct.com/306 Connect with Jill Ruffhouseprintshop.comInstagram: @ruffhouseprintshop  Facebook: @ruffhouseprintshop Ruffhousepaperie.comInstagram: @ruffhousepaperie Facebook: @ruffhousepaperie   Mentioned in this Episode: Paper Camp

306 | Always learning, improving & evolving business with Jill Shephard, Ruff House Print Shop

Ranked in the top 1% of ALL podcasts, the Proof to Product podcast is your trusted resource for sustainable business growth - especially if you make and sell physical products!

Join Katie Hunt, each week as she shares strategies & solutions to enhance your sales & marketing so that you’re building a business that supports your best life.

If you’ve ever asked yourself can I make money selling physical products? Am I ready to sell my products wholesale to stores like Target, Anthropologie, Nordstrom or Barnes & Noble? When should I consider hiring a sales team or sales reps? Can I really turn my passion into profits? Whether you’re a just starting out on your business journey or you’ve been at it a while growing an empire, this show is for you.

Proof to Product is like on-demand business school for product sellers spanning a wide range of industries. Whether you’re in home decor, apparel, beauty, food & beverage, hand-made items, jewelry, consumer gifts or the stationery world, you’ll gather new ideas each week to help you grow your profit, build your team and lead with integrity.

Host Katie Hunt and her guests bring you actionable ways to expand your product line, manufacturing overseas, optimize your e-commrce websites on Shopify, Faire, Etsy, Abound, Tundra, Squarespace or in brick & mortar locations. How to start or scale wholesale sales including pitching stores, wholesale outreach, trade show exhibition, working with sales reps, managing inventory, warehousing product, sales systems, wholesale follow-up strategies and working with key accounts. Marketing strategies for small businesses including content creation, leveraging tik tok and instagram tactics without feeling burned out, why you can’t rely solely on social media for sales and why email marketing systems on platforms like Klaviyo, Flodesk and Active Campaign are so powerful. Listen in as Katie and our guest experts help you strategize and tackle your biggest business goals.

Host Katie Hunt brings a unique perspective to entrepreneurship. Since 2011, she’s helped thousands of product brands get their products on the shelves of their favorite retail stores through her Paper Camp program (www.prooftoproduct.com/papercamp). Prior to that she worked in the corporate world for over a decade leading business development and marketing teams. She has two MBAs - one in finance and one in marketing. And, she owned & operated her own product based business for over 8 years, selling her products to stores throughout the world from her garage. Katie knows the struggles you face as a product based business and she’s here to pull back the curtain and share her best kept secrets so that you don’t have to learn things the hard way.

Find our free trainings & resources for product based business owners at www.prooftoproduct.com/resources

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I know what you're thinking. Why are we talking about holiday gift guides when it's only spring? I know. But just like how product development cycles require advanced planning, so does pitching the press and getting your products featured in holiday gift guides.  Today's guest is Nora Wolf from Wolf PR, a boutique public relations firm that she founded in 2011. Wolf PR specializes in furniture, textiles, lighting, and collectible design. In addition, they have consulted with a wide range of companies, big and small. In 2020, Nora and her business partner, Kristen Larson, launched a second business called WolfCraft. WolfCraft's mission is to help creative businesses build brand awareness with actionable PR and content strategies that resonate with clients and the media. Nora is known for helping product-based business owners get their products featured in holiday gift guides.  During this episode, we're talking about your holiday gift guide pitching timeline, what you need to have prepared, and how to put your best products forward when pitching press for holiday gift guides.  If pitching holiday gift guides is something you are focused on for this year, I want to invite you to a free workshop that we're co-hosting with WolfCraft PR on May 7th at 9am PT/12pm ET.  They will share best practices for pitching your products to gift guides and tell you more about their upcoming program that helps you get your products featured in gift guides.  You can click here to register for this free workshop. You can view full show notes and more at http://prooftoproduct.com/340  Quick Links: Free Wholesale Audio Series Free Resources Library Free Email Marketing for Product Makers PTP LABS Paper Camp  

340 | Pitching Holiday Gift Guides with Nora Wolf, Wolf PR

If you work with independent contractors in your business, you will want to listen closely to this podcast episode. In March 2024, the US Department of Labor issued new stricter guidelines regarding independent contractor workers.  Today's guest is HR consultant and expert, Kira La Forgia of Paradigm Consulting. She is breaking it all down for us so we avoid penalties and audits.  We talk about new changes, how they affect you, and how to protect yourself if you currently have team members who may be misclassified.  You may remember Kira from episode 238 where we talked about how to build your dream team. If you do not yet have a support team in your business, I would start with that episode and then come back and listen to this one next. Kira has a Future-Proof Your Team workshop that  you can get $50 off of if you sign up via our link. Today’s episode is brought to you by our Deciding What to Delegate free workshop. As busy entrepreneurs, one of our biggest challenges is knowing where to dedicate our time and energy. We’re usually so busy doing the work in our business that we have a tough time identifying what we can hand off to someone else. This on-demand free workshop will provide you with 3 simple steps so that you can identify what projects to outsource so that you can stop being the bottleneck in your business. SIGN UP You can view full show notes and more at http://prooftoproduct.com/339  Quick Links: Free Wholesale Audio Series Free Resources Library Free Email Marketing for Product Makers PTP LABS Paper Camp  

339 | Updates on Independent Contractor Guidelines with Kira La Forgia, Paradigm Consulting

If you have ever considered exiting your business or even acquiring another person's business, today's podcast episode is for you. My guests today are two of my clients and also friends: Meghan Hopkins Sokorai of And Here We Are, and Kiwi Schloffel of Your Gal Kiwi.  Last year, Kiwi made the decision that she wanted to exit her product-based business and specifically exit the day-to-day operations of manufacturing. During this episode, these ladies share their individual and collective stories about how the Your Gal Kiwi brand is now under the umbrella of And Here We Are. They'll share how this collaboration came to be, considerations and questions they both had as they structured this deal, and what it means for both brands moving forward. Today’s episode is brought to you by our Proof to Product resource library. It’s where you can get your hands on our free resources to help you start, streamline and scale your business in your own way and at your own pace.   GET FREE ACCESS You can view full show notes and more at http://prooftoproduct.com/338  Quick Links: Free Wholesale Audio Series Free Resources Library Free Email Marketing for Product Makers PTP LABS Paper Camp  

338 | Exiting and Acquiring a Business with Kiwi Schloffel & Meghan Hopkins Sokorai

One of the things that sets Proof to Product apart from other people teaching about wholesale is the breadth and depth of not only my personal knowledge but also the fact that we bring in a variety of other perspectives from buyers to sales reps to consultants and manufacturers.  This wide lens allows us to share best practices and current trends that we're seeing in the market currently. We're not sharing one narrow viewpoint about how to sell wholesale. We have amassed decades of knowledge through the collaborations and inclusivity that we foster in our community, supporting thousands of product-based industry leaders.  This week’s episode is an example of that. Our guest today is Kimberley Yurkiewicz, a 25-year veteran in the stationery industry. She has expertise from a variety of perspectives as a retailer and buyer, as a sales rep, as a manufacturer, and as a Paper Camp speaker. She's also been a previous guest on this podcast. She was on  episode 9 of Proof to Product way back in 2017, and that is still one of our most popular episodes to date. You can go back and listen if you want to hear why wholesale catalogs are an important sales tool.  Kimberley and her husband, Zach currently own Measure Twice, a paper and gift shop in Brooklyn, which was highlighted as one of New York City's best in New York Magazine last year. Kimberley has long been a proponent of an old-school approach to small business, cheerleading for brick and mortar, and making the effort to steer clear of Amazon. She also thinks it's okay, even essential, to include politics in your business plan.  On today's episode, Kimberley is sharing the challenges she faced having owned and operated 3 brick and mortar retail shops through challenging times, why she chooses not to use fair when making wholesale purchases, and her preferences for how she likes to be pitched by wholesale brands. Today’s episode is sponsored by our Unlock Buyer Secrets Interview series. To make a strong first impression with wholesale buyers, we need to do a few things really well:   We need to make it easy for stores to purchase from us   We need to have clear pricing and terms & conditions   We need to clearly communicate and add value at each touchpoint   We need to focus on building strong relationships with our customers.   And all of this becomes infinitely easier when we actively listen to our customers. This on-demand interview series will give you a competitive edge by providing an exclusive window into what buyers want and need from you. And, the best part, its only $27 bucks.  Get Access to the Unlock Buyer Secrets Interview Series You can view full show notes and more at http://prooftoproduct.com/337  Quick Links: Free Wholesale Audio Series Free Resources Library Free Email Marketing for Product Makers PTP LABS Paper Camp  

337 | Exclusivity and Ethics in Retail with Kimberley Yurkiewicz, Measure Twice

Did you know that almost 70% of shoppers abandon their online shopping carts and don't follow through with a sale?  That means that only 3 out of 10 of your customers who go to your website and load up their shopping cart complete their purchase. The same report from Baymard Institute said that more than $18,000,000,000 in e-commerce sales are lost annually due to abandoned carts. That is a whole lot of money. And yet, only some independent product brands are utilizing abandoned cart follow-up emails to recapture some of these sales.  On today's episode, I'm answering a question from our recent round of Paper Camp regarding abandoned cart email automations. If you have ever shied away from sending out these emails, you are going to want to listen to this one and rethink your strategy. Today’s episode is sponsored by our Unlock Buyer Secrets Interview series. To make a strong first impression with wholesale buyers, we need to do a few things really well:   We need to make it easy for stores to purchase from us   We need to have clear pricing and terms & conditions   We need to clearly communicate and add value at each touchpoint   We need to focus on building strong relationships with our customers.   And all of this becomes infinitely easier when we actively listen to our customers. This on-demand interview series will give you a competitive edge by providing an exclusive window into what buyers want and need from you. And, the best part, its only $27 bucks.  Get Access to the Unlock Buyer Secrets Interview Series You can view full show notes and more at http://prooftoproduct.com/336  Quick Links: Free Wholesale Audio Series Free Resources Library Free Email Marketing for Product Makers PTP LABS Paper Camp  

306 | Always learning, improving & evolving business with Jill Shephard, Ruff House Print Shop

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