Friday, June 29, 2012

Paperly in 5 Years

Today, Paperly is the leading direct seller of personalized stationery & gifts. It currently has ~250 Consultants located in 39 states selling uniquely-designed Paperly products primarily through at-home parties. Paperly has been recognized by Inc.com as "The Next Guard of Direct Selling" and has won 2 Product Innovation awards from the Direct Selling Association.

But where will Paperly be in 5 years? Below are 4 critical themes Paperly will focus on to ensure it remains an industry leader through 2017 and well beyond.

1. Hyper-Personalization, Hyper-Customization
All of Paperly’s products will continue to incorporate 5 key ingredients: personalization, inks, fonts, proprietary designs and blank substrates (e.g. flat notes, notepads, iPhone/iPad cases, platters, etc). When combined, these 5 ingredients can literally produce millions of one-of-a-kind products. Paperly believes hyper-personalization and hyper-customization drives hyper-satisfaction. It is this passion for Paperly’s products that will continue to drive Paperly’s success.

2. Technology Enabled Workflow
Within the next 5 years, a Paperly Consultant will carry nothing but an iPad and loose samples. Customers will browse through the loose samples and then, within minutes, create their personal product on the Consultant’s iPad. A typical conversation might be, “Sally, you like the Wildflower flat note? Here is what it would look like using your name, font #9 and pink ink. Oh, you like font #12 better? No problem, give me one second to make the switch. Do you like it now? Wonderful!” As soon as the “submit” button is pressed, the order is sent directly to Paperly’s production facility, and a few days later, is shipped directly to the customer.

3. A $100,000 Earner 
As a relatively new direct selling company, Paperly's Consultants are just now beginning to earn beneficial, but not life-altering income.  Within 5 years, Paperly aims to have dozens (or perhaps hundreds) of Consultants earning at least six figures. To accomplish that goal, Paperly will identify its fast-rising superstars and train them for success. Paperly will also likely readdress its incentive programs (i.e. Fast Start, Paperly Dollars, Annual Conference, cruises/trips, Business Development Leaders, etc.) to ensure they are motivating the next generation of $100,000+ earners.

4. Improve the Entire Offering
Paperly needs to elevate the quality of its offering - not its products. Paperly’s products are printed using cutting-edge printing technology, so the quality of the product is truly not an issue. However, Paperly knows its needs to enhance its offering by reduce its error rates to negligible levels, further beautify its packaging, continue to reduce its production time, and deliver all its products in the same box at the same time directly to the recipient.

Paperly is 100% committed to achieving this 5-year plan. In fact, I am confident Paperly is already taking the right steps towards achieving all 4 of these objectives.  This 5 year vision will ensure that Paperly continues to dominate the personalized stationery & gift industry.

- Jay Rudman, CEO, Paperly