Paperly’s First-Ever National Consultant Conference

You might have seen, Paperly recently announced that it is hosting its first-ever national Consultant Conference in January 2012 in Atlanta, GA: http://www.Paperly.com/paperly-press-2011-08-Conference.asp. Personally, I am very excited to gather Paperly’s best: to share best practices, to brainstorm potential improvements, and best of all, to create life-long friendships.

Being Paperly’s first Conference, I readily admit, it’s a work-in-process. We’re fairly settled on our keynote speaker, which we hope to announce soon. We’re also working on a "brand" for the Conference… something that encapsulates the central message for Paperly in 2012. Again, we plan to announce that soon.

Beyond those announcements, we are committed to ensure two core activities occur at Conference:

1. Yes, it’s important that Paperly shares with the attendees its vision of the future. However, equally as important, Paperly will provide significant time and opportunity for Consultants themselves to share what is/isn’t working for them, to suggest changes that could dramatically improve their businesses, and to work in small groups to address some of Paperly’s greatest challenges. I know the true value of Conference will be this Consultant-to-Consultant sharing.
2. Equally as exciting, Paperly plans to launch at Conference its new "One Catalog" which will combine its two existing catalogs: Everyday Collection and Special Occasions. The "One Catalog" concept arose from Consultant feedback and will greatly reduce potential confusion as to which product comes from which catalog.

Again, more announcements will be forthcoming about Conference. In the meantime, we hope you register to attend. The fee is incredibly reasonable, especially since attendees can either pay their attendance fee in installments, or better yet, attend for free (see the last page of the announcement to learn how)! Additionally, and this shouldn’t be glossed over, everyone is invited to attend – Consultants, spouses/significant others, existing teammates and potential teammates. I feel it's important to be inclusive, because it's the Consultants’ support network that enables them to focus on Paperly. I cannot wait to thank all of them for their support.

I am so excited for Conference and I cannot wait to see you in Atlanta!

Regards,
Jay Rudman, CEO, Paperly

A Retrospective: Special Occasions 2008

As we prepare to release Paperly’s Special Occasions catalog for 2011-12 (available on April 1, 2011), I thought it would be fun (and eye-opening) to write a retrospective on catalogs from Paperly’s past. Below is the second in the series. My first blog entry focused on Paperly’s original catalog, Everyday Collection 2007. The entry below discusses Paperly’s very first Special Occasions catalog.

While there were many positives that came out of this initial foray into a Special Occasions catalog, there were many mistakes we made and learned from, including:

• In an effort to be cost conscious, we shrunk the size of the catalog to 8.5” x 5.5”. Big mistake! Unfortunately, it made this catalog seem inferior compared to the 8.5” x 11” Everyday Collection catalog. Lesson learned: Always make your catalogs the same size!
• We introduced a gorgeous set of stationery that included 30 flat notes and envelopes, packaged within a sturdy, well-designed gift box. We loved it! Unfortunately, to make a reasonable margin on it, we needed to price the product at $75! Wow – lesson learned: There is a price point that cannot be exceeded. We now aim for all personalized gifts to fit within the $19.95 - $34.95 price range.
• One of the catalogs most popular products was 300 memo sheets stored in a gorgeous linen holder for only $30. It was a hit! Actually, it was too big of a hit, because we quickly sold out and our manufacturer couldn’t replenish the product fast enough. For the first time, Paperly had to tell its Consultants that we were back-ordered. Yuck! From that point forward, I vowed to never let Paperly get into a foreseeable backorder situation like that again.

Whew – lots of mistakes, but lots of success too. We quickly learned of the market’s insatiable appetite for reasonably priced, personalized beverage napkins, guest towels, teacher gifts and notepads. All those items continue to be strong winners for Paperly.

I must admit, it is fun looking back at Paperly’s past catalogs. I can’t wait to write about Paperly’s next one.

Until then,

Jay Rudman, CEO * Co-Owner, Paperly

A Retrospective: Everyday Collection 2007

As we prepare to release Paperly’s Special Occasions catalog for 2011-12 (available on April 1, 2011), I thought it would be fun to start a retrospective series on catalogs from Paperly’s past. So let’s dial the time machine way, way, way back to Paperly’s very first catalog, Everyday Collection 2007.

Being our very first catalog, boy did we make a lot of mistakes with it! Here are just a few key learnings we discovered:

• The catalog had no pricing! How is that possible, you ask? Well, we envisioned the catalog to be a mere complement to a 3-ring album we had put together, so we put pricing in the album but not in the catalog. Big mistake! We quickly learned that the catalog needed to stand on its own… and soon, we ditched the album altogether.
• There were no exclusive products! Instead, Paperly used other company’s designs and passed along orders to those companies. Big mistake! Without exclusive designs, customers asked why purchase from Paperly as opposed to the designers directly. Plus, without owning the designs, there isn’t enough margin to pay our Consultants the commissions they deserve.
• We showcased the designs, but not the product! For example, we’d show an icon of ballet shoes, but we wouldn’t show that icon on a flat note, folded note, luggage tag, address label, etc. We learned that customers need to see the product in use, as a flat note – for example – and preferably in a photo, so depth, contrast and scale were all readily evident.

I could probably go on and on about other mistakes we made with this first catalog, but the important thing is we quickly learned from our mistakes and our catalogs have continued to get better and better.

My next blog entry will discuss Paperly’s first Special Occasions catalog!

Until then, 

Jay Rudman, CEO * Co-Owner, Paperly