Earn Back the Cost of Your Paperly Starter Kit

Here's a little secret: Become a Paperly Consultant in May and you can earn back the cost of your Starter Kit by the end of the month!

How?!

Actually, it's fairly easy. Paperly's May Hostess Promotion provides Hostesses with up to an additional $25 in free Credits, right?

www.Paperly.com/pdf/Paperly_Bonus_Hostess_Rewards_May2012.pdf

Well, Paperly's Starter Kit is only a $99 investment - shipping included (but not sales tax). Paperly's average party in 2011 was ~$450.  For the sake of argument, let's round up to $500. (After all, that $50 difference is just a set of 50 personalized flat or folded notes. I'm confident you can sell that one extra set!)  Anyway, with a $500 party, May's Hostesses earn $90 in free product.

So a $99 investment in Paperly's Starter Kit can yield $90 in free product for a near average party.  Hmmm....

Now let's say your first party as a new Paperly Consultant is your own. After all, it's fairly common to start your Paperly business with a "Kick Off Party" where you are the Hostess and you invite your close friends and family over to share Paperly's amazing products.  So now you are going to benefit from the $90 in free products. Again, hmmm....

So not to belabor the math, but a $99 investment turns into $90 in free products.

And this is before you even count the $30 Paperly gives you to spend at Paperly's Marketing Portal on personalized items of your choosing (e.g. business cards, postcards, signage, etc.) as well as the 40% off Paperly gives you within your first 40 days as a new Consultant to purchase personalized samples.

$90 in free products (on average), plus $30 in personalized marketing materials, plus 40% off personalized samples, plus training, plus a replicated website, plus a Virtual Office, plus loose samples, plus, plus, plus... 

Paperly's Loose Samples

As one of my favorite commercials in Chicago states, "it's the biggest no brainer in the history of no brainers".

I hope you too decide to earn back the cost your Starter Kit.  It's truly an amazing opportunity.

- Jay Rudman, CEO, Paperly

The leading direct seller of personalized stationery & gifts

Paperly: A DSA Rising Star?

Recently, Paperly applied for the Direct Selling Association's Rising Star award. The award is designed to recognize up-and-coming direct selling companies that have dedicated themselves to achieving a high standard of excellence in business operations. The criteria includes being board-approved members of the DSA for more than a year but having been in business less than five years, showing a consistent pattern of growth and illustrating a commitment to the DSA’s Code of Ethics. I thought you might enjoy reading a synopsis of Paperly's application.

Personalization at Paperly’s Core

Although “paper” is rooted in its name, “personalization” is truly at the core of Paperly’s product line. Approximately 50% of Paperly’s products are traditional stationery items (e.g. flat/folded notes, notepads and memo sheets), while the remaining 50% is comprised of personalized hard goods.

Consistent & Continued Growth: Consultants

One measure of Paperly’s consistent growth is the number of Consultants it has added year-over-year. For example, from 2009 to 2010, Paperly's Consultant base jumped 94%. From 2010 to 2011, it increased 63%.  And in the first quarter of 2012 alone, Paperly has already enrolled nearly 70% of its full-year total from 2011.

Another measure of Paperly’s growth is the scope and geographic diversity of its Consultants. From 2009 to 2011, Paperly’s presence grew from 8 states to 28 states coast-to-coast (not to mention Paperly also has Consultants located in Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and overseas U.S. military bases). These numbers suggest there are no geographic biases to constrain Paperly’s future expansion.

Consistent & Continued Growth: Volume

Beyond its growth in Consultants and states, Paperly has also seen tremendous increases in revenue, orders and guests. For example, from 2010 to 2011, it saw its revenues increase by 49%, its orders increase by 58% and its number of ordering guests increase by 48%. Even with Paperly’s dramatic growth, its average commissionable party volume has remained unchanged at $439, a strong indicator of the consistency and staying power of Paperly’s party-based business.


Commitment to the DSA Code of Ethics

In 2011, Paperly was recognized for its participation in the DSA’s Code of Ethics Communication Initiative. (Paperly has applied for recognition again in 2012.) Paperly’s recognition was based, in part, on its linking Paperly.com to both DSA.org and DirectSelling411.com, training Paperly’s sales force about the Code and including the Code within its policies manual. As a further sign of its commitment to the Code, Paperly has participated in all DSA-sponsored Chief Responsibility Officer teleconferences.


Well-Rounded Business Strategy

Paperly is proud of accomplishing the following milestones, each of which supports a pillar of its business strategy:


Training & Development

• Paperly conducted its first-ever National Consultant Conference in Atlanta. Approximately a dozen Consultants participated in the 3 day event.
• In 2011, Paperly graduated its first 2 classes of its Future Leaders Program. Class #3 began in February 2012.
• Paperly hosted 5 Consultants for 3 days at Home Office in June 2011 for its inaugural President’s Council. 

Marketing Toolkit

• Paperly’s replicated website, MyPaperly.com, enables its Consultants to accept online orders as well as manage their back office virtually.
• Paperly launched an e-newsletter service to enable its Consultants to connect with her/his customers on a consistent basis.
• Paperly’s Marketing Portal provides its Consultants company-branded, personalized marketing materials (i.e. business cards, postcards, banners, etc.) at discounted prices.

~~~~~~~~~~

Although there was more to the Rising Star application, these were the highlights.  I hope they've given you further insight into Paperly. I'm proud of the path Paperly has taken to date, and I cannot wait to show you what the future holds. I hope you decide to come along for the amazing journey ahead.

As always, if you have any questions or comments, please feel free to call or email me.

Regards,

Jay Rudman, CEO, Paperly

Paperly's Field Trip to Personalization Mall

This past week, I had the good fortune of being invited to visit Personalization Mall (www.personalizationmall.com) in Burr Ridge, IL. I've always held PMall in the highest esteem. Their line of personalized products is enviably large, their online preview technology is best-in-class and their belief that "nothing says 'you're special' like a personalized gift" mimics Paperly's.

I learned so much from my visit; I wish I could share everything.  However, I would never wish to betray their confidences. So instead of delving into specifics, I wanted to share a few general, but important, observations:

1. Personalization is HUGE. PMall personalizes everything from picture frames to doormats... and everything in-between. They have proved that it's big business putting names on things.  Paperly's personalization model is built similarly, but using a completely different distribution model.  Theirs is online; Paperly's is via at-home parties.

2. Personalization is SCALABLE.  Just a few years ago, it would have been impossible to successfully conduct "mass personalization".  Today's technology has made it incredibly do-able.  PMall has proven you can do millions of personalized orders.  Paperly aims to do the same.

3. Personalization is SPECIAL.  Paperly is built on the belief that the handwritten note - and for that matter, a personalized gift - will be forever treasured. Turns out, PMall is built on the same principle.  In today's electronic world, both companies appreciate the power of making connections via personalized products.

I'm honored to share the same competitive space as Personalization Mall (even though we compete using vastly different distribution models). I thank them for the office visit.  It meant a lot to me.  I aspire to be as successful as PMall.  Given Paperly's unfaltering path towards personalization, I'm confident we'll be their equal sooner than later.

- Jay Rudman, CEO, Paperly
The leading direct seller of personalized stationery & gifts

Paperly's Leap Day Promotion

On February 29th, Paperly launched its first-ever Leap Day Promotion: For 24 hours, Paperly's Starter Kit was marked down to only $29. (The regular price is $99).  Paperly's Kit has never been priced so low and may never be again... until Leap Day 2016.

Wow! What a response we received! In those 24 hours, Paperly enrolled 25 new Consultants. I was utterly speechless!

Now that I've had a bit to digest the impact of the promotion, I thought I'd share a few of my thoughts:

1. Demand is high. It's exciting to know there are so many who want to be Paperly Consultants. And why wouldn't they?  It's fun and energizing to be part of a fast-growing, direct selling company that sells one-of-a-kind, personalized paper and gift products.

2. Sometimes time is your friend.  Was $29 ridiculously inexpensive, and therefore, hard to pass up?  Absolutely. But personally, I think the 24-hour time limit was even more potent. Knowing that the deal was fleeting caused the on-rush. That's a good lesson for all of us to remember for future promotions.

3.  The Field trumps Home Office.  I purposely decided not to promote this limited-time offer through corporate. Instead, I asked Paperly's Consultants to use their marketing prowess to communicate the promotion to their potential teammates. Their efforts far exceeded my expectations (and abilities)! Facebook, blogs, email campaigns... you name it, the Field tried it and they were wildly successful! I believe 80-90% of the new Consultants enrolled because of a personal connection with an existing Consultant. I was so excited to see this number, because these new Consultants now have a friend and mentor to help kick-start their Paperly business.

Now that the promotion is over, our job is to train, educate, mentor and lead these new Consultants towards a wildly successful Paperly business.  And of course, I've got to put on my thinking cap as to what Paperly's next great promotion will be.  Any suggestions?

- Jay Rudman, CEO, Paperly

The leading direct seller of personalized stationery and gifts

Paperly Consultant Map

It's been a bit since I last shared a map of where Paperly's active Consultants reside, so I thought I'd provide this quick update:

As you can see, there remains plenty of untapped areas.  Who wants to be the first Paperly Consultant in Utah? New Mexico? Arizona?

Hope you find this helpful!

Regards,
Jay Rudman, CEO, Paperly

Key Learnings from Conference 2012

Hard to believe a week has already passed since the conclusion of Paperly's first-ever Consultant Conference. I'm not sure about the attendees, but I'm still on a post-event high. The Conference was so much fun. I met an amazing team of Consultants. I certainly ate way too much. And oh yeah - I learned a ton! Below is a brief summary of a few topics we discussed at Conference.

Best Practices: What has Worked for You?
I asked the Consultants to form small groups and share what has worked for them - i.e. best practices - across 3 topics: (1) marketing their Paperly business, (2) getting more bookings and (3) improving the Paperly party experience.  Here are a few of the ideas they shared.

1. Marketing Your Paperly Business:  Facebook, email signatures, referral programs, mini look-books and in-package thank you notes.
2. Getting Bookings:  Teacher’s lounges, lead sheets, open houses, “party on the go”, bring my store to you and delivering products.
3. Party Experience: Prices on everything, image bank, samples of everything, thematic displays and taking pictures of your displays.

As you might imagine, it's impossible to capture all the ideas the Consultants shared, especially given the detail in which each was discussed, but I'm happy to provide additional details to anyone that is interested.  Simply contact me at your convenience.

Solving Paperly’s Heftiest Challenges
After sharing best practices, I then asked each group to tackle a couple of Paperly's most vexing corporate challenges: (1) enhancing Paperly's brand and (2) Paperly's technology. Here are a few of their solutions.

1. Enhancing Paperly’s brand: How best to describe Paperly, who’s Paperly’s typical buyer, brand Paperly’s “P”, standardization and templating of materials, ensuring Paperly’s brand is on all its products and including Paperly in all email signatures.
2. Paperly’s technology: Easy sharing of Paperly’s products/sales on all social media websites, focus on imagery in e-newsletters, emailed receipts rather than paper receipts and make MyPaperly a shopping focused website.

Again, I'm happy to elaborate if you'd like additional details. 

You may ask why I'm sharing these learnings. Well, I'm a big believer in sharing.  Sharing how smart Paperly's Consultants are; sharing how Paperly is listening to (and soon-to-be acting upon) Consultant feedback; sharing how Paperly is a continuously learning and adapting organization. I believe it's important for everyone - existing Consultants, potential Consultants, customers and hostesses - to know that Paperly is working very hard at becoming a world-class organization.  Nothing short of that will be accepted.

So thank you to everyone who contributed to the amazing learnings that occurred at Conference.  I'm already scheduling my next trip to visit Paperly's Consultants in their hometowns. My commitment to learning, and making Paperly the "right" organization, is tireless.

Regards,

Jay Rudman, CEO, Paperly

Paperly Conference: Day 2

It will be hard to beat the 2nd day of Paperly's Conference. The day started off with the objectives of Conference and goal setting by each of the attendees.  A common theme from the Consultants was "expanding their Paperly business beyond their immediate circle of friends & family".  I then spent some time on Paperly's past, present and future.  I feel it's incredibly important to understand Paperly's beginnings and its everlasting principles so we can collectively build the "right" business. Then, we were honored to dialogue with Joe Mariano, the Direct Selling Association's President.  Everyone loved hearing his perspective on the industry and Paperly's unique and compelling position within it.  After an amazing lunch (of way too much food!) we broke into small teams to discuss best practices across (1) marketing your Paperly business, (2) increasing bookings and (3) enhancing the party experience. We will soon publish the notes from these discussions.  Finally, we concluded the day with a page-by-page preview of Paperly's new Spring 2012 catalog. Now that it's "out", I can finally start sharing all of its amazing designs and products - yea.

Now it's off to a fun-filled dinner of pizza, pasta, salads and wine ;)  I hope tomorrow is as productive - and fun! - as today!

I'll write more soon.

- Jay Rudman, CEO, Paperly
The leading direct seller of personalized stationery & gifts

Paperly's Conference 2012