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Paper Camp was fantastic. With a focus on wholesale, the National Stationery Show, and sales reps, I knew this conference would be exactly what I needed. It was so informative and helpful. The speakers were genuine, gracious and friendly. I met so many great women in the industry who I’m happy to call new friends now.

My mind is still taking in all the information from the weekend. What I really need to figure out (and I’m the only one who can) is if NSS and/or sales reps are the right step for my business. It some ways it seems like the obvious choice for further growth, but at the same time I question if it is the right choice for me.

I’m fortunate to have an online shop and a humble amount of wholesale accounts that already keep me quite busy. I’m proud to have grown my business to where it is today on my own. That said, I’m not sure I alone will be able to stay on top of the work that comes along with bigger future goals.

I would need to hire help. That’s scary! I have thought about this for a long time but it has always overwhelmed me. Hearing everything this weekend though, made it even more apparent that to grow the business I will need to grow, well, a team.

The time will come eventually.

How do you pursue growth and change? Does it come naturally to you or do you find it scary?

Join the discussion 6 Comments

  • Julie! Tradeshow Bootcamp is the BEST, so glad you went.
    – I just hired someone for the first time in August, but before that I relied heavily on unpaid interns for almost two years until that point. Interns are great – as long as you treat them well and teach them things, they will value their experience and love you. (I still have interns who write me and tell me how much they learned from working with me) Sometimes it’s a learning curve figuring out how to let go and to delegate tasks, but so worth it in the long run! The only reason not to think about growing your business is if you’re content exactly where you are, and will be happy at that place for the long term. If you are content, then there’s no need to grow, but if you think you’ll need more challenges and learning experiences moving forward, then growth is the way to go. Don’t let fear stop you, but conversely, don’t grow because you think it’s what you’re supposed to do next, do it because you want to…

  • Erika says:

    yep. you need to grow a team. #teamjulieannart 🙂

  • Anonymous says:

    A great idea is : what if you find some other greeting card sellers on Etsy – the ones that you admire – and join forces? I’m sure there are some great designers out there that don’t have the audience that you do – and maybe they have a creative edge that you dont.. together – you can take over the world.

  • monique says:

    It is very scary, I totally understand! Take a deep breath and grow a team when you are ready with amazing people!

  • Janelle says:

    Just relax and do not lose the focus. Build up the strong team and keep doing the work. Its good to participate in online discussions as it will help you in clearing your doubts. All the best.

  • Girl, you can TOTALLY hire help and take on larger accounts/new goals if that’s what you want to do. It’s always going to be scary at first but let the thrill of that carry you towards your goals! I’m cheering for you 🙂 xoxo

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