Lessons

Lesson Info

Introduction to Workshop

My name is katie han, and I am the founder tree to boot camp in a business strategist that works with a variety of companies, but my background is actually a mix of I own my own stationery business, so I have grown a small business tio, a point where I've sold in in stores nationwide, and then I also have a business background. I have a dual mba in marketing and finance, andi worked in the corporate world, coaching large corporations on business development for about fifteen years. So really, what I'm doing here, and what I've been doing with boot camp, is a really, really fun hybrid for myself. Well, for me, about utilizing my passion for the creative world, with my business knowledge on drily helping other creative entrepreneurs with the business side of their business. So, as molly mentioned, I'm teaching four courses that creative live right now, we're going to be focusing on creating an effective wholesale catalog and talking about why it's, an important piece that you need in you...

r tool kit, and we're going to talk about the logistics of building it. So what to include? We're going to talk about the functionality of it, and what the purpose it serves on dh, then I've also got some cem recommendations for you and some information in your bonus materials that will help with production of it and designing in printing it so we do have a lot to cover, so we'll go ahead and get started okay? So catalogs are an important sales tool for selling wholesale, but they are very time intensive and costly to produce, so my goal here today is to really help you get started on the right foot and get this done right the first time so you're not spinning your wheels you're not wasting your money and you're not struggling through this process. So again, during this course we're going to tackle the logistics of creating a catalog what to include and we're also going to have a segment about extending the life of your catalog too because it is time intensive and costly so let's do it only when we need to write, so why do you need a catalog? Its purpose is to sell your products, tell your story and help build relationships with your retail contacts so but really ultimately what drives back to its sales? You want this to be a sales tool and so it's very important to build this piece with your retailer in mind make it as easy as possible for the retailers to buy and we're going to talk about all the information you need to include and then so you might be asking yourself why why do we need take this course? Why do we need a catalog you know, do you want your brand to be seen as professional and experienced? If so, he needed catalog? Do you want to sell your products to a wider audience and increase your sales? A catalog will help accomplish that. Do you want to build your catalog right the first time, like we talked about so that you're saving money and time? Maybe this is you. Do you find any of these categories? Are you new to wholesale? And I'm sure if you need a catalogs, you here to kind of scope it out and see? See if it's something you need? Maybe, you know you need a catalog, but you're just kind of unsure where to start and how to structure this whole thing, or maybe you want to refine and existing catalog you have so that it's a better sales tool, and it's being representing your brand and your products in a better light, so the benefits of a strong catalog it will make it easy for that retailer said by I'm going to keep saying this over and over and over, because it's super important, but make it as easy sell your products, you catalog helps to sell your products when you're not there to sow your catalogs, you can given much retailers at a trade show, you can email them to them had, you know, with possible sample, depending on what products you're offering, or just send them a catalog with a handwritten note letting them know about your line, but once they're in the retailer's hands, they're going to flip through them, they're going to look through them, and they'll do the job of selling when you're not there. The other time that this is key is when you're working with sales reps on dh, we'll talk about that during the hiring sealed her, of course, but a lot of sales reps sell directly from these catalogs and sometimes don't even bring your product samples. I mean, they have different strategies for different types of products, but the catalog is a great way to sell when you are not there, it gives you a leg up on the competition. If you have a catalog that looks great has all your product details great photos, you're going to shine, right? You're going toe stand out from the rest your competitors, so the other thing is, it makes your brand look legit and professional, right? Like it just again, it goes back to that leg up concept, but it's more about how you feel, tio, when you have a catalog to hand to somebody, it really boost your confidence of like no, I have a business and I'm selling wholesale, and this is my sales tool for that, like here's, everything you need to know to determine if you want to buy my products so there's a lot of benefits to having a catalog that not only benefit the income side of your business but also the brand and also your own personal feelings about your confidence levels. Really, when you're selling wholesale. So we have a pretty active online form for the boot camp community. And I asked them, how did you feel the first time you held this printed catalog in your hand? You he spent a lot of time developing it and getting it ready, a lot of money producing it. How did you feel? And the answers were pretty awesome to read because they ray they really range. But, you know, people said they felt professional. They felt like the real deal they felt like their business had elevated to this next level. Happy tears is a common one. They felt relieved. They also felt a little bit excited with terrified mixed in because it meant okay, we're really doing this, and I need to tackle it. Somebody mentioned that they were proud that they had the guts to do it they've been designing catalogs for other companies for a long time or making booklets for others, but they've never done one for themselves because they haven't taken the time or you know, to send made it happen yet there was also some comments about wanting to take a red pen to a straight away you know, like our we're our own worst critic issue so I think we are going to talk about ways to kind of reduce that feeling of like, oh gosh, I spent all this time and I meet errors so we'll help talk about some things to focus on to avoid those areas too so um yeah, these are just a few of the feelings and emotions that kind of came about through catalog, which is funny it's just a booklet that selling your products right but there's a lot more tied to it than just that. So anyhow, I wanted to ask the online audience as well as the in person audience you know what air some of your biggest challenges or questions revolving around catalogues because I really want to make sure that we're tackling the things that you have concerns about so just anyone in the audience want to share and let's grab you the mike if you d'oh yeah that's in the back wants to I'm just curious how especially when it gets to printed and that's there and e think you're going to cover it but when you start adding new things or you add new products and from earlier we talked about release schedules but say you added a couple more things as well right almost in the printed version is dated yeah, we are going to talk about that well, I have a couple of different strategies that I'm going to offer to show you how to do that yeah, I think catalogs there such a large expense and so for me it's always trying to figure out, you know, what is the high end and low in that what's the range that I should be willing to spend of dollars or quantity of print well dollars but that sort of you know is guided by the quantity right when I launched my line, I printed a large amount of catalogs and then uh later did another run on dh mailed them to quite a few stores and I think in retrospect I'm not sure I should have taken on that expense. So it's sort of I'm just wondering, you know how strategically where shit when should you use your catalog for what reasons we'll talk about that we're spending too much right? And teo the numbers question of how many to produce is probably one of the most frequently thing frequently asked questions I get, especially for folks that are thinking about trade shows because that's a whole different animal in terms of how many you need so we will talk about quantity and ways to leverage them outside of, you know, direct sales. So so my question is like after I had my first catalog last year, my question is for new ones, like, how much of a refreshed is in need, you know, it's too much like then it's confusing for branding and and or it's easier to just keep it more of the same and just kind of plug it in and change some colors like, what are retailers looking for? I know it's a tool, but will they get bored with it, like what's fresh for that man? If I don't cover that? If I forget for some reason asked me during that when we talk about extending the life of your catalog but that's a really great question now, I wanted to read some of the comments that already up there in answer to your question, yes, sonya beat hillary says her biggest challenges product photography that is cohesive from one collection to another, yeah, and roddy deborah shire's is how many images? One per item, especially for one off pieces of handmade it's, handpainted silk or art? How many images she's she include takes the art says I've had one bad catalog from last year and I'm hoping to make a better catalog this year that and finally sonya had another challenge just product software to make line sheets okay great great those are all things that we will be covering so what you will what we're going to focus on today is why you need to have this whole cell catalog which we've touched on a little bit already but what to include in that catalog how to organize it efficiently where to skimp in splurge so you know I don't want your budget to break the bank for this catalog so we're going to talk about some different ways that you know you can make this I don't fit within your budget by either spending on certain things and telling back on other things well on dh then resource is as I mentioned, I'm a big fan in providing actionable information on how to get this stuff done and resource is to help you get there so I will be offering some solutions for design options and print options swell. So my goal for this course is that by the end of the course you'll be able to create a powerful catalog and that you'll feel confident to do it to make it happen and then you feel great when you actually present it to your wholesale accounts as well or to your prospects