10. Finding Your People as a Small Business Owner

As small business owners we have the freedom to build businesses on our own terms, but how do we fill in the gaps? In this episode, I’m talking about the freedom I have to make decisions and why I’ve made finding a sense of community a priority last year.
We’ll cover:

• Why freedom is important to business success

• The differences between online and in-person community

• Where I’ve found my people

• The event I’m looking forward to this year

• How you can join me there!

Hello and welcome to Product Packaging and Profit, where we help product-based businesses turn packaging design into a competitive edge to attract customers, grow sales, and boost profits.

I'm Kelley Kempel, After 20 years of designing packaging for national retailers, I founded Hidden Path Creative, a graphic design studio that supports entrepreneurs with branding and packaging to get their products seen and sold. I'm sharing the secrets that launched big brands so your products can stand out.  Let's get started.

Intro

So we are now in the double digits and I'm so excited about that. I started this podcast last year as a way to share tips and tricks, insights with product-based business owners as they are working on building their businesses and expanding their offerings, and getting their products into stores. So I'm so proud of being able to say that there are now 10 episodes and there's gonna be quite a few more to come.

But today I just wanna take a step back and talk a little bit about owning a business, and there are some positives and negatives to that, right? So I think a lot of us that have started our own businesses crave some sense of freedom, but also being able to impact others with our business.

Episode Transcript

I know for me, one of the biggest draws was having this freedom to create something myself to serve my clients, but then be able to make those decisions about my business on my own. And, it's been really exciting over the last two years to come up with my core offer around packaging design. But then also try some different things. I've tried a few different things, some things that have worked really well and some things that haven't worked so well, and you know, there are lessons in both and it's just, there's a freedom in being able to try those things on our own. To have an idea to go down the path of exploring the idea and then ultimately being able to personally make that decision. Should I implement this idea into my business or should I not, without having to, like in my corporate life, I would have to share that idea with several other people, get their buy-in, and get their sign-off before I could take action.

One of the things that are most important to your success is being able to take action. So when we tamper that momentum with having to get approvals, sometimes it can kind of take the fun out of moving forward with those business ideas that we're super, super excited about. So I very much appreciate being able to make these autonomous decisions to look at the ideas that I have for my business and dig into them and decide whether or not to pursue them.

But that brings the flip side of the business, right? That is something that might be a little bit of a negative, which means I'm on my own to make these decisions. I'm doing it by myself. I personally don't have a partner in my business. Some of you may have partners in your business, which gives you kind of a sounding board, somebody to bounce things off of something, somebody to riff off of.

You come up with an idea, they build upon it. You go back and forth and come to something greater. But when you are a solopreneur or a small business owner, you're doing it on your own. You're your own brainstorming team. You're your own sounding board. And then that can be a little lonely. And I would say that has been one of the biggest challenges in my business since I started it is finding a community of like-minded business owners that have similar goals, similar backgrounds, but differing perspectives where I can tap into that power of community and feedback. But I will say that's one thing that I have made a priority in my business, especially in the last year.

I have looked both locally and you know, across the internet to find my community of people. That can be my sounding board, can be my cheerleaders, can be people to vent to. When I just run across something challenging with a project or a client or just something in my business that, you know, is somewhat of a roadblock and I just need another person, another perspective to help me work through it.

So, you know, I've done a few things in the last year to, help me find that community. Help me find those people. And you might do some of those same things. I've looked for one of the easiest ways was looking for groups on the internet, go into Facebook groups of like-minded people, and join conversations.

joining a group coaching program with weekly calls where I get to know the other business owners. They get to know me. We're all kind of moving and growing together, and then also having one-on-one calls with other business owners that I've met through these group channels to connect a little deeper to either ask some specific questions or to just build that relationship.

I now have a couple really great, I like to call them co-working friends, biz friends that we meet on a regular basis. My one friend, we meet once a week for an hour and just do a check-in. It's a little, it's a little bit social. It's a little bit of accountability. It's a little bit brainstorm. And it provides me with that social aspect that you don't get working by yourself. But also that fresh perspective that you need to get outside of your own head.

But the internet is no replacement for the energy that happens when you are in a room with other people. And that is why I have also prioritized attending in-person networking events specifically for entrepreneurs within my local. I am lucky to be part of a women's leadership group here in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where I live and work in Tempo, Milwaukee, and Tempo, EWL Milwaukee.

So I'm a member of Tempo, EWL. Great programming. Lots of other women within the community either are leaders in their businesses or own their own businesses, but it's provided a wealth of opportunity to network and find those connections, those in-person moments that just help, just help fill my cup a little bit.

And part of the reason why I wanna talk to you about this today is you may have seen this if you're following me on Instagram, but I am gonna be attending Ultimate Product Party in Nashville this May, and I am so, so excited. So last year was the first year of Ultimate Product Party, and Allison and Cat pulled together an amazing event. I had so much fomo. I learned about it a little close to the date and it just wasn't feasible for me to attend the event. But I did share a promo in their swag bag and followed along as they hosted a hundred women over two days and just dug into building a community of product-based business owners.

Like I said, I wished I could have been there. I was watching all of the stories and the Instagram posts going. "This looks like such an amazing event." You could see the energy coming through the images. You can see all of the attendees connecting and building their relationships, chatting as speakers are going on, being involved in interactive round tables and discussions, and so much more.

So when Allison and Cat announced they were doing an ultimate product party again this year, I knew I had to be there. And even more than that, my goal wasn't just to be there, my goal was to speak at the event. So when they opened up the call for speakers, I was working on my pitch right away.

And I am so excited to tell you that I will be having an ultimate product party in Nashville this year, and I will be hosting my own round table where I will be speaking about billion-dollar brand secrets, things that I learned working for nationally. To incorporate into your product packaging to get your products, to stand out, to get people to engage with your product, and to get your products sold.

And anyway, I am just, I'm so excited. And I wanted to share that with you here today. And in addition to that, over the next few weeks, I have an interview with Cat and Allison themselves, the host of Ultimate Product Party. They have shared so many amazing stories with me about why they started the party, their working together and their relationship, and what they've got on the docket for this year.

They were blessed to talk to. So fun, and you can just tell from their energy that they throw an epic party. Next week you'll be hearing from them. And the following week I'll be chatting with another fellow Ultimate Product Party educator. So I'm so excited to share that with you over the next few weeks.

So we'll have two interviews in a row where you'll be learning all things Ultimate Product Party, and then from there, you know, back to this. We get to make great decisions about our business on our own. I'm gonna be changing up the format a little bit here. So I've been doing mostly longer format episodes.

Episodes that are about 20 to 30 minutes a piece and doing them every other week. And I wanna try something new. I want to shift the podcast a little bit, so, Little more bite-size, a little more snackable, and for me, a little easier to fit in between all that client work. So you'll be hearing from me, I think just about every week, there'll be shorter episodes, 10 to 15 minutes long, just dropping a little bit of inspiration, a little tip or trick in yours.

I'll still be talking about packaging and all product-based businesses. I just want to kind of change how I am approaching, the time commitment a little bit, which is. again, the joy of owning your business. I can say, Hey, I wanna test this a little bit differently, so we'll do this for a few months and see how it works out.

If you are interested in joining me at the Ultimate Product Party, I would love to see you there. There are gonna be so many amazing. Speakers, we've, there will be keynotes, breakout sessions, round tables. There will be some amazing product-based businesses sharing and selling their products as well, so you can support your fellow biz owners.

So if you wanna join me, I'd actually love to give you a little gift. If you head on over to hiddenpathcreative.com/upp, there will be a link to order your Ultimate Product Party ticket. Once you do that, just fill out the form below the button and I will send you free access to my packaging field guide.

If you're not familiar with the packaging field guide, it is my personal process for how I source packaging, so it will walk you through step by step how to find the right print partners, decide what's most important to you when it comes to ordering packaging, and how to analyze the packaging order to pick the most profitable packaging partner.

This is what I use when I help clients source their packaging. Great tools in there. You get my packaging print directory with over 50 print vendors. You also get a spreadsheet that helps you analyze the costs and quotes that you're getting from the suppliers, as well as a workbook that just guides you through everything you need to know about picking your print partners.

And that's usually $99. But if you get your ticket to Ultimate Product Party through my link, I will give you that packaging field guide as a free gift.

In Closing

Thank you for listening to Product Packaging and Profit, a podcast for product entrepreneurs looking to level up with packaging. We hope you'll join us next time to hear more about how packaging can help propel profitable product businesses. Next week I'm gonna be back with another bonus episode where we chat about my designer toolkit and why you'll want to learn Adobe Illustrator if you're looking to design your own package.

So join us next week. Until then, this is Kelley Kempel of Hidden Path Creative. And don't forget what's on the outside matters too.