428 | How She Added 200 New Stores in 2.5 Years with Lesa Muehlstein, Birdie Mae Designs

Our Paper Camp alumni are doing incredible things and growing their wholesale businesses in a very intentional and meaningful way. Today's guest is Lesa Muehlstein from Birdie Mae Designs, and she is no exception.

I've been keeping tabs on Lesa's progress ever since she attended Paper Camp in early 2022.

Lesa added 200 new stores within 2.5 years of attending Paper Camp, and as she will share today, that number is even higher now.
Lesa came to Paper Camp in early 2022 and before our 4 weeks were up, she had secured 5 new stores, bringing her total count to 15.

During that time, she also raised her prices and refined her sales system. August 2023, she messaged me to say that she was now in 100 stores and that her brand had been featured in a national magazine in August 2024.

Just one year later, she shared that she was in 200 stores! This growth did not happen overnight and it was not without its challenges, but it is worth celebrating Lesa's successes every step of the way.

On today's episode, Lesa shares her startup story and we talk about inventory and product challenges, particularly balancing how much inventory to order when space and cash flow are constraints.

She shares what sales data she's tracking and how she uses that data to make decisions in her business, including what to discontinue or what to buy more of.

We also talked about the benefits of wholesale, specifically how we can systematize the sales, production, and fulfillment of wholesale orders in a way that makes the business work around personal responsibilities.

Today's episode is brought to you by our Paper Camp program. Paper Camp is our wholesale coaching program where we teach you everything you need to know to build strong wholesale foundations. Over the course of 4 weeks, we tackle your product line, sales tools, and marketing plan, and we even talk about how to exhibit at trade shows if that's what you want to do. We start with your product line and go into everything from how often you should be releasing new products to ensuring that your numbers are sustainable for the wholesale market and their price for profit.

Then we move into sales tools you must have for selling wholesale so you make a strong first impression with buyers like catalogs and your terms and conditions. Then, we cover marketing strategies and ways to reach various store owners.

Each week's teachings build on the previous week, and we host weekly live, engaging coaching calls to answer all of your questions. We will open enrollment for our next round of Paper Camp soon, and we sell this program out every time we run it. Join the waitlist, and you’ll get early access to enroll.

MEET LESA

Lesa Muehlstein is the owner and creator behind Birdie Mae Designs - a cheerful paper and party goods shop based in Columbus, Texas. After seven years of helping small businesses with marketing and creating a bit of stationery on the side, Birdie Mae launched it’s first venture into products in the fall of 2021 - starting with a collection of college football themed Party Cups and soon following with a Christmas collection. Today, Birdie Mae Designs has a paper and party goods product line of more than 200 SKUs can be found in 250+ stores. Lesa lives in Columbus, Texas with her husband, two sweet and wild daughters and the goodest girl, a white Labrador named Penny.

CONNECT WITH LESA

WEBSITE: http://birdiemaedesigns.com | INSTAGRAM: @birdiemaedesigns | FACEBOOK: @birdiemaedesigns

Connect with Katie Hunt

Katie Hunt is a business strategist, podcaster, mentor and mama to four. She helps product based businesses build profitable, sustainable companies through her conferences, courses and coaching programs.

Website: prooftoproduct.com | Instagram: @prooftoproduct