We recently connected with Saloni Doshi and have shared our conversation below.

Saloni, appreciate you joining us today. Being a business owner can be really hard sometimes. It’s rewarding, but most business owners we’ve spoken sometimes think about what it would have been like to have had a regular job instead. Have you ever wondered that yourself? Maybe you can talk to us about a time when you felt this way?

I think most business owners grapple with this question regularly! I find myself wondering (sometimes even fantasizing) about having a “regular job” when very specific things happen: (1) there is a very major product, customer, or team member issue to work through, and (2) during times of economic challenge or sales dips.

When I’m in these types of situations, I find myself reflecting on a few questions, including, “Wouldn’t it be great if the buck didn’t stop with us?” and “Wouldn’t it be liberating to work through these challenges without also thinking through the responsibility I have to the job and financial stability of my entire team and my family?”

After going down this rabbit hole for a little bit, I generally settle on a few consistent conclusions:

The responsibility of “the buck stopping with us” and of the well-being of our team and our family is just as much a privilege as it is a burden. I love my team and I am passionate about running a business that supports environmental progress. So my position as an owner means I have the opportunity to make decisions in a way that balances our core values, our commitment to sustainability, our commitment to our customers, and our financial needs and obligations. Were I to be working for someone else, I likely would have more situations in which I was part of decisions that weren’t values-aligned, and I might have minimal control over that.

I’ve had dramatic personal and professional growth over the past seven years, at a rate that is much faster than the growth I experienced as an employee (prior to EcoEnclose). I can attribute most of my growth to the dark and hard times, and I know that if I dealt with those experiences at a company I didn’t own and run, I wouldn’t have learned and evolved nearly as much.

For every truly “hard” experience, we have several incredible ones. Launching new, innovative products; celebrating major team member milestones; earning the business of a major enterprise brand; engaging with top sustainability thought leaders – all of these are experiences I am so grateful for and would never have had were it not for the role I’m in.

I’ve come to recognize that periodically wondering what it would be like to have a regular job is actually healthy for me, as it forces me to remember the fact that I am lucky to be in the position I am, and it is my responsibility to make the most of the role I have.

Saloni, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

EcoEnclose is a leading provider of sustainable packaging for the world’s most forward-thinking brands. We focus on: – Having the most eco-friendly suite of packaging solutions (including mailers, boxes, standup pouches, tape, void fill, labels, and much more)
– Constantly innovating and improving on our packaging solutions, with the goal of achieving our ultimate vision of true packaging circularity
– Serving as a sustainability guide and thought partner to our brands, matching them to the best – most functional, most sustainable – packaging options to meet their unique needs and values.
– Providing sustainability and packaging research and best practices to everyone

We are independently owned, Colorado-based, woman and minority-owned, and bring a commitment to our team, the planet, and our customers to everything we do.

Let’s talk M&A – we’d love to hear your about your experience with buying businesses.

My husband and I acquired this business – EcoEnclose. In 2015, we had the privilege of meeting Erin Kimmett, the founder of both EcoEnclose and Thirsties (a cloth diaper brand). Erin started EcoEnclose to solve a challenge she was facing at Thirsties – how to ship her eco-conscious products as sustainably as possible. At the time, most packaging was purchased on sites like Uline, and eco-friendly options were very limited. She created the first recycled poly mailer on the market and slowly began building the business. Several years in, she realized that expanding EcoEnclose further was not her dream – and she started looking for an exit. At the same time, we were searching for small, Colorado-based businesses to acquire, with the goal of owning and operating a company whose mission we were passionate about and that we felt confident we could successfully grow. We met Erin and discovered EcoEnclose several years into this search and knew right away that it was a perfect fit. It was still a very small operation, so we were able to acquire EcoEnclose through a combination of our savings, seller financing, a seller earnout, and a line of credit to help support our working capital needs.

At the time, EcoEnclose had four employees and operated out of a 2,000 sqft warehouse in Longmont, Colorado. We’ve been steadily growing ever since, and now operate from a 42,000 sqft warehouse in Louisville, Colorado, and have over 50 team members – and are grateful for crossing paths with Erin eight years ago!

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

I think we’ve built a strong reputation as a brand willing to do the research in sustainability in order to pursue the best decisions, solutions, and innovations for our brands and the planet. This has come around somewhat organically. Early on, we conducted research for ourselves, knowing how important it was to us the make evidence-based decisions. Soon after that, we began writing up our analysis, insights, and conclusions and putting them on our site for all visitors to access. Then, brands started asking us specific questions (about things like plastic vs paper, recycled paper vs virgin paper, compostability vs recyclability) and we began creating resources to guide their thinking. Now, companies tend to engage with us as both a packaging provider and a sustainability consultant, a role we love playing!

Contact Info:

• Website: ecoenclose.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/ecoenclose
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ecoenclose/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/ecoenclosellc

Image Credits
Headshot credit: Amanda Villarosa (https://www.amandavillarosa.com/commissions/inc-magazine)