We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Ashley Reynolds. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Ashley below.

Hi Ashley, thanks for joining us today. Do you take vacations? How do you keep things going – any advice for entrepreneurs who feel like they can’t step away from their business for a short vacation?

You take vacations when you earn them.

Especially in the beginning, if you are genuinely focused on creating a long-standing, sustainable business, your focus should be the business. I believe if you are diligent in building your business, it will leave little room for vacations. I now reward myself with holidays where I can take whole days off or workcations where I can work remotely while out of town. Both would have been distractions for me had I taken those opportunities early on.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

I’ve been a paper-loving, pen-hoarding, notebook collector for as long as I can remember. In fact, my collection had become so overwhelming at one point that my now husband requested that I sell some of my stash off before we moved in together when we got engaged. Little did he know that his life would be filled with pen, paper, gold foil, and all things planner related 7 years later.

Established in 2015, Cloth & Paper was birthed from necessity! I had left my corporate job of 9 years and needed to devise a plan on what my next career move would be. While on the hunt for a new planner, I noticed that there weren’t any on the market that quite fit my minimal aesthetic or needs. It was at that point my journey down the paper trail began.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

You can’t do EVERYTHING! At least, you can’t do everything well. As quickly as you can delegate the tasks that someone else is better suited for, do it. I’ve had to learn the hard way through burnout, that’s it’s simply not worth trying to maintain that much control over your business.

Can you talk to us about your experience with buying businesses?

Yes, my husband and I purchased a medical export business in 2016. My husband was the lead in that business as he had a family friend that was looking to sell, he was able to do so through special financing. We have since sold the book of business and get quarterly royalties for that business.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.clothandpaper.com
• Instagram: @cloth_and_paper
• Facebook: Facebook.com/ClothandPaperCo
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashley-r-a52bb9154?trk=public_profile_browsemap_profile-result-card_result-card_full-click&original_referer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F
• Twitter: @cloth_and_paper
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@cloth_and_paper