Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Erica Dickman-Wilkes. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Erica, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. It’s easy to look at a business or industry as an outsider and assume it’s super profitable – but we’ve seen over and over again in our conversation with folks that most industries have factors that make profitability a challenge. What’s biggest challenge to profitability in your industry?

For me, the biggest challenge is competition and the greeting card industry becoming more saturated. When COVID began and people found themselves spending more time at home, some people chose to get more creative with their time. Some joined this area of the market to foster their creativity while making additional income with art. More challenging, were the ones who came out of the woodwork and chose to copy my ideas, presenting them as their own. At first this used to bother me immensely but I realize there is only so much you can do to avoid this. Instead, I now try to focus my energy on new ideas and trends to keep my greeting cards current and unique. Believe it or not, I come up with my best ideas at 2 am in the morning! In the past, I have tried to carve out a specific time of day to think of new ideas in my art studio on my own. But what happens most often, is I wake up from a dream with an a-ha moment and bam!, off I go! Of course this is not ideal when my husband is sleeping next to me, but he knew I was quirky from day one!:)

Erica, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My business started as a complete accident. In 2017, I fell ill with pneumonia. I was juggling trying to get better while managing being a mom of 2 boys and baby. After 3 months of not recovering, my doctor finally demanded that I get proper bed-rest for 4-5 days. Desperate, I asked my parents to drive down to New York from Toronto to help me manage my boys because my husband was always traveling for work and they agreed.
Being in bed all day with nothing to do felt so foreign to me. I felt the need to make myself useful but knew I had to rest. One day, as I was reaching over into my nightstand drawer to find a tissue, my hand landed on a stylus my that husband had brought home from a tradeshow. I then thought to myself, “why not start drawing again like I used to when I was a younger girl?”. It didn’t take much physical effort so it was doable. So I began drawing, but in no time, I felt I needed a subject, a purpose. It then occurred to me the Christmas wasn’t that far away and I could make something for my friends. I came up with a cockamamie idea to create a ridiculous coloring book about The Bachelor reality TV series for them. It featured some of the memorable cast-members, a crossword, a maze, etc.
I dropped a copy at each of their doors over the holiday not thinking much of it. Instantly, they each called me on the phone begging me to tell them where I bought it from because they wanted to give copies to their other friends. I was too embarrassed to tell them at first that I was the one who created them, but I eventually, I confessed. They told me that I needed to do something with this “talent I was keeping a secret all of these years”. They encouraged me to put the book on Etsy.
I literally opened a shell of a shop on Etsy as a bit of a joke just to make them happy. I threw the book up quickly and came up with the name Punderella on the fly as I loved puns. I figured it would go nowhere and told my husband nothing about it.
The next week, I made one sale. The following week I made 3 sales. Of course I still laughed it off. But the next week was a huge surprise. More orders than I could imagine arrived in my inbox! I was spending hours in my basement by my printer trying to fulfill orders. Unexpectedly, an online magazine wrote an article naming my book a top gift for a Bachelor fan. Funny enough, I had to ask my parents to come down to New York AGAIN from Toronto, this time to help me construct the books and package them. I had no idea what I was doing. I was printing them all from my HP printer in my basement. Not long after that, ABC hired me to create art for their Bachelor Instagram page too! I began to realize that I had the ability to come up with ideas that people other than agreeable family and friends found unique and humorous. There was something to this.
Since then, I have created more pop-culture/punny products that have landed themselves in top magazines like People, Cosmopolitan, and even had another coloring book featured on the Ellen Degeneres show! I can’t believe how an accident turned itself into my own business, doing what I love to do most – being creative and making people giggle! I am still kicking myself today in disbelief.

Do you sell on your site, or do you use a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc?

I currently only sell on Etsy but have made a few wholesale orders via Instagram. I am looking to diversify this year.

Pros:
Etsy can be wonderful because they bring customers straight to you. It is also fabulous for niche markets. I am able to reach audiences around the world that I would have never dreamed of because they are driving traffic my way.

Cons:
The seller fees can be hefty. Additionally, if you are a higher earner on their platform, they force you into using their advertising campaign on Google and you cannot choose the budget or which products will be advertised. They take a heftier percentage based on who made purchases from these ads for up to 6 months. Sometimes this has worked out nicely. Other times, not so much.
Additionally, if you only sell on Etsy, you have to adhere to any rule changes, shipping changes, or fee increases they introduce. You have no control over this. I have had to adapt my company listings and practices numerous times when I didn’t expect it.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

My growth was quite gradual and still is, as the company remains at this time, a “one-woman show” for the most part. As mentioned earlier, I started off with an HP printer in my basement and a pile of printer paper.
As I began to make a small profit, I moved into investing into more efficient and cost-effective printing systems inhouse while outsourcing some projects.
Two years ago, I found myself needing more space but didn’t want to rent office space. I have 3 children and need to be close to home as my husband still travels so frequently, so I used capital to put an addition on my house. I turned this addition into an art studio built solely to run the company. I have the best commute ever!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.punderella.com
• Instagram: @punderelladesigns