We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Heather Harris a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Heather, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s start with what makes profitability in your industry a challenge – what would you say is the biggest challenge?
Printing a planner isn’t as easy as you’d think, especially when you want to include all of the bells & whistles the most popular planners of today include — tabbed pages, pockets on the inside of the covers, and the perfect color gold coil, one that’s not too yellow or too brassy, but a beautiful true gold.
It involves multiple machines, vendors, and craftsman, and the unfortunate reality is that you cannot get a good quality planner made in the US. The United States just isn’t set up for this type of manufacturing. Sure, it can be done, but you’ll have to find a printer that is willing to spend the time reaching out to multiple vendors to supply various parts — the cover from one company, the tabs from another, and who has that special binding machine that we need . . . and you’re off searching again.
Then, you factor in each individual vendor’s costs and you end up with a planner that costs $50 to create. Not to mention your personal business costs like salaries, packing material, and shipping costs to mention a few. How will you ever make a profit?
The answer is: Outsource your manufacturing to China.
Easier said than done, right?
Well, that’s how Copper Bottom Design Co. came to be in 2016.
I had been designing planners and getting books printed overseas since 2004. It was my day job. I was a planner designer for one company and later a production coordinator for a children’s book publisher. I knew it like the back of my hand. It was so much a part of my life that it didn’t occur to me that others might not know how to do it.
Sometime around 2014 I got the urge to go out on my own. I initially wanted to open a stationery business and joined the Proof to Product community where I learned the ins and outs of creating a stationery product line and selling products wholesale. I plugged away and leaned on the Proof to Product community for support. Then in 2015, a fellow member in our private Facebook group asked a question about manufacturing products overseas. I was so excited to answer their question. It was finally my turn to give back to the community that had given me so much!
Well, that opened the floodgates of questions about the overseas production process, and planner companies like Emily Ley started calling.
This was the validation I needed to make things official.
From then on, I focused on what I knew and loved — planner design and overseas manufacturing. I completely abandoned the greeting card idea and started to foster my planner design and production agency.
Copper Bottom Design Co. was born.
Heather, 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?
Copper Bottom Design Co. is a boutique product development agency that specializes in planner design and overseas manufacturing. We help creative entrepreneurs grow their brands with planner products made specifically for their kind of people.
Think of our team as an in-house creative services department. Clients tell us all about their dream product idea, and we can take care of every detail — big and small! — to turn it into a reality. Not to mention, we’re here to help with the “businessy” stuff too — from profit margins to cost consolidation, order quantities to sales predictions, and more.
Our services:
Custom Planner Design: We specialize in beautiful, functional day planner design for both paper and digital planners. Starting with our client’s creative vision, we work closely with them to bring it to life even better than they imagined. From the detailed design to the page layouts and content organization, plus any “extras” they want to offer.
Overseas Production Management: With over 20+ years of experience, our expertise spans the entire process from paper selection to import tariffs, and we’ve built a network of contacts known for their ethics and quality work. We manage every phase of production with ease, so our clients can concentrate on building their businesses.
Product Line Expansion: We help expand our client’s product lines into new categories in the stationery space — and establish a quarterly launch schedule to regulate cash flow and keep customers coming back more often than once per year for just planners.
We’ve created planners and journals for all kinds of business from chiropractors to lawyers to spiritual leaders, you name it.
At Copper Bottom Design Co., we believe small businesses can make a huge impact on people’s day-to-day lives, livelihoods, and long-term visions. So we dig in with creative, imaginative, innovative business owners to bring their vision for beautiful, user-friendly day planners & products to life.
We don’t just make pretty planners here. We get nerdy about functionality and the user experience, and we really dig into what makes our clients (and their audience) tick. We immerse ourselves into our client’s planning philosophy so we can draw out the perfect planner design for their business — right down to the no-one-else-does-it-like-this page layouts.
What makes Copper Bottom different is that we care deeply about our client’s and their businesses. We want them to succeed.
As a small business owner myself, I know the cost of doing business and how every dollar counts. We’re not dealing with big companies who have deep pockets. We’re working with individuals and families who have big dreams and are willing to dip into their kids’ college savings to fund them.
First and foremost I’m keeping my mind on their budget. My goal is to provide them with an extra income stream for their business — a beautiful, yet functional planner that is going to revolutionize how their customers plan their days. From day one, I become invested in my client’s businesses and set out to be their champion. When working with Copper Bottom, our businesses become one, a mutual investment in one another. Your success is our success and we are honored to have so many clients that trust us with their products lines.
How do you keep your team’s morale high?
Respect and trust the people you hire.
The people I hire are smart, smarter than me in their areas of expertise. That’s why I hired them!
I know they can do their job better than I could and I tell them that. I rely on them and trust them because I respect and acknowledge their talents. And I give them full autonomy over their departments.
I also respect that they have lives and encourage them to have strong boundaries around their work and private lives. This is something I find very difficult to do for myself . . . but I own the business, so sometimes my work bleeds into my personal time. But this is not something I want for my team. They know that I respect their boundaries even if I don’t respect my own at times. In return, they’ve helped me become better about creating and honoring boundaries for myself.
I want my team to be happy and often ask them if they are happy doing their tasks and if there is anything else they’d be interested in doing. I’m happy to teach them new skills, as they have each taught me so much as well.
I appreciate these wonderful women I work with so much. They are supporting my dream and my business, so in return, it’s only right that I support theirs too.
Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?
Profit First by Mike Michalowicz was one of the first business books I read. It completely changed the way I manage my money. Before reading it, I had my head in the sand when it came to my finances, and now, I’m in the driver’s seat. If you don’t have a handle on your money, you’ll never be able to grow your business. I recommend this book to every small business owner I know.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.copperbottomdesign.com/
- Instagram: @copperbtmdesign
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@copperbtmdesign
Image Credits
Image credits to: Laurel Denise, MakseLife, momAgenda, Faithful Life Planner, and Routine & Things.