We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jess Perkins a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Jess, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Coming up with the idea is so exciting, but then comes the hard part – executing. Too often the media ignores the execution part and goes from idea to success, skipping over the nitty, gritty details of executing in the early days. We think that’s a disservice both to the entrepreneurs who built something amazing as well as the public who isn’t getting a realistic picture of what it takes to succeed. So, we’d really appreciate if you could open up about your execution story – how did you go from idea to execution?

I have been in business for twelve plus years, but really only focusing on what I am doing now for the past 4 years. I have always loved creating. From a young age, I was often found scrapbooking with my mom, sewing with my grandma or making quilts with my babysitter. That love of creating continued into adulthood and eventually morphed from a hobby into a business. When I took my hobby to a business, I was initially creating things out of fabric. I then transitioned into making personalized items using vinyl. When that field seemed oversaturated, I knew I needed to pivot in a different direction.

I had been seeing advertisements for lasers that were geared towards crafters. Upon doing more research, I found that the file types that lasers use were the same as what I had been using with my vinyl cutter so I would not need to learn a new program. I jumped in, bought a laser and haven’t looked back. I spent the next year experimenting with different wood types and different types of products while I worked on finding a niche that I loved.

Aside from crafting, I have always loved traveling. When traveling, I try to find handcrafted souvenirs that I can bring back to remember my travels. It didn’t take long for me to decide that the souvenir market was the perfect niche for me.

As quickly as I thought I had found my niche, it suddenly seemed like that was no longer the route to go. I began 2020 with lofty plans of my ideal wholesale customers that I wanted to target by the end of the year. Unfortunately, the pandemic hit, essentially shut down travel and left me scrambling to figure out what was next.

I put my travel line on the backburner for a little bit and focused on what was working. For me, it was celebration paint kits geared towards kids. Kids were missing out on seeing loved ones (like grandparents) on Valentine’s Day, family gatherings for Easter and celebrating pre-K and kindergarten graduations. I created paint kit boxes that included a few themed wooden cut outs, washable paints, and a few little novelty items like a graduation bubbles or heart shaped mini skinkys for the Valentine’s Day boxes. The inside of each box featured a colorful label where the sender could have a personalized message included for the child. These boxes kept me quite busy for the months of lockdown and several that followed.

Once I started traveling again, I embarked on my travels with a greater appreciation for the ability to get out and see the world and meet interesting people along the way. I found that I really enjoyed connecting with people in the local shops that I visited when I was traveling. When I finally decided to go full in and launch my souvenir business in the summer of 2021, I also transitioned from a mainly business to customer retail business model to a business to business wholesale business model where I was selling directly to shop owners that were looking to stock their shelves.

I initially launched the wholesale side of my business as a seller on Faire.com and have since attended large-scale tradeshows and brought on sales reps. I only offer a handful of products, but I offer each one customized to each state. Additionally, I can also customize them to a specific customers wants and needs. From wording to game piece shapes on a product, all of my products are fully customizable. I focus on small batch production and keeping my prices reasonable so that other small businesses are able to bring in my product lines without facing huge order minimums.

The journey wasn’t an easy one. While I was developing my wholesale line and launching, my personal life took a pivot. I ended up moving twice and my grandma graciously housed my business in her garage during the transition of creating my new workshop at my new house.

Here we are several years later and I have gone from my starter Glowforge laser and upgraded to two Aeon Mira 9 lasers. I work out of my garage manufacturing souvenirs for shops, venues, National Parks and more around the country. I genuinely love creating all of the products that I offer. One of my favorite parts of what I do is visiting customers when I am traveling and seeing the products that I created on their shelves.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

The Trendy Traveler is a one-stop souvenir shop for any traveler on the go. Our shop features handmade products showcasing each of the fifty states including Tic-Tac-Toe boards, hand painted ornaments and more. Products from The Trendy Traveler are available in boutiques around the country.

I strive to create unique, handmade souvenir products that will connect shoppers with memories of places that are special to them. I currently offer wooden magnets, ornaments, tic-tac-toe game sets and checker board sets. I am constantly working on new ideas and always taking custom requests.

Unlike large-scale souvenir businesses, I produce everything in small batches in my garage warehouse. We offer name drops and customization on all of our products and maintain low order minimums to support our fellow small businesses.

What’s been the best source of new clients for you?

The best source of new clients for me has been tradeshows that are geared towards the type of customers that I am trying to target. While I do have an online presence, I feel that being able to connect with a potential customer in person and enabling them to see and touch the products has been monumental to bringing in new clients.

Can you talk to us about manufacturing? How’d you figure it all out? We’d love to hear the story.

I manufacture all of my products in house. All of my products are made out of wood. When I started, I knew what I wanted to do and I knew that I would need a laser and wood, but I didn’t know any of the specifics of any of it.

I diligently researched the easiest entry-level lasers and settled on a Glowforge. After a few tutorials and YouTube videos, I was cutting and engraving within an hour of getting it set-up. It worked while I learned the processes and experimented with different wood types. Eventually, I moved up to two larger Aeon Mira lasers that allowed me to cut more wood at a faster speed and overall improve my efficiency.

When it came to wood, I started off using wood from a national retail home store. I quickly realized I could get better quality at lower prices from local lumber yards. I now source all of my wood from a local lumber yard. It comes in 5′ x 5′ sheets so I have to saw it down to size so it will fit in my laser. Before buying this wood, I had never used a saw, but I didn’t let that stop me. I have learned everything along the way and so far, it’s working out.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.thetrendytraveler.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/thetrendytravelershop
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheTrendyTravelerShop
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessbehlmann/