We were lucky to catch up with Kim Burks recently and have shared our conversation below.

Kim, appreciate you joining us today. Often outsiders look at a successful business and think it became a success overnight. Even media and especially movies love to gloss over nitty, gritty details that went into that middle phase of your business – after you started but before you got to where you are today. In our experience, overnight success is usually the result of years of hard work laying the foundation for success, but unfortunately, it’s exactly this part of the story that most of the media ignores. Can you talk to us about your scaling up story – what are some of the nitty, gritty details folks should know about?

The growth of Ramona & Ruth was definitely not overnight. I started designing and printing cards on an antique letterpress in the spare bedroom of my home in 2009. Hand feeding each card into the press one at a time, one color at a time. Initially, I had only two tiny drawers of inventory, so was basically printing orders on demand. I was hand-scoring my greeting cards. I was going to the post office to print shipping labels. Everything was extremely inefficient, but I had to learn the hard way that I needed to get systems so I wasn’t working around the clock .

I think the real turning point came when I started working with sales reps for the wholesale side of my business in 2017. Orders were coming in much more consistently and I knew I needed to get things in order on the backend of my business. I started printing larger quantities of cards at once so my order turnaround time was quicker. I hired my first employee to help with packaging, and I took a good hard look at how we were tracking inventory and organizing our wholesale orders and invoicing.

Our growth has definitely been slow and steady, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. It gave me a chance to lay a strong foundation, one brick at a time. We now operate like a well-oiled machine and can handle much higher volumes than I would have ever dreamed possible back in those early days.

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

It was back in 2009 that my first little antique tabletop press was delivered to my doorstep in Omaha, Nebraska. It was better than Christmas morning. I had begun my nationwide search for a letterpress after a few years of working as a graphic designer in a corporate job and not feeling very fulfilled. I spent countless hours researching the letterpress craft and fumbling around on the press trying to figure out how it worked. I still remember the very first illustration I printed of a little coffee cup and the joy it brought me to see my design come to life in print. It was then that I knew this was meant to be.

Ramona & Ruth started as a greeting card company, but has grown to offer a variety of other products including our very popular desk item collection. I create my products in the hopes that I can help others approach their day, their routines, and their relationships with intent and purpose. Each of our hand-crafted greeting cards, desk, and home goods are designed to nurture thoughtful reflection and connection. Through mindful prompts, heartfelt messages, and simply elegant artwork, I want to help you create more space in your life for the people and moments that matter most.

The name Ramona & Ruth comes from my grandmothers — Ramona, the creative florist who loved Golden Girls and finding the humor in everything, and Ruth, the poised and gentle farmer who spent her days tending and growing in Hallam, Nebraska. Both Ramona and Ruth embodied our ethos today – the best things in life are those that fill our days to the brim with warmth, kinship, and joy.

How do you keep in touch with clients and foster brand loyalty?

It is so important to follow up with your customers. From a retail perspective, we stay in touch through both social media as well as our email list. I try to provide a lot of value with the email newsletters we send our customers. I respect their time and don’t want to always just be selling something to them. Once a month, we offer a free download to our newsletter subscribers which includes things such as a free planner download, and most recently a download about what to write in your greeting cards.

From the wholesale side, we have an entire follow up system we developed to stay in touch with our retail partners. I also just developed an entire course for other entrepreneurs who work in the wholesale arena called Connect & Convert that goes over this very process. We love to provide our retailers with free resources such as a photo library of our products, occasional promos to show our appreciation, and also include handwritten messages to them in their orders.

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

I am a part of two mastermind groups that have been such an amazing part of my growth. It is wonderful to be a part of a group with artist-based friends that understand the world you are in. Knowing you have someone to reach out to and ask questions, or just need to talk something through, is invaluable and such a comfort that you don’t have to do it all alone.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.ramonaandruth.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/ramonaandruth

Image Credits
photography by Emma Morem