We were lucky to catch up with Lesa Muehlstein recently and have shared our conversation below.

Lesa, appreciate you joining us today. 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?

When I started my business, I made the decision to only use vendors based in the USA to create my products.

Adding in a wholesale side to my business meant some tighter margins and took a lot of work on my end to figure out how I could continue to purchase from US vendors, offer a competitive retail and wholesale price while also still being profitable. I’ve seen how much larger my margins would be and how many different products I’d be able to offer if I purchased from overseas. However, I consider it worth it to keep things based in the US. On the wholesale side of my business, my main goal is to have small businesses in the USA bring my designs to life and then sell my products to small retail businesses across the country.

I’ve had the opportunity to work with phenomenal family-run businesses that take great pride in their work. I’m honored to work with and support them. Sometimes, you have to forfeit a bit of profitability to support something you really believe in.

Lesa, 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?

Hi! I’m Lesa Muehlstein, owner and designer at Birdie Mae Designs. Birdie Mae is a cheerful paper and party goods shop where everything is designed by me and made in the USA. We have a line of greeting cards, stationery, party supplies and gift items that are designed to bring a smile to your face. Every one of our products starts as an idea in my head and comes to life through drawing and lettering. I design all of the packaging, pack the orders and make sure I include a big thank you in each one!

I’m a seventh-generation Texan, graduate of Texas A&M University, wife and mother. I love a dry glass of red wine, a snarky joke, a hand-written thank you note, and a painted Catholic Church – all of those things deeply influence what I create. While some may consider a greeting card, notepad or small gift frivolous, I believe it’s a heart-felt notion that can bring a smile to someone’s face…and the world needs a bit more of that.

I always wanted to own a small business and, after working in corporate marketing for several years after college, found myself starting a side-hustle to get out of a creative rut at work. When I started Birdie Mae, I primarily offered custom, luxury wedding invitations and calligraphy as well as branding and marketing services for small businesses. Eight years later, I had a long list of product ideas and finally got up the nerve to take on the overhead and invest in creating a product line. Before I knew it, orders for Birdie Mae products were rolling in on my website and Etsy and I decided to branch out into wholesale. A year and a half later, Birdie Mae products can be found on the retail shelves of more than 70 small boutiques across the country – and we’re growing every day!

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

When my business started, I focused on full-service custom, luxury stationery design. I worked very closely with clients for six years; however, things started to change when I welcomed my first child in 2019. I took a few weeks off from client work for maternity leave and then went back to work with a reduced client load and no child care. It certainly didn’t take long for me to realize that this was not sustainable. Then, once I had found part-time child care, the pandemic hit and everything shifted again. My clients cancelled events, my child care was closed and I, though I was excited for a bit of a break, knew this was an opportunity to shift things in my business. That break gave me the bit of room to think that I needed and I decided that I needed to shift my business towards products. I had a long list of ideas from years of thinking about it yet being too scared of the overhead. As soon as I decided to make that shift and introduce my first collection, my business took off. Initially, I decided to pivot and focus on products for six months while still accepting a scaled-down roster of clients and, when that six months was up, I was at a place where I was declining all client work that wasn’t coming from a few select planners who refer very high-quality clients and working hard to scale my product business.

We’d really appreciate if you could talk to us about how you figured out the manufacturing process.

Because my business started out focusing on full-service stationery design, I had a network of printers and vendors in the USA that I had an established relationship with. However, I quickly learned that manufacturing new products meant two things: I needed a network of other owners of similar business that I could ask for reccommendations and I would have to do a lot of Googling and cold-calling vendors.

Contact Info:

• Website: birdiemaedesigns.com
• Instagram: @birdiemaedesigns
• Facebook: facebook.com/birdiemaedesigns