We recently connected with Meghann Bezdikian Brigette Fuscia and have shared our conversation below.
Meghann Bezdikian, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. One of the things we most admire about small businesses is their ability to diverge from the corporate/industry standard. Is there something that you or your brand do that differs from the industry standard? We’d love to hear about it as well as any stories you might have that illustrate how or why this difference matters.
We’d say that there are two things off that we do differently in the promo product industry:
(1) We saw a need for a more thought out process when it came to promotional products and knew we could hit the ground running with our idea. So at Boxed Sourcing, we take a boutique approach with our clients. Meaning that normally people have to go to a variety of websites to find what products work for their budget, project, etc. We, however, do all of that searching by putting together a curated selection of already mocked up promo items into an interactive product link. We vet all of the products first by making sure they are good quality and are in stock. It saves our clients time and allows them to focus on other important business needs.
Also since our team comes from the fashion industry, we have an eye for what styles and color combinations would work best. There are so many fun ways to make promo merch stand out and making our clients’ logos shine is the best part. We are able to make even the most budget-conscious product feel premium. We make cool stuff….even cooler.
(2) We have an in-house design team and we also screen print on premise. Printing in-house gives us the ability to oversee the quality control, where others in our industry outsource and don’t have direct visibility. We’re all able to review the orders in person during the pre-production phase. Our print shop team has over twenty years of screen printing experience and a vast knowledge of the craft. Having all of that done here gives our clients such a peace of mind.
The in-house design is also essential. We can tweak logos, create mockups, fun sayings, and more. Think of us as extension of your marketing department.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
We originally come from the fashion industry. We worked together for several years at a small fashion company located in Philadelphia. Working for a smaller company, it gave us so much insight into all things product development and running a business. Think of it as a start-your-own-business bootcamp.
Around eight years ago, Brigette had the idea of creating a promotional product company of a different sort. I mean, you can get a logo pen pretty much anywhere. But what about something that needs more love and attention? What if you need fully custom apparel or a design that really sets your business apart, but you don’t have a design team? What if you just aren’t sure what option to pick?….there are literally so many options out there!
So then we got started…
Meghann took a gamble and left her job in the fashion industry to help Boxed Sourcing come to fruition. It began as a small idea run out of coffee shops….working on lots of caffeine and free Wifi. It was very grass roots, with a lot of cold calling, physical mailers, and pop-by’s. We hustled for each client. Our goal was to provide unique, creative items that would set your brand apart from competitors. However doing it on a person-to-person level rather than just an online experience proved to be successful.
Word of our company quickly started to spread. It was proof that our approach to promo products worked. By our second year of business we moved into our first official office. We hit seven figures in sales by our fifth year. In our sixth year we acquired a screen print shop. All of this has been done with our unbelievably awesome small crew. We can’t wait to see what’s next!
Have you ever had to pivot?
Similar to a lot of people, COVID was a time when we really had to pivot our business model and re-think what we could offer to our clients.
The majority of our clients came to us for items they would be able to hand out at in-person events or interactions and those events literally disappeared overnight. We had to quickly regroup and figure out how we could still offer a service that made sense for the current environment.
With virtual meetings + events popping up we were able to shift to a drop ship model and send things like welcome kits, snack boxes, and event swag directly to the employee/antendee’s homes. This drop ship model paired with pitching branded necessity items like masks, hand sanitizers, and touchless tools is what was able to get us through the difficult stay at home COVID times.
It opened up a window of new opportunity for us to become more creative with how we approach branded merchandise.
Let’s move on to buying businesses – can you talk to us about your experience with business acquisitions?
After owning Boxed Sourcing + Production for about seven years, we knew our next step should be to control the biggest portion of our business – screen printed accessories and apparel.
We were presented with the opportunity to purchase the print shop in our building and we went for it! This enables us to fully control the process of designing and printing in-house.
With that said, it took almost a full year of planning – meetings, paperwork, recruiting the team, and preparing to make the transition as seamless as possible.
Contact Info:
- Website: boxedsourcing.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/boxedsourcing/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BoxedSourcing/?fref=ts&ref=br_tf
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/boxed-sourcing-&-production?trk=eml-cp_mktg-btn-welcome-20120524_rem
- Other: https://www.pinterest.com/boxedsourcing/