Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Pamela Lagoudakis. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Pamela, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Taking care of customers isn’t just good business – it is often one of the main reasons folks went into business in the first place. So, we’d love to get a conversation going around how to best help clients feel appreciated – maybe you can share something you’ve done or seen someone do that’s been really effective at helping a customer feel valued?

I have a lot of fabric. Like, way too much fabric, and I really wanted to make our packaging more upscale. I wanted each of my customers to feel special every time they ordered from us. Earlier this year I decided to revamp our packaging and actually make it wrapped up like a gift with ribbon and tissue paper. On the inside I include a hand-written note and include a free bookmark and fabric coaster. We’ve had many customers message us to tell us that they loved the package and they thank us for the freebies.

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

My name is Pamela and I, along with my mom, make book sleeves! We also make bookmarks, and fabric coasters because we had way too much scrap fabric leftover. We started our Etsy shop as a way to make a little extra money to get us to book signings, but fast forward to being pregnant and wanting to stay home with my little one….we decided to get more serious about making our shop a full-time priority.

We make book sleeves specifically for keeping books, tablets and e-readers safe on the go! You can throw it down in a purse or luggage and be rest assured that your books will make it to your destination in one piece! One of my favorite things to do and what sets us apart is not only picking out the fabric but also choosing a coordinating fabric for the inside of the sleeve! Sometimes, it’s just a plain color, but other times it’s fabric that I’ve specially tie-dyed or it matches the theme of the outside fabric–for example….our book dragon book sleeve has dragons on the outside, but a fabric on the inside with dragon scales on it!

I think I’m most proud of how much we’ve grown. We’ve changed our book sleeves to higher end materials, we make our bookmarks with an extra layer of material for durability and we’ve made our packaging way better than where we first started. None of that would have been possible if we would have stopped when sales slowed down or we got stuck on something.

We’d love to hear your thoughts about selling platforms like Amazon/Etsy vs selling on your own site.

I use Etsy and have been selling on Etsy exclusively for 4 years.

I started out on Etsy because of the ease in which you can start, and I think that’s one of the hardest parts is just starting. I’ve stuck with Etsy and invested in courses to learn more about how Etsy works to make their built-in traffic work for me. Etsy already has a great reputation with millions of buyers, so it seemed like a natural place to start since I make a handmade product.

I also like Etsy because they handle the tax for each state and it’s nice that it’s one thing less to worry about.

One of the downsides to Etsy is they have been trying to keep up with other platforms such as Amazon so they’ve really put an emphasis on free shipping and very quick production times, and I’ve had to re-evaluate how I’m making my products. We are no longer sewing our book sleeves to order. We are actually sewing everything ahead of time to keep up with a very fast production time. While I understand their need to remain competitive, I wish that they would remember they are a company that was built on handmade items.

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

When my mom and I very first started our business, I had no desire to sew our book sleeves (I know. Terrible, right?) but we had a system and it worked until it didn’t. We started getting busier and I knew I needed to learn how to sew them. I was doing all of the other parts of the business, so it had been more difficult to carve out that time to learn.

Since we ended up switching up our sleeves to a higher end material, I knew I needed to just dive in and start. The first one was not pretty, but now I’m actually sewing the sleeves for the shop and my mom does custom orders and the sleeves with the pockets. The pockets are not my favorite. LOL.

Now, that I have the confidence in what I’m doing I’ll start tackling buttons and zippers and eventually pockets.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.etsy.com/shop/WonderlandBookSleeve
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wonderlandbooksleeve/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wonderlandbooksleeve