Pairing Stationery with My Consulting Business
September 22, 2017 9:30 AM   Subscribe

I've started a new consulting business, and the idea of special stationery fits it well. For example, high-quality journals, colored pens, etc. I am considering a few options but am trying to figure out if I'm setting myself up for a lot of needless work, or if this will contribute to my business.

I cover a lot of different types of e.g. brainstorming and writing activities in my consultancy, from mind mapping to simple list-making to doodling and sketching.

Here are the options I'm considering:

1) Creating my own kits, made up of third-party-branded (e.g. Pilot) stationery items I think are very high quality, and giving those kits to new clients along with workbooks;

2) Having my own white-label branded stationery made up and offering it to clients on a complimentary basis (or possibly for sale?) as part of my services;

3) Selling the kits & products to the general public, through my website.

Does anyone have experience with this sort of thing? This is the first time I've thought about leveraging physical products like this as I offer a new service. I'm trying to avoid:

- Sinking a lot of cash into something that won't be profitable
- Inadvertently setting up a stationery store

But I have noticed that:

- My clients really like tangible goods
- My clients are very creative
- My clients tend to like new shiny things

Thanks!
posted by circular to Work & Money (9 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
This will depend on your volume of clients and their price sensitivity.

#1 - Do you reasonably believe you can raise your service price by lets say $50 (cost of kit as $20, time to put kit together $20, profit $10) and people will still book?

#2 - Unless you're doing a huge volume of clients, then the up-front design time and initial sunk cost of producing some stationary to have stock on hand would again need to be divided by the clients you have to determine how much, at a minimum, people will need to pay just to break even.

#3 - Almost assuredly, the only way you're going to make money selling this kind of stuff online is volume, which means assuming the logistics of maintaining inventory and assembling and shipping it. I.e., running a store.
posted by notorious medium at 9:42 AM on September 22, 2017 [1 favorite]


I wouldn't. Your expertise is your product and I wouldn't muddy those waters. As a potential client, if I signed up to work with you and you slid a "hey, buy my stationery bundle" into the conversation, I might wonder if your consultancy was a front for an MLM business. (Like the people I know who are scheduling "wellness seminars!" as a front for their essential oil or skincare MLMs, ugh.)

If you can work it into your pricing model, a modest welcome bundle of goodies could be a nice gesture - but OTOH people who are into stationery and office products tend to be fussy about what they like, so it might not even be that useful.
posted by Sweetie Darling at 9:58 AM on September 22, 2017 [6 favorites]


Option 1 sounds like your best bet. I'm not sure how profitable it would be, but I have a soft spot for nice office supplies, and I'd just really like to see you do this. As mentioned above, if your clients could sustain an additional $50, you could probably make a go of it.

Options 2 and 3 would require significant volume, so you'd have to risk some capital upfront. I'm not sure that's wise, unless your core business is so profitable that you could do the packages as a loss leader. Option 3 might be a nice sideline eventually, but I wouldn't bet too much on it.
posted by kevinbelt at 9:58 AM on September 22, 2017


I am somewhat particular about pens and stationary. Not everyone is. If I were working with you, and I saw that you had some personal tools that you used, I might ask you about them. At that point, if you were awesome, you might say, "I have a small kit if you'd like one." I can either accept the kit, or maybe pick and choose from it. I only like notebooks of a particular size, for example. I don't want your whole kit if it includes sizes I won't use. And I hate to waste products.

This works best if you're meeting personally with your clients, and you can offer it to them and give them the chance to decline or take what they want.

Or you can offer your 'bundle' and tell your clients that you keep a few extras around, and you're happy to give it to them at the cost of the supplies, and be transparent about that cost.

Or, you can offer a 'supplies' list of recommended items / things you love. Just to those who ask - otherwise it looks weird.
posted by hydra77 at 10:48 AM on September 22, 2017 [2 favorites]


Have you considered, instead of #3, just using affiliate links so you can have a nice page explaining all the supplies, earning a little cash, but without any of the labor?
posted by acidic at 11:39 AM on September 22, 2017 [3 favorites]


This seems. . .unusual? I'm not sure I would go with a consultant if they handed me a package like this and asked me to pay for it. Giving it away seems more reasonable, but I doubt you are going to land more clients this way. It's a weird combination of something costly and time-consuming to set up, that will likely not be significant enough to a client to influence their decision.

Maybe invest in some nice branded pens to give away instead?
posted by ananci at 11:40 AM on September 22, 2017 [1 favorite]


1) I've used high-quality promotional Zebra pens (similar to Pilot) for my own business but I'm not really sure about their efficacy. When I get free pens, I use them for about a week and then they get lost! I am assuming a similar process happens with a lot of other people. I've never really had a moment where I said to myself " jeez those Zebra pens are really doing the trick".

Promotional Post-it notes however are very effective. People use them. People stick them on their computer, office wall etc., Pardon the pun but they do stick around (unlike a pen) and that is what makes them so effective.

2) I seriously think selling stationary would detract from your consulting services - in terms of customer perception and focus on your business.

3) As for the selling kits to the general public route - yes, maybe but it might be more hassle than it's worth. You could sell stationery by using the subscription model (a la Dollar Shave Club) and target all the stationery junkies out there who also love pens but you would probably have be a highly skilled social media operator to build up a customer base.

Selling knowledge via consulting might be a lot more lucrative proposition. The problem with a business like stationery (yes, even fancy-pancy branded stationery) is that it's a commodity at the end of the day. Your competing with local Paperchase shops to global Ebay sellers. A niche consulting business is much harder to replicate.
posted by jacobean at 11:50 AM on September 22, 2017 [1 favorite]


If you are already distributing out physical objects (you mentioned workbooks), I think including a few quality items that go with them (like pens) could be a nice touch. Some nice branded swag that works with your marketing is probably a good idea anyhow.

If you're not dealing with physical objects already though, I agree with the prevailing sentiment that it would distract from your actual consulting work.
posted by yeahlikethat at 1:15 PM on September 22, 2017


I went to a creative event run by a consulting company last year, and they had pads of paper for people to make notes on that had their company slogan (which was kind of a motivational phrase, not anything corporate) and a cute logo on the top. I took the paper home after and it's still hanging around my office. Because I have looked at it almost every day since, I still remember the slogan, which means I could no doubt find the company again online if I needed to. That is more than I remember about literally any other company that has ever run such a thing ever.

So I'd say go for it if you are talking about about something like that: branded paper pads or pens. But making up kits seems labour intensive.
posted by lollusc at 8:24 PM on September 22, 2017


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