by Katie Hunt
Ranked in the top 1% of ALL podcasts, the Proof to Product podcast is your trusted resource for sustainable business growth - especially if you make and sell physical products! Join Katie Hunt, each week as she shares strategies & solutions to enhance your sales & marketing so that you’re building a business that supports your best life. If you’ve ever asked yourself can I make money selling physical products? Am I ready to sell my products wholesale to stores like Target, Anthropologie, Nordstrom or Barnes & Noble? When should I consider hiring a sales team or sales reps? Can I really turn my passion into profits? Whether you’re a just starting out on your business journey or you’ve been at it a while growing an empire, this show is for you. Proof to Product is like on-demand business school for product sellers spanning a wide range of industries. Whether you’re in home decor, apparel, beauty, food & beverage, hand-made items, jewelry, consumer gifts or the stationery world, you’ll gather new ideas each week to help you grow your profit, build your team and lead with integrity. Host Katie Hunt and her guests bring you actionable ways to expand your product line, manufacturing overseas, optimize your e-commrce websites on Shopify, Faire, Etsy, Abound, Tundra, Squarespace or in brick & mortar locations. How to start or scale wholesale sales including pitching stores, wholesale outreach, trade show exhibition, working with sales reps, managing inventory, warehousing product, sales systems, wholesale follow-up strategies and working with key accounts. Marketing strategies for small businesses including content creation, leveraging tik tok and instagram tactics without feeling burned out, why you can’t rely solely on social media for sales and why email marketing systems on platforms like Klaviyo, Flodesk and Active Campaign are so powerful. Listen in as Katie and our guest experts help you strategize and tackle your biggest business goals. Host Katie Hunt brings a unique perspective to entrepreneurship. Since 2011, she’s helped thousands of product brands get their products on the shelves of their favorite retail stores through her Paper Camp program (www.prooftoproduct.com/papercamp). Prior to that she worked in the corporate world for over a decade leading business development and marketing teams. She has two MBAs - one in finance and one in marketing. And, she owned & operated her own product based business for over 8 years, selling her products to stores throughout the world from her garage. Katie knows the struggles you face as a product based business and she’s here to pull back the curtain and share her best kept secrets so that you don’t have to learn things the hard way. Find our free trainings & resources for product based business owners at www.prooftoproduct.com/resources
Language
🇺🇲
Publishing Since
5/9/2017
Email Addresses
1 available
Phone Numbers
0 available
April 22, 2025
Emily Ley, founder of Simplified®, discusses with the host how Trump's tariffs impact small business owners, including her own challenges with rising costs and a federal lawsuit against the administration, in this interview.
April 15, 2025
Host Rachel Herron interviews industry expert Katie Hunt about communicating price increases to retail and wholesale customers, offering strategies for maintaining business profitability.
April 8, 2025
<p dir="ltr">Let's talk money. Money is a necessity in business, but it can also be a pain point, particularly for product-based business owners because our investments, overhead, and risks are generally heightened compared to service-based businesses. </p> <p dir="ltr">We not only need to make money, but we also need to spend money for future expansion and growth. But where does that money come from? How are people doing this? We get this question a lot when we talk with our students. </p> <p dir="ltr">Many brands in our industry are self-funded, meaning that they use their own money for start-up costs and then they reinvest those revenues or profits back into the business. </p> <p dir="ltr">Another option is grants. We talked with <a href= "https://prooftoproduct.com/podcast-episodes/how-product-business-owners-can-use-grants-to-fund-their-business"> Ashley Sutton of Hustle and Hope in episode 374</a> about how she has utilized grants to grow her business, and grants are funding that we do not need to pay back.</p> <p dir="ltr">Today, we're gonna talk about leveraging debt and funding as a means to expand your business. I do not want to glorify going into debt for your business, but I do believe and know firsthand that there are responsible ways to leverage debt and essentially use other people's money for strategic growth within your business.</p> <p dir="ltr">And that's why I asked Zeba Parkar from Treleaf to come back on the podcast. Zeba was on the podcast for <a href= "http://prooftoproduct.com/320">episode 320</a>, where we talked about the challenges she was facing in bringing a new product to life. </p> <p dir="ltr">She does these incredible laser cut trellises and modern plant accessories that she manufactures in-house in her studio and warehouse, and she has a whole team and a lot of equipment. </p> <p dir="ltr">Since then, she has expanded her business even more, and some of that has been done through funding from outside sources. </p> <p dir="ltr">Zeba and I catch up on what's been happening in her business since late 2023, since we last talked on the podcast, including how she did 13 trade shows in 2024. We discussed her approach to finding funding for her business and different loan options that she looked at, including Shopify Capital, and lines of credit options.</p> <p dir="ltr">We also talked about hurdles that she came up against when she started applying for this type of funding and she shared things that she wished she had known before she started applying for different types of funding.</p> <p dir="ltr">Today’s episode is brought to you by our <a href= "http://www.prooftoproduct.com/resources">Proof to Product resource library</a>. It’s where you can get your hands on our free resources to help you start, streamline and scale your business in your own way and at your own pace. </p> <p dir="ltr" style="text-align: center;"><a href= "http://www.prooftoproduct.com/resources">GET FREE ACCESS</a></p> <p dir="ltr">You can view full show notes and more at <a href= "http://prooftoproduct.com/388">http://prooftoproduct.com/388</a> </p> <p dir="ltr">Quick Links:</p> <p dir="ltr"><a href= "http://www.prooftoproduct.com/privatepod">Free Wholesale Audio Series</a></p> <p dir="ltr"><a href="http://www.prooftoproduct.com/resources">Free Resources Library</a></p> <p dir="ltr"><a href= "http://www.prooftoproduct.com/emailmarketing">Free Email Marketing for Product Makers</a></p> <p dir="ltr"><a href="http://www.prooftoproduct.com/labs">PTP LABS</a></p> <p dir="ltr"><a href= "http://www.prooftoproduct.com/papercamp">Paper Camp</a></p> <p> </p>
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