Proof to Product

365 | Her Embroidery Kits Sold Out in 3 Days on Faire with Riki Inge, Rikrack

Oct 8, 2024

Riki Inge, the founder of Rikrack Embroidery, shares her journey from in-house artist to successful entrepreneur, launching unique embroidery kits that sold out in just three days. She discusses the hurdles that came with her rapid success, such as packaging and fulfillment issues. Riki emphasizes the importance of intentional outsourcing to streamline her business and offers insights into balancing family life with her growing career. Listeners will be inspired by her commitment to authenticity and her strategies for navigating the wholesale market.

25:26

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Episode guests

Riki Inge

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Episode notes

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Quick takeaways

Riki Inge's rapid sellout of embroidery kits revealed critical flaws in her packaging, product details, and fulfillment workflow that needed immediate attention.

By strategically outsourcing tasks and simplifying her product design, Riki improved efficiency and freed time for creative development in her business growth.

Deep dives

Inventory Challenges and Initial Success

A rapid sellout of inventory can pose challenges for a business, as experienced by Rikki Ng during her wholesale launch. Despite the excitement of her embroidery kits selling out within days, this situation revealed significant issues within her packaging, product details, and fulfillment workflow. The high demand forced her to reconsider her approach, leading to feelings of embarrassment and uncertainty about her business model. To address these concerns, she paused sales to reassess her inventory management and streamline her offerings.

Intro

5min

From Design Job to Embroidery Entrepreneur

12min

Delegating Success: Hiring Help for Business Growth

5min

Embracing Authenticity in Art and Business

1min

Navigating the Challenges of Rapid Success in Entrepreneurship

2min

Have you ever sold out of your inventory in a few days? Today's guest did that when they were launching their embroidery kits to the wholesale market through Faire.

Riki Inge of Rikrack had stocked up inventory. She'd prepped her Faire shop. She went live, and everything completely sold out in just a few days. While most people would see this as a good problem, it highlighted a lot of issues with Riki's packaging, her product details, and even her fulfillment workflow. And she's here today to share her story with us, how she navigated that situation and came out ahead.

Rikrack Embroidery creates kits that are not only beautiful and unique, but also fun and simple to stitch, as well as embroidery-inspired gifts that she's recently expanded into. Riki created embroidery art in college but stopped stitching while working as an in-house artist for more than 18 years.

Rikrack combines the love of art making with the fun of embroidery to design kits that allow anyone to create their own special piece of art.

On today's episode, Riki shares why she felt like she was starting over when she moved from selling direct to consumer to selling wholesale. We talk about the challenges she faced and the solutions that she implemented when she sold out of all of her inventory in just a few days when launching wholesale. And we talk about why slow, steady, and intentional outsourcing have served Riki well in growing her business.

Today’s episode is brought to you by our Proof to Product LABS coaching program. This is a coaching program specifically built for product-based business owners, with members from across industries and across the globe. If you have ever wanted to pick my brain or get my eyes and ears on your business, our LABS coaching program is the place to do that.

One of our founding members, Cedric Victor of Special Orbit, said it best. He said: if you don't want to find out months or years down the line that there was a better way to run your business, get in LABS. We are constantly talking, figuring things out together, and sharing hard-won insights.

Cedric, thank you so much for this. I could not agree with you more. LABS is a special community that includes a wide range of product makers like Riki, our guest today.

We have member-only events inside of LABS, so request your invitation to join below!

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You can view full show notes and more at http://prooftoproduct.com/365

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