How I Built This/Advice Line with Alexa Hirschfeld of Pap...

Small business owner faces the classic outsource vs expand dilemma

How I Built This · Advice Line with Alexa Hirschfeld of Paperless Post

“And I I guess if somebody else worked with you part time and did them out of your garage, would that be a solution or not really?”

25:58 / 26:34

So your thing your your question is should I outsource this? Like, should I send the production elsewhere or not? And I I guess if somebody else worked with you part time and did them out of your garage, would that be a solution or not really?

Yes. It would be. I need to get out of the garage. I do have a space down the road that I'm looking at that hopefully

will come to fruition, and I can rent that out. Space in town in Crested Butte? A little in Gunnison, about 30 miles down the road. So I think that you have an opportunity, right, to as as Alexa said, to find I mean, maybe you're small. You're doing $45,000,

About this clip

An entrepreneur generating $45,000 in revenue seeks advice on whether to outsource production or expand operations by moving out of their garage. The discussion focuses on the practical considerations of scaling a small manufacturing business, including finding appropriate workspace and managing growth decisions.

Why this clip

This clip captures a relatable business scaling decision that many small entrepreneurs face when outgrowing their initial setup.

25:58 - 26:3436stactical advice

outsourcing-decisions small-business-scaling manufacturing-operations

LinkedIn X

What they said next

When your brand partnership explodes past expectations, should you spin it off?

12:13 - 42s · tactical advice

More from this episode

How I Built This

tactical advice

Should you outsource production or keep it in-house when scaling

A founder discusses the challenge of scaling their design business while maintaining creative control. The conversation explores whether to outsource production tasks or find alternative solutions like part-time help, focusing on identifying which tasks can be systematized versus those requiring personal expertise.

25:33 - 26:1340s

scaling-operations outsourcing-decisions creative-businesses

How I Built This

tactical advice

When your brand partnership explodes past expectations, should you spin it off?

A founder grapples with whether to maintain a combined brand name or create a standalone identity after their collaboration with retailers has dramatically exceeded projections, growing beyond its original scope. The partnership has already surpassed last year's entire revenue in just January, creating both opportunity and strategic complexity.

12:13 - 12:5542s

brand-strategy partnerships business-scaling

How I Built This

tactical advice

How do you educate America about sumo yoga while driving sales?

A founder seeks advice on the challenge of educating a nationwide audience about an unfamiliar fitness concept - sumo yoga - while simultaneously promoting body positivity and driving e-commerce sales for specialized yoga mats. The entrepreneur faces the classic problem of market education versus sales conversion for an innovative product category.

34:59 - 35:3435s

market-education ecommerce-strategy niche-fitness

How I Built This

founder story

How much brand recognition does your original brand actually have?

A founder discusses the challenge of measuring brand recognition for their original Five Dot Post brand. The conversation explores how they initially launched without knowing if it would succeed, expecting organic discovery to drive growth.

13:27 - 14:0640s

brand-recognition product-discovery early-stage-marketing