Turning Self Publishing Dreams into Reality
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Jeremy and I became amigos as interns at Natural Capitalism Solutions in Boulder, Colorado. Jeremy inspired me to buy my first pair of rock climbing shoes and showed me how to play on the rocks. Jeremy went on to work as a climate/energy consultant in Boulder for over a decade before spreading his wings as Wildpreneur. Jeremy owns PufferPrint—a high-quality, affordable, climate neutral book printing and personalized self-publishing service.
Jeremy is thriving as a Wildpreneur. He says, “I keep telling my friends to quit their jobs if I can do it then so can they and do something that affords a lifestyle that they love. We just spent 4 days in the desert with our kids, I completed 2 orders through my business while I was there, mountain biked 20 miles a day, and spent so much time with my wife, kids and friends. I couldn’t have done that if I were employed by someone else!”
Tune into Jeremy’s free-spirited inspiration below. If you’re considering self publishing, I highly recommend considering Puffer Print. Mention you're a Wildpreneur when you submit a quote and get an extra 10% MORE books printed FREE when you print with PufferPrint. Get started here.
Describe your perfect day as a Wildpreneur.
My 3 year old wakes me up pretty early. So mornings are usually spent hanging with her waiting for it to get light, but it’s special time to be with her alone while the rest of the family sleeps. If she wants to play I’ll send emails for a bit. Get the kids fed, coffee and a smoothie for me, get kids off to school/activities/pods and then make a plan for a day. For me, the day has to have priority items, as in- the day is successful even if I do nothing else but this one thing. Then jump into it. My mind needs breaks and I need to get out for a sweat, usually a bike ride or a run these days, which always ends up with new ideas for the business.
Tell us about your wild business! What was your inspiration to create PufferPrint?
As a family man with a mortgage, I didn’t want to take the risk of starting a business from scratch. I actually bought PufferPrint as an existing business with proven, although VERY minimal cash flows. Its systems and suppliers were just built out that it seemed to give a 4-5 month head start that was worth paying for to immediately have cash flow. The goal has always been to 10x what the business was doing when I bought it so that’s been the goal. The other goal has been to bring my passion for climate solutions to a market/niche that really doesn’t address the climate crisis enough. We’ve started down that road but have some really exciting additions that we hope to roll out early 2021 that will mean that doing business with PufferPrint actually REMOVES carbon from the atmosphere.
The basis for PufferPrint is to provide printing services for self-published authors. We’ve focused on children’s books, but can do so much more than that and will broaden our focus to other markets (novels, comic books etc..) as we progress. We are also aiming to be a one-stop shop for self publishers who, frankly, need all the help they can get as there’s quite a bit to do and most would-be authors really don’t know much other than that they want to write a book, it snowballs pretty quickly. So we’ll be adding assistance connecting to illustrators, formatters, marketing, warehousing and distribution etc… to offer support throughout the self-publisher’s journey. The core of what we do will always be Printing awesome bookstore-quality books though.
What do you wish you’d known prior to getting started as a Wildpreneur?
That I should have done this sooner. The world tells you to go work for someone, to get a good steady job, get it done and then you can tend to your personal needs. When you’re your own boss, every little thing you do builds value in your own brand, your own business and your own life. A hard work day is SO much more gratifying, particularly when you start to see the results and can bring that benefit, emotionally and monetarily, back to your own life and family.
What advice would you give to someone who is considering turning their passion into a business?
Give WIldpreneurs as A gift
DO it! But test the market first. There are so many ways to do this, but it’s always good to do your homework and even spend a few dollars to see if people respond to an ad for the product you may be producing even at a future date (don’t underestimate the value of pre-orders and mailing lists). Another way to test the market is to crowdfund what you’re doing… it allows you to create demand before you have anything to actually sell! And please just completely throw out the cultural trope that to be an entrepreneur you have to do something completely new/novel/different that nobody has thought of. Your business will end up being your own little country that you’re the king/queen of, so it’ll always bear your fingerprint, BUT, most successful businesses are doing something that hundreds of others are doing… you simply have to be consistently good at what you do, and take care of the people that want to work with you (customers), and work for you (employees). Yes there is risk, but with no risk, there is no reward.
Do you have a favorite motivational quote?
“Just start” -Reddit.
Anything else you’d like to share about your journey?
I never actually planned to be in the book business. I was a climate/energy consultant to utilities for 10 years but needed to get out of a stagnant and slightly toxic work environment and build value in something for myself and my family. It just sort of happened by me maximizing the surface area upon which opportunities could adhere to. Luck finds those who have their eyes open to it… But luck takes you only so far, it’ll be hard work, but I REALLY like the hard work when it’s for my OWN business vs. before when I’d work myself crosseyed and think “wow, I just made my boss richer”.
What are you working on right now?
Rebuilding our website, adding automated quotations to it, testing various ads out online, and creating a climate positive company so that each order reduces in a 2x amount of carbon removed from the atmosphere, better-than-carbon-neutral J we shall be.
Where can we follow you? Please share your website, Instagram, Facebook, etc.
