How Do You Bottle Success?

One of the best things about working for a Logistics & Fulfillment company is that we get to meet so many incredible entrepreneurs and brand owners who are passionate and committed to achieving business success no matter the challenge. That’s why today we’re so pleased to spotlight our newest partner, Bottiful Home.

Founded and run by Laura Pallotta, Boutiful Home offers stylish, well-crafted containers for home beauty, grooming, and bath products. Our very own Christopher Baum, VP of Biz Dev, had a chance to connect with Laura to find out more about why she chose Go DIrect, how she manages the incredibly busy life of a single mom and international brand owner, and her secret for bottling success.

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Chris Baum: Hello Laura, and thanks so much for making the time to chat today. So, let’s start at the beginning, what inspired you to start Bottiful Home?

Laura Pallotta: Bottiful Home was conceived from a need that didn’t yet have a solution. I was tired of all the mismatched shapes and colors of shower bottles ruining the appeal of my beautiful bathroom. I looked high and low, and even tried some DIY solutions for creating my own set of high functioning, beautiful shower bottles with waterproof labeling. There were no good complete solutions available at the time. I began to wonder if there were other people who also had the same problem and wanted a solution. In 2017, I founded Bottiful Home to solve this problem. And since that time, Bottiful Home has focused its catalog expansion on meeting the specific needs of its customers.

CB: I can only imagine the challenges of founding a business brand AND being a single mom. How do you juggle all the responsibliities?

LP: One of the biggest challenges of being a founder of a small business is not having anyone to tell me what to do next. This sounds great to most people, and it’s the main reason owning a business sounds so appealing. But the reality is, being the owner/founder means finding a solution to every problem, and balancing which challenge needs the most immediate attention. There’s no time to do a victory dance when a problem gets solved, because there are always a few other challenges that were pushed aside for the moment and now become the most immediate need for a solution.

Being a single mom just adds another layer of complexity to life as a small business owner because sometimes the most immediate challenge that needs solved isn’t the business at all. It’s something to do with parenting, teaching school when my child couldn’t go to school because it was closed, or having to take my daughter with me to conduct business because there isn’t another option. But, you know, the cool thing about it is that being a single mom while founding a business has taught me not to be so hard on myself and not to expect things to go smoothly all the time. I’ve also started to become a lot more relaxed about including my daughter in my business life. She’s not an interruption. She’s a big part of why I’m doing this at all, and the experience is making us both better people.

CB: What does the next 12 months have in store for Bottiful Home? Where do you see your Brand this time next year?

LP: I am so excited about the next 12 months with Bottiful Home. The last 5 years have been primarily about solving problems, getting the right suppliers, building out a catalog, finding the right storage and fulfillment solutions, all while focusing on providing the best customer service and quality products to my customers. But the next year or two represents a turning point for Bottiful Home. I am on the verge of expanding Bottiful Home’s footprint to new marketplaces, making purchasing from Bottiful Home easier and designing some really cool new products that my customers will love. GoDirect Solutions has become a key player in allowing me to expand Bottiful Home into new online marketplaces as well as positioning the business to take advantage of expanded logistics solutions for my customers.

CB: Tell us a little bit about why you chose Go Direct as your Fulfillment partner? And when did you realize you in fact needed to scale your business with a 3PL?

LP: One of the most difficult problems for ecommerce businesses to solve is the storage and fulfillment solution. And recent events have made these challenges even more pronounced. GoDirect Solutions was an easy choice for me. It’s difficult to find good storage and fulfillment services for small businesses. GoDirect not only made me feel welcome as a small business, but they offer solutions that fit my business model, are very hands on with me as a customer, and I love that the warehouse is located in the same metro area that I conduct my business. I’m excited about letting them do what they do best so I can focus on growing the business.

CB: Obviously you’re killing it here in the U.S. Do you have plans to expand your product lines and launch Bottiful Home in Canada?

LP: Before partnering with GoDirect, I had no immediate plans to expand Bottiful Home fulfillment services to Canada. However, Bottiful Home is successfully selling to Canadian customers through online marketplaces, and GoDirect will provide the optimal opportunity to test the ability to expand into Canada on a smaller scale. It’s on the list of potential opportunities over the next year or so.

CB: Thank you so much Laura.

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Is your Brand ready to scale up and reach new markets? Go Direct can help. Drop me, Chris Baum, a line and let’s set up a time to talk about your pain points and how we can solve them!