In this episode, Danielle sits down with Jess Walker, founder of the unique and heartfelt illustrated greeting cards Five Dot Post, to talk about what it really looks like to build a business that supports you today—not down the road, not after you hit this or that goal, but right now.
From packing every order by hand to big-box retailers, Jess’s story is one of hard-won wisdom, practical mindset shifts, and the surprising ways having a business carried her through the hard times. It’s an inspiring and powerful reminder that entrepreneurship can be a beautiful, freeing, and life-giving journey when we use intentionality to build the business we want and need.
Key Takeaways:
- Doing It Yourself Isn’t Always Cheaper: Jess realized she was the bottleneck in her business and nearly turned down $50k in revenue before outsourcing fulfillment. By delegating the logistics, she was able to focus on scaling and strategy, ultimately making more money while working less.
- Growing with Heart: Jess has grown her retail presence to over 550 stores and is now expanding into big-box retailers, while still staying connected to her brand’s roots in smaller stores and their communities.
- Building a Business That Supports You: She shares how her business sustained her after the loss of her husband, thanks to the systems and support she had built into it beforehand.
- Don’t Wait to Build the Business Right for Your Life: Create your business model to support you now—not “someday”—is the key to long-term success, sustainability, and joy.
Topics Discussed:
(00:41 – 08:08) Jess’s Entrepreneurial Journey
(08:25 – 12:18) Understanding the Business Side of Things
(12:19 – 14:12) Overcoming DIY Overwhelm by Hiring Help
(14:13 – 14:25) Rate & Review Promo Break
(14:40 – 16:15) Scaling Authentically & Embracing New Opportunities
(16:27 – 18:15) Building a Sustainable Business Now (Not Later)
Connect with Jess Walker & Five Dot Post:
Website | https://www.fivedotpost.com/
Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/fivedotpost/
Book a Call with Kickstart Accounting, Inc.:
https://kickstartaccountinginc.com/book
Connect with Kickstart Accounting, Inc.:
Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/Kickstartaccounting
YouTube | https://www.youtube.com/@businessbythebooks
Facebook | https://www.facebook.com/kickstartaccountinginc
Episode Transcript
00;00;00;00 - 00;00;04;12
Danielle Hayden
Having a business can feel, like I said, so overwhelming. But it can also
00;00;04;12 - 00;00;06;22
Danielle Hayden
be something that, like, can carry
00;00;06;22 - 00;00;08;20
Danielle Hayden
you in a way through life you didn't expect
00;00;10;12 - 00;00;12;14
Danielle Hayden
Jess, welcome to Business by the Books.
00;00;12;17 - 00;00;13;20
Jess Walker
Thank you for having me.
00;00;13;21 - 00;00;35;09
Danielle Hayden
I'm really excited to have you here. Before we hit record, I was just telling you, I am just very inspired by your journey. And the goal of this is to just break down entrepreneurship. It can be very lonely. So, what's it like to run a business and to use our financials to help guide our business decisions and not be so alone on this journey?
00;00;35;10 - 00;00;41;06
Danielle Hayden
So let's start off with a little bit of background. Tell us about yourself and what led you to start your business.
00;00;41;10 - 00;01;10;03
Jess Walker
Sure. I'm Jess. I'm the owner of Five Dot Post, a greeting card and stationery and gift company expanding into new categories lately. I started my business in 2018, so I've been in business about six years. I had just gotten married, and my husband at the time, we found out pretty quickly after our wedding, about two months that he had stage four esophageal cancer.
00;01;10;06 - 00;01;33;16
Jess Walker
We were 26, so that was mind blowing. Obviously rocked our world and pretty much everything had to change really quickly. We were both actors, we were both traveling a lot, and we had to be near hospitals and focus on his treatment and his recovery and his everything. So I stopped what I was doing, which was musical theater performing.
00;01;33;16 - 00;01;36;29
Jess Walker
I did not go to school for anything related to what I'm doing now.
00;01;37;01 - 00;01;37;13
Danielle Hayden
Yeah.
00;01;37;18 - 00;01;54;14
Jess Walker
So I've, I started working at a gift shop that was just up a couple blocks away from our house so that I could be able to be with him when I needed to be and just still make money, because we were still at the time, you know, 26, figuring things out, living in New York City, it's expensive.
00;01;54;14 - 00;02;10;24
Jess Walker
And I started working at that gift shop, and it was kind of my first glimpse into entrepreneurship in general. I had never really thought I mean, I guess, like in a way, theater and being an actor, you kind of have to like, push yourself and sell yourself. It kind of feels like a little bit entrepreneurial-But
00;02;10;24 - 00;02;15;00
Danielle Hayden
you're selling your yourself and that that product or service. Understood.
00;02;15;03 - 00;02;36;07
Jess Walker
Exactly. So I feel like I kind of had like an entrepreneurial spirit, but I never really considered owning a business. And anyway, and while I was at the gift shop or was working there, I had the idea to design cancer cards that were for people in our position, which was like, we, I mean, we were 26. Like I said, we were young.
00;02;36;10 - 00;02;56;19
Jess Walker
We were doing our best to like, fight with humor because it's so heavy and so scary that if you can't laugh about it, it can be too much. So like the cards that I was seeing, just like out in the world for cancer, just felt so heavy. They felt like they were for a different generation, like our grandparents who that, you know, go through things like this.
00;02;56;19 - 00;03;13;10
Jess Walker
It, I didn't have any peers that were going through what we were going through, and I started sharing on social media about what we were going through and was able to connect with other young adults who were going through cancer or who were caregivers. And I kind of talked to them about this idea. And I was like, do you think this would resonate with people?
00;03;13;12 - 00;03;45;12
Jess Walker
Like having a funny, almost irreverent, lighthearted cancer card in order to, like, break the ice and find support at the same time? And they were positive, like it was a positive reaction. And they were like, I think this would really resonate. I would love to send those. And I felt like the biggest hurdle for us at the time, and I have been victim to this and or have been the one doing this, but it's like when you have someone going through something, it can feel like you don't want to say the wrong thing, so you end up saying nothing at all.
00;03;45;14 - 00;03;58;03
Jess Walker
And I wanted to just try to bridge that gap with young adult cancer. So I was like, if we can make a joke, if we can break the ice. And then inside the card, you can write how you're feeling and how to support, how you're there to support them. And anyway, so that was kind of like the idea.
00;03;58;03 - 00;04;18;29
Jess Walker
And all I thought I was going to do is start an Etsy shop, and I did that and it just kind of took off. And we had a couple like smaller news sites hear about us just through like social media and on Etsy. And that kind of gave me a little more traction and, opportunity to kind of see what could happen with us.
00;04;18;29 - 00;04;36;13
Jess Walker
And I found out pretty quickly I didn't just like the design, like didn't just love designing the cards and like doing that part. It was the behind the scenes and like learning how to run a business. Yes. I just became like addicted to it. Like, I it felt kind of like, I don't know, playing The Sims or like playing a game.
00;04;36;15 - 00;04;38;24
Jess Walker
It was like, what can I tweak that will then change that?
00;04;38;25 - 00;04;44;29
Danielle Hayden
That's the, that's the opposite side of most creatives though. 100%. It’s really interesting that you fell in love with that part of it.
00;04;45;06 - 00;05;03;25
Jess Walker
Yeah. And it's again, when I've like spoken to other people who are designers or creatives, that part is the harder the more challenging part. And I think that did help me grow more quickly because, that part was so fun to me that I would just spend hours, like going through KPIs and seeing like how I could work on my SEO and like all of that stuff.
00;05;03;25 - 00;05;22;08
Jess Walker
And it's like that, I don't know why, but that's part, like, lights me up just as much as the creative part. And yeah, so I started, went from Etsy to like a personal website and then a couple years and started doing wholesale. And, that's kind of where I'm at today. I'm scaling the wholesale section of my business and hopefully a lot of things planned for this year.
00;05;22;08 - 00;05;25;08
Jess Walker
But yeah, that's kind of the origin of everything.
00;05;25;10 - 00;05;37;15
Danielle Hayden
So do you still use television as part of your marketing strategy? Because I think it's really interesting. That's kind of an old school strategy that I don't think very many people are tapping into, their local communities. Are you continuing to use that?
00;05;37;15 - 00;06;01;01
Jess Walker
So the thing is, is that I have never sought that out. It's all happened organically. So we also like in 2022 and I just moved to California, I connected with Bobby, who did Bobby's Favorite Things on Hoda’s Show; it was Jenna and Hoda at the time. And they decided to do my cards as like one of her Picks of the Week, and that really catapulted things.
00;06;01;03 - 00;06;17;24
Jess Walker
I took a random like kind of spot on GMA, but like, I, I don't know, I've thought about it too. I've never like put in the energy to like seek that out. But it's so effective when it happened organically that I'm like, I think there has to be benefit to at least giving it a go. So it's definitely on my list of things to try.
00;06;17;27 - 00;06;29;24
Danielle Hayden
Things to do. Yeah. What was the moment as you were starting your business that you were like, yes, this is this is working like, I can, I can do this and actually pay myself and make a living from this?
00;06;29;26 - 00;06;56;08
Jess Walker
It happened around 2020, so I didn't know what was going to happen, along with a lot of other entrepreneurs with the business. I was still I technically was teaching English online as like a supplement, and I was assuming I was going to have to fall back on that because business would, you know, be like during COVID. But it ended up that I think people were so saturated with online and Zoom and stuff that they wanted something tangible.
00;06;56;10 - 00;07;14;27
Jess Walker
And greeting cards, at least for me, really took off. And I had a couple kind of like COVID support cards like go like a little bit viral. And it ended up like by the end of that year, I had my first like $20,000 sales month, November and December, back to back. And I was like, that was beyond my wildest dreams.
00;07;14;27 - 00;07;41;02
Jess Walker
When I first started it, I was like, if I can make $2,000 a month, and I wasn't even thinking about taxes, about cost of goods like, this is just like my early brain, like revenue $2,000 month. And I was like, I can pay the majority of our rent. Like, this will be amazing. I can help Tommy free up some of his time so you can rest more like my goal is like, I just wanted to create space for him to heal and go through his treatments, and I was like, whatever I can do to make that happen, amazing.
00;07;41;02 - 00;07;58;10
Jess Walker
But then when that happened, I was like, this can be something a lot bigger than I was thinking. And clearly like, what I'm doing is resonating. And I just had that spark of like, I want to see how far this can go. And that was kind of the beginning. And it wasn't like, since then I had this the back to back like crazy months, right?
00;07;58;12 - 00;08;10;00
Jess Walker
It's like a blip, and then I had to figure out how to get back to that. And now like, it's consistent. But it's like, yeah, that was kind of the beginning where I was like, well, this is anything's possible in entrepreneurship.
00;08;10;02 - 00;08;25;03
Danielle Hayden
You mentioned you were focusing at the time on revenue, sales in, and I'm not even thinking about taxes or cost of goods sold. When did you start to realize that you needed to look at the full financial picture and not just revenue?
00;08;25;06 - 00;08;45;27
Jess Walker
My sister. She went to school for finance and she was my neighbor, and she was starting to ask some of these questions. So it, it did happen pretty quickly. Like, it was like within the first year that I started, I was like tracking everything in a spreadsheet myself. And you learn pretty quickly that, you know, you make $100, you're not keeping $100.
00;08;46;00 - 00;08;48;04
Danielle Hayden
Right? It's like-
00;08;48;06 - 00;09;12;20
Jess Walker
I do think that I, like, hired her as my first bookkeeper. That's the first thing I ever hired or outsourced. And I think that has still been like the most important thing for me personally, because it's not like where I thrive and I don't get excited about it. So it's not like the other kind of parts of the business where it's like, I'll pour into it and it's, I would rather see the reports, and know like how it's going,
00;09;12;26 - 00;09;31;25
Jess Walker
but yeah, it was, it was really around that. And then also, that-really not that year-but the next tax year, I had a huge tax payment that I wasn't prepared for and I was able to make it work, but it was like kind of a wake up call where I was like, we have to get in the mindset of this is, this is not your profit.
00;09;31;25 - 00;09;54;08
Jess Walker
So, it was, you know, it was a learning curve. And I'm still going through it. It's like learning now about cash flow shifts and like, especially with these much larger orders that like it's just like it's been a constant learning curve. But I do feel like getting the team members and the support to help through that has been like hugely beneficial.
00;09;54;11 - 00;10;13;24
Danielle Hayden
When you look at the information now, like when you look at your financial statements and you look at the Snapshot that we send you, how do you process that information differently now versus the beginning? Like, how are you able to use that information to manage your business? I think there's so much buzz around, you know, your numbers and people are like, okay, but like, what does that even mean?
00;10;13;24 - 00;10;15;20
Danielle Hayden
What do I actually do with the information?
00;10;15;23 - 00;10;40;06
Jess Walker
Yeah. Well, I saw like most recently, the things I'm looking at the most are my operations expenses and my cost of goods, because I'm at a healthy, I feel like great where my business is, but it's just like those tweaks can make such a huge difference that it's like, I'm really have been diving into my numbers lately. So like, especially with deciding how I want to market, if I want to have more marketing budget, do I have that as an option?
00;10;40;08 - 00;11;02;14
Jess Walker
I've started doing a lot more wholesale marketing and that, I couldn't have made that decision without knowing where I was at profit wise. And same with again with the my, the new thing I've been getting into are like these big box retailers who are ordering just huge amounts of cards that are nothing like I was doing before, and like being able to say like, can I cover these expenses before?
00;11;02;21 - 00;11;07;26
Jess Walker
Because a lot of those, they pay you net 60, net 90, and I have to pay-
00;11;07;26 - 00;11;08;06
Danielle Hayden
Yeah.
00;11;08;11 - 00;11;25;12
Jess Walker
my retailers net 30, or I mean not my retailers, my suppliers net 30 and my fulfillment team net 30. So it's like I have to be able to see like at least 90 days out, like can I say yes to this. And we've always been able to make it work, but it's like, it's if I didn't, that could get dicey.
00;11;25;14 - 00;11;52;00
Jess Walker
So yeah, that's kind of been like the big thing right now, especially also deciding if I can expand into other product categories. When I was early in my business, I went really wide and tried to do a bunch of different things and quickly learned that that wasn't profitable for me. So it was, I scaled way back and it's like, I do this thing well and only doing this thing, and now I'm slowly, with more knowledge and thought, am trying to expand into more categories.
00;11;52;00 - 00;11;53;28
Jess Walker
And yeah, and those numbers are really important.
00;11;54;03 - 00;12;11;10
Danielle Hayden
I love that you had that lesson of going wide, then going back narrow. And I think there's a wisdom in being in business after some time that you can say, okay, I'm ready to start to slowly recast my net, but it's very different than the way you do it when you first start a business, right?
00;12;11;10 - 00;12;19;12
Jess Walker
Because you just want to say like, oh, I can make something for everyone and that will make me more money because then everyone's my customer. And it's just, that is not how it works.
00;12;19;14 - 00;12;28;02
Danielle Hayden
Yeah. What advice would you give to another business owner who might be overwhelmed, especially with their numbers, but I think in entrepreneurship in general?
00;12;28;02 - 00;13;01;17
Jess Walker
I feel like the biggest thing, I mean, for sure, the biggest shift that I made that took away overwhelm was the battle between myself thinking like, if I can do it for free, that's more profitable than me outsourcing it, and that was not true for me. Like, I was processing and packing every single order myself for years. I hired a an assistant who helped me with that, but it was still a huge amount of time that I was spending on it that I kept saying, I don't need a fulfillment center.
00;13;01;17 - 00;13;19;28
Jess Walker
I don't need like, I can do this myself. I'm still able to do it myself. And it took me getting to the point where I had an order that I was like, I actually cannot do this myself. I'm about to have to say no to like probably $50,000 of revenue because I'm being, like, stubborn and, and I thought I wasn't being financially smart.
00;13;19;28 - 00;13;42;17
Jess Walker
I was like, I'm saving money by not having this other expense because I can do it. And it's like, no, you're a bottleneck. And realizing that and deciding to get a little uncomfy for a minute while I hired that fulfillment center and that team that now it's I work, I don't know, a 10th of the amount that I was working before. I’m making more money.
00;13;42;17 - 00;14;01;24
Jess Walker
I'm able to focus on scaling the business. I'm able to do all the things I wasn't able to do while I was saving money by doing it myself. So I'd say like, be smart, of course, and like, talk to your money people when thinking about hiring, but that made all of the difference for me. It was just kind of the getting out of that,
00;14;01;24 - 00;14;05;05
Jess Walker
I can do it myself because it's free mindset.
00;14;05;07 - 00;14;11;19
Danielle Hayden
Because your time really isn't free. You know, it's not. We're probably our most expensive staff, really, when we think about.
00;14;11;21 - 00;14;13;05
Jess Walker
Absolutely, yeah.
00;14;13;08 - 00;14;32;04
Aubrey Philipp
Before we continue a quick favor, if you found value in this show and want us to keep growing with bigger guests and more strategies, please rate and review on Apple or Spotify. It really helps. Thanks for listening!
00;14;32;06 - 00;14;40;15
Danielle Hayden
All right, what's next for you as the listeners follow along in your journey? Kind of what's the next goal? Where do you see yourself over the next year?
00;14;40;18 - 00;15;04;00
Jess Walker
Over the next year? I'm really hoping to get to scale wholesale. So my business leads direct to consumer, probably like 80% for years, which is pretty uncommon for like a product-based business, at least in my greeting card space, and I really have tried to ramp up wholesale the last couple of years. And this year I have a lot of great things that are in the works.
00;15;04;02 - 00;15;24;22
Jess Walker
I just went to another trade show a couple weeks ago and made some connections that I think could be pretty crazy. So, it's like, I, majority right now, my retail is in over 550 retail stores, but a lot of them are, brick and mortar, like smaller home and gift boutiques. And, and that really is like my bread and butter.
00;15;24;22 - 00;15;33;24
Jess Walker
And I love working with that level of retailers because it's, I can like, meet that and know them. And like, know who’s ordering and-See
00;15;33;24 - 00;15;35;16
Danielle Hayden
it in the community.
00;15;35;18 - 00;15;55;06
Jess Walker
See it in the community. And now that I'm doing more big box things, like in T.J. Max and HomeGoods and Target and like that kind of thing, it's such a different process and I'm trying to learn how to love it in the same way where it's like, it's so different but still so exciting. And also, I don't know, it's a, there's just so much opportunity there.
00;15;55;09 - 00;16;02;23
Jess Walker
And I'm really excited to see where I can take that and try to balance all of the plates. Yeah.
00;16;02;25 - 00;16;14;19
Danielle Hayden
I love that you said that, find the same level of excitement in that and it's different, but it can still be making a mark in our, our communities and still have that same attachment to our, our end client.
00;16;14;26 - 00;16;15;27
Jess Walker
That's the goal. Yeah.
00;16;15;27 - 00;16;26;26
Danielle Hayden
Any closing thoughts or words of wisdom to add? Not even for anybody earlier in their journey, it can even just be the next person who's thinking about scaling and just getting excited about the future.
00;16;27;01 - 00;16;51;06
Jess Walker
I feel like this goes back a little bit to my, to my origin story, but I do feel like having a business can feel, like I said, so overwhelming, but it can also be something that like, can carry you in a way through life you didn't expect where, like when I ended up losing my husband in 2021, I had the option to close everything down.
00;16;51;06 - 00;17;09;23
Jess Walker
And just like I didn't think I had the tools to be able to move through that season whilst running the business. But there are just so many ways that you can set your business up to be able to support you through tough moments, and I was somehow able to do that, of course, like had to make things shift.
00;17;09;23 - 00;17;33;11
Jess Walker
I had to extend processing times, I had to get help. But if I hadn't created the business before in a way that felt good and felt sustainable and felt supportive to me and of me, I would not have been able to keep it going through that and not only keep it going, but growing through that season. And then when I was ready, pick it back up and take it to the next place.
00;17;33;11 - 00;17;56;16
Jess Walker
So I would say as you're building it, just build it in a way that feels right now and don't just say like, I’ll fix that down the line or I'll get, I'll use more of my or less of my time down the line, like just try to make it the end goal as much as you can now, so that then it can grow in a sustainable way, as opposed to feeling like it'll just one day you'll wake up and it'll feel good.
00;17;56;19 - 00;17;59;03
Jess Walker
Just grow it in a way that feels good.
00;17;59;09 - 00;18;16;21
Danielle Hayden
I think we tend to think about we'll get there rather than letting like there be right now and enjoying that journey of building the business. We think we'll enjoy it later. Like, let's enjoy it now and have a healthy, sustainable, profitable business that supports our life.
00;18;16;23 - 00;18;18;00
Jess Walker
Exactly. Yeah.
00;18;18;03 - 00;18;26;01
Danielle Hayden
Awesome. It's a beautiful way to end it, I appreciate that. Where can listeners learn more about you and pick up a few cards? For sure!
00;18;26;01 - 00;18;32;17
Jess Walker
So yeah, we're in every state except for Maine, so if any Maine retail shops are listening, I’m looking-
00;18;32;20 - 00;18;34;15
Danielle Hayden
I'm in Ohio, can’t help you.
00;18;34;17 - 00;18;46;13
Jess Walker
Perfect. We're good. We're good! But you can find us at FiveDotPost.com. F-I-V-E D-O-T P-O-S-T. Then @FiveDotPost on Instagram. That's where I am mostly social media wise.
00;18;46;14 - 00;18;50;23
Danielle Hayden
And yeah. All right, well thank you so much. We'll link all of that in the show notes.
00;18;50;23 - 00;18;54;17
Jess Walker
Okay, perfect. Thank you, Danielle!
00;18;54;19 - 00;19;17;28
Danielle Hayden
If you are a business owner who needs a money team, I invite you to go to KickstartAccountingInc.com or click the link in the show notes and come and book a discovery call. The Kickstart Accounting, Inc. team and I are here to be a resource for you on your entrepreneurial journey. We want to take bookkeeping off of your plate and help arm you with the information you need to grow and thrive in your business.
00;19;17;28 - 00;19;48;21
Danielle Hayden
Don't wait! Click the link below and let's get started!