From Etsy sales with net zero goals to a business that allows her to care for her disabled son, Lorelei has made Catholic social justice and ethics the guiding force for growing her bundle sales business.
Note: This article is part of a series highlighting Catholic families in various stages of building a business. It is designed to inspire all families to start the wheels turning and be creative when it comes to finding a way to provide for themselves outside of traditional means. For more family based business content, follow Euphrosyne Corner on Instagram.
When business how-to courses talk about identifying a need, you won’t find a better example than Lorelei Worland, founder of the Catholic Mom Bundle. She was selling on Etsy and, seeing all the amazing Catholic products others had created, she wanted them all! The only problem… her business sales were more of a hope-to-break-even monthly level, not splurge and support other artists level. She saw a photography bundle and wondered if she could create something similar for Catholic Moms like herself. The answer was a resounding yes. The biggest hurdle, finding contributors. She was basically asking others to trust her to protect their copyrights and products by giving them to her for free, in return for a share of the profits later. Additionally, at the time, digital bundles were less common than they are now and she spent a lot of time walking creators and customers through tech support issues and bundle logistics From the beginning, Lorelei wanted to make sure to bring in the heart of Catholic social teaching. With most bundles, new creators are limited in their sales because they only earn from the affiliate sales they make. Smaller audiences mean smaller or even no sales. Lorelei wanted to guarantee a paycheck to every worker so she created a profit sharing structure that puts a percentage of each sale into a community pot that is divided evenly among the contributors at the end of the sale.
In addition to fairly compensating contributors, Lorelei wants to be sure to fairly represent the spectrum of Catholic family life. There is no one singular way to be a Catholic family and with every bundle she actively looks for new voices to share their products so that it truly contains a product that will resonate with every Catholic mom.
Now 13 bundles later, the whole family adjusts around the Catholic Mom Bundle schedule. No business trips for her husband or unnecessary appointments for her son. The whole family knows they need to pitch in to make each bundle (2-3 per year) a success. And the rest of the year? Lorelei is free to work at her own pace and focus on her son. Looking forward she is dreaming of a similar bundle focused on business building resources for Catholic business owners. Lorelei’s advice to other families? Just try it. Especially if you can do something without huge overhead and get your feet wet. Don’t spend too long waiting to get started.
This was a particularly enjoyable interview for me, because I have been part of the Catholic Mom Bundle for many years. Every sale I am blown away by the community cooperation that comes with sales week. Everyone works together in a true spirit of unity. When Lorelei proposed increasing the profit sharing for participants last year, the response was overwhelmingly in favor. In this way, she is setting forth a model that we can all learn from in making choices that ensure that all contributors are compensated fairly.
The 2022 Advent Mom Bundle is live from November 7-11, 2022. Click here to check out all the great products, including my Dreaming with God Prayer Notebook!
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