How to Start a Card Company
If you seek to venture into the greeting card industry, you are not alone. According to the Greeting Card Association, Americans exchange more than 7 billion greeting cards every year (http://www.greetingcard.org/about.php), making this a highly lucrative industry for a savvy entrepreneur. Set the groundwork of your business with a solid business plan with structured goals. Save and/or obtain the financing necessary to sustain your business without profit until your break-even point is met (and then some for good sense). Complete a thorough market analysis. If 7 billion cards are exchanged a year, you'll need to stand out to grab market share.
When you know why you want a card company, and you've worked out the "when" (objectives) and the "how much" (profits), there are seven steps to the "how."
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Things You'll Need
- Dues and subscriptions budget
- Commercial printer
- Design software
- Staff writer and/or freelance writer budget
- Current year of Writer's Market (book)
- Marketing plan
- Sales team
- Growth plan
Instructions
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Seven Steps to your Card Company
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1
Join the Greeting Card Association (see resources below) as a regular member in the lowest sales tier for their first year. GCA is the premier industry affiliation for card companies, setting you apart from less-serious competitors and giving you access to member benefits such as networking opportunities, advocacy in social expression issues and updated industry knowledge. (http://www.greetingcard.org/join.php?ID=91)
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2
Purchase a commercial printer or printers and the necessary inks and toners, or establish a deal with a printing company. Evaluate the costs and the liabilities involved in a purchase or an agreement and find an agreeable and long-term solution that will be sustainable for the intended life of your business.
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3
Purchase design software such as Adobe Illustrator or Corel Draw to design the cards. Home and small business software such as Microsoft Publisher may suffice for the initial work of your company, but serious business means serious commercial software.
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4
Budget to hire staff writers and/or to contract freelance writers to write the copy for your cards. Quality design requires quality copy for a cohesive product. Consult the current Writer's Market, published by Writer's Digest Books of Cincinnati annually, to see the comparable rates of other companies hiring freelance writers (see resources below).
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5
Devise a marketing plan with seasonal-centric strategies to boost sales and repeat business. Birthday cards are a year-round need, but plan sales for everything from Christmas to Grandparent's Day to show the market a need for your services.
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6
Form a sales team to market your cards to stores, other card companies and consumers. A card company can sell designs to another card company, strike business alliances with stores and boutiques and even sell door to door or with virtual stores. Create a commissioned staff to keep the bottom line healthy.
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7
Leverage industry contacts and your GCA membership to grow your company. Expand to new markets, such as offering ethnic-centric holiday cards, cut through to a new competitive edge -- price, quality, green products -- and seek to be not just a card company but THE card company.
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