A Guide To Starting A Greeting Card Business

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If you're good with colors and a pencil, then you might want to consider starting a greeting card business. This is probably one of the best areas to start a business, because rarely is there an occasion when we don't need greeting cards. Thank You Cards, Birthday Cards, Anniversary cards, Valentine's Day Cards, Congratulations Cards – you name it, they have it. There is a card for every single type of human emotion these days and what is more, people buy them by the dozen!
Why Greeting Cards?

It's true, we Americans just love celebrating each special (and some not so special!) moment with greeting cards so there is a huge demand for greeting cards. This is not a new trait, it's been there for a long, long time! Don't believe me? Over a decade ago, in 1998, statistics showed that Americans purchased 7 billion greeting cards, and the majority of these cards were sent during the holiday season, according to the Greeting Card Association! Now the figures are even bigger!

If you are a creative person, and can design good greeting cards, then you should definitely think about starting a greeting card business, because my friend, there is good money to be made! This industry is a whopping 7.5 billion dollar industry and there are over two hundred players in it – ranging from Hallmark to small home based businesses. You could be among their number.

What You Will Require

The really good thing about starting a greeting card business is that startup costs are not too high. Depending on the scale at which you want to start your greeting card business, your startup costs will be anywhere between four hundred to five thousand dollars. The basic supplies for this business include:

• A good computer where you can make your designs.
• A really high end color printer which you will use to print your designs.
• Art supplies

Of course, if you want to outsource the printing aspect of the business, your startup costs will also increase because commercial printers don't come cheap.  You can also consider Digital or "On Demand" printing, which will allow you to print larger volumes of cards for a much smaller amount of money than it would have cost you had you gone in for a traditional press.

Apart from the very obvious skills of creativity, you should have the ability to network well. You need to be able to meet people and show them your products and be able to sell them too. If you can professionally present and market your work, it will really bring in the money. Often, being from a sales background really helps – this applies to any business.

Starting a greeting card business is a really good idea for hands on mothers who want to play an active role in their child's upbringing. This is because you can make a good amount of money right from the basement of your home, which will allow you to be there for your kids. So starting a greeting card business is a perfect profession for women, what are you waiting for?

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