Niche Greeting Cards

Startup Costs: $2,000 - $10,000
Home Based: Can be operated from home.
Part Time: Can be operated part-time.
Franchises Available? No
Online Operation? Yes

If you love picking out and sending just the right card for every occasion, and if you're a whiz at designing that perfect card yourself, then niche greetings cards is the business for you. This is a field with room for growth, and while the big players like Hallmark do tend to dominate the market, most of the country's more than 1,800 greeting card companies are small ones. You can help businesses develop and maintain a rapport with their clientele by sending customized cards for special occasions. You can also send cards announcing clients' special events and even embellish cards with your customers' signatures and logos. You'll purchase blank cards at wholesale prices and, depending on the size of each project, imprint the message on your own printer, have them imprinted commercially, or design and print each card on your own computer system. Or you can go the retail route and design cards for the regular consumer market. The advantages to this business are that you can start part time, it's fun and creative, and it's a warm, fuzzy, feel-good business--even though you don't see the recipients of your cards, you know they're enjoying them. For this business, you'll need a sense of fun, creativity and--the flip side of the coin--good organizational and time-management skills. When you send out cards for business clients, you need to stay on top of things. But you'll need to stay far ahead of the calendar with a retail design business, too. Winter holiday cards hit the stores soon after Halloween, and Mother's Day missives appear soon after St. Patty's Day--which means that you'll have to have yours designed, printed and ready to ship even earlier.

The Market

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Needed Equipment

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