Saturday, April 29, 2006

Greeting Card Templates

Template greeting cards are greeting cards that have been developed so often that the process for developing each card was refined, documented, and standardized. The development of each greeting card template was documented and tested to ensure the template would recreate the same card the same way every time.

Creating template greeting cards can save you a great deal of time and money. By creating and saving template cards, you are enabling yourself to do business better and faster. For example, let’s say you are a painter and have some greeting cards with hand-painted scenes you want to sell. Instead of selling the original immediately, scan the pictures so that you can use the images on the cards that you sell. Prepare the cards with the digital images to be sole rather than the original painted cards so that you will always have the original if something goes wrong. Then when you have sold all of the digital image cards, you can create more in a short period of time using the template created with the digital image.

If you did not have a template, chances are you would have to paint every card that you wanted to sell. Maybe you could sell the painted cards for a little more money, but that might not compare to the number of cards you could sell using the digital image template. The template card would also be faster to produce because it could be printed; whereas, the originals had to be hand painted.
Just a helpful tip from my greeting card business book 'How to make money selling your greeting cards'.

Friday, April 28, 2006

Photographic Greeting Cards

My favorite way of making greeting cards is using my photographs. I'm into photography too and one of my favorite subjects was my best mate Jackson. Jackson was my dog up until recently, unfortunately I had to let him go.

On a happier note his legacy lives on in all the greeting cards that I made with him on them. I'm not much of an illustrator nore am I as talented in the craft area like some of the greeting card designers I know. My mum's friend produces just beautiful cards and she just does it as a hobby. I told her she should start a small business because she would do very well.

What sparked me to write this post was an exclusive pet shop I found and it sells jewelry, studded collars, custom made jackets and so much more. Its where you go to really spoil your pet. But while browsing the shop they had a small display of greeting cards all of dogs but the dogs were dressed up in different theme's they were so cool. I asked the shop owner what company produces the cards and she told me it was not a company but a local guy.

He just focuses of this specific niche market of greeting cards and he does very well out of it too.

Thought it might help spawn some greeting card ideas for you.

Please leave a comment, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Cheers for now

David W. Allen
Greeting Card Business

Thursday, April 27, 2006

How to approach a store to sell your greeting cards


Hi how you doing?

I got an email from a subscriber of mine asking me an interesting question, well two actually, so I thought I would share it with you.

The questions were "How do you approach a small store to sell your greeting cards?" "What percentage would you work out?"

Below is my answer. I you want to do this yourself you will find this helpful.

Now to answer your question: How do you approach a small store to sell your greeting cards? What percentage would you work out?


Ok, I would simply go into the store and ask to speak with the manager/owner and first up offer him some cards on consignment, meaning the owner only pays for the cards when he sells them. Now he can’t lose. As far as percentage goes I would offer him a large portion of the profits because if you are starting out and don’t have a reputation then the only way to get one is to sell your cards and get them out there in circulation.


So I would offer him 50% BUT if he can get the customer to fill in your opt-in form leaving their First Name, Last Name and Email I would give him 70% or more. Now you probably think I’m crazy but just hang on here. If you can get this valuable customer information then you can send them follow-up emails telling them about special offers you have on your new series of Greeting Cards and if they liked your first cards they will probably buy more and this time you get to keep all the profits and build a relationship with that customer. You must remember the life time value of the customer is like Gold. They will buy from you again and again and tell their friends about how great your cards are.


Now can you start to see the power of this? I would suggest you make it easy for the Store Owner to display your cards by supplying some form of point of sale stand and have some opt-in forms printed up. The opt-in forms could be for your newsletter and tell them you send out special offers and coupons or something of value to get them to give you their details. You could even give them some free greeting cards or some free postage stamps, what ever just get their details.

I hope this was helpful? I go into more of this in my book and cover issues like how to develop your sales pitch as well. So go get your book and read away.

I can't wait to hear what you think of my book. I would love a testimonial if you can spare the time.

Kind Regards

David W. Allen

Greeting Card Business Book

Wednesday, April 26, 2006

Selling Greeting Cards - Do You Have What It Takes?


Hi welcome to my greeting card business blog and my first post.

Some of my subscribers have asked me about how they can make money selling their greeting cards. So I thought I would start a blog and share the answers with you as well.

Before going into any business even greeting cards, you need to evaluate yourself in order to define what strengths and weaknesses you have. If you are proficient in one area and lacking in another you need to identify this. When doing your self-assessment, try answering the following questions:
  1. Do you enjoy making greeting cards enough to do it for a living?


  2. Are you familiar with the different techniques and tools of trade of making greeting cards?


  3. Are you prepared to do everything yourself - accounting, marketing, attend craft fairs, etc - to run your business successfully?


  4. What time of day/night do you do your best work?


  5. What equipment, hardware, and/or software do you need to do your work?


  6. How many hours can you work per day?
These are all important questions to consider, but don't be put off by them it is just a process to help you identify your strengths, weakness and reasons for going into business. It’s better to get this out and understood at the beginning that way you can identify what areas to build and improve on as you build your greeting card business.


Now if you think you don’t have everything it takes to successfully operate your own greeting card business then I think you would be wrong. I’ll tell you why. People who fail in business are usually people who give up and don’t take action and do not continue to educate themselves in their profession.

You have already done one very important thing that the majority of people do not do - Take Action. By purchasing this book you have show that you are serious about building a business and learning about what it takes to do just that.
This investment will be the first of many in your journey to businesses success because information leads to knowledge and knowledge is POWER! Never stop empowering yourself.

The Fastest Way to Succeed in Any Business

The first time I was told this secret something clicked in my head, it was like I had a revelation, it was that one thing I needed to know to make it all clear. I was at a world internet and business conference and one of the speakers, a world recognized expert in his field said these following words:

“Fail as fast as you a can in your business because the more you fail the closer you are getting to success”

If there is anything you take away from this book make sure it is this. The fear of failing is one of the most common reasons business owners fail in business, because they fear making a mistake. That is why they fail.

Think about it for a moment. How do we learn in life, what has moulded you into the person you are today? Life experience and failing and making mistakes is what educates us and helps us grow. This very rule applies to business. Without failure you will not move forward, so fail as fast as you can so you can get to success quicker.

I hope you found this helpful.
Please leave your comments, I'd love your feedback