[Music]
starting a greeting card business is one
of the best ways to start a side
business and start making income and in
2018 this is exactly what i did to make
500 in one month and in the past two
years i've coached numerous
calligraphers and artists on how to sell
greeting cards too in this video i'll
share my top three things that you need
to do when you are selling greeting
cards and make sure you stay until the
end of this video for my recommendation
of what to do if you are just starting
out first you need to create a place
where you can showcase your cards and
also collect payment because when you
are promoting your cards you want to
make it as easy for your customers as
possible to just click into the place
where you're selling the cars and to
make a purchase
you can just collect cash but it's just
easier if they can just make the
purchase right away in business you
should make things as easy as possible
for the customer so you have a couple
options the easiest thing to start off
with is probably etsy because it's not
like you creating your own website where
you need to do the design and everything
but with etsy you can just put your
listings there and like you're ready to
sell like
literally you could create an etsy shop
in one day and start selling your cards
if you don't want to use etsy or your
own website then the easiest easiest
thing you can start off with
is making a google form order form where
people can tell you what they want to
order like maybe you have three card
selections and like two envelope colors
or something so people can submit what
they want as an order and then you can
send them a link using wave or stripe or
paypal and then they can pay through
their email so that would be like the
easiest thing to do but also
it's a little bit not professional
because it's a google form but i have
seen people start off with those and i
think it's totally okay to do that if
you want to get started and you don't
want to start an etsy shop or make your
own website however i do think that down
the line if you are going to continue
selling cards you should consider having
like a more professional place where you
can sell your cards like either etsy or
your website and later on in this video
i'll talk about a couple other platforms
that you can use as well by the way i
know that if you're watching this video
you are in the middle of planning out
your business or maybe you've started it
but you're not sure what direction to
take or you're confused with some parts
of it well i have a free business plan
template that you can download it's in
the description box and it will go
through like the most important things
for you to think about when just
starting a business so you can check it
out below next the best thing you can do
in order to start selling your cards is
actually to promote it within your own
network so to your family and friends
and acquaintances people who are already
in your existing network will want to
support you it's just like how imagine
if you have a friend who's just starting
a restaurant business maybe it's like a
hamburger place or something and every
time you want to have a hamburger
wouldn't you consider going to your
friend's restaurant instead of going to
mcdonald's or something because you want
to support your friend well
same concept so when people know you
they want to support you especially if
you already have a pre-existing
relationship with them even if the
relationship is like not super super
close like i've had a lot of people from
my high school buy my things because
even though i don't talk to them like we
still had a connection in the past and
even like a really weak tie can be
really powerful when you're just
starting a business so how can you start
doing this well it's very simple you can
take some pictures of your cards and
then start promoting it on all your
social media networks blast it out
not blast it out but you know share it
with everybody not every day obviously
but you can
just share about it i would probably do
it maybe once a week and then like if
it's a special occasion like valentine's
day which is coming up or the holiday
season i would do it every couple of
days on like different platforms just so
people are reminded on instagram though
i would do it like every single day on
instagram stories um or if you want to
post or do instagram reels then i think
every day is okay so out of the 500 that
i sold in greeting cards in my first
month i would say the majority of the
sales came from people i know so do not
underestimate the power of your own
existing network next if you want to
sell more greeting cards then you need
to expand your network so you are
creating connections and making your
existing network bigger i already talked
about the power of using your existing
network so if you are able to make it
bigger even as you are just starting
this greeting card business then it is
so powerful and so good for your
business because you are creating
meaningful connections with people who
want to support you because they know
you even if they just met you at a
networking event or something so there
are many ways you can do this the first
thing you can do is to go to in-person
or virtual networking events i do
actually have a video where i explain my
top networking tips so you can check it
out after and when you do go to these
events you can introduce yourself as
someone who makes greeting cards and if
it's a virtual event it's like so easy
for you to just like hold up one of the
cards you're selling and say hey like my
name is dina and i sell greeting cards
these are one of the designs that i have
another way you can do this is to use
social media so social media is really
great for connecting with people that
aren't your friends and a really good
way to do this is actually through
facebook groups so a lot of facebook
groups that are more business related
like i like the ones where it's like
business owners in vancouver basically
like a business owners in your location
or for me
women entrepreneurs in bc or something
so
groups that are business related or
artists in canada something like that
and i'm not saying you should just like
message everybody in those facebook
groups like
most of the time that's not allowed like
you can't just spam people right but if
you go into these facebook groups a lot
of people are asking different kinds of
questions about running a business and
so if you can answer them or if you see
someone ask a question and then you
maybe take a look at their website and
you see hey it's so interesting oh they
sell like soap or something or candles
and i'm actually really into sober
candles let me go message that person
and say how much i love the business
that they're running i love their
mission
and maybe you buy a product or two but
the thing i'm trying to say is when you
connect with people on social media and
if these are people you don't know
make sure that you are adding value to
their lives don't just message them and
say like hey are you interested in
buying my greeting cards no don't do
that so what you need to do is to create
a genuine connection a genuine
relationship where you're exchanging
value so that could be like answering a
business question that they have or
maybe you love their product so you buy
their soap or something or just saying
hey i love what you do i would love to
connect and learn more about your
journey while you might not see instant
sales from this just know that
networking is a long-term strategy and
it will pay off in the future a pro tip
that i have for you is to actually reach
out to people who send cards to their
own clients all the time around
christmas time or maybe clients
birthdays or something so these are
people like realtors financial advisors
accountants
insurance brokers like people who work
with their clients in a professional way
and the clients are like high value
clients so if you have some standard
designs that you're selling you can
definitely sell those but a lot of these
times these kinds of people will also
want custom cards so there was one time
i was working with a realtor who wanted
to send out 20 cards to her clients so
she bought my standard cards and then
she asked me to write a custom message
inside each card so i think the total
transaction of that was around 300 or
something hey by the way if you are
getting value out of this video make
sure to give it a thumbs up and
subscribe to my channel if you are
looking for more creative business
resources and tips so my other pro tip
for connecting with different people and
expanding your network is to attend
events and trade shows conventions maybe
local art fairs those kinds of events
you can definitely have a booth or table
at those events where you sell your
cards it's definitely good there is
usually like a cost having a table or it
might be free it really depends on the
kind of event but when you are at these
events whether or not you have a table
or not
i want you to go and talk to the other
vendors like this is such a great way to
meet new people because these are people
who want to talk to you right it's not
like you're just approaching people on
the street when you network with more
people there is a compounding effect so
this is how you can get referrals this
is how you can get people to start
mentioning your name when maybe one of
their friends is looking for somebody
who is selling cards or looking for
custom cards or something and right now
you might be thinking okay dina this is
like a lot of work to go to these events
connect with people
so like you can actually sell anything
in any way and you can be successful
doing that i truly believe that but
everything is not as easy as it seems so
by just posting on etsy for example like
you really need to
do keyword research you need to research
your competitors you need to create the
products and the photos need to be very
professional and you might even want to
do some etsy ads and that stuff takes
time the reason why i suggest starting
with your pre-existing network and then
expanding that network is because even
though it takes more time at the
beginning you can make more sales faster
this way whereas if you're just popping
your cards on a website and expecting
that people will come and buy your cards
it will take longer generally and it's
not as fast if you want to explore some
of the other options for selling cards
you can definitely use etsy and just
like post your cards there or you can
use print-on-demand stores like zazzle
or redbubble also amazon has something
called amazon handmade so you can upload
your cards there but i don't know too
much about the amazon and the print on
demand stores and the whole process of
doing that but i do know that it is
harder because
you are basically putting yourself out
there and nobody knows who you are
nobody cares about you and why would
somebody buy a card from a person who
has zero sales also if you're not sure
about the logistics of starting a
greeting card business like what size to
print or how do you design the cards
should you do handmade or digital how to
price your cards and where to print them
then make sure you check out this video
because i explain everything in there