Introducing Abi Cards

[abi_shepherd]

Hi. Just joined as I was recommended to join the site. I make hand-made greeting cards.

Would like to make my hobby into a profitable business.

If anyone has any advice for me either in relation to my particular line of business or to starting up/running a small business on the whole I would be grateful to hear it.

Regards,

[Jayne]

Hi Abi,

Welcome to the forum :D

Jayne

[Urban Space]

Welcome! :)!

Liam

[crus]

Hi Abi,

Do you do wedding invites,
I have seen many of these done by hand,
may be worth mocking some up and going to a wedding fayre.
Should be a good return as customers are 'loved up' and willing to pay for something special.

D

[mumper]

Welcome Abi.

[abi_shepherd]

Hi. Thank you for all the welcomes.

Crus, in reply to your question, yes I do do wedding invitations. There are a couple on my site.

I had considered doing wedding fairs but I have been looking for a full time job recently. Once I am settled and have any holiday to take I may take it up.

I did recently get an order from a local shop which is good.

I wish I had more time to devote to it. Hoping I can drum up some more interest via the web.

Thanks for your input.

[clairemackaness]

Hi Abi,

Welcome to UKBF. I love your cards, they are very well made and look very professional.

I also dabble in hand made cards, but just for friends and family really, however I did used to make a semi living from it. Heres my top tips (feel free to slap me if any of it sounds like I am trying to teach grandma to suck eggs)!

1) Put approx 20 cards in nice boxes and deliver them to large offices with a price list (a bit like the bookman). Leave them in reception and pop in to re-fill the boxes and collect the money once a week. You can also leave a request form for any custom orders.
2) Don’t bother with wedding fairs and large craft fairs. The cost of a pitch is too high to justify with cards some being as high as £80 per weekend.
3) Stick to charity craft shows or school fetes that charge £10 per pitch
4) When booking a stand at a fair, always check out who else will be there and where you will be placed. Any decent organiser will limit the number of suppliers at any one fair and spread you out evenly.
5) Get a bit of sunshine by having a regular stall at bootsale once a week. Chat up the organisers and secure yourself a regular pitch so your customers will return to you and order custom cards.
6) Whenever you send a letter or a card to anyone, send it on one of your cards
7) Always make sure you have hand made by stickers on the back with your contact details (you can get these on eBay really cheaply)
8) Give your friends and families a pack of ten cards (mixed themes) as a gift and make sure they use them for all their birthdays

[Claire B]

some good advice there claire :D

[crus]

Outstanding Claire,

some good pointers I might nick for offline stuff.

D

ps ignore my wedding fayre idea then its crap! ;-)

[clairemackaness]

Its not a crap idea Crus, the prices are just soooo high and the competition is fierce. the other thing you could do would be to get together with other crafters offering other wedding items and share a stand.

[Coding Monkey]

Howdy,

Good luck with your new business. I have an 'acquitance' who is venturing into the same area online.

[Hedgehog Toys]

Hi,

Welcome to the forum. :D :D :D :D :D

[Magsite]

Hi

I turned my hobbie into my biz! And I love it!!

I've had loads of help on this forum, its great..

Lisa

[Ady]

hi there....nice cards, goodluck with them :)

[RSL]

Welcome to the forum. Good luck with the business! Take care,

Ronke

[DavidHorn]

Good luck to you!

My sister-in-law is about a year behind you ... she makes the cards but not yet got to the point of selling them.

It seems to me that the overheads (esp. including your time) are very high - but if you can make it work, then that's great ... everyone loves hand made cards!

David

[Admiral Collections]

I love your cards Abi, they are very sweet.

How long does it take to make a card on average?

Nic :wink:

[fastfences]

Hi Abi, and welcome.

Just to add to Claire's suggestions; divorce is on the increase - could you not capitalise on 'Divorce Cards'? Sweet little captions like, 'Ditch the dame and ease the pain' would be a sure fire winner as a novelty on the likes of eBay. Look, I've got more: 'I loathed the twit, we had to split, it wasn't funny, but I got his money.'

Cheers, Nigel

[abi_shepherd]

Great ideas Nigel. Concentrating on what I know for the moment but I have secretly (shhh don't tell) bought another domain www.hatecards.com which I haven't done anything with yet for a similar purpose to what you mentioned above.

Nic, it depends. Often what takes the most time is coming up with the design. Once I have that its pretty quick. Cut up the card (and fold it), cut down any bits that need to go on it, glue everything together. What takes a lot of time is things like making the wire/bead hearts - took me almost an hour to make 10 last night. Which is why I really love the little paper flowers. They are so easy - you just stick them on.

David, I can't honestly say I've made a profit yet, but I don't mind. I will eventually. Its just that I have spent out on things like a new scanner (so I can scan the cards onto my website), website costs, guillotine, and all the materials to actually make the cards with.

At the moment I am just really excited that I am able to make some money from something I love doing. If I won the lottery, I would do it fulltime. Maybe one day it'll be enough to pay the mortgage...

[Hayles]

Hi

Following on from Claire's ideas, I think you definitely need to offer shops a sale or return offer so they don't have to pay up front. How about some 'Thank you for being my Bridesmaid' designs. I'm sure most bridal shops would let you put them in their shop - we would!

Welcome by the way!

Hayles

[Admiral Collections]

I think your hearts cards are lovely. I'd be well impressed if someone sent me one of those!


Nic :wink:

[Coding Monkey]

Great ideas Nigel. Concentrating on what I know for the moment but I have secretly (shhh don't tell) bought another domain www.hatecards.com which I haven't done anything with yet for a similar purpose to what you mentioned above.


Small world. My friend had the same idea back in April last year, but refused to go ahead with it. Did check out that domain name and it was taken. We meet at last ;)

[TheFreePlayBayinc.]

Welcome!

[abi_shepherd]

Hayles, you're the second person today that suggested that idea. Think I might have to do it!

Will start working on new ranges soon.

Thanks for all the welcomes and all your thoughts.

[clairemackaness]

Dont forget the latest fad "Commitment Ceremonies" for gay couples.

[DavidHorn]

Abi - that's the key right there: making money from something you enjoy! It's a great step forward ... working for myself, doing something I enjoy, is such a relief from working for someone else doing something I merely tolerated!

Good luck to you.