Do you need help starting a greeting card company? If YES, here is a sample greeting card BUSINESS PLAN SAMPLE.

Greeting cards are popular ways of sending wishes or greetings to people.

This greeting cards company business plan sample targets persons interested in starting their own greeting card business. The main reason for this is because lots of people face challenges putting together a simple plan. Using this sample, you are able to read through all the sections to get a better understanding of how to write your own plan.

Have you sent a greeting card to someone before?  Have you received a greeting card from someone before?  Have you sent a gift with a greeting card included? How about receiving a gift with a greeting card attached to it? Do you know how to make your own greeting cards to sell?

GREETING CARD BUSINESS PLAN SAMPLE

Greeting cards have become a big deal because it is used for various occasions. As the use of greeting cards increases as the day passes by, the market wants of this cards also increases. It is something you should capitalize on by starting a home based greeting card business.

Now you may be wondering; How will you start a greeting card company. If that is your worries, worry no more because in this article, I’m going to show you how to start a greeting card company with a step by step guide.

Here is a sample business plan for starting a greeting card production company.

Step 1: Go for Market Research

What do I mean by this? Going for a market research will help you identify your competitors and other greeting card business statistics. You will also know what kind of cards they are producing. In this step, you should notice what errors they are making on their greeting cards, or how you can improve your own greeting cards from what they are missing.

Step 2: Identify High Selling Genre

Just like we have high selling genre in music, same applies to a greeting card, there are also greeting cards with high selling genre. So, you need to ask yourself: What type of greeting cards are people buying, is it a holiday greeting card, a birthday greeting card, a graduation greeting card or an anniversary greeting card?

When you are able to identify the high selling genre of a greeting card, it will help you to produce greeting cards that will be acquired quickly.

Step 3: Identify Type of Cards to be Produced

Shen I talk about identifying the type of cards to be Produced, I’m referring to brainstorming. Yes! You may be wondering what type of brainstorming. Ok get me right here. You need to brainstorm on greeting card ideas for your company. This brainstorming involves thinking if a special message will be included in your greeting card. You need to study the latest greeting card design trends.

Remember you did a market research in step 1, and in that market research, you were able to note what you think was missing in the greeting cards produced by your prospective competitors. Hope you still remember? Good! So now is the time to make use of that information for the productivity of your own cards.

Do you get those missing information, add it to your cards and decide if you will make handmade greeting cards or have them printed.

If you decide that a particular greeting card should be printed, then follow how to go about it in the next step.

Step 4: Get a Printer for Your Cards

This should not come as a surprise to you. Remember you are starting a greeting card company, so you need to have an inkjet printer for cards you do not want yo produce using the handmade method. So getting your own printer isn’t a big deal, because it will reduce the cost of going to a printing station to have your cards printed. So take that step and have a Printer for your company.

Step 5: Make Variety of Greeting Cards

In step 2, I talked about identifying high selling genre and sticking to it for success. Yes, this step 5 will come as an alternative. While making your cards, or brainstorming on what type of cards to make, you need to make variety of them. Don’t just limit yourself to a handmade greeting card or a printed card, or really sticking to a particular greeting card genre. Let me tell you why.

In as much as high selling genre will bring a quick progress to your company, you really need to make variety of cards. Remember, why you started a greeting card company is to meet demands. So thinking as your clients will help you to be adaptable while producing your cards.

You are serving your clients, so you need to make variety of this cards as their needs differ. For example, some of them may like cards that contain inspirational messages, others may like cards with funny greetings, still others may like cards that are either funny or inspirational.

So with that said, how will you meet demands when actually you are producing one particular card? This step is really a step to think about.

Step 6: Meet with Greeting Shop Owners

Yes! An important step, you are not producing greeting cards that will end in your company’s warehouse, isn’t it? So you need to step out of that building (company), and do what I will call a shop movement. Funny though, but it’s important. Do you know how to create a greeting card line?

Many prospective customers of yours may not know where a greeting card company is situated, but they do know where greeting cards shops are located. So with that known, what should you do as a greeting card producer? Like I said before, step out! Go to this shop owners, talk with them. Tell them what you do, and offer to keep your greeting cards with them in their shop, so buyers can locate it quickly.

Remember, you’re in for a business, so important steps must be taken to make it a success. You can offer percentage to these shop owners in a way that if a card is sold from their shop, they get a percentage from the sale made. This will make them happy to keep your cards in their shop, which will in turn bring more sales and awareness to the greeting card company.

Step 7: Open an Ecommerce Website

To be successful in your greeting card business is what is needed. So creating an ecommerce site will help accomplish this, because your cards can be booked and purchased on-line electronically.

To attract more customers, you may decide to offer discounts or free shipping (no shipping fee) to a customer who spend a certain amount on your card.

Creating an ecommerce site will also make it convenient for a customer to sit at home and get a greeting card without going to the company or a shop, saving them the stress and this make them always patronize your company. Selling greeting cards online from home has never be easier.

GREETING CARD BUSINESS PLAN EXAMPLE

Knowing how to make greeting cards is one thing. Understanding the business angle of things is another. Therefore skill is not enough.

Before writing your plan, you should try to find out how things work. The feasibility study helps you achieve this.

  • Executive Summary

Whatever the occasion or function, Handmade Cards is always on hand to pass the right message across. This business sprung up from a passion for the crafts long held by its proprietor Janice Clarence. Located in Springfield, Illinois, we seek to spread comfort, happiness and best wishes to the world through our carefully cut and skilfully designed cards.

Our eyes are set on growth and expansion from the get-go. This will result in the careful implementation of our growth plans. Within the first 3 years, we will strive to achieve the status of being among Springfield’s top 5 greeting card businesses. From here on, we will target state-wide coverage with our ultimate aim being national distribution within the space of 10 years.

  • Our Products

We use only the finest papers in making our greeting cards. These are carefully cut and embossed with the right message beautifully written on them. We have a variety of designs that include single piece greeting cards as well as those made from multiple pieces. We are innovative in all our designs. The aim is to bring out the true definition of beauty such that recipients are wowed.

  • Vision Statement

At Handmade Cards, our vision as a new business is to penetrate the greeting cards market by bringing incorporating eye-catching designs with a highly efficient business structure. This will enable us streamline our efforts towards achieving wholesome growth and rapid expansion.

  • Mission Statement

People will want their greeting cards to convey the right message. As a greeting card business, we seek to help them achieve this. Our products are second to none. We seek to spread  happiness  by making both the sender and recipient happy.

  • Financing

Half of the funds required to start our greeting card company will be sourced from a savings which amounts to the tune of $150,000.00. The other half will be raised from a loan facility. This will be sourced from a bank of reputable standing. One which the proprietor is a customer.

  • SWOT Analysis

Our business model has a lot of potential. However, there may be some forms of threat or weakness. We have taken the time to conduct a SWOT analysis. The findings have been eye-opening.

  • Strengths

Our greeting card company is one which will thrive on innovation. We have the right personnel in place who are highly skilled and creative. Our innovative approach from the selection of the best materials to its cutting and design is carefully done. This is in addition to our solid business structure which will enable us thrive in the marketplace.

  • Weakness

Areas of weakness are common to most types of businesses. For our company, our weakness will emerge from the size of our operations. We are a small greeting card company seeking to break into the mainstream. This is a Herculean task that can be achieved when the right efforts are made.

  • Opportunity

The best products will always sell. This is our philosophy as a business and we see a huge opportunity to create highly appealing greeting cards. This will be coupled with an aggressive marketing campaign to showcase our products.

  • Threats

The threat we are faced with is in the form of the rise in technology. This presents an advantage and a disadvantage.

The internet and available design technology has opened up a vast collection of resources to help make designs more innovative. On the other hand, smart devices have made it much easier to send GIFs, and create electronic messages.

  • Sales Projections

Potential for sales is enormous. The availability of highly creative greeting cards make it even more saleable. We have done a three year projection of sales. The results are promising and show the following;

  • First Financial Year.             $90,000.00
  • Second Financial Year.         $200,000.00
  • Third Financial Year.             $390,000.00

 

  • Competitive Advantage

To be relevant in the greeting cards industry, having a competitive advantage is highly essential. We have the advantage of a highly motivated, hardworking and experienced team. These continuously innovate and produce some of the best designs for our products which are not common.

  • Marketing and Sales Strategies

We produce some of the best products in the market. Although good products will sell easily, they have to be properly advertised to create awareness. This is the strategy we will adopt to market our unique greeting cards. We will have paid ads in local newspapers and magazines as well as radio and TV outlets. These reach a wide audience.

We also have social media channels on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. These are effective ways of reaching out to a wider audience.

  • Target Market

Greeting cards are sent to a wider range of people. This includes the young and old. Therefore, both of these groups are included in our target market. This is in addition to major greeting card distributors who are vital to our operations because they create an effective distribution channel.

This greeting card business plan sample has been written to be as straightforward as possible. Earlier on, we said you should try to know about the business side of things even if you have all the card design skills in the world.

This will enable you easily balance the two and succeed in setting up a thriving business.

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