Do you have a passion for art or photography? Starting a greeting card business could be the perfect way to turn your creative skills into a profitable and rewarding venture. In this article, we'll provide you with a comprehensive guide on how to start your own greeting card business, covering everything from market research to printing.

The UK greeting card market is worth £1.5 billion with a billion cards sold during Christmas alone.

But before you jump straight in and write that resignation letter, there are some important things to consider.

What would you like to achieve with your art business? Do you intend to replace your income or happy to just have an adventure and see where it leads?
How much time do you have to grow your business? Depending on your financial goals, starting an art business can be as time consuming as running any other successful business.
What do you really like doing? Do you enjoy social media, creating content, analysing sales figures and talking to customers? Or do you prefer to spend your time working on your creations?

Knowing what you like and more importantly ‘what you are like’ will help you plan your business with realistic objectives that plays to your strengths and encourages you to keep going.

Know your market

Market research is an essential part of starting any business, no matter how small. When it comes to setting up a card business, doing your research is the only way to make sure you know who will buy your unique cards, where they’re shopping, and how much they’ll be willing to pay. It’s the first step towards creating a sustainable business - and avoid ending up with boxes of cards gathering dust in the attic!

Define your niche

Defining your unique style of artwork in a language that your customers will use to find your cards. Think Google keywords and Instagram hashtags. This will help you map out your market for further research.

Online research

Google Search - Good for finding popular card marketplaces, local shops and competitor websites
Instagram - Great for identifying competitors in your niche and researching their content strategies, links to where they sell.
Online marketplaces (e.g. etsy) - Good for identifying competitors, popular card categories, pricing strategies (e.g single cards or multipacks), postage charges and commissions you’ll have to pay for using the platform.
Amazon - Useful for longer term planning. Especially if your designs have mass appeal and you can take advantage of Amazon Prime

go local

While doing research online is quick and simple, selling online is a different story. The majority of online marketplaces use recommendation algorithms that favour well-known sellers, making it more difficult for new sellers to stand out. It can take months to build an Instagram following that converts to buyers. It might take even longer to get users to visit your new website. So starting locally can be the fastest way for you to get those early sales.

80% of greeting cards sold in the UK are through traditional retailers

It’s true that supermarkets and national card shops make up a huge portion of offline sales, and they tend to focus on generic cards bought from wholesale distributors. But don’t despair! There are plenty of independent retailers that cater to more niche tastes in greeting cards. So, if you’re looking to reach a more specific customer base, independent retailers are definitely worth exploring!

Head over to your local independently -

Card shops
Cafes, Restaurant and bars
Garden centres
Gift shops

You can check out the type of customers they serve. Find out how much they charge for similar cards to yours. Often you can talk directly with the owner and pitch your designs, get an idea of the best selling themes and seasonal trends. With a bit of luck they may agree to stock your cards when you are ready.

At the end of your market research, you should know-

The potential market for your cards.
Where to sell your cards.
How much you can charge for your cards
Commissions charged by online marketplaces
Pricing expected by local retailers
Quantities you’ll need to print to get things started
How to package and market your cards

Do you need a business plan?

It isn’t absolutely necessary to have a formal business plan to set up a successful business, But it can be super helpful to have a clear idea of where you are trying to go and how you are going to get there. Preferably with some numbers and timescales to measure progress. If you plan to borrow money to get started, then creating a business plan is unavoidable. Fortunately, these days, with the growth of short run digital printing, free design tools and online sales channels, it is possible to start a greeting card business without breaking the bank. A business plan can be as short as 2 sides of A4.

Example Greeting Card Business Plan?

Business Summary

This business specialises in high quality, original watercolour greeting cards for sale in independent local card shops, cafes and online. We plan to start out with an initial investment of £500 to cover the cost of printing and shipping.

Products and Services

We produce a selection of premium greeting cards with original watercolour paintings of flowers, plants, and landscapes. The seasons will be the inspiration for our collections. Each card comes with an envelope and is printed on superior card stock. These can be purchased singly or in a pack of five as a collection. Our cards are blank on the inside and suitable for all occasions.

Market Analysis

Due to a trend towards handmade and unique products, the fine art card market is continuing to expand. Given their distinctiveness and higher quality, we expect our cards to be in high demand. We initially plan to sell to independent local card shops and cafes, and as the business expands, we'll also sell online. We anticipate selling 5,000 cards and making £6,000 in profit in the first year. Having established sales channels and reduced printing costs from larger print runs, we anticipate this to grow to 15,000 cards and a profit of £17,000 in year two.

Competition

Our main competition is other more established independent artists. We believe selling locally will be easier for us to establish the business as there is less competition. Online represents a much bigger opportunity and greater competition but we believe the market is diverse enough to support our unique offering.

Marketing and Sales

We plan to use a combination of online and offline marketing strategies to reach our target market. We will use social media, email campaigns, and word of mouth as well as displaying our cards in shops and cafes to promote our products.

Financials

We plan to start out with a modest initial investment of £500 to cover the cost of printing our first collection, packaging and sales. We anticipate that our sales will increase over time, allowing us to reinvest our profits to expand the business.

Conclusion

We believe that our original artwork and premium quality greeting cards will be well received by our target market. With a modest initial investment and a combination of online and offline marketing strategies, we are confident we can build a sustainable greeting card business.

Printing greeting cards to sell

When it comes to getting your greeting cards printed for sale, there are several options depending on the scale of your ambition.

Print your own greeting cards

If you have a high quality printer, there are some benefits to printing your cards at home. You have more control over colour matching (assuming you know your printer), card stock and the ability to print individual cards. However there are several things to consider before going down this route -

Initial outlay for a high quality printer and inks along with additional cutting tools can add to your starting costs.
The additional time you’ll need for printing and finishing individual cards as your business grows.
Time spent continually having to replenish cardstock and inks
Maintenance and repair of the printer and equipment

Commercial printing for greeting cards

Once you’ve factored in the cost of time spent printing at home and compared it to commercial printing costs at higher volumes, outsourcing your printing to the professionals is a no brainer. You will always get a consistent result that your customers can rely on, and you can focus on growing your business.

There are two main types of commercial printing available for greeting cards.

Lithographic / Offset printing - A traditional method, where a printer transfers your design onto a special plate which is then used to print all the copies. Great for printing higher volumes. But as each design requires a time consuming set-up, it is not a viable option for smaller print runs.
Digital printing - The latest state of the art digital printers can produce a similar print quality to litho. Without the need for a complex set-up process, Digital Printers can print from very short runs to 1000s of cards. This makes it the best solution for most independent greeting card publishers.

Working with a print partner

With over 8000 printing companies in the UK, finding your perfect print partner can be more than a little overwhelming. The choice of card stock, card sizes, envelopes, quantity pricing and shipping options can vary wildly from printer to printer. If you’ve managed to avoid excel or Google Sheets up to now, this is a good time to start. Creating a spreadsheet to track all the essential information for each printer will save you a lot of time in the long run.

What to consider when choosing a print partner -

Do they offer a good selection of card stock suitable for your style of artwork? Professional quality cards stock should be at least a thickness of 300GSM. Higher quality cardstock is more expensive but your cards could command a higher price.
If sustainability is important to you and your customers, is there a choice of eco-friendly cardstock, envelopes etc. Does the printer carbon offset their printing operation?
Card Sizes - Do they offer standard UK sizes which fit your artwork
Print ready artwork - Does the printer require you to upload complete print ready artwork or can you upload your images and create the card on their website.
File formats - What image file types does the printer accept? Do they need to be in CMYK or can you upload standard RGB from your computer or smartphone?
Print proof - can you download a proof of the final print PDF, preferably in a converted CMYK approximation so you can check the colour matching before printing.
Artwork review - do they check your artwork for correct bleed alignment and image quality or is this entirely your responsibility?
Pricing - What are their shortest print runs for any one design and does this fit your budgeted costs. Most printers will offer significant discounts as you print more. What are their discount tiers? Does this fit with your growth forecast.
Multi design discounts - Some printers will offer a discount across multiple designs. Which can be great for testing your designs and for offering multipacks to customers without having to print hundreds of cards in the same design.
Shipping Costs and Turnaround times - How long do they take to print and ship an order? What are their postage options? Some printers will offer a cheaper price if you are willing to wait for your prints. We recommend choosing a tracked courier to make sure your cards don’t go missing.

Sample packs

Having identified a short list of potential print partners, it’s time to see their work. In an ideal world, you might be able to get a single print of your actual design for you to check the quality of the final result. Unfortunately there are few print shops these days set-up to print individual cards. And these tend to be more expensive. Most printers will require you to print a minimum quantity. Your next best option is to request a sample pack containing all the different cardstock they offer, ideally printed with a variety of artwork and colours. This should help you choose the printer and select the cardstock for your prints.

Your first print order

If you are new to commercial printing, placing your first order can be a bit scary. If your chosen printer requires you to upload a print ready document, you’ll need to supply your artwork in their template, CMYK colour profile and accepted file format. This is relatively easy to do, providing you have the right image editing software (e.g. Photshop or InDesign), and a bit of know-how. Usually the printer's website will allow you to download a blank template in the correct size for your card. You can upload this to your image editor and use it as a guide to create the print ready artwork.

Alternatively, you can opt to use a printer that offers a card designer on their website. So you don’t need to spend hours learning to use expensive software. You can just upload a photo or scan of your artwork and finish your design directly on the their website. The card maker should create the finished document for print in the correct format and produce a proof for you to check.

For your first print run with a new printer, it is better to order the minimum quantity (e.g. 10-25 cards per design) so you can check quality and test which of your designs are going to sell. If the printer offers a volume discount across multiple designs you’ll be able to test print a selection of your artwork while keeping your costs within budget.

Marketing and Sales

If you’ve done your market research outlined in the section Know your Market, you should already have a pretty good idea of how and where you are going to sell your cards. If not, here’s a quick recap -

Local card shops, cafes and bars - Often the quickest way to make that first sale and start building a reputation. They handle all the marketing and sales and you save on packaging and shipping costs.
Social Media Instagram and Facebook - Can be a great way to connect with potential customers and it’s relatively cost free. However, be prepared to dedicate some time to post regularly and build a following. Consider using advertising to speed things up.
Online marketplaces (e.g. Etsy) - It’s super easy to get started without spending any money. Ban it can take time to get your products seen by customers as a new seller. Opting into pay for visibility can speed things up, if you’ve budgeted for this.
Your own website - Best for having control over your brand. Can require a subscription to a web hosting service. You still have to generate visitors through your other marketing efforts such as social media, SEO, PPC and flyers.
Email Marketing - The best way to sell more to existing customers and convert website visitors to customers. Offer a regular update on your latest designs and offers.
Back of your cards - It’s the best and cheapest advertising space you have. If they’ve received one of your cards, then they are your ideal customer. Include your social media, website and email details on the back of all your cards.

Good luck with your card business

Starting a greeting card business might seem like a lot of hard work and it can be. A sustainable card business does require some planning and an ongoing commitment. But with easy access to design tools, commercial printing and a thriving UK card market, this is a business with a relatively low barrier to entry for anyone with a creative flair. You could make a decent income from what you love doing and it is a fantastic way to bring a little joy to everyone fortunate enough to receive one of your creations.

Good luck!

(We hope this guide has encouraged you to have a go. If you have any question about starting a greeting card business or need some help getting started please email hello@crearty.io)