Pushing The Envelope Entrepreneurs get their messages across with specialty greeting cards.

Carla Ventresca was a young copywriter whose budget was sopinched, she made her own greeting cards to save money. Herlighthearted approach and whimsical, twenty-something characterswere so popular, friends began asking Ventresca to make cards forthem to give.

In 1993, she took samples of her work to a local card shop, andthe owner agreed to put them on her shelves. Carla Cards was born."I do fun cards with a positive spin," Ventrescaexplains. "My cards are humorous, but people won't crack arib laughing." Now living in Boston, the 32-year-oldentrepreneur is one of a growing number of designers who'veturned creativity into cash by tapping into the market forspecialty greeting cards.

After years of settling for traditional mass-market cards withimpersonal, crass or overly sentimental greetings, consumers aredemanding--and getting--an array of cards that cater to virtuallyevery group and taste imaginable, from ethnic groups and divorcedpeople to businesspeople and pets. Yes, pets: Animal lovers can nowreceive cards that look like they were sent by Fluffy or Fido.

While big boys like American Greetings and Hallmark dominate themarket--and have launched niche lines of their own--most of thenation's more than 1,800 greeting card companies are soleproprietorships, like Ventresca's, or small firms. While it canbe difficult for smaller ventures to compete with the giants,there's little chance card-crazy Americans will ever lose theirappetite for sending and receiving friendly messages. In 1998,Americans purchased 7 billion greeting cards, most of which weresent around the major holidays, according to the Greeting CardAssociation.

Niche cards, though, aren't confined to the traditional.Ventresca's line includes "missing you" greetings,celebrations of motherhood, and a humorous card for the seriouslystressed-out. Cards designed by 34-year-old Miga Rossetti, owner ofRossetti Cards in Portland, Oregon, celebrate the solstice. GregZedlar, 32-year-old owner of Conceptual Thinking Inc. in Burbank,California, hopes his business-to-business cards smooth the way fordeal-making between businesspeople. And the in-your-face cards fromLos Angeles-based Spice Rax--run by Penna Omega Dekelaita, 29, andL.T. Blassingame, 31--will help give a former flame the boot or leteveryone know the sender is out of the closet.

"We looked at the greeting cards that were out there andwere bored," Omega says. "There was a lot that wasn'trepresented. I wanted a line my friends and I would buy."

Technophiles don't have to bother sending something soarchaic as paper greetings. New York-based Activegrams, founded byAaron Shapiro, 26, lets computer users zip out greetings andanimations via e-mail. Activegrams cover topics like romance,humor, insults and business-related sentiments. "We didn'tdo any market studies before launching," Shapiro says."We just knew there was nothing like this online."

Pamela Rohland, a writer from Bernville, Pennsylvania, wishessomeone would design a greeting card to ease those days when yourcomputer keeps crashing, the fax goes on the fritz, and the printerplays games with your head.

Getting Carded

Getting into the greeting card business is relatively easy,Ventresca attests. All you need are graphic design skills and acomputer. Entrepreneurs often start with less than$5,000--sometimes much less, if they already own a computer andprinter. Many designers gain experience by freelancing for themajor card companies. You can create samples on your computer andtake them directly to stores, pitch them to potential salesrepresentatives or display them at trade shows such as the NationalStationery Show held every May in New York City.

Maureen Waters, former editor of industry trade publicationGreetings Today, suggests sidestepping card-store chains,which rarely take chances on newcomers. Instead, look for creativeoutlets for your work: small gift shops, flower shops and airportshops. "If you find a place that isn't selling cards, askthe owner if you can set up a spinner rack in a corner to sell yourcards--which, most often, are an impulse buy," Waterssays.

The tricky part is staying in business. "Retailers want aguarantee of success," says Waters. "They'rereluctant to take chances on new lines." Because creatingcards is so easy and getting into the industry so inexpensive,unseasoned entrepreneurs often jump into business impulsively,without a business plan or a definite sense of direction--commonmistakes that can prove fatal.

Ventresca's business took off with ease in 1993, but acouple of years later it slowed dramatically. "I met withfriends to examine my cards, and we noticed they had no sense ofdirection, nothing to hold them together as a line," she says.So Ventresca decided to create a set of recurring characters--a fewyoung women, a man and a dog--who pop up repeatedly doing aerobics,going shopping, working on a computer or eating chocolate."The competition is more brutal than I thought it wouldbe," she acknowledges, adding that she's taken somecourses to hone her business skills.

The Art Of Business

Ventresca is one of the lucky ones. Her cards are now sold by 20sales reps to retail stores around the United States and Canada.Even so, she's not getting rich. After five years in business,Carla Cards grosses only $50,000, and the owner still acceptsoccasional waitressing gigs to make ends meet.

Ventresca's experience is fairly typical of entrepreneursselling cards through traditional channels; Rossetti brought in$15,000 in 1998, her first year. Entrepreneurs earning more tend tobe in specialized markets. For example, Zedlar, who made highprofits in 1998, targets corporate clients for his business-
to-business cards. Shapiro, who started Activegrams a year ago, canattribute his revenues to the advertising space sold on thecompany's Web site; individual customers aren't charged forsending cards.

Whether it's a labor of love or a cash cow, a successfulcard line can ultimately evolve into other profitable arenas.Rossetti, for one, has already expanded her business through thecreation of magnets and covers for blank books.

But greeting card entrepreneurs say the rewards are more thanfinancial. "I came to terms long ago with the fact that therewill be about 12 well-known artists per generation," Rossettisays. "Another aspect of art is to make beautiful things thatenrich people's lives, and that's what I'mdoing."

Play Your Cards Right

The Greeting Card Association (GCA) sells a variety of books,CD-ROMs and audiotapes to help entrepreneurs succeed in theindustry. Here are a few:

• Greeting Card Industry Directory: A completeguide that features the names and addresses of more than 1,800publishers and suppliers. GCA members are cross-referenced bygeographic location, product types and licensed characters. Eachlisting also includes information on personnel, production anddistribution. Regular and international publisher members arelisted, as are associate members in allied industries that provideservices and products to the greeting card industry. (296 pages,first copy free to members, $95 for nonmembers.)
• Directory of Greeting Card Sales Representatives:A detailed listing of nearly 175 U.S. companies and individualsales reps that represent greeting card publishers. Each listingincludes full mailing address, contact information, showroomlocations, trade show participation, areas covered, types of retailoutlets served and kinds of cards handled. This alphabeticallisting is also cross-referenced geographically and by cardproduct. (262 pages, $50 for members, $95 for nonmembers.) Combinethis with the previous volume, and you've got everything youneed to know about the industry.
• Forecasting the `New Reality' for the 21stCentury: Don Reynolds, business consultant, forecaster andspeaker, describes the "New Reality" in a fast-pacedoverview of major trends impacting our world in the next 10 to 15years. (Audiotape, $20 for members, $30 for nonmembers.)
• Facts, Figures, Findings: Staying in Touch With IndustryChanges: Ray Kenny, former vice president of planning andresearch for American Greetings, delivers timely information ontoday's greeting card industry. (Audiotape, $20 for members,$35 for nonmembers.)

To order any of these products, or for information aboutmembership in the GCA (which starts at $325 per year), call(202) 393-1778 or visit http://www.greetingcard.org.Please note: Product availability and pricing may have changedsince this article was published. Please contact the GCA for themost current information.

Contact Sources

Activegrams, info@activegrams.com, http://www.activegrams.com

Carla Cards, (617) 242-4478, carlaven@erols.com

Conceptual Thinking Inc., (800) 501-0116, http://www.conceptualthinking.com

Greeting Card Association, (202) 393-1778

Greetings Today, (913) 362-7889

Rossetti Cards, (503) 235-1179, migaart@aol.com

Spice Rax, (323) 464-6800, http://www.spicerax.com