New businesses
Today I took a road trip with my friend up to Greenwich CT. She started a business as she found more time on her hands and the kids got older. The name of the company pretty much sums it up, the name is In Between Loading the Dishwasher.
I give her huge credit for coming up with the concept and executing on it. The first step is always the hardest. Although I am not involved with the business, per se, we are a good team because she is the creative force and I am really all about cost, execution and direction. So, she invited me along.
Her business is a card business. Cards at affordable prices that are clever, politically driven, pop-culture commentary and funny. Clean and crisp looking. They pop. Her cards will carried at Second Time Around retail stores. They have 13 stores throughout the Northeast. Right now they are in the Greenwich store. Hoping to set the price somewhere in the $3 range.
On the drive up, we called Register.com and registered the domain name, talked about how the cards should be priced, and how to grow the business methodically. I love this kind of stuff. My advice was basically to do one thing at a time, follow the path, don't do to many things at once, grow slowly. For instance, some of these cards would make fantastic note pads but wait until the site is launched, wait until you see how the stores start selling the cards, etc. I'm obviously really excited.
The website hasn't been built yet, but soon. That is the next step.
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Comments (Archived):
She might also want to contact http://www.jackcards.com. Pretty good service reminding you to buy cards. Might be a distribution deal to be done there!
Good to know. Will pass on the info. Thanks.
Great idea. Actually, I have been in that shop once. I knew Jeff Casler’s father. I remember when the store first opened.. I would never have thought to look for cards there. Is your friend showing at the New York Gift Show or regional ones? Let us know.. Even thought The Boston Gift is not what it used to be, I still go just in case I see something good.
She will probably do the gift show next year but just starting at thispoint.
The cards look great. A great start for a website is to try http://posterous.com/ they allow her domain name to point directly at their pages. Plus she can do posts by email with the site auto updating Twitter, Flickr, Facebook etc It is really, really easy to set up and it means her site can be live this afternoon! and no I have no commercial attachment to them 🙂 It is a Y-Combinator company btw
Huge huge thanks.
tumblr is another great option. posterous and tumblr are actually very similarand the gotham gal and i have an economic interest in tumblr!!
Oops sorry for trying to lead her astray 🙂 I just checked out tumblr, it does indeed offer the same functionality and probably more, but somehow it just seems that bit more difficult to use – maybe because it offers so many options.
If your friend wants to setup an online store, she should check out shopify.com. It’s like Yahoo stores, but done right. They handle all the inventory stuff and payment processing.Plus you can setup a traditional blog on the site as well, and then use Posterous to update it via email 🙂
Thanks. Will check into this too. Huge thanks to all.
Love the business name and the cards in your photo look great. Next time I see you, I’ll pass along some great store names(stores that have bought my vases). Plus I know some reps. Also, she might try contacting the industry /trade magazine called Greetings, Etc. Sounds exciting Joanne!
Thanks Jill. Appreciate it.
Jill, Where and how did you build your online store?
I produce cards as well. I wholesale and retail them. We debuted at the national stationery show, (reccomend that over the gift show.) We use to print in pa and now print in canada. hope to print in Asia when we begin to sell in volume.Our cards are sports specific, original art. We were two Moms that could never find cards big enough for the team to sign! Our web site is http://www.backyardartllc.comIf you have any ??’s feel free to contact me as others shared with me and helped us grow! We are out of NJ.