Business on handmade postcards. Home Business: Making Handmade Cards

Business plan for a postcard company self made

This business plan belongs to a Western company that is developing its own product line, which is distinguished by creative design and innovative solutions.

Six months before the official opening of production, a portfolio (examples of work) of the company will be prepared, which is planned to be used to work with stores and outlets in the region.

The target audience consists predominantly of women, who, according to research, buy more than 80% of all postcards sold. For this reason, the authors of the business plan intend to sell their products through small boutiques, specialty stores, flower shops and gift shops and souvenir products. This business plan provides information regarding the product description, company management, development strategies and financial goals.

The business began as a hobby for two sisters who designed, printed, cut and glued greeting cards and envelopes for them. This hobby has grown into a stable source of income. Personalized unique handmade postcards are a good idea for a gift and expression of attention to relatives and friends. Postcards signed by hand remain the best way Express your feelings as they evoke emotions.

The company produces only one product, which is divided into three types. Its goal is to create greeting cards handmade of consistently high quality, originality and uniqueness for any occasion. The mission of the enterprise is to increase the availability of this type of product.

Of course, the market for greeting cards has long been formed. At points retail sales presented a large assortment products - from computer multi-circulation postcards to handmade postcards. The unit price ranges from $0.5 to $8.5. World-famous companies such as Hallmark and American Greetings operate in this segment. Moreover, in addition to postcards on cardboard, many companies produce postcards in in electronic format, which can be found in in large numbers in the Internet. New companies engaged in the production of greeting products successfully compete with others, choosing their own narrow niche in the market - their theme, price category, quality and location of production.

Who is the postcard business for? What do you need, where to start and to whom to offer handmade postcards? Find out this and more here.

Happy anniversary, Christmas, say hello, cheer up, ask for forgiveness, express feelings - all this and even more can be done with the help of the simplest postcard. For this and a number of other reasons, the business idea of ​​\u200b\u200bcreating postcards is one of the most relevant and in demand today.

Moreover, you do not have to open a whole printing shop, and you can create your product while sitting at home, combining it with other things or work.

"Hand Made" or Made with love...

Recently, products created by manual labor. And there is a simple explanation for this:

• First, there is a chance to purchase an exclusive product.
• Secondly, you can easily realize the most cherished dreams of the person to whom the card is intended.
• Thirdly, by presenting an exclusive gift, you emphasize the importance and respect for the donee.
• Fourthly, you can choose a postcard from natural and environmentally friendly material.
• Fifthly, a personal approach to each customer.

In addition to the above points, the business of creating postcards is notable for the fact that the pricing policy is available to absolutely every client. On average, the cost of a postcard created varies from 50 to 2500 rubles.

Who is this type of business for?

Great business idea for women in maternity leave and for housewives. They can also be engaged in creative, creative and extraordinary personalities. In a word, the more original and interesting your idea is, the more chances you have for successful business development.

However, be prepared for the same type and monotonous if you receive a large order for one type of work in the future. Also, you must have at least 5-8 hours a week.

What do you need to start a postcard business?

At first, you will need to purchase material for creating and decorating postcards - scrap paper, ribbons, lace, flowers, polymer clay, stones, and other other design elements.

On average, at first, 3000-6000 rubles will be enough for you to purchase primary material and create a portfolio.

Where to sell ready-made postcards?

The most suitable and accessible distribution channel is the Internet, here groups, forums, websites, social networks and blogs will help you.

Take an active part in fairs, exhibitions and other other events, especially in preparation for weddings.

You can also negotiate with flower, wedding and other salons about partnership. They will offer your product to their customers for a certain percentage.

How much can you earn making postcards?

At the first stage, your main goal is to create a portfolio, thanks to which clients will immediately see your work and choose.

So, the average cost of a handmade postcard is $7-15. Let's calculate at the very minimum cost of $ 7.

The cost of material and decor is $ 3.

Let's say you sell 100 postcards a month.

So, we get the following result from one type of postcards per month:

Monthly income from one postcard: 7*100=700$

Material and decoration costs: 3*100*300$

Total profit from one postcard per month: 700-300=400$

And this is far from the limit, but profit from just one type of postcards. Increase the assortment, look for new distribution channels and you will receive a solid income!

* Calculations use average data for Russia

With the ubiquity of telephones and the Internet, the tradition of writing good old paper letters in a regular, not e-mail. Messages sent over the Internet are delivered almost instantly, absolutely free and have no size limit. However, all the most modern technologies did not force people to completely abandon paper correspondence. Only now the process of sending and receiving a paper "carrier" has become a hobby. We are talking about the so-called postcrossing. Postcrossing is a project based on the principle of exchanging postcards with recipients from all over the world. The project participant enters his data into the database along with brief information about yourself and your hobbies. Sending a postcard to one of the recipients, he in turn receives at least one postcard from another postcrosser - this is the principle of the so-called indirect exchange. In this case, all recipients and senders are selected randomly. Postcrossing in modern form appeared relatively recently, but at present several hundred thousand people from over two hundred countries of the world are registered in the project database.

So, postcrossing is a hobby that brings a lot of pleasant impressions and emotions. In addition, this can become your future business - albeit small, but quite promising. If you are counting on a big profit, in this case you will have to expand the target audience and cover not only postcard lovers (as is the case with postcrossing), but also professional philocartists. Philokartia is the collection of postcards and illustrated postcards. This direction was born at the end of the 19th century, when the mass production of postcards began, which soon gained great popularity as the cheapest type of postal item. There are quite a few collectors of postcards, both modern and old. With the advent of postcrossings, this hobby has become even more widespread, since now modern postcards have also acquired collectible value (although they are, of course, much cheaper than postcards from Soviet times and pre-revolutionary Russia).

As part of this material, we will consider more "budget" options for creating your own business. There are three such options. You can open a specialized online store for philocartists - postcard collectors and offer both the postcards themselves and related products for them. But this direction of work also requires considerable investments - time and money. Creating an online store and purchasing related products (mostly albums for storing postcards) are not the biggest expense items. The most difficult thing is to ensure the assortment of the "main product" - that is, the actual postcards. They are purchased from the public by placing ads on the Internet, in the media and just around the city about buying postcards of a certain subject and time period, they are also bought on specialized sites and forums (but here, as a rule, specialists like you sit and purchase interesting specimens are unlikely to be sold for a pittance) and in second-hand bookshops (although the latter are becoming less and less). Postcards with history compared to old books are less in demand. Yes, and their number is not so numerous. Although in Soviet times postcards, like books, were produced in millions of copies, but, unlike the latter, they were not always kept. And even if there was a collector in the family who carefully collected postcards, after his death, the heirs often threw away the albums with the collection, not seeing any value in postcards. In addition, until the twentieth century, only postcards with a postmark (that is, already used) were of value. Moreover, they then depicted nature, the culture of peoples from different countries of the world and modern life at that time, since in the absence of television and the high cost (and duration) of traveling around the world, very few people could get to know other regions and countries. Until the early 1900s, postcards depicting different types, while sent from the same city or locality (country). Other postcards had no great value and were not kept. Nowadays, the situation has changed: now clean postcards are of equal value. Although here it all depends on the preferences of a particular collector. Someone collects postcards with views of nature, someone - political and propaganda, someone with reproductions of paintings or photographs of animals, portraits of actors, etc. There are enough options for collecting topics. The value of a postcard depends on its age and rarity. There are also such copies that go at auctions at a price of $1000. However, you shouldn't rely too much on such income. Most postcards rarely cost more than $25. More often you can see prices up to 150-200 rubles per copy.

Selling and searching for rare vintage postcards is not easy. This requires a lot of free time. You need to be an expert in this area and be able to distinguish between originals and fakes (yes, rare copies of postcards are also forged). If you are not yet confident in your abilities or you are interested in collecting modern postcards, you can open your own production of postcrossing postcards and sell them through an online store. The latter option is the most popular, which is explained by the relatively low cost of organizing such a business, as well as the demand beautiful postcards among postcrossers and collectors. There is certainly competition in this segment, but at the moment demand exceeds supply. The fact is that the assortment of all such online stores is almost always unique. Each of them independently searches for artists, with whom he then collaborates, printing their postcards for sale for a small fee. Therefore, if you can correctly “anticipate” demand, your business has every chance of success.

Legal registration of business

In order to create your own online store of postcards and related postcrossers, you will need to register as individual entrepreneur. You can do this with four different ways. In the first case, you can register an IP yourself. This is the most cheap option: all costs will amount to 800 rubles for the state duty. In principle, registering an IP is a fairly simple matter and does not take much time. You can also register as an individual entrepreneur by mail. This option is quite long in time (mainly due to the work of the mail), but it is suitable if you are not registered in the city where you are going to open your office. You can also seek help in obtaining an IP from an intermediary - a law firm that specializes in such services. Registration through an intermediary will cost more than self-registration documents, but you will save a lot of time on filling out all the necessary paperwork, and also get a guarantee that all documents will be drawn up without a single mistake. Finally, IP can be issued by proxy.

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In this article, we will talk about self-registration as an individual entrepreneur. To draw up documents for registering an individual entrepreneur, you need to prepare documents for registering an individual entrepreneur (an application for registration, an application for simplified taxation, a receipt for paying state duty); register your individual entrepreneur with the IFTS (registration with the tax office, sending a notification to supervisory authorities: Rospotrebnadzor and Gosavtodornadzor), as well as in the Pension Fund of Russia and the FSS (registration with the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation, FSS, Rosstat, Compulsory Medical Insurance Fund); order a seal for an individual entrepreneur; open a bank account.

Let us consider in more detail the documents that you will need to register as an individual private entrepreneur (IP): application for state registration individual as an individual entrepreneur in the form P21001, a receipt for payment of the state duty for registering an individual entrepreneur, an application for the transition to a simplified taxation system in the form No. 26.2-1 (optional), a copy of the passport.

Online store without retail space, that is, with the delivery of the order by courier, or by mail, it can work on the simplified taxation system or OSN. If the sale of goods occurs directly on the site (that is, payment for the order occurs directly on the site), and then the person receives the goods through the point of issue, then this format of trade does not fall under UTII. According to Art. 346.27 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, “retail trade is an entrepreneurial activity related to the sale of goods (including for cash, as well as using payment cards) on the basis of retail sales contracts. This type of entrepreneurial activity does not include trade through teleshopping, telephone communication and computer networks". If your company has a small number of employees, then it is better to immediately write an application for simplified taxation. The simplified taxation system (aka USN, USNO, simplified tax system) allows you to pay less taxes and significantly simplify your reporting than OSNO (the main taxation system). The simplified tax system is very common among small and medium-sized businesses. There are two options for USNO interest rates - 6% (on income) and 15% (“income minus expenses”). interest rate you can choose by yourself. If you chose the first option, you will pay 6% of any income, in which case your expenses will not be of interest to the tax authorities (this option is preferable in our case when it comes to providing any services and when expenses are much less than income) . If you prefer the first option, then the amount of expenses will be deducted from the amount of income, and the individual entrepreneur pays 15% of taxes on the difference received (this option is convenient in case of trading). At the same time, all IP expenses must be documented (that is, you need to keep checks, invoices, acts, etc.).

If you plan to apply simplified taxation, then you need to submit a notice of this in two copies along with the rest of the documents during registration. Please note: you can switch to simplified taxation only once a year, starting from the beginning of the calendar year, so if you do not have time to apply right away, you will have to pay much more taxes and maintain much more complex accounting and reporting until the end of the current year. By law, you can apply within thirty days from the date of registration, but it is better not to delay and apply immediately. You can fill out an application for the transition to simplified taxation (USN) automatically and free of charge using a special service or manually. In the latter case, you will need to download an application for the transition to a simplified taxation system in the form No. 26.2-1 (KND 1150001) (do not forget to check that the form you downloaded is up to date). The application is submitted in two copies, one copy remains with you (with a mark of acceptance). Your copy must be kept. In addition to the application, you will also need to provide a photocopy of two pages of your passport (main and with a residence permit) on one A4 page (also, when submitting documents, you may be asked for copies of all pages of the document containing any information).

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When registering an individual entrepreneur, you will also need to select OKVED codes. It is better to choose several of them at once, with a margin (the maximum allowable number is 57 codes). The fact is that one code that you indicated first will become the main one, but if you plan to expand your activities in the future, you will have to indicate additional codes, which is associated with extra costs both temporary and monetary. The main one in our case can be the OKVED code 52.61.2 « Retail carried out directly with the help of television, radio, telephone and the Internet. This code is universal for all online stores that are opened for the first time and are not related to an already operating offline business. You also need to enter the following codes: 52.6 Retail outside stores, 52.61 Retail by order, 52.61.1 Retail mail (mail) trade (this grouping includes retail trade in any kind of goods carried out by mail orders. Goods are sent to the buyer, who selects them by advertisements, catalogues, samples or other forms of advertising), 52.63 Other retail trade outside stores (this grouping includes retail trade of any kind of goods carried out by mobile delivery and peddling vehicles - trade through vending machines), 72.6 Other activities related to the use of computers and information technologies.

As for the production and sale of postcards, in this case the following codes will also need to be indicated: 21.23 Manufacture of stationery. This class includes the manufacture of printing and writing paper ready for use, the manufacture of paper for printing data on a computer (computer), the manufacture of self-copy paper ready for use, the manufacture of rotary and carbon paper ready for use, the manufacture of gummed and adhesive paper ready for use. use, manufacture of envelopes and plain postcards, manufacture of boxes, bags and similar items for storing correspondence, and notebooks, postal sets containing an assortment of stationery. This class excludes the manufacture of miscellaneous business forms, interleaved copy sets, letter pads and memos, envelopes and postcards with canceled or outstanding stamps, printed or illustrated postcards, greeting cards. 22.15 Other types of publishing activity. This grouping includes the publication of photographs; prints; posters; calendars of all kinds; illustrated, greeting postcards; art reproductions; decals and other printed materials. This class does not include the production of notebooks, notebooks, diaries. 22.22 Printing activities not included in other groups. This class includes the printing of magazines and other periodicals, books and brochures, sheet music, maps, atlases, posters, advertising catalogs, brochures and other advertising publications, postage, revenue and excise stamps, title deeds, checks and other securities, magazines records, albums, notebooks, notepads, diaries, weeklies, letterheads and other commercial printed matter, personal letterheads and other printed materials made by letterpress, offset printing, gravure printing, flexo printing, screen printing, as well as using other printing machines , duplicating machines, computer printers (computers), embossing machines, photo and thermal copiers. This class does not include label printing, publishing activities.

Even if you are not going to be engaged in the production of postcards on your own in the near future, it is worth indicating all of the above codes. It is possible that they will be useful to you in the future.

The following codes are suitable for the sale of postcards and other related products: 64.11.14 Other postal activities (this grouping includes subscription to newspapers, magazines, books and other printed publications; forwarding and delivery of newspapers, magazines and other printed publications; sale of postage stamps, stamped cards (postcards) and envelopes, etc.), 52.48.36 Retail sale of philatelic and numismatic goods, 52.47.3 Retail sale of paper and office supplies.

Creation of an online postcard store

Even at the stage of registration and solving all the formalities, it is worth starting work on creating an online store, finding partners for the production of postcards and advertising. An online store is quite possible to do on your own. Large funds are not required for this. If you are far from website building, and you do not have friends in this area who you can turn to for help, you will have to order the creation of an online store in a specialized company. The simplest option will cost up to 10 thousand rubles. If you want a special design or additional functionality, then the final cost will be an order of magnitude higher.

Ready-made ideas for your business

At first, you can fill your store, that is, place photos and descriptions of positions on it, on your own. Later, when you also create groups in in social networks, you should think about hiring a person who will deal with the content. A separate expense item is the promotion of your site. Since the bulk of your potential customers will come to you with search engines for the queries “postcards for postcrossing”, “buy postcards”, “postcards”, “online store of postcards”, etc., then promotion on the Internet is indispensable. In any case, this will require additional costs.

But making an online store itself is only half the battle. You will also need to fill it with goods. It is best to search for artists in social networks, in LJ (livejournal), as well as in various thematic forums. Don't forget about opportunities outside the Internet. Place ads in places where artgraph students are (at the university building, in libraries, in student cafes, in specialty stores that sell art supplies, etc.). It is necessary to conclude an author's agreement with the artist. An example of such an agreement can be found on the Internet, but it is better to discuss the final version with a lawyer.

For the first time, you can print postcards at any third-party printing house. The total cost depends on the circulation. Most of the postcards are printed in small print runs (from 100 units). In the future, you can always reprint circulations as needed. Track the demand for postcards from your production. Those that are most popular move into the category of permanent positions. Don't forget about seasonal postcards. The latter are usually associated with various holidays (New Year, Easter, Christmas, Halloween), but postcards for “personal” holidays (birthday, wedding anniversary, etc.) are not so relevant, since postcrossers exchange cards with strangers. Postcards on neutral themes are very popular - animals, birds, plants, landscapes, cities and sights, myths and fairy tales, national symbols and color, historical postcards, children, adults (including celebrities), insects, seasons, etc. As for pricing, keep in mind that the average cost of one standard postcard (single, without a stamp) is from 10 to 15 rubles. Making postcards more expensive only makes sense if custom size or forms. But last option not always welcomed by postcrossers, since non-standard-shaped postcards often do not fit into the collection. Do not forget about related products - albums, files for storing postcards, stamps and envelopes, stickers, stamps, etc. All this should also be present in the assortment of your store.

The minimum starting capital required to open your own online postcard store is 150,000 rubles. The payback period of such a business and its planned profit depend, first of all, on the right assortment and competent advertising. According to the experience of entrepreneurs, at such expenses, it is quite possible to recoup investments within one year of work. The next step is to think about creating own production postcards and other printed products, which will significantly increase the profitability of the project.

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I, a mother of many children, moved from big, noisy Moscow 2 years ago and now I live and work in the city of Dolgoprudny, Moscow Region. In 2004, I became a mother, in 2006, with a one-year-old baby in my arms, I graduated from the institute and fate gave me a business, which has now become an integral part of my life. I want to tell my story especially for the BizMama website.

Exactly the birth of my eldest son prompted me to start my own business, therefore the motto of BizMama is - Have a baby, start your own business- it's just about me. When my son grew up, I realized that the greatest happiness for me would be the organization own business. This will give me the opportunity to be a mother, take care of children, having a free schedule, this is a great idea to be at home more often, but also to succeed in business, to realize my ideas and decisions.

At the institute, at the Faculty of Management, I realized that it was important to come up with something special, a direction in business that had not been popular before. Then it seemed to me that everything had long been invented before us. Children really focus us on making dreams come true, it's even amazing how the idea came to me.

Chose a niche - sale of handmade postcards

In 2007 sale of handmade postcards in Russia was new, and this niche was practically free. Life itself gave me direction. Many years have already passed, but I am proud that my company Astel was one of the first in this area. We participated in exhibitions in Gostiny Dvor, at the All-Russian Exhibition Center and in the Central House of Artists, and large bookstores and elite shopping centers in Moscow.

Since 2007 I am engaged in the production of postcards, invitations and handmade envelopes. For me, the creation of handmade postcards is not just needlework - it is an opportunity to convey my inspiration and realize my creative ideas. Not so long ago, I became a mother for the third time and creativity for me, first of all, is an opportunity to convey the feelings and emotions that my life is filled with and that my children give me.

I have a large selection of handmade postcards and envelopes in my collection. And there are more and more creative ideas every day. Every day the smiles of my babies transform into original ideas and handmade postcard designs. And not so long ago, a spouse at a previous place of work had a crisis and somehow by chance or consciously he had a great desire to participate in the development male designs postcards. Its German roots leave a flawless imprint in every design.

Our postcard business is now family owned

I am glad that now this business can be called a family business. We follow new trends, use new technologies in production, look for unique solutions, use different kinds designer cardboard, always looking for new natural and unusual materials for making postcards. Together we create unique handmade postcards, which I have not yet seen analogues.

This business is wonderful, you give a piece of the holiday, handmade postcards cause a lot of positive emotions which can often be read in the eyes and smiles of our customers. But this business cannot be called simple either.

There were many obstacles in the way of our success. Currently, the competition is huge, you constantly have to fight with unscrupulous suppliers. At the beginning of the work, having no start-up capital, we took out a loan for business development, the interest on which was forced to work for almost several years just to survive in this difficult business world.

Our company now employs 4 people, our postcards are presented on the website www.astel-cards.ru. I wish all mothers to rejoice in big and small successes in our lives.

A few clarifying questions from the BizMama website:

Svetlana, thank you so much for your story! Are you currently working from home?

Our customers are, first of all, people who want to give something special, memorable. For them, choosing a gift or preparing for a holiday is significant event in life. Such postcards and impressions about them remain for years.

How did you manage to organize the sale of postcards, because sales are the most difficult thing, especially now, in the face of such fierce competition?

trendy postcards

I spent a week exploring Australian Melbourne. There are a lot of gift shops in the city: from bottle openers and books to designer poufs. I will describe the concept of stores gradually, because. each of these places is a storehouse of ideas.

To business. Postcards! What could be easier? On the Russian market there are plenty of them, but ... have you ever chosen a postcard for someone? Most of them are greetings from the union: new year - champagne and garlands, wedding - “Happy Anniversary”, birthday - a stupid joke from the site There are no chips. Then in Melbourne, one of the shelves made me very happy. I love to give and send postcards, so I regularly face the problem of choosing. How nice it would be if some enterprising guy who reads TJournal and communicates with bloggers created his own brand of postcards!

Cool congratulatory slogans and trendy pictures - that's the basis!

So, we think over: - Corporate identity of our brand - Portfolio of trendy postcards - We go to a printing company - choose paper - We print - We sell

A few explanations: 1) find a cool designer. Only cool postcards will sell quickly. Do not be stingy 2) the first print runs can be ordered from a printing company, then search and go to the pulp and paper mill. In the meantime, remember where you last printed business cards. 3) pricing. The cost of printing a good postcard is about 50 rubles (at the factory, of course, it is cheaper, but wholesale is needed). Retail should be set for 80-90 rubles. People easily part with that kind of money for a smart product. I saw handmade postcards for 150 rubles. It's expensive for a supplement. Of course, they buy, but definitely not every second. Calculate the profit yourself: from 20,000 rubles for 500 postcards. 4) sale. On the Internet, it is not very convenient to sell goods for 90 rubles. Therefore, we immediately remember where we buy postcards: bookstores and flower shops are what came to my mind first. We start cooperation. Without going into details, you need to convince companies that they will earn money with you. Returning to the Internet, you can try to sell postcards in packages: for example, before the new year, when people buy them in bulk. 5) where to get ideas for postcards. Read fashion publications and cutting-edge bloggers. This is one way

And remember, a postcard is not just a piece of paper, it's an emotion. Powerful emotions. People write personal greetings. We like to make people close to us happier. This is a very good business.

Looking deeper, you are the one who will promote a culture of gratitude in our information age. If you like giving more than receiving, you will definitely like this idea 😉

By the way, you will always be in trend :)

If you implement my ideas, write, we can discuss the option of cooperation and mentoring.