Your biggest expenses in producing greeting cards will be for:
The largest expense by far is for printing. A quality card stock may cost five cents per card. A standard envelope may cost three cents. The cost of packaging is divided over a quantity of cards and is therefore only pennies per card. Printing could be as much as twenty five cents per card depending on the type of printing and on the quantities.
Printing For years I felt as if I was working for the printers who printed my cards. They represented my biggest expense. To bring the cost per card to a reasonable number I had to print a minimum of 2,000 cards each of 8
different designs for a total of 16,000 cards. Inevitably I wound up with a large inventory of cards that didn't move or that moved very slowly. Out of eight cards, perhaps two would sell very well, four would sell moderately, and two would sell slowly. You never know which design will fall into which category. It doesn't matter which you consider to
be the most beautiful. As time went on, I was storing more and more cards. Running clearance sales would help clear out inventory, but not enough. My supply closets were always full. Sometimes the boxes even spilled out into the halls of our home studios. I realized that the answer was to find a way to print smaller quantities at more affordable
prices and to print on demand. To do this I had to handle the printing myself. I began by doing a number of custom jobs with an inkjet printer. Although the prints were beautiful, the printing was very slow. At the time the printer ink was not water resistant and it faded quickly if left in the sun. These were problems, but the objective had been met. I printed only what sold. I could try many different designs without risking the consequences of being stuck
carrying a large inventory of cards that moved slowly. Next, I purchased a commercial grade laser printer. This solved the problems I had with doing the printing on the inkjet. The printing speed was greatly increased and the ink was permanent. The cards were more beautiful than ever and I was thrilled to have taken control of the printing
process. Now the only stock that I have to carry is blank paper stock. |