So you’ve set up your business, told everyone, and prepared your portfolio.

Where to sell your cards? Here are a few suggestions.

Local shops
Don’t just think shops that already sell cards. We have customers who sell their handmade cards through local corner shops, florists and hairdressers. Take your portfolio with you to show your designs and a guide on prices. Be prepared for rejection (they may already be selling some-one else’s handmade cards) and just keep persevering.

A word or two about shops: every single inch of space in a retail outlet has to make money. The store owner has to pay rent and business rates and all the other overheads that come with retailing so she will want a good slice of the profits. The retailer may also be VAT registered and will have to add VAT to the price. Work out before you contact the retailer what price you want for each card. Then double that price and add VAT because the retailer will probably ask for between 40% and 50% of the selling price after VAT is deducted. By doing a bit of work in advance you can work out if this is a saleable price for your card.

If you are specialising in wedding stationery, you could make a copy of your portfolio to leave at the shop and agree a commision deal where the retailer takes the orders and a percentage of the total order price. Be prepared for a commission rate of between 20% – 30%.

Craft Fairs
This is by far the most popular forum for selling handmade cards. You are in control and you are doing your own sales pitch. You know in advance what your expenses will be and can work out how many you have to sell to break even.
Some of our customers make lots of money at craft fairs whilst others just about cover their expenses. The prices for a stall at a craft fair can vary enormously from £10 at the local community centre to £££s at a major event in a tourist spot.  Whichever you are doing always take loads of stock with you.  It’s better to take some home with you than to run out of greetings cards half way through the afternoon.  Another bonus of craft fairs is that you may well pick up commissions for cards on top of those that you sell on the day.
Card Parties
This is a bit like the tupperware party but for selling hand made cards.  After all, everyone needs greeting cards at some time of the year.  You pay the party hostess a small commission on the evening’s sales from the party.  Again there’s the possibility of picking up card making commissions which you can follow up with the customer at a later date.
Internet
Yes, you can get cheap websites.  You will also need to pay web hosting fees.  But the idea that you can just set up a website and the orders will roll in is not true.  Firstly, how do you get noticed?  If you do a Google search on “hand made cards” you get 79,800,000 results.  Yes, that’s right, nearly 80 million listings.  Restrict the search to the UK and you still get over 1 million listings at 1, 170,000 results.  Not much good if you are just setting up and are no. 1,169,999!
Make your website look professional – even if you are doing it yourself it doesn’t have to look home made.  Think about the design of your web page as you would when you are designing a card.  And try to make your cards stand out from the crowd.  If you have a trawl through some of these hand made card websites you’ll find card after card that’s just a variation of the same basic design.
You can pay to advertise your website on any of the major search engines but even at the basic 10p per click – you are charged on the number of clicks onto the advert – and there is an awfully high proportion of browsers to actual buyers.
Having pointed out the pitfalls, be aware of them but don’t be put off.  Madeleine sold her cards via and website and got enough orders to fill the time she allocated to the business.

Ebay
A search on Ebay Uk brings up over 12,500 results but it does have the benefit of showing off your cards with thumbnail pictures so if you’ve got a hand made card with a really good design prospective customers are more likely to pick up on it. The trick is to practise your photography so you have a really good photo to show off your card making skills.

Folksy
Setting up a shop on Folksy is easy as they guide you through it step by step and give you some helpful advice.  It’s well known so your cards are much more likely to be seen than if you create a website of your own.  The charges are also very reasonable. However, you do need a Paypal account to list your cards on Folksy.  The downside is that the last time I looked for handmade cards there were 261 pages so, again, you need to make your card something different to the “run of the mill”  so it stands out from the crowd and take a really good photo of it.