How to Sell Your Own Funny Invitation Cards

Do you have a sense of humor that makes you great for writing and designing funny invitation cards? With a bit of planning and perseverance, you can turn your knack for humor into a successful funny invitation card business. Here's how to sell your own funny invitation cards:

Planning

The business adage is true: if you fail to plan, you plan to fail. Just as with any business, if you intend to sell your own funny invitation cards for profit then it's imperative to complete a comprehensive business plan. Some things you'll need to consider that are specific to the invitation card business include your pricing, competition, unique niche in the marketplace (how you are different than your competitors), and your design, printing and distribution processes. If you properly plan, you are far more likely to find success because you'll know how the numbers work out. And, after all, profit is measured numerically.

Design

Your funny invitation card design process can be carried out in a number of different ways. First and foremost, you can design your own invitation cards by hand or with professional graphic design software such as Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator. If you don't want to make the investment in pro tools such as these, you can use anything from Paint.NET to Microsoft Word and Open Office. Alternatively, both Photoshop.com and Aviary.com offer affordable subscription plans to use their services. If you don't want to do the designs yourself, you can get stock images and clip art for your designs from a variety of online sources. You could also partner with a designer or hire out the design portion of your funny invitation cards. Even if you intend to do all the design work yourself, you should price these options so you know what it will take to grow your company if you're successful.

Printing

There are several things to consider when you print funny invitation cards. For each card you'll have to decide what paper to print on, what size it will be and how to have it finished. Quality invitation cards are printed on either 16-point gloss cover stock or 13-point  recycled matte cover stock. Funny invitation cards can be printed on anything from 5-inch by 7-inch paper to 13-inch by 17-inch paper - and sometimes the bigger, the funnier. You can also have your cards paired with envelopes, pre-folded for convenience, and finished with foil stamps or a thick protective UV coating. Once you've made those decisions, you'll then have to decide what quantity to print. This depends on your distribution process - but it is safe to say that you should print a few samples of each invitation card so you can take them to gift store and supermarket managers for consideration. If you're going to sell via print on demand, that's all you need to start - but if you're going to stock shelves you'll need to know how many to place at each location.

Distribution

Distribution methods are as varied as printing options for funny invitation cards. Some distribution channels include:

• Gift store and supermarket distribution -You can sell your funny invitations directly to retailers or on consignment. (It might be helpful to make a special merchandising rack to set your cards apart and make it easy for retailers to place your items out for sale.)
• Direct-mail catalog - You can sell your funny invitation cards via direct-mail catalogs, either to consumers or businesses.
• Online - You can sell your funny invitations on your own website, or on websites such as Etsy and Ebay.