• Where to begin?
• Purchase of materials
• Product Advertising
• Sale of products

business on postcards handmade began to develop quite a long time ago. However, fortunately for us, such earnings are still not very common, and the competition is quite tolerable. At the same time, the activity will develop creative skills, a sense of taste in any woman and give a lot of pleasure from making products. What needs to be done to make money on postcards will be discussed in our article.

Where to begin?

A woman who really wants to do successful business in the sale of beautiful handmade postcards, must master this business to perfection. Look on the Internet for various master classes, video tutorials and read numerous articles. Be sure to find communities involved in the manufacture of these products, they will help you with good advice and recommendations.

Of course, the most important thing for a girl is constant practice, imagination and a great desire to work and earn money on postcards made by her own hands. Don't be nervous if things don't work out for you at first. Only experience and efforts will make you a real master, who will definitely have regular customers and good business.

Purchase of materials

In order to make holiday products with your own hands, you will need to buy a variety of components. First of all, every woman who intends to start a business in the manufacture of postcards should have the following materials:

• bases for products;
• a set of regular and curly scissors;
• paper curling tools;
• pens, felt-tip pens, pencils (specially designed for inscriptions);
• paints and brushes;
• glue gun and glue;
• paper and satin ribbons;
• the cloth;
• stickers for postcards;
• varnishes;
• envelopes;
• tulle, dried flowers, ruffles, feathers and other decorations;
• polymer clay.

It is very convenient for a girl who is just starting her business to purchase ready-made kits for scrapbooking, quilling and other applications. As for the cost of materials, to begin with, about 15,000 rubles should be allocated from the budget for the purchase of the most basic.

* 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 himself and his 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 large profit, in this case you will have to expand target audience and cover not only postcard enthusiasts (as in the case of postcrossing), but also professionals - 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. 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).

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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 issued 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 the modern way of 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 acquainted with 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 for beautiful postcards among postcrossers and collectors. There is certainly competition in this segment, but this 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 for postcrossers and related postcards, you will need to register as an individual entrepreneur. This can be done in four different ways. In the first case, you can register an IP yourself. This is the cheapest 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 - law firm which specializes in such services. Registration with the help of an intermediary will cost more than paperwork on your own, but you will save a lot of time filling out all the necessary paperwork, and also get a guarantee that all documents will be executed without a single mistake. Finally, IP can be issued by proxy.

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 the supervisory authorities: Rospotrebnadzor and Gosavtodornadzor), as well as with the PFR and the FSS (registration with the PFR, FSS, Rosstat, MHIF); 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): 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.

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An online store without a retail space, that is, with delivery of an order by courier or by mail, 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. TO this species 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”). You can choose the interest rate 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 time and money. 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 postal (parcel) trade (this grouping includes retail sale of any kind of goods carried out by mail orders. Goods are sent to the buyer, who selects them from advertisements, catalogs, samples or other types 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, as well as 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 produced 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.

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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 clients will come to you from search engines for the queries “postcards for postcrossing”, “buy postcards”, “postcards”, “online store of postcards”, etc., then you cannot do without promotion on the Internet. 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 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 timed to coincide 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. It makes sense to make postcards more expensive only in the case of a non-standard size or shape. But the latter option is not always welcomed by postcrossers, since non-standard 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.

Minimum start-up capital, which will be required to open your own online postcard store, is 150 thousand 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.

758 people are studying this business today.

For 30 days this business was interested in 43834 times.

Profitability calculator for this business

Start-up capital was about $1000. It could have been more, at the beginning of the journey you can always spend more than you have (for promotion, for production, etc.). But taking loans or lending funds for start-ups is a thankless task. Therefore, all capital our personal funds. We risked our own, we are also responsible for this ourselves.

We don't have 70 days yet. But the most difficult thing was to launch by February 14 - it was important for us to do everything quickly in order to capture a big newsbreak as long as possible. Now we are not in a hurry, and we are more carefully approaching our next product: we conduct surveys, tests, and attract specialists. US it was not enough in the first month.

The first month we celebrated by recording a small congratulatory video.

Our business does not have a quick profit. Everything that we earned on the first product, we are now investing in the next one.

Not a good idea, we need to actively work on its implementation. The main thing is not to stop and not be afraid of transformations, if they are necessary.

Our printing house prints postcards (actually, not only them, but today we’ll talk about postcards).

And maybe you draw? And think about having own business And additional income From him?

And so: the puzzle has developed.

Why selling handmade postcards is a good idea?

There were, are and will be holidays, which means that congratulatory cards for them, too.

Postcards are also souvenirs, and a pleasant sign of attention, so the relevance of postcards goes far beyond the holidays.

And then there is postcrossing - the global postcard exchange movement, and there are also a lot of their followers around the world.

In general, the market for postcards is practically unlimited by geography, especially if the postcard does not have inscriptions or they are made in English.

Things to keep in mind if you want your postcards to be in demand.

Consider thematic

Postcards are divided into seasonal (associated with a certain generally accepted holiday), non-seasonal (birthdays and weddings happen all year round), as well as general themes - with images of nature, art, calligraphy and quotes. The last two categories are attractive because they are relevant all year round, but the first one breaks all sales records during the season. A successful illustrator's portfolio should offer something in all three categories.

Study Gender Psychology

And draw what women like. It's just harsh statistics of the market: in 80% of cases, it is beautiful ladies who buy postcards. At the same time, 70% of the purchased postcards will also be given to women.

Make the drawing understandable.

This is not a whim, this is marketing: the buyer spends about 3 seconds to look at your postcard and understand what it is about, what mood it has and what is the “trick”. If the idea is not read so quickly, the drawing will most likely not be “figured out” at all, which means they simply will not be bought.

Don't draw characters in too much detail.

People usually identify themselves or the recipient with the person on the card. If the subject of the postcard is cute, but the character is “not similar”, this often becomes the reason for not buying. That is why professional illustrators try to depict people on postcards as neutrally as possible, and their faces are often depicted half-sided, covered with hair, hats, etc.

Creating handmade postcards is the type of business that you can start with a minimum initial capital and combine it with study, work, and raising a child. In addition, this is a way to make money on your own hobby. How to create your own business in the market of hand-made gift products?

Handmade postcards: who is this business for?

Making handmade postcards is a pleasant and exciting hobby that allows you to create unique and spectacular gifts for your family and friends. However, you can also earn good money on it, moreover, you can do business without leaving your home.

Unlike many other ways to earn money, it is the production of postcards that is an option. profitable business which will fit:

• Women on maternity leave.
• Schoolchildren and students.
• Pensioners.
• Working citizens who have several hours free from work and rest every day.

Everyone can master cardmaking or the art of creating exclusive, elegant, interesting postcards: on the net you can find a lot of master classes for mastering the basic techniques. The further activity of the master is the result of the application of his imagination and creative vein.

What styles are used to make handmade postcards?

For those who are just starting their first steps in the exciting path of creating handmade postcards, it is important to know the basic styles of cardmaking. This will allow them to find out in more detail the preferences of customers, as well as not to make a mistake in buying materials for profitable creativity.

Important point: Among the creators of handmade postcards, another style is known that skillfully combines elements of all the styles listed above - the Mix Media style.

What is needed to start a handmade postcard business?

Before accepting the first orders for the production of postcards, a novice entrepreneur will have to acquire a solid set of tools and materials, including:

1. Colored and white paper, corrugated paper, cardboard.
2. Blanks for postcards (if they are not available, you can purchase rolled cardboard and a cutter).
3. Simple and curly scissors, hole punchers.
4. Jewelry (beads, dried flowers, buttons, stickers, lace, braid, etc.).
5. Glue.
6. Threads.
7. Colored pencils, paints, markers.
8. Stamps, embossers, etc.

Important point: On sale you can find ready-made kits for cardmaking. However, they are more expensive than purchasing all the materials for the card separately and therefore completely impractical for mass production.

How much do handmade postcards cost: cost calculation taking into account costs

Currently, the price of one handmade postcard on the market is on average 200-300 rubles.

Where does this cost come from?

• Firstly , the price of materials is taken into account - about 70-100 rubles can be spent on creating a postcard.
• Secondly , a colossal work of the master, who often spends about 1-3 hours on one product.
• Thirdly , the use of equipment is depreciated - scissors become dull, ink runs out in a stamping machine, etc.

Therefore, in order to earn a tangible profit on the creation of handmade postcards, you must:

1. Find a source of standing orders.
2. Organize bulk purchases of raw materials.

Otherwise, income will hardly cover the cost.