My very first business Venture – Thirteen yrs old, 1978.

Most entrepreneurs start young. Even if it’s just a garage sale, or a lemonade stand, a local raffle or biscuit bake. In nearly all entrepreneur’s backgrounds you will find a fledgling business venture.

I started mine at Christmas time when I was 13. After school every day I walked past a really big newsagent. Inside the newsagent was a rack of beautiful coloured sheets of cardboard. They also had little bottles of silver and gold glitter, and different sized calligraphy pens.

I was entranced by all the colours. I envied the shopkeepers their jobs. I wanted to work with these bright coloured sheets of card too.

I had an idea. I would find the Christmas cards that my parents had received from last year, cut the pictures from the front of the cards, and stick them on to new cards.

To do this I would have to be able to buy the cardboard, the glitter and the pens.

My first seed money
In those days pocket money from parents consisted of $1.10. I had to pay $.20 to the church on Sundays. There was a $.10 bus fare home every night after school, and then $.20 had to go into bank account for savings.

One piece of coloured card cost $.20 in itself. So I did not yet have enough money to buy all my resources. I took out a little notepad given to me by a girlfriend the year before and started to write a budget.

$.20 for a piece of white card
$.20 for a piece of green card
$.10 for a bottle of gold glitter
$.10 for a bottle of silver glitter
$.55 for a black Calligraphy pen

I needed $1.15 to buy the stock for my first business venture. I only had $.20.

My first investment Angels
Nanna Stewart and Nanna Hill were always very generous when they came to visit us on the weekends. Never together because they came from opposite sides of the family, but always alike in baring scones, with apricot jam, and a nice big fat 50 Cent piece.

I knew all I had to do was wait five days and I would have the capital I needed.

My first cash flow chart
If I wanted to profit from this venture I knew I had to charge for the cards that I made. So I sat down and made some more additions to my budget.

If I made 10 cards then the cost to make each card was going to be $.115 cents. If I wanted to make a profit that was even greater than my grandmothers could give me, I needed to charge $.40 per finished card.

Awesome I would make three dollars this Christmas!!

But who will I sell them too? And how long would it take me to make them? I didn’t really wanna do too much work for the money that I would earn.

My first production line
After school and after I had collected money from my grandmothers I went into the newsagent to buy the necessary resources.

The card was quite big and a little difficult to take home on the bus. But it did not deter me. Nor did the 20 minute walk home in 35°C heat. Not to mention my hot school uniform and hat and Blazer.

When I arrived home I laid the sheets of card down on the floor and measured them out for 10 pieces. Five cards each.

I cut the cards out folded them over and looked quite pleased. So far pretty quick and easy. I wanted to keep it that way, so I simply cut the front of the recycled cards along the spine and glued that whole piece to the front of my cards.

Keeping up the speed, I put a little bit of glue on the front of each card and sprinkled some glitter. And then, fairly and indelicately, wrote “Merry Christmas” on the inside with my new calligraphy pen.

Done. 20 minutes tops. I would make a good profit.

My first customers
Who else would oblige to spend $.40 on crappy cards like that other than my Mum and my Nan!

I sold them all and was lucky enough to receive one myself that christmas.

Coming back for more
The next year I did the same again. But this time I added value to my product. I took more time on the calligraphy on the inside, writing sometimes quite sweet notes. And this time I proudly added a logo on the back of every card so that all would know for ever who produced it.

A long lasting venture
In fact I continue to love cards today. As the years went by I became a photographer, as a hobby, and found myself targeting card production companies. I was successful with “The Ink Group” and managed to have a Christmas card, Valentine’s card, and everyday greetings card published In 1998.

Since 2009 I have been selling my cards online in an online gallery called redbubble. My production name is now “Bloomin’ arty” with no logo.