Traditional greetings get hi-tech boost

WiRE member Georgina Molly Webb runs an internet shop selling greeting cards to retail and business customers. Her web site www.greetingcards-online.co.uk specialises in unique printed and hand made cards produced by small UK manufacturers.

“I made all the classic mistakes when I first set up my business. I invested in far too much stock, without doing anything like enough research, and then had to adapt to the market to keep my business alive. Sitting at trade shows and talking to other small manufacturers, I came up with the idea to sell, not only my cards, but other UK cards, on a new web site - www.greetingcards-online.co.uk.

After launching the site in November 2005, I decided to very actively promote my business through networking, and joined a number of different groups. Fortunately a new WiRE group had just been set up in Sleaford and I was one of its first members.

WiRE has been fantastic for me, as simply chatting to the local members has given me access to all kinds of information, from funding, training, sales opportunities and anything else I might need to know! Even after a long tiring day, I always look forward to the monthly WiRE meeting. It’s fun, informative and gets you out of the office for a while.

Having met Susan Hallam from Hallam Communications on one of her workshops, I was able to use her expertise to help me set up an eBay account and amend my own web pages to improve their Google rankings.

Through my website I now sell cards created by over 50 small UK manufacturers and makers. Our customers are able to buy one card personalised and sent directly to a friend or relative, or 100s of cards for their business with a corporate message and logo inside. We will even design cards for our business customers with (or without) a musical jingle inside!”

Susan Hallam is an internet marketing consultant and trainer. Her company aims to make complex internet subjects easy for small business owners “I met Gina at one of my eBay workshops. Following

the workshop she organised some government funding to buy in my consultancy services. She also told me about her friendly Sleaford WiRE networking group, and I’m really pleased that I joined.

Gina was in a position familiar to many small business owners. She had put time and money into building her website. Now she wanted her investment to really start delivering some sales to her business.

Our discussions initially focused on clearing her old stock using eBay. I provided guidance on researching her competitors on eBay. We looked at their pricing models, and how many sales they were actually achieving.  We also worked through the practicalities of selling on eBay. I showed her how to produce effective listings, manage the selling cycle and how to use software that she could use to make the selling process easier.

Once Gina was comfortable with eBay, we moved onto other issues that we had identified as barriers to selling online.

We were able to put together a practical plan of action that built on Gina’s experience. She learned how to change her web pages herself. We took steps to improve her rankings on Google. And we discussed how to improve the working relationship with her web designer. 

When choosing a consultant, you need to get both the professional and personal balance right. It’s important that you have confidence in your consultant’s technical abilities, and that you will get value for money. You also need to know that you will feel comfortable working together.

Gina knows where she wants her business to go, and she understands the opportunities offered by the Internet. My role was to give her guidance on how to cherry pick those quick and easy successes. Business for www.GreetingCards-online.co.uk has improved and I hope Gina will continue to build on her success.”

You can visit the Hallam Communications website at www.shcl.co.uk

www.greetingcards-online.co.uk

Please note that this article is not written by WiRE but by a third party company. Whilst WiRE have made every effort to ensure that the information and details are accurate, we are unable to guarantee that they completely and WiRE are therefore unable to accept liability for any loss you may suffer as a result of omission or inaccuracy,