From hobby to full-time wholesale "real quick"

Valentine’s Day is more than just a holiday for the greeting card market — it’s an opportunity to drive sales.

Believe it or not, greeting cards are still very much a part of how people connect, with roughly 6.5 billion greeting cards purchased in the U.S. each year, according to the Greeting Card Association.

The pandemic slowdown — coupled with a renewed interest in more personal, analog ways of communicating — has helped strengthen the industry. Large companies like Hallmark and American Greetings still dominate much of the market, but a smaller, less traditional part of the industry is seeing rapid innovation, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

That includes independent makers like Michele Byrne, founder of paper&stuff, based in New Jersey.

As part of our series What’s That Like — which looks at jobs you don’t hear about every day — we spoke with Byrne about how she turned a longtime hobby into a business.

Byrne started making greeting cards at a young age as part of a family tradition. During the pandemic, she decided to turn that hobby into a full-time career after what she describes as “accidentally” finding her way into the industry. Blending her background in graphic design with her own personal style, Byrne has found both commercial success and a sense of community in the greeting card world.

“We’re in an industry where the whole point is to create connections,” Byrne said. “And I think the people in the industry really reflect that and embody the kindness that comes along with a greeting card.”

Click the audio player above to hear more about the work of a greeting card maker.