When it comes to sharing a special moment with friends and family or just letting someone know you care, nothing will ever replace the traditional greeting card. Unless, of course, you replace it with one that is earth-friendly.
Launched by husband and wife team, Tom and Rene’ Bross, My Good Greetings has given them the opportunity to leave the corporate world behind. They are also able to offer a variety of products that will help their customers celebrate all of the great moments in their life, in an eco-friendly way.
Tell us a little about My Good Greetings and what inspired it.
MyGoodGreetings.com offers stylish customizable, eco-friendly photo cards, invitations and stationary. Our inspiration was two-fold; we wanted to have our own business to escape the corporate ‘grind’ and we wanted to start a business that celebrated life’s happy moments and was kind to the environment.
When was it launched?
MyGoodGreetings.com was launched in September of 2008.
How many different card types/styles do you currently offer?
We are always adding new cards and card categories to our site. We have well over 500 different designs for a variety of special events including birth announcements, holiday cards, moving announcements, graduation announcements, party invitations and thank you cards.
What are some of the things that make your cards eco-friendly?
Our cards are printed on 100% recycled, FSC Certified card stock with 68% post-consumer recovered fiber. They are printed digitally, which reduces paper waste overall and our envelopes are made entirely of recycled material as well. Our packaging is eco-friendly too- made from recycled materials- no plastics, foam or shrink wrap is used and we offset our carbon footprint by purchasing clean green energy certificates. We try our best to always keep the environment in mind from printing to shipping.
What separates you from the competition?
What separates MyGoodGreetings.com from the competition is that we’re the green leader in our category. We’re very pround of the fact that we are the only custom card company using eco-audits to verify our positive environmental impact. Since our launch we (along with our customers) have saved 47 fully grown trees, 14,956 gallons of water, 27 million Btu’s of energy, 2,209 pounds of solid waste and 4,043 pounds of greenhouse gases. Our exclusive designs are not available anywhere else and customer service is truly the cornerstone of our business.
What are some of your customer favorites?
Our Monkey Love and Woodland Critters baby shower invitations are very popular as are our new business Thank You cards. With each holiday- Easter, Fourth of July, Halloween, Christmas etc., new card designs are posted and it’s always fun to see which turn out to be customer favorites.
Any new cards in the works that we might see soon? If so, willing to share any hints?
We are very excited to be launching our Wedding Invitation line in the next month or so. The designs are gorgeous and will be offered on a felt textured recycled paper stock in white or cream. We’re hoping the green wedding planners are as excited as we are! We also have plans to offer customizable greeting cards for fundraising opportunities to help schools and other organizations to offer something more personal and environmentally friendly.
Do you have any goals that you’d like to accomplish over the next year or so?
We’re always making efforts to improve our website to make our online customization tools easy and seamless to use. This year we will be adding new and improved photo tools for cropping and sizing photos.
What are some of the lessons that your business has taught you?Our Internet-based business has taught us to be open to emerging marketing strategies, that you can’t always predict what will be popular and that owning your own business can be a wonderful journey.
Is there any advice that you’d like to offer fellow entrepreneurs that are just getting started?
You can do it! There’s a ton of great information and support out there for entrepreneurs who are serious about getting their idea off the ground.
Starting something new can be scary and it is definitely a risk. But we feel a calculated risk is truly a rish worth taking.
