Today we’d like to introduce you to Lisa Miller and Melissa Shultz.
Card Sisters is a greeting card company, inspired by the friendship between Lisa Miller and Melissa Shultz. Melissa is a writer and the acquisitions editor for Jim Donovan Literary. She’s written about health and parenting for The New York Times, The Washington Post, Newsweek, Readers’ Digest, AARP’s The Girlfriend and many other publications. Her memoir/self-help book From Mom to Me Again: How I Survived My First Empty-Nest Year and Reinvented the Rest of My Life was published by Sourcebooks in 2016 and named one of “3 Inspiring Reads” by Parade.com. Prior to her work as a writer and editor she was the Director of Creative Services for a trade association in Washington, DC.
Lisa Miller worked for a Fortune 100 Company for 24 years. Her most recent role was as Vice President for their Global Financial Shared Services. Since retirement from corporate life in 2016, Lisa founded Living Simply by Lisa, a professional organizing business focused on bringing productivity and efficiency to clients’ homes and offices, as well as with their financial information and data. Using her background in accounting and finance, she also enjoys working with individuals and small businesses in setting up and maintaining their books.
One of our company goals is to share messages of support and motivation with women everywhere. The cards feature photographs and sentiments that focus on the importance of staying connected–using our voices to be heard, our will to stay strong, and our lives to make a difference to one another. We met in our neighborhood 15 years ago and bonded over kids, dogs and chocolate. Over the years, each of our families (as families often do) faced some challenges including job shifts, health issues, to kids leaving the nest. Through it all we stayed friends. After a year and a half of planning, taking and assembling photos, writing copy, getting feedback, building a business plan, making contacts and more, we started fundraising which enabled us to print our inaugural card line. Our cards were first showcased at Interabang Books in Dallas, and we launched online sales via our website www.cardsisters.com in October 2019.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Our biggest challenge? Being too small to be represented by a card rep when even small stores prefer to have reps choose their product line (vs. working directly with independent companies like Card Sisters). The other challenge, like many business owners face, is handling all aspects of a growing business from concept to fulfillment. Regardless, we continue to enjoy working through the process and look forward to growing and expanding. The ultimate reward so far has been seeing our cards come to life and having others respond so positively to the images and messages. We have both been fans of greeting cards our whole lives – and still love the ability to pick out the perfect card, then hand writes personal messages.
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Card Sisters – what should we know?
What makes Card Sisters unique is that we’re a card company created by women for women. We support and work with other women-owned businesses (where at least 51% of the company is owned by women) whenever possible. In addition, our images (photographs) are taken by us, or family members, and strike a universal chord – they are instantly relatable. Eventually, we’d love to include images taken by other women, particularly those who may be returning to work after a career break or looking for a new career in much the same way the Card Sisters did. We also write all of our own copy–it’s born from personal experience and includes lots of heart (and occasional humor!). Our card line includes birthday, anniversary, encouragement, friendship, Mother’s Day, and more. We’re most proud of our ability to leverage our backgrounds in finance, editorial, and creative services to start a new business, reinventing our careers at midlife.
Any shoutouts? Who else deserves credit in this story – who has played a meaningful role?
We’ll be forever grateful to everyone who contributed to our campaign, embraced our vision, and took a chance on us. Our families have been especially supportive (and patient) as we turned to them for encouragement, expertise, and honesty. A terrific group of friends provided invaluable feedback when we first shared our images and ideas. This all helped us refine our card line and ultimately led to our initial print run.
Pricing:
- Our cards are printed on high quality stock and each is 5” x 7” and comes with an envelope, and special “sealed with good wishes” closure. All is packaged in a cello wrap that allows you to read the text on the inside. The cards retail for $4.75 each. Our website also occasionally features specials.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.cardsisters.com
- Email: lisahmiller730@gmail.com; melissatshultz@gmail.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/cardsisters
- Facebook: @cardsisters
Image Credit:
All photos by Card Sisters
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