How to Start a Successful Wedding Card Making Business in Uganda

Many youths are jobless in Uganda. And we cannot develop our country if the majority of them are not employed. But there are numerous business ideas one can come up with and turn them into great business opportunities. Let me share a seemingly simple business idea with a high probability of success. And this is the wedding card making business.

Why Wedding Card Making Business?

First of all, a wedding card making business is an easy-to-start business, which you can begin from your home. Starting a business from home has many advantages, like starting with little capital. Learn more benefits of starting a business from home through our article on small home businesses.

Secondly, if you are a creative-minded person, the possibilities for wedding cards are seemingly endless. For instance, when we ventured into the wedding card making business, we did not know we would make things like Order of Service and other related items. Now, customers who come for wedding cards also order items like engraved photo key chains to give to their guests.

Thirdly, a wedding card making business will always have a market because people will continuously make weddings. As long as you establish yourself as a good wedding card maker, you will always have customers.

Fourthly, you can run alongside other businesses. For instance, you may be in employment somewhere but not getting enough salary. Supplementing your meagre salary with income from your wedding card making business can make a difference in your life.

Fifthly, it is profitable. I do not know many businesses where you may make over 100% of profits. But in this business, you can use little money to earn big. But the only thing you need to know is that it takes your energy and time because you have to work on every card you produce manually.
Lastly, it does not require much capital. Most Ugandans fail to start a business because they claim they do not have startup capital. But the money needed in this business is mostly your design skill and creativity.

How Do You Then Start a Wedding Card Making Business?

The ideas I am sharing in this blog post will help you set off if you are creative and passionate about starting a wedding card-making business. My opinions are from my hands-on experience as a wedding card maker in Uganda. The following steps will help you begin a wedding card making business in Uganda.

1. Research to establish your niche
2. Get the skills you require to do your business
3. Write a business plan
4. Choose your business name
5.  Register your business name
6. Look for funding
7. Create your wedding card designs
8. Get wedding card making equipment and supplies
9. Make samples for your business
10. Set your prices
11. Create a website for your business
12. Market and market your business

After listing the steps needed to start and grow a successful wedding card making business, let us look at each to shed more light.

#1 – Research to Establish Your Niche

Niche discovery is so important before you start any business. You, therefore, need to research your niche. Secondly, you need to investigate your business competitors and find out what they offer. You also need to examine your target market to know their needs.

For instance, there are several wedding card-making businesses in Uganda. However, most wedding cards sold in Uganda are imported, mainly from China. You need to know who these wedding card makers are and how they make them. You also need to know the designs, packaging, the printing equipment they use and the prices they charge. Based on the information you get, plan to offer something more unique, pragmatic and affordable at the same time. Read more for ideas on why a niche discovery is necessary for any business.

#2 – Get the Skills You Require to Do the Business

Most Ugandans fail to succeed in business because they jump into a particular industry without first understanding what is needed to run that business. Just because you hear a given trade is profitable, it does not mean you jump into it with your hard-earned money. You will lose it all. I have seen it, and I would not want anyone to become a victim of it.
You will need graphic designing and marketing skills in the wedding card making business. Though they look simple, they are not as easy as you may think. If you already have them, then you may skip this step.

But if you do not have the skills, which are the essential ingredients of the wedding card making business, you will have to acquire them as long as you feel passionate about it. You need CorelDraw, Illustrator or any other graphic design program to learn graphic designing. If you want to pick faster, you need to go to a school to learn graphic design. In Kampala, there are several places where you can go to learn.

You can still teach yourself if you do not have the money to pay for formal learning, but you have the design program and a computer. For instance, CorelDraw and Illustrator have help tutorials you can use to educate yourself. I taught myself graphic designing. So it is possible for you.

Marketing is another skill you need because you will have to market your business. I always recommend to people to learn new sustainable marketing strategies. It is when you will spend little to earn more.

#3 – Write a Business Plan

Again most Ugandans do not write a business plan. They jump into business. After one or two years, their enterprises collapse. I have seen it happening to many companies. Never start any business without a business plan. Take it from me. Never and never begin any business without a business plan.

Your business plan must include an overview and description of your business, researched information on your competition and market, a description of your products or services, equipment, budget and marketing plan.

Your business plan will guide you on what to do and remain focused as you move through the various steps. You do not run your wedding card making business blindly because you know where to go and how to reach there.

If you do not know how to write a plan, contact business consultants to help you, but you will have to pay them. The best practice is to learn how to create a good business plan. Many books talk about how to write a business plan. Why don’t you buy one from any bookshop and read it? You will turn out knowledgeable and able to write it for yourself. Tip – you can even make money by writing business plans for others if you invest your time in learning.

#4 – Choose Your Business Name

It is an essential element in your business. A great name is the beginning of a great brand. Do not just give your business any name that pleases you or you saw somewhere. Although it should appeal to you first, it should be memorable and create a certain feeling when heard. Remember that you will use your business name in all your marketing strategies. It should, therefore, be a name that can also bring business to you.

To get the right catchy name, you need to do some research. You can brainstorm and think about how you need people to feel when they hear about it by writing down words on paper. Categorise these words by their primary meaning. Share the names with friends you trust to know how they feel when they hear them. Experiment them further with other people with whom you interface. Make your priority and select only that name that brings out the best results.

#5 – Register Your Business Name

Having chosen a name for your wedding card making business, you now have to register it with the business name registrar (Uganda Registration Service Bureau – URSB). To know how to go about it, read this write-up posted by Uganda Registration Service Bureau in Kampala.

Why Register Your Business Name?

You register your business name because it is a legal requirement in Uganda if you want to trade in a business name. Secondly, you register your business name to protect your brand. If you do not and do business, you risk having your right name stolen and used by others. It can be painful and disappointing to find your name used by another company when your business is booming. So you should not take it lightly to register your business name. It Is not expensive.

#6 – Look for Funding

Funding is what limits most people from starting a business. But if you have a good business plan, you will know how much money you need to start your business. Funding should be available to cover your startup costs and running costs at its initial stage. The total amount required will vary depending on your plan, location, and equipment to purchase.

But as I said earlier, think to start your wedding card making business from home first to cut on the start-up costs.

There are many ways in which people get funds to start a business. You can save, sell what you have or ask relatives to help you out. If this doesn’t work out, you can get a loan from the bank. However, you have to be careful when getting a loan from the bank to start a business. The bank may not give you time for your business to set off.

The good news is that starting a wedding card making business does not require a colossal amount of money. As long as you have the skills, you can venture into it. You can outsource some services if you don’t have the tools.

#7 – Create Your Wedding Card Designs

You should have excellent designs to display in your business. Show off your creativity by designing unique wedding cards to serve as samples. It takes some time. Please research the card designs that will appeal to your targeted clients. But take it from me that uniqueness is a crucial ingredient to the success of your business.

#8 – Get Wedding Card Making Equipment and Supplies

You will have to buy printing equipment for your wedding card making business. The cost of the machine depends on whether you will need a laser printer or a printing press. We use a laser engraving machine to cut all the wedding card designs. However, laser engraving machines are damn expensive, and you may not afford to buy them at once.

Does it mean you cannot do a wedding card business? You can do it. What I recommend to you is to look at the option of outsourcing. You can partner with companies that have it to cut the designs for you at a reasonable price if you cannot acquire a laser engraver. Once you establish a partnership with them, things will be easy for you.

Secondly, if you don’t have a digital printer to print the text cards, there are numerous businesses in Kampala that can do it for you at a reasonable price. For instance, we outsource this service. Although we have our digital printer, we realised that it wasn’t producing high-quality prints, hence the need to outsource.

If you are determined to start your wedding card making business, don’t be limited by a lack of equipment. You can create your designs and outsource cutting and printing services with a computer and a designing software program installed on it. You will still earn good money if you do your pricing well. Goleza Designers offers wedding card cutting services at affordable prices.

Additionally, you will need supplies like card stock papers, glue and card accessories to run your business. These are the only essential items you will regularly purchase when you get orders.

#9 – Make Samples for Your Business

You now have your designs, ready to start your wedding card making business. It is now high time you created your samples. But before making samples, you will need to establish good sources of your supplies. Look for suppliers with high-quality materials because you want your business to stand out.

After identifying the sources of the materials, then make samples to show off to your targeted customers. If you intend to start your wedding card making business from home, you need to find a way, like having an album with all the designs you have to show to people.

#10 – Set Your Prices

Your pricing will depend mainly on the type of wedding cards you make and how you print them. If you outsource the cutting and printing services, you need to factor in this. Focus on the cost of the different supplies you will use to produce the cards.

For example, we charge our wedding cards depending on the design. Some designs are so intricate that we take a long to produce them on the machine. The longer the time, the more electricity and laser power we consume. It means that we charge our cards differently, depending on several factors.

#11 – Create a Website for Your Business

Although you can still run your business without going online, in modern times, if you don’t have an online presence, you face a lot of marketing challenges. Customers nowadays no longer want to move the streets of Kampala looking for what they want. They have Smartphones with an internet connection. If they need a product or service, they google on the internet and find the service providers.

Therefore, having a website is a great way to succeed in business. For instance, most clients we get are from our online marketing efforts. And we do it with our website and blog. If you do not know where to start creating a website, Goleza Designers can help you at a minimal charge. You can visit our web page to get additional information on the web designing services. 

#12 – Market and Market Your Business

No business prospers without marketing. Market your business to get customers. Do it in bits! Those small activities will eventually bring business to you. How do you market? There are many ways but let me share with you just a few.

• Advertise your business in wedding meetings, with your friends and acquaintances, bridal shows, florists, event management businesses, etc.
• Use word of mouth for marketing your business and encouraging satisfied customers to make referrals to you. I have used it and still use it. It does wonders for our company. Learn how to use mouth marketing in your business effectively!
• Create a Facebook page and use it to share your designs and helpful information about your business
• Operate a business account on Youtube and share videos. It helps you showcase your designs to people without labouring to move with physical samples. The onus is on you to create your videos.
• Use other social media networks like Linkedin and Twitter for marketing your business.
• Write articles about the things you do and post them on your website. When people search the internet looking for information, they get to see your posts, read them and eventually may become customers.
• Advertise in a classified ad in your local newspapers like New Vision and Monitor.
• What else? Think of other ways you can promote your wedding card making business!

Conclusion

Having shared the above information with you, what has come to your mind? Are you ready to start a wedding card making business? You can outsource the cutting and printing services if you do not have the equipment, but you already have design skills and a computer. We shall offer the cutting service at very affordable prices to make you start and grow your business.

As an offer to set you off, we shall cut all your samples for free if you send feedback through the comment section below.