Launching my business

It all started with a guy looking for thank-you cards for some friends who had thrown him a birthday party. (Thank you cards from a guy…questionable, but true.) J-Dig co-founder Peter Henry was the grateful card-seeking guy, and everything he saw was too flowery and overdone with no appeal to his sense of humor. Shortly after that, Peter's brother, Josh, gave their mom a hand-drawn Mother’s Day card that cracked everyone up, including Peter’s wife and soon-to-be CEO Cathy. The card was simple but funny, anchored by a my-kid-could-draw-that illustration. For corroborating proof of this narrative, check out the fully-developed J-Dig card entitled MOTH-001.

Thus J-Dig Cards was conceived by three Henrys. (*For the record, we do not condone incest.)

After a world-record gestation of 2 years, J-Dig was officially born at the 62nd Annual National Stationery Show in New York City. According to the freight company that shipped our crate, our baby was 4 feet long and approximately 245 pounds.

At the Stationery Show, we debuted 32 cards, and we received a great response. We left the Show with a solid list of customers, many of whom are still placing orders with us a year later. Shortly after the Show, we started selling the cards online at www.j-digcards.com, rounding out our wholesale division that sells to retailers with a retail division that sells directly to customers.

Each J-Dig card is conceptualized by Josh (whose nickname, J-Dig, provides the company’s namesake), and then given to Peter, sometimes on a bar napkin or scrap of paper. Peter, a professional graphic designer, then turns the concept into a visually interesting piece. Once a finished product is ready, Cathy, a sales and marketing professional, presents the line to retailers and stationers.

Coming up on our one year anniversary of launching the line, we are currently working on expanding our offering as well as our list of customers. We are thrilled to be working with an independent greeting card sales rep in the Northeast who has brought us several new accounts. One of our cards, “Tits the Season,” has been nominated for a Louie Award, which is the Academy Awards for the star-studded greeting card industry. Winners are announced in May at the International Greeting Card Awards in New York. We are looking forward to growing a business whose main goal is to make people laugh, as well as to see what Josh’s brain will come up with next.

Advice for others

The greatest advice we have to offer fellow entrepreneurs is the importance of setting deadlines. We signed up for a booth at the National Stationery Show before we were ready, but we accomplished more in the 4 months leading up to the Show than we had accomplished in a year and a half. It is tough to make progress with your own business when you work a regular job, so deadlines are key. Our goal of course being that one day J-Dig will be all three of our 9 to 5's!