We were lucky to catch up with Megan Powell recently and have shared our conversation below.

Megan, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What was it like going from idea to execution? Can you share some of the backstory and some of the major steps or milestones?

Hi! Since I was little, I’ve always enjoyed making handmade cards for friends and family. During quarantine in 2020, like most people I found myself with some extra free time so one day while making a birthday card for a friend I thought ‘I wonder if I can sell these?’. I’m a pretty impulsive person when I get an idea so right away I stocked up on materials like cardstock, markers and pens. The next week I announced on my social media channels that I was starting a greeting card business called Simply Happy Cards. My plan was to draw each individual card by hand because that’s how I had always made my cards. This was a great idea until……after posting about my new business I received orders for 40 cards! I was extremely grateful for the support from my friends and family but was very quickly overwhelmed with the amount of time required to make 40 cards. Like anyone starting out, I questioned if this business was a good idea. I made it through the initial orders but I knew there had to be a better way. After some research and trial and error, I discovered a way to draw my designs digitally. That changed everything for my business. Since then I’ve created an Etsy shop, social media profiles, my own website and a wholesale marketplace profile. So far I’ve made 4,000+ sales, have almost 200 designs available, and sold to 40+ retail stores!

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

Of course! My name is Megan Powell and I’m the creator of Simply Happy Cards. I am married, have a son named Owen who is 3 months and a dog named Luna. I am a full time UX designer at a health and wellness software company and run my card business on the side. In my free time I love to travel, workout, and spend time with my family and friends!

I have always been a creative person. I can remember getting very excited about arts and crafts from a young age. After college, I found myself in corporate America in a job that offered very little creativity and I knew I needed to find a creative outlet. I’ve always enjoyed drawing and lettering so making greeting cards was a great fit.

I created Simply Happy Cards with one mission – to give people a meaningful way to celebrate life’s small and big moments.

While these moments may not always be positive ones, I believe that providing a medium to send a handwritten personal message has the power to brighten even the darkest of times and make the best moments even better. Think about the last time you received a card with a handwritten message, you probably thought it was more thoughtful than if you were to receive a text with the same message.

I have designs available for a ton of different occasions but I also offer custom cards. This has been a very popular offer because it gives people a way to add a personal touch to the card.

I’m so grateful I took the leap to start this business, it brings me so much joy to be able to help people connect with one another through handwritten messages.

How’d you think through whether to sell directly on your own site or through a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc.

I currently sell through multiple channels – I have my own website which is where I do most of my sales and I also have an Etsy shop. Etsy is a great place to start because it’s free to create and then you pay fees for each listing. It’s relatively low cost and the best part is they already have the infrastructure and the customer base. After a year of running my business solely on Etsy, I decided to create a website because I wanted something that was my own. Being in the UX design space, it was fun to design my website. A standalone website is more expensive and time consuming upfront but I pay less in fees for each sale and have more flexibility. Having a small business is all about weighing costs and benefits!

Does your business have multiple or supplementary revenue streams (like a ATM machine at a barbershop, etc)?

In addition to my Etsy shop and website which cater more toward the individual buyer, I also sell my cards wholesale. I use Faire and Abound to sell my cards to retail stores around the US. Thinking about how I started, it’s crazy to me that stores want to carry my cards! I don’t think I’ll ever get used to that.

Contact Info:

• Website: Simplyhappycards.com
• Instagram: Instagram.com/simplyhappycards
• Facebook: Facebook.com/simplyhappycards
• Other: Pinterest.com/simplyhappycards Etsy.com/shop/simplyhappycards Tik tok: @simplyhappycards