Florida-Based Investor Matt Argall Enticed by the Greeting Card Industry
MIAMI, FL—(Marketwired — Jul 21, 2014) — Can you imagine sitting in the hot July sun, a cold ice tea on the table next to your laptop, birds chirping and children playing in the backyard while you are thinking about Christmas, mistletoes, snowmen and cheery holiday greetings? While most companies have gotten used to preparing and sending out their greeting cards for important holidays or occasions weeks ahead of time to make sure they get to their clients and business partners on time, the planning process starts considerably earlier for the producers of those greeting cards. And with no less than nine major holidays and events throughout the year, namely Christmas, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Graduation, Easter, Halloween, Thanksgiving and St. Patrick’s Day, the greeting card industry never sleeps.
Despite the growing use of e-cards and text messages, traditional paper cards have not lost their popularity and with 6.5 billion cards being sold in the United States every year, it is still a very profitable industry. Traditionally, the most popular cards are those sent for Birthdays, followed by Thank You, Sympathy, Wedding, Thinking of You, New Baby, Get Well and simple Congratulations cards. Given the persistent market need for greeting cards, Matt Argall has been thinking about investing in the greeting card business. As a hugely successful and experienced entrepreneur, Argall knows that every little detail from the planning stage to the production to the sale of finished product needs to be considered and evaluated in order to make a well-informed decision about the profitability and future potential of an investment.
“I never thought about how much work goes into a greeting card that I just pick up in a store on the way home,” admits Matt Argall. “Looking at the process more closely made me realize that a good greeting card is not just a piece of paper, but a small piece of art.” Ideas for cards are generally discussed by a team of product managers, artists, designers, illustrators, and editors before they go into production. Depending on how sophisticated the design of a card is, the production process can be rather elaborate. Often handwork is required to add beads, tassels, ribbons, stickers or glitter to the cards. “I think the future of paper-made greeting cards lies in artistic cards that cannot simply be printed at your home computer,” says Argall. “No email or text message can compete with that.”
For Matt Argall this would by no means be the first business investment. Throughout his career, Argall has founded and managed a number of successful businesses across various industries. Some of his most successful projects include a student loan debt consolidation, an Easy-1-Rate program for long distance calls prior to the widespread use of mobile phones, and an online retail company that used eBay as its main platform. Born in Los Angeles, California, Argall spent part of his childhood in Canada, before he moved with his family to Florida, where he still lives today. In his free time Argall enjoys spending time with his wife Maya and their little son. In addition, he is highly engaged in a number of local charities and international non-profit organizations, where he puts his business skills and knowhow to good use in order to help others who are less fortunate than him.
