Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, January 22, 1995 TAG: 9501200045
SECTION: ECONOMY PAGE: 6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: KATHLEEN WILSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
When you visit Homefront Greetings, Terry Smith will suggest you join her in the ``conference room.''
It's a lovely room, not the usual typical big table with chairs on wheels. This one has a piano. And an adjoining dining room. A kitchen just to the left.
That's because Homefront Greetings' ``conference room'' is really the living room of her Cave Spring home.
Terry Smith, Diane Smith (no relation) and Ron Knuppel are the entire Homefront Greetings staff. The three started the company just four months ago.
Terry Smith, a free-lance writer and copy editor; Diane Smith, a free-lance graphic artist; and Knuppel, who runs his own distribution company, Hazard Communications, knew one another from earlier collaborations.
Diane Smith always had a desire to enter the lucrative greeting card market; and with the help of Terry and Knuppel, that's what she's done.
But Homefront Greetings doesn't produce your garden variety thinking-of-you and happy-birthday-mother-in-law printed greetings.
Homefront Greetings produces a line of cards with a very savvy marketing twist.
These cards are geared for residential real estate agents and brokers.
The cards are designed exclusively for real estate professionals as a tool to maintain personal contact with clients after the sales have closed.
The cards contain greeting such as ``Congratulations on your new home - hope it's everything you've dreamed of'' and ``On the anniversary of your move - thinking of you at this special time'' and ``Good luck on your move - may your movers not be shakers!'' are just three of the cards they offer.
``We'd been looking for some way to use the unique skills we each have together,'' explained Terry Smith. ``So Homefront Greetings became our joint venture.''
The three invested their own money to get the operation up and running.
What made them sure this was the right time to start a new business?
``Who says we're sure?'' Terry Smith said, laughing.
``I guess we all could have bought IRAs,'' added Diane Smith.
But that's not the entrepreneurial spirit of this threesome.
``We are just always looking for opportunities,'' said Diane Smith.
She discovered there was a need for such a specialized product when she heard of one real estate agent who found a card in Hallmark's mammoth line that delivered a congratulations-on-your-new-home message. The agent contacted Hallmark and ordered hundreds.
Homefront Greetings' owners figure theirs are less expensive - and better looking to boot.
Knuppel admits there's no sureness in this venture. Nor in many others for that matter.
But test-marketing did confirm there was a need for the product.
``And for whatever reason, Northern Virginia was much more receptive,'' Knuppel said.
If Homefront Greetings has a five-year plan, it would be for the top 3 percent of Realtors nationwide to be using Homefront Greetings.
That, or maybe if Hallmark would find the line so appealing it might find it necessary to absorb Homefront Greetings into its operation.
The next step, though, is advertising. Homefront Greetings plans to launch ads in the near future in real estate trade publications.
But, say the Smiths and Knuppel, real estate isn't the end of the road.
There are any number of professionals who might find a need for a specialized card to maintain some personal ``warm and fuzzy'' contact with their clients.
The three aren't worried about the day they might have to approach a bank for financing.
``Each of us is a successful, independently employed professional,'' Knuppel said.
``We're a minority-owned business,'' pointed out Terry Smith.
The idea of three successful entrepreneurs teaming up with a then-proven product to market is the reason small-business loans were created, they figure.
Perhaps one day the ``conference room'' still will look as appropriately homey.
But it will be located on prime commercial real estate.
HOMEFRONT GREETINGS
THE COMPANY: Homefront Greetings was founded four months ago.
HEADQUARTERS: Roanoke County.
OPERATIONS: The company produces a line of greeting cards geared toward residential real estate agents and brokers.
ANNUAL SALES: Declined to give estimates.
EMPLOYEES: Three - the partners themselves.
by CNB