From BizWomen.com
It’s 5:30 p.m.
While most people are getting home from a long day at work, Amy Keuper’s day is just beginning.
As the owner of Paper Bouquet, Keuper makes herself available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, from her 2,800-square-foot office, which is also her home.
Keuper has operated her home-based wedding stationery business since 2001.
Whether a client is working, going to school or just busy planning a wedding, Paper Bouquet accommodates their schedule by offering consultations on weekdays, evenings, Saturdays or even Sundays.
“The work is kind of 24/7 because it’s always here (home),” Keuper says.
“But that’s one thing my clients appreciate, because I can answer a question late at night or during the weekends since I’m not a 9-to-5 establishment. They know I’m always here for them.”
Not a hobby
Paper Bouquet was originally started by Keuper’s mother, Cindy Means, whose creative spirit reminds her of Martha Stewart.Prior to starting Paper Bouquet, she ran her own home catering business in the 1980s.
The mother-daughter team catered hundreds of special events into the 1990s. But the hectic pace of the catering business began to put stress on their personal lives.
“Things got crazy,” Keuper says. “We needed something that didn’t need to be refrigerated or heated and that’s what is great about invitations — they don’t have to be hot or cold,” she quips.
Keuper’s mother was the one who founded Paper Bouquet in 1998, to stay in the party and special events world.
The business was operated in her mother’s home in Terrell Hills and it was there that Keuper learned the ropes. Keuper says that they both had different mindsets regarding the business. Her mother saw it as more of a hobby, but Keuper saw it more as a true business opportunity.
In 2001, Keuper’s mother decided to leave the business and turned the operation over to her daughter. She has been working hard to keep it going ever since.
To build clientele, Keuper began advertising, attending wedding trade shows and other special events, and launched a Web site.
“A lot of people think it’s easy to work from home, but you have to sell a lot to do well,” she says. “It’s about being detail-oriented and getting it right. If one thing is wrong, it’s all trash.”
That attention to detail brought Paper Bouquet more than $100,000 in sales last year.
Having a home studio means Paper Bouquet can be competitive in its pricing, Keuper says. Lower overhead enables Paper Bouquet to offer customers every invitation, announcement and holiday card — even the more exclusive brands sold only through retailers — at 20 percent less than competitors.
Paper Bouquet carries a wide selection of lines of invitations, stationery and accessories that include Beverly Clark, Birchcraft, Carlson Craft, Elite, Encore, Nu-Art, Royal Imprints, Tatex and more.
The invitations vary in cost. Professionally printed papers start at 70-cents each. They also offer a wide selection in the $1 to $2.70-each price range and invitations with layers, vellum or ribbon run from $1.50 to $9 each. The average price per invitation lowers as the quantity increases.
The price is something her clients appreciate.
“The quality is great and it’s offered at good prices, especially when you have to order a lot,” says Debbie Christie, who has been a Paper Bouquet client for the past two years.
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