Should I Grow My Small Business Into a National Brand? My Honest Dilemma as the Inventor of the UK’s Self-Sealing Card

When my husband first filed a patent for self-sealing greetings cards in the UK, I never imagined I’d one day be asking myself whether I should scale this small business into a national company. We simply believed in a better, more sustainable way to send cards—one that didn’t require a separate envelope, didn’t rely on cello-wrap, and didn’t quietly contribute to the piles of waste that end up in landfill after birthdays, weddings, Christmases and big family celebrations.

Back then, we thought proving the concept would be simple: show the industry how much single-use paper could be saved, explain the convenience of a built-in envelope, and let the environmental and practical benefits speak for themselves.

But innovation, even in something as familiar as the humble greetings card, isn’t always an easy sell.

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The Industry Loved the Idea… But Consumers Are Creatures of Habit

Over the years I’ve spoken with several major publishers—names we all know—who genuinely liked the sustainability story behind my patented self-sealing cards. They saw the potential to cut huge amounts of waste. They appreciated the convenience. They even acknowledged that envelopes, though traditional, are an outdated component in an industry trying hard to reduce its footprint.

But they also told me something I hadn’t expected: they weren’t ready to license the patent because they weren’t convinced consumers would understand cards with built-in envelopes.

And I get it. Envelopes have been around since greetings cards were first invented. Change is uncomfortable. Even sustainable change.

Yet here I am—living proof that consumers do understand it.

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The Proof I Do Have: Real People Get It

While I may not have national distribution, I do have one incredibly powerful thing: honest, unsolicited feedback.

Glowing Trustpilot reviews

Wonderful Etsy feedback

Conversations with customers at craft fairs and trade fairs

Repeat buyers who come back because “this just makes sense”

Everywhere I go, people tell me the same thing:
“Why hasn’t this been done before?”

People love the convenience. They love the sustainability angle. And frankly, they love not having to rummage through a drawer looking for a missing envelope!

What I don’t have is scale. And that, I’m learning, is what big publishers care about most.

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The Dilemma: Do I Grow Big, or Stay Small and Hope for a Partner?

To show national viability, I'd need:

A warehouse

Staff

Bigger production runs

Larger marketing spend

Operational logistics I never intended to take on

This isn’t the life I imagined when I first had the idea. I’m an inventor, a designer, a believer in sustainable stationery—not someone who dreamed of managing a warehouse operation.

But I believe in this product so deeply that I find myself asking:
Is growing bigger the only way to prove what I already know—that this works?

Or is there a publisher out there willing to take the leap, to invest in making a meaningful sustainability change rather than waiting for someone else to do it first?

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A New Step Forward: Cards Designed to Become Art

Recently, I took my sustainability mission even further. I launched a new range of artistic cards intentionally designed to be repurposed as art once the occasion has passed. Frame them, display them, gift them again—these pieces are meant to live beyond the celebration.

That means:

Less waste

More value

More joy

It’s everything I care about wrapped into one product line.

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The Hard Truth: The Industry Still Creates a Lot of Waste

I say this respectfully, because everyone in the industry is trying. But I also see the waste firsthand. My husband still works as a greetings card salesman, and he sees it too:

Cards in cello-wrap (still surprisingly common)

Envelopes that get lost because of varied sizes

Reprinting and reordering

Cards being pulped because they’re “out of date” after one season

We can do better. And I genuinely believe my patented design is part of that solution.

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The Bigger Vision: What This Could Become

Self-sealing cards unlock so many possibilities:

No envelopes – less waste, less cost, less fiddliness, no licking!

No cello-wrap – nothing to keep together

Full trifold print area – more space for creativity and brand impact

Printable “envelope panels” – your message is visible even in the post

Potential Royal Mail collaboration – imagine cards pre-franked at purchase

A dramatically reduced environmental footprint

It’s not just a product—it’s an opportunity for the industry to lead on sustainability.

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So… Should I Scale Up?

This is the question I’m wrestling with.

Do I take on the financial and emotional load of turning my small business into a national company?
Do I grow a team, sign a lease on a warehouse, and push forward myself?

Or is there a publisher out there ready to step forward—not just for profit, but for progress?

I don’t know the answer yet. What I do know is this:

I believe in this product completely.
I believe the industry wants to be greener.
And I believe consumers are far more adaptable than they’re often given credit for.

Maybe the future lies in a partnership.
Maybe it lies in growth.
Maybe it lies in a publisher willing to take a risk for the sake of sustainability.

Whatever happens next, the mission stays the same:
to innovate responsibly and help reduce waste in an industry built on connection, celebration, and love.