PostcardMania In the News

Two recessions, two very different responses: One cost me millions, and the other grew my business 10% that same year.

There is some chatter about what’s going to happen with the economy based on all of the recent changes. I personally think we’re heading for a boom and not a recession, but I understand that some are nervous about what may happen.

I thought this would be a good time to share my own experience on this topic. I’ve been in business for 27 years, and we’re currently doing over $110 million in revenue. I have almost 400 salaries to pay every week and have no investors or raised capital to fall back on. We have to make the revenue every week, no exception.

Continue with the full article.

Here are two simple ways to fix it that won’t empty your bank account.

I have owned multiple dogs in my life—I really love dogs—and if there’s one thing I am familiar with, it’s squirrel brain. Anytime my dog Tory sees a squirrel or any other little creature scurrying by, she stops in her tracks and gives it all her attention.

But her attention only last for a fraction of a second. Within moments, she finds something else to chase or devote her affection to.

Similarly, many modern marketing tactics feel like the squirrel—you can turn eyes for a few moments, but they lack lasting impact.

When I was 16, big hair was in, and you couldn’t go one day without hearing “Jessie’s Girl” on the radio. Forty-four years later, the ’80s style of sweater vests, mullets and big hair has made a comeback.

Trends are fluid and often cyclical, and many times the “old” becomes “new” again. Much like fashion, older marketing trends can also re-emerge and become in vogue once again.

I know it’s not always easy to stay on top of the latest marketing news when you are a busy entrepreneur, but it’s essential for achieving success.

Read on here.

When I started my business, PostcardMania, all I had was a phone, a computer, a tiny 600-square-foot cottage and my bestie Melissa (who is now president) at my side. Prior to this, I had worked odd jobs, but I was determined to follow my dream of creating a successful business.

I started out small, but today, we’re making north of $100 million a year, employing over 390 people, and we’re still growing! Sometimes I can’t even believe it myself. I never took any investment capital, and our growth was completely organic. The “secret” to our success was that we consistently marketed, and we marketed a LOT more than our competitors did.

Keep reading here.

This is why they didn’t open yours and how to get the most out of that email before you hit send.

Three special words dominated the 90s:You’ve got mail! I don’t know about you, but back then I got a flutter of excitement when I dialed up AOL and checked my emails.

Twenty-seven years later, a lot has changed. A report from 2015 shows that the average office worker received 121 emails every day. I can only imagine that the number has increased since then. And 121 emails doesn’t even include what’s sitting in our personal inboxes. In fact, 347 billion emails were sent every day in 2023, with a significant portion being marketing emails.

Check out the full article here.

TechRound’s Top 50 Women in Tech

45. Joy Gendusa

Founder and CEO Joy Gendusa — who stopped all formal education at age 16 — started PostcardMania in 1998 in a 600-square-foot cottage with just a computer and passion for small business.

Over the past 27 years, Joy has grown PostcardMania to $119 million in annual revenue, a campus that spans 75,000 square feet, 390 staff and 121,976 clients — all 100% bootstrapped on the back of her own hustle, with ZERO outside funding or capital.

Read on here.

Every person has a limit on how many connections they can manage at one time. This is why Dunbar’s number theory rings true—the average person is able to maintain a meaningful relationship with 150 people and can recognize around 1,500 individuals.

This obviously creates a problem for business owners who need to manage hundreds of contacts. Maybe many more! This is why customer relationship management (CRM) software was developed—to make it easier for companies to organize and manage meaningful relationships en masse.

Check out the full article here.

Benjamin Franklin once said, “Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.” Discovering something new can be easily done, however, truly learning and applying it to real life is another challenge.

People look at me today as the founder and CEO of a $100 million business and think I’ve always had everything figured out.

The truth is, I was not the best student in my early years, traditionally speaking. My idea of learning didn’t line up with the state’s curriculum. I cut school so often that my parents finally agreed it wasn’t the right environment for me. So, at 16, I officially — and with my parents’ legal blessing — became a high school dropout.

Read the full article here.

I turned a mistake into $1 million in top-line sales growth from new clients — here’s how I did it.

Have you ever made a mistake in business that you wish didn’t happen? The truth is that every business owner must face failure at some point, but problems don’t have to be pointless.

In fact, some mistakes lead to incredible success! Take the Post-it, for example. In the process of trying to create a super-strong bonding agent, Dr. Spencer Silver at 3M produced the opposite — a super weak adhesive that could easily separate from anything. Silver dedicated himself to discovering a use for this, and it led to incredible wealth and success.

What if you took your mistake and turned it into gold, too? That’s exactly what I did last year.

Read on here.