Eco Cards Childrens Franchise

Joel and Nikki Buckley created the first Eco Art Cards in 2004 when their daughter Lily (then aged just one) painted a picture which they thought would make an excellent greeting card design. Joel and Nikki paid for a professional printer to create a small number of the cards, and sourced appropriate envelopes and cellowrap and after showing the finished product to other parents (who promptly asked the couple to print cards for them too), a new business venture was born.

Over the last 5 years the company has had numerous successes and the business model has been honed in the light of a great deal of practical experience managing over 4,000 projects in schools from the Orkney Islands, to Cornwall, in both rural and urban regions creating unique greeting cards from the work of children from all backgrounds, be they in state schools or private, affluent or deprived. In the process the company has also been able to help several charities by donating some of the proceeds to help disadvantaged youngsters in Africa and other countries.

In 2009, experienced franchise specialist Andy Cheetham acquired equity in the company to design the franchise model based upon the experience of the founders, and to manage the appointment of a franchise network to replicate the business around the UK and Ireland.

The business format combines many small business benefits including excellent cash flow, no bad debt, and flexible hours. As a franchise owner you can run the business either full time or part time, either as an owner operator or a management style business. If you enjoy working in a creative environment with flexible, mainly �term time� hours, then this may be the business youve been waiting for!



Every Eco Art Cards franchisee follows a carefully crafted marketing programme, proven to be successful at generating leads and bookings from customers. The company channels the natural creative abilities of children in different age groups which means the business format is as appropriate for a nursery school as it is for older children in secondary education. Either way the finished cards are sold directly to parents in much the same was as a school photographer would.

As each project is organised your role is to issue project packs for each school and to prepare the finished artwork ready for our print facility to produce a sample card for every parent. The samples are then distributed to parents who place orders directly with you as the franchise owner.

Once your business is underway, you can expect to have a cash generative business up and running within the first few months, and because every parent pays in advance there is no bad debt. Working from home in flexible hours and using a normal family car you will be able to easily balance the work life mix. Eco Art Cards has its own print hub facility that takes care of the production leaving you free to receive finished stock ready for wrapping and delivery to each school. By working with us in this way you do not need any manufacturing know how, premises or expensive equipment.



Your franchise can easily be run on a part time or a full time basis depending on the level of marketing carried out and your personal income aspirations. However, the business is capable of earning a full time salary even when operated part time!

Joel and Nikkis main objectives when they initially set the business up were to work less hours, have a more flexible working day and also to earn a salary from something they genuinely enjoyed doing. There are remarkably few overheads in the business which means the business generates a high gross profit.

Our franchise fee is only £9,995 including full training, an Apple Imac PC, high resolution scanner, Apple software, marketing materials, business administration and professional web based email. Your total investment depends upon the level of marketing you carry out and therefore the number of projects you complete. An Eco Art Cards franchise is also one of the lowest cost franchises to run on an on going basis as you can work from home using the normal family car, and with a very low management services fee of only £275 per month which includes a contribution to the national public relations, advertising, and marketing campaign. Eco Art Cards Ltd will provide you with your own personalised admin, including letterheads, business cards, order forms, and also use of a free phone number.

Our experience has taught us that on a relatively low marketing budget, it is possible to yield around 4 - 8 projects per month and this is easy to complete on a part time basis.