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Sharon Koransky and Pam Harvey are two Denver women who have turned a home based business into a thriving business that's built on a House of Cards--greeting cards that is. It's called Client Connection and involves building repeat and referral business through the use of greeting cards sent out on a regular basis for a wide variety of clients, including real estate agents, financial planners and mortgage lenders. Harvey had previously worked in the direct mail advertising business and Koransky had been a greeting card distributor. It was through these businesses they determined there was a market for a unique, cost effective form of direct mail advertising--a service company that did personalized greeting card mailings to maintain and grow client bases for professionals. Client Connection opened in January of 1993. By the end of last year, its client base has increased to more than 600 clients with sales of over $800,000 for sales of greeting cards and greeting card mailing services. Referrals from Client Connection's own clients have become so numerous that the company has ceased most other marketing efforts in order to concentrate on following up on these referrals. "Customer follow-up is a very valuable tool for business today, especially when a professional relies on repeat and referral business." Comments Pam Harvey. "Since most people don't have enough time, that's really the commodity we sell. Our greeting card mailing business gives the professional more time to concentrate on what he or she does best." "Each mailing put out by Client Connection always includes a unique greeting, a personalized signature and commemorative postage, so it looks like it came directly from the individual," says Koransky. "The personal touch is what strengthens the business relationship." As firm believers in this concept, Client Connection sends out four personalized mailings a year to their own clients. Their greeting cards range from holiday and birthday greetings to anniversaries of home purchases and business appreciation. They always look for a wide variety of images, including beautiful landscapes, offbeat humor, endearing animals and even dogs in sunglasses perpetuating "doggone" gratefulness for new business. In response to a need for some specific images, Client Connection even developed its own greeting cards. In 1995, the partners began to market and license their custom-designed software, entitled PBG Mailings Manager, which allows users to use the partners' home based business idea to provide a greeting card mailing service for all types of businesses and salespeople. They sold several software packages, but found the greeting card mailing business so lucrative and the availability of customers so numerous they concentrated on that end of their business. After years of successfully developing their greeting card mailing business, Harvey and Koransky decided to take advantage of the booming economy and the enormous interest in Internet marketing. With the start of the new millennium, they developed a web site and are now selling the products and systems for their home based business idea that they perfected while building their highly successful greeting card mailing business. The two women are pleased with their success and even receive cards from their clients complimenting them on the service. Testimonials and stories from their clients about increased business and referrals generated by the cards sent out by Client Connection are abundant and make the partners' success even sweeter. "I guess building a business on a House of Cards isn't as precarious as it sounds," says Harvey.
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