Business Type: Publishing Help.
Madison Park Greeting Customer Lists Are a Hard Asset at
Madison Park Greetings

Opened for business in 1976, twenty years later, in 1996,
generating $4 million in sales with 25 employees.

"If it's people or profits, for me, it will always be people."
- Judi Jacobsen

Madison Park GreetingSeattle, Washington: In this week's story within our series, Small Business School, you will meet Judi Jacobsen, the founder of Madison Park Greetings. She started her business with just $200.

In 1995, Judi was named Small Business Person of the Year from the State of Washington. Each year every state nominates and selects outstanding business owners who have been successful in starting, running and growing a business and are profitable, but who also contribute to the total well being of their community.

Judi bought a vacant building, moved in, and by bringing the building back to life, the entire neighborhood improved.

This company produces greeting cards and sells them to consumers through over 6,000 gift shops. Also, they create private collections for retailers including Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus, and, they distribute the graphic products of other artists including Larkspur and Sara Schneidman.

Lightbulb: Most family businesses don't make it through the first succession from founder to the next generation. Judi has put the plan in place to insure the life of the business. So she can spend time with her 11 grandchildren, Brian (pictured here) is now President of the company and oldest son Mark is owner of a new company which is a spin-off of Madison Park. To prepare for the transfer of leadership, Judi attended many seminars, talked to others in her situation and read everything she could find about family business planning. She also required her children to work for someone else for at least three years before joining Madison Park Greetings. And, she learned from her father how not to pass a business to the next generation. He would turn things over to one of her brothers, then take the task back.

Connected? Madison Park came to the web in 1997. This early adoption of the web coupled with the strategy to market the artwork of other studios, helped them attract the attention of companies such as Microsoft. Today they have a partnership with the software maker. Madison Park licenses art for home and online publishing sites being built by Microsoft. Please note that the three pieces of art you see on this page were loaned to us from MadPark.com for the purpose of telling this story. To learn much more about connectivity, search the Small Business Center at IBM.

Also, in this show: Meet Jim Schell our veteran entrepreneur. Jim says no business owner is too old to jump into technology head first. When he got his first PC back in the 80s he saved money immediately. Stephen Jackson shows us simple spreadsheet software.
Here's what we learned from this episode...
  • Madison Park GreetingYou can start a business at a kitchen table with nearly no money.
  • The company started by selling Judi's art in the form of greeting cards but now handles dozens of artists.
  • Sell product through a commission-only sales force.
  • Judi's work force is not typical.
  • Create an environment for other businesses to succeed and you'll reap the benefit.
GO FURTHER:
  • GO TO SCHOOL: We invite you to join our community and enroll in Small Business School. If you answer the questions in the teaching notes and study guide, you may qualify:
    • to get listed within your business type and within your state's listings,
    • to be profiled on a show (local or national),
    • to generate automatically a business plan for debt financing and/or a SCOR for equity financing,
    • to be listed within a Small Business index, and
    • to qualify as one of the Small Business SCHOOL best of businesses within a business category. .
  • LOOK AT STEP 5: HIRING EMPLOYEES. Judi decided early that she would employ people others might ignore. The manager of her warehouse is deaf so many of the employees are proficient at American Sign Language. Also, she has hired immigrants from Korea and has sent them to school to learn English. She also reaches out to women who have stayed home to raise their children then find themselves divorced with no workplace experience.
  • WATCH TV!
    • To find out what is airing in your market, usually on your local PBS-member station, click here.
    • Click here to see this show online (requires DSL or cable connection with no firewalls).
We invite your questions or comments. We invite your comments and questions. Was the show inspirational and/or educational? We hope this show is both!