Recently I came across this interesting website, SantaMail.org. This was started by Byron Reese (age 37). The company sells personalized letters from Santa Claus across North America.
Go through the “about us” page in their website, the letters will be postmarked from North Pole, Alaska, to give them an authentic feeling.
Byron Reese sold 10,000 letters in his first year in business (i.e. 2001). His sales increased subsequently every year and he still looked for ways to expand his offering. He introduced birthday cards from Santa as well which can be ordered by parents for their children. The sales reached $1 million in 2005.
The key to Byron’s success is his organization. After realizing that he and his staff didn’t want to pull the marathon 36-hour shifts they did the first year, he looked to outside vendors to help him with the yearly rush. He also deals with any problems as soon as the rush is over, and then starts planning for the next year. By February, he’s up and running. “The temptation is to not start working until you get close to that season, and we’ve made that mistake in the past,” says Byron. “Things always take a lot longer than you think they’re going to take. We find it much better to work steadily.”
“When I was a child, my parents would give us letters from Santa. My mom died three and a half years ago, and I wanted to do this to honor her,” says Byron. “I entered it with low expectations, but we sold 10,000 the first year.” The magic of Christmas is a serious trust to Byron, so he implemented a rigorous quality-control program that has multiple people (his elves) checking each letter, ensuring complete accuracy on each one, as well as on a birthday card from Santa and the post-Christmas ‘Greetings from Hawaii’ postcard from a tanned, beach-bound Santa.
Byron’s childhood Christmas memories include installing 200 strings of Christmas lights and decorating dozens of Christmas cookies each year. He loves the look on the postman’s face when he goes to buy 40,000 Santa stamps at the post office each Christmas.
Courtesy: Dmitri Davydov
Filed under: Business | Tagged: birthday card from santa, Byron Reese, Christmas, entrepreneur, gifts, Online business ideas, Santa, Santamail
I liked your article. It’s nice to know of the “Inside” story on why people start up unique and interesting business’ such as the “personalized letters from Santa” . In the last week I discovered these types of letters and was prompted to write a little article of my own. It really is a fun thing to write about!
Have a wonderful Christmas!
Annie
Personalized Santa letters are a fantastic way to share the holiday season and create memories. Letters From Santa are unique to each recipient and make a great yet inexpensive gift for children and adults.Letter From Santa creates smiles, excitement and everlasting memories!
This is a good ideal for extra money. I tried it and I did make some money. About 1.000 the first year. Hope to improve more every year.
Look at my Santa Letter site.