Mom And Pop Business Puts An Asian Face On Greeting Card Industry.

By Paul Messina
December 18, 2003 - NY1 News

Sometimes the biggest ideas come from the smallest origins. In this Money Matters report, Paul Messina introduces us to one small business with big dreams.

It's a mom and pop business inspired by a baby.

"I've been taking a lot of pictures of my daughter while I'm home with her, and the idea came up because I have all these photos that are just sitting here. They're really, really cute," says entrepreneur Glenda Villajuan.

The idea is a new line of greeting cards featuring Asian-American faces.

"I do a lot of research on the Internet, and there's really not a lot of materials out there specifically targeted for Asian-Americans," says Villajuan.

But it wasn't just pictures of her baby Victoria that inspired Villajuan, it was also a sense of responsibility to her.

"It's the desire for my daughter to be raised and to grow up and feel that she belongs here, because seeing your image in the media is a very powerful factor," she says.

Villajuan calls her line of cards Great ExpectAsians. It's a play on words with an idealistic approach, because even within the Asian-American umbrella, Villajuan is striving for diversity.

"The first set of greeting cards that we came up with, we have a child who is Chinese-American, we have a child who is South-Asian, we have obviously a Filipino-American, and then we have an Irish-American," says Villajuan.

She did her research. There are more than 10 million Asian-Americans, and that number is growing.

"If you look at the profile of the Asian-American market they are: educated, they are high-income, they come from a high-income bracket, and they're fairly young," says Villajuan.

So Villajuan is targeting young Asian-Americans who are born here or grew up here.

There are currently 32 different designs. They come either blank inside or with a written message in English .

"[I'm hoping demand will get so frenzied that I'll have to hire some employees.] That would be nice, wouldn't it?," says Villajuan. "So then I would be able to just stay home and spend more time with my daughter."

Right now the cards are only available online at her company's website.

Read the actual article at NY1 News