|
|
Like this article? PLEASE +1 it! |  |
|
Making His Golden Greeting: Joyce Hall is Born
Article Overview: Whether it is your birthday, bah mitzvah or anniversary, we all know the feeling we get when someone gives us a greeting card. For Hallmark founder Joyce C. Hall, creating that feeling was his life’s work. A high school dropout from humble origins, Hall worked hard to not only create a business for himself, but to revolutionize an industry.
 |
Free Download - Joyce Hall Quotes By Joyce Hall |
Making His Golden Greeting: Joyce Hall is Born
Whether it is your birthday, bah mitzvah or anniversary, we all know the feeling we get when someone gives us a greeting card. For Hallmark founder Joyce C. Hall, creating that feeling was his life’s work. A high school dropout from humble origins, Hall worked hard to not only create a business for himself, but to revolutionize an industry.
Joyce Clyde Hall was born on August 29, 1891 in David City, Nebraska as the youngest of three sons to parents Nancy Houston and George Hall. His father was a Methodist minister who brought his children up in a religious environment. In fact, it was due to his Methodist background that he even got his name. “I was born the day a Methodist bishop name Isaac W. Joyce happened to be in David City,” said Hall. And, while he admitted to always being annoyed by the name “Joyce,” he pointed out, “Clyde wasn’t any great shakes of a name either.” As a result, he would later come to be known only as “J.C.”
Growing up in poverty, Hall began an initial venture selling perfume door-to-door when he was just nine years old in order to help support his family. When he was sixteen years old, he started clerking in his older brothers’ bookstore. He then pooled his savings together with his brothers to launch the Norfolk Post Card Company. They quickly discovered, however, that their market was a limited one.
When Hall turned 18 years old, he ignored the pleas of his family and dropped out of high school. He packed up two shoeboxes crammed full of scenic postcards and boarded a train for Kansas City, Missouri. Once there, he began going door-to-door to drugstores, bookstores, and gift shops selling his cards. This time, he found greater success and Hall began taking the train to every city he could throughout the Midwest, selling his postcards to eager buyers.
With a small room at the YMCA as his home office, Hall started to manufacture and sell his own line of postcards. He printed invoices and along with them, mailed samples of 100 postcards to dealers throughout the Midwest. As Hall expected, some of the dealers kept his postcards without ever paying. Others were angry at the unsolicited attempt and sent the cards back. But almost one-third of dealers who received Hall’s cards returned nothing but a check.
In only a few months, the 18 year old had made over $200, and used it to open his first checking account. From there, business only got bigger, and in a few years, Hall was confident enough in his venture to ask his brothers to join him in opening up their own specialty store.
In little time, the Norfolk Post Card Company store had opened, selling both postcards and stationery. Business was good, but Hall was worried about their losing appeal. With that, Hall decided to shift the focus of his business in a move that would forever change the course of his life.
Lesson #3: Listen to Your Gut Feeling of Gold
Leaving His Mark: Hall’s Company Takes Off
Leaving His Mark: How Hall Manufactured Success
Getting The Hole Story: How Joyce Came To Dominate The Donut
Lesson #5: Innovation is Your Invitation to Success
Article Tags: c hall, clyde hall, drugstores, eager buyers, great shakes, greeting card, high school dropout, humble origins, initial venture, joyce hall, kansas city missouri, limited one, methodist bishop, methodist minister, nancy houston, religious environment, shoeboxes, sixteen years, taking the train, ymca
Related Forum Posts
Update on profiles to come
- Here is a list of the upcoming entrepreneurs that we will be featuring. Thank you Kevin for the feedback!
Vera Wang
Magic Johnson
Joyce Hall
Wayne Huizenga
Martin Lindstrom (Toblerone)
Peter van Stolk (Jones Soda)
Re: Update on profiles to come
- [quote="Evan":3e19sx5g]Here is a list of the upcoming entrepreneurs that we will be featuring. Thank you Kevin for the feedback!
Vera Wang
Magic Johnson
Joyce Hall
Wayne Huizenga
Martin Lindstrom (Toblerone)
Peter van Stolk (Jones Soda)[/quote:3e19sx5g]
Just a quick fix:
Theodore Tobler (Toblerone)
Who to profile next?
- It's time to get your suggestions again for which famous entrepreneur to profile next on the website! We are looking for suggestions for success stories that are inspiring as well as those that are recognizable. Ideally the people are brand name entrepreneurs who people recognize (at least their companies are recognizable if not themselves individually).
Some initial sugestions are:
Joyce Hall (Hallmark)
Vera Wang
Nolan Bushnell (Atari & Chuck E. Cheese)
Magic Johnson
James Kimsey (AOL)
Wayne Huizenga (Blockbuster)
Mike Ilitch (Little Caesars)
What do you think? Who would you like to see profiled?
Top 19 Copywriting books
- 1. Ogilvy on Advertising. David Ogilvy. Wiley.
2. Positioning: The Battle for your Mind. Al Ries and Jack Trout. Warner.
3. The New Positioning. Jack Trout. McGraw-Hill.
4. Tested Advertising Methods. John Caples. Prentice-Hall.
5. How to Make your Advertising Make Money. John Caples. Prentice-Hall.
6. Guerrilla Advertising. Jay Conrad Levinson. Houghton Mifflin.
7. Direct Mail Copy that Sells. Herschell Gordon Lewis. Prentice-Hall.
8. Sales Letters that Sizzle. Herschell Gordon Lewis. NTC Business Books.
9. Herschell Gordon Lewis on the Art of Writing Copy. Herschell Gordon Lewis. Prentice-Hall.
10. Romancing the Brand. David Martin. American Management Association.
11. The Art of Writing Advertising: Conversations with William Bernbach, Leo Burnett, George Gribbin, David Ogilvy, Rosser Reeves. NTC Business Books.
12. Confessions of an Advertising Man. David Ogilvy. NTC Business Books.
13. My Life in Advertising. Claude Hopkins. NTC Business Books.
14. Scientific Advertising. Claude Hopkins. NTC Business Books.
15. How to Become an Advertising Man. James Webb Young. NTC Business Books.
16. The Lasker Story as He Told It. NTC Business Books.
17. Advertising Concept and Copy. George Felton. Prentice Hall.
18. The Copy WorkShop Workbook. Bruce Bendinger. The Copy Workshop.
19. Hey, Whipple, Squeeze This: A Guide to Creating Great Ads. Luke Sullivan. Wiley.
This should keep you busy for at least a year.
Enjoy!
Making Money in 2011
- Hello forum members! As we draw closer to the new year I thought it would be appropriate to change the title of our forum category "Making Money in 2010" to "Making Money in 2011" - I'm looking forward to some interesting discussions and wish everyone a prosperous New Year!
Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.
Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.
by: 
February 2012 Top 100 Leadership Experts to Follow on Twitter
Please Stop Calling it Coaching!
Measuring the Quality of Your Hires
The fine line 
Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!
What If You Had a 100% Success Rate?
Time management for DIY PR
LISTENING SKILLS IN COACHING
Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.