Rising Stars: Meet Meghan Schmidt of Cincinnati (Batavia), Ohio

Today we’d like to introduce you to Meghan Schmidt.

Hi Meghan, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
In May 2022, I was looking to celebrate my son’s birthday. I did a Google search and heard there was a local company called Card My Yard. They would come set up a yard sign with a birthday message in the yard. I went to schedule it online and immediately received a response that there wasn’t a local franchise that serviced my area. I soon received an e-mail from a nearby franchise letting me know that she was way too busy to drive to Batavia. In her personalized e-mail to me, she asked if I ever thought about opening a franchise and that she received requests each week from the far east side of Cincinnati. The tag line in her e-mail was, “Spread joy.” The wheels in my head immediately started to spin since I had always had in the back of my mind that I wanted to be a business owner someday. I just didn’t know what that “business” would look like. I shared her response with my husband during that summer and kept giving it more and more thought as I thought about the logistics of quitting my full-time job and having more time at home with my young children. I began to explore the company more, speaking with the nearby franchise owner, corporate and learning how this would look for me. Card My Yard is a yard greeting rental company. I store all the signs in my home basement. We deliver, set up and take down the signs. I jumped in and opened my franchise in October 2022. I was still working full-time, but by March 2023, I realized I couldn’t juggle it all successfully. I worked part-time for a few months and was then able to focus solely on my Card My Yard Batavia franchise. Today, this business allows me to work around my schedule and still be active in my son, Taylor and daughter, Claire’s life. I tell everyone, I get to spread joy! I never have to deliver bad news. I get to meet some wonderful people, I have been able to network extensively in my community, the local schools and chamber of commerce. Card My Yard allows me to make this my own business, but are there to support the owners when needed. It’s a FUN job if I would even call it that.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Card My Yard has busy and less busy times of the year just like many businesses. Our yard greeting rental services is year-round, but the busy time is between March/April-October. We can set up outside, but also do indoor set ups too. Trying to remind people that we will celebrate all occasions even during those cold months can be a challenge. You can always tell the months you put in additional effort, you can see the rewards with more sales/yards being done. I would say the biggest challenges are the weather. We will stake yards in snow, ice, heat, rain. It can be hard physical work trying to get the stakes in the ground, but you always have to keep in mind the recipients reaction. When you leave that yard or event after a set-up, you know you are going to make the day of someone.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
At Card My Yard, we personalize the signs for the individual or event. On the form online when ordering, customers let us know what they are celebrating and a little about the person/event. I will then take that information and follow up with the customer to try to learn more about the person. I.e. favorite colors, hobbies, interests Taking all of this information, I then choose the colors, graphics, stars and balloons to use in the sign. No sign is exactly the same. It’s a true surprise for the customer who placed the order and recipient. It’s fun to see different colors and graphics all come together. It’s easy to get into the rhythm and just try to get it down quickly. I have to remind myself that often times the customer and recipient may have never seen one of these set ups before. Even though they take a bit longer, I really like my indoor set ups. You also don’t have to worry about rocky, hard ground that could also be hilly too. I have many people say, “you are so artistic” which is a huge compliment. I have never considered myself artistic, but this business has brought out a different side of me that I didn’t know existed.

If you had to, what characteristic of yours would you give the most credit to?
Providing the best customer service is key! While I am a franchise owner and the communication coming from me to the customer is important, it’s also a reflection on the Card My Yard brand. There are actually over 500 Card My Yard franchises across the US. I don’t think you can ever over communicate. When I look at my testimonials people write, communication is one of the main qualities that sets me apart from others. I always communicate with them the way they chose as their preferred method of communication. I outline the address for the set up, what will be included in the sign, when I will set up and pick up, as well as, other reminders. It’s so important to me to not ruin a surprise, so I try my best to be very flexible on set up times. I think that flexibility is also much appreciated by the customer. After a set up, I always text a picture so they know it was set up at the correct house and what the sign looks like too.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://cardmyyard.com
• Instagram: cardmyyard_batavia
• Facebook: https://Facebook.com/cardmyyardbatavia
• Other: https://cardmyyard.com/batavia