A Winnipeg woman who graduates from post-secondary in the spring with the goal of becoming a teacher says she’s re-thinking her career path after finding an unexpected source of income during the pandemic.
Darcie Klassen told 680 CJOB her “side-hustle,” a do-it-yourself greeting card business she has dubbed Klassen Kards, has been so successful during that COVID-19 lockdown that she’s considering pursuing it as a full-time gig.
“It started off in March, and by April, I started giving away some free cards for Mother’s Day,” Klassen said.
“After that, people started wanting to pay for them, and I decided I would make a go of it — from hobby to business.
“They’re just greeting cards drawn by hand. … I started it off so you could write notes to people during the pandemic and send them. I wanted people to still be able to talk to each other and I’ve always been a fan of writing notes. They’re just small and personal.”
Klassen said she’s made about 1,000 sales as of January, earning more money than she would have as a teacher during that time.
“If it continues this way, that would be a great way to be able to stay at home and maybe be a stay-at-home mom, and not have to go out of the house every day to teach.”
Throughout her business’s short — so far — life, she said she’s met a number of other Winnipeggers working on their own DIY projects, and is happy that something good has come from a stressful situation for many.
“It’s been a really big blessing for a lot of people to be able to create something and sell it on their own,” she said, “as opposed to going into work, which they can’t do because of the pandemic.
“If you really enjoy what you’re creating, then somebody else probably will too.”