From A Spare Bedroom To A Thriving Business

Family’s Love For Party Planning And Designing Invitations Leads To Success

By Amy Grace, Copywriter, CS Mgr, InvitationBox.com

Jonathan La Nasa is a strong businessman that had a longing for workplace freedom and the desire to be his own boss.  Before starting his own home-based business, Jonathan gained a strong background in business and e-commerce from being the Director of Business Development for AMPHENOL RF, as well as the web producer for Priceline for Gasoline.

Jonathan and his wife, Katherine, had long been creating custom invites to all their get-togethers.  Then they started doing it for friends.  As their creativity became more in demand, they realized they actually had a business growing out of their spare bedroom.
Jonathan found that by combining his family’s pastime of creating stationery and moving announcements and invitations for family and friends, along with his passion for business, he could turn his business ideas into a lucrative home-based online retail business. In 2003, Jonathan and Katherine joined forces with their friend Derek Stockman and launched Invitation Box.

InvitationBox.com was created to give customers the opportunity to receive the personal customer service of a mom-and-pop stationery store combined with the variety of products one would find at an online retail store, such as birth announcements, party invitations, stationery products and gift items — all from the comfort of a customer’s home.  InvitationBox.com is mainly promoted via online search engines with emphasis with Google and Yahoo with PPC and SEO, which reaches out to a client base of independent women, mothers, families, and large corporate companies.

Jonathan, his wife, and business partner found that having a home-based business means there are no restrictions on working hours, one can dress for work more casual than in a formal business environment, and that one’s schedule can be worked around family time.  However, as InvitationBox.com continually grew larger with an increasing client base, the need for expansion became apparent.  In 2005, InvitationBox.com moved out of its home-base and into a corporate office where it continues to expand. Now, ten years later, the one-stop party planning site has more than 9,000 products and a wide variety of styles.
One of InvitationBox.com’s proudest business achievements is launching and growing a brand which reaches customers nationwide without any debt.  In the coming years, InvitationBox.com hopes to continue its positive expansion, hire more employees, and add new products and ideas to help their customers make every occasion special. HBM