Rebecca’s G Cards: ‘Opening Smiles Every Day’

Becca Beaton has been making cards for as long as she can remember.

What began as a hobby has turned into a homemade greeting card business whose purpose is the same as it was when it began — to make people happy.

“I saw someone else had a card business and thought,  ‘Why can’t I sell my cards?” Beaton said. Today she does just that through her business, Rebecca’s G Cards. 

Beaton is very passionate about her business and doesn’t let her disability stop her. Beaton, who has Cerebral Palsy, has no control over her arms but can control her head and uses a head stick attached to a helmet to help her write and design her cards on her computer. 

“Not only does she have a passion for the items she creates, it takes her longer than the average person to be able to design something,” said Sue Babin, Rhode Island Developmental Disabilities Council director of special projects. “There’s a sense of pride she has for her cards and her business.”

Beaton carefully plans out details for each card to ensure they are created with imagery that shares her optimistic outlook on life. 

“I have a positive outlook on life and I like to reflect that in my cards,” Beaton says. That outlook is also reflected in her logo “opening smiles every day.” 

Beaton first began selling her cards at the West Bay Rhode Island office. Since then she’s sold her cards at Small Business Saturday for the past four years, at a church gift shop, church bazaar and at a small cafe in a medical building. She also sold them at TechACCESS in their office building and was a vendor at their annual conference. Beaton was working toward getting her cards selling space in more local businesses when COVID hit, forcing her to change her plans a bit.

Not letting the pandemic stop her, Beaton took advantage of business classes with the RIDDC and got to work on building a website and a Facebook page for her business with help from Deb Duke, business initiative coordinator at West Bay RI. RIDDC also helped Beaton with grant money to purchase supplies for her business. 

RIDDC, in collaboration with the Center for Women and Enterprise, has been offering business classes to help individuals like Beaton learn marketing skills, develop business plans and assist them with social media, resources that are even more valuable since COVID changed the way people shop, as well as where they can shop. 

“When COVID set us back a little bit we decided we weren’t going to let it, so we designed a website and Becca now sells her cards on the website too,” said Duke.

Today, Rebeccasgcards.com showcases Beaton’s designs and offers a way for customers to purchase her cards online. 

Rebecca’s G Cards has cards for all occasions: holidays, birthdays, thank you cards, sympathy cards and thinking about you. For those who like to write their own personal message, there’s also a selection of cards that are blank on the inside. Beaton also has a selection of postcards available. 

Besides keeping her website updated, Beaton is working to build up her inventory for when things get back to normal so she can display and sell her cards in local area businesses. 

Beaton also recently launched a new feature — an inspirational quote of the week. These quotes can be found on both her website and Facebook page. Any of these inspiring quotes can be designed into a card if a customer is interested, according to Beaton. 

You can find Rebecca’s G Cards online at Rebeccasgcards.com and on Facebook at Rebeccasgcards. 

This page is part of a series of sponsored content pieces for the Rhode Island Developmental Disabilities Council.