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The team at Banter Cards spend their days creating cards and merchandise emblazoned with obscene language - but they don’t swear in the office.

"None of us swear," says founder Toni Leigh Hall.

"When we ask someone to pass us something we say ‘Can you pass me the C word pen please?’ or we’ll say 'the F word'."

The swearing is a unique selling point of the products handmade by this Cardiff-based business, but Ms Leigh Hall, 28, says that it doesn't define the company.

"We’re a really hard-working team that’s driven by delivering amazing customer service that wants to continue to grow."

Banter Cards turned over a quarter of a million pounds in its first year and is on course to double that in its second year.

While the swearing may not suit some, it has proven extremely popular with hen parties and baby showers, and Ms Leigh Hall says 82% of their customers are women.

The company has gone from Ms Leigh Hall working alone in a bedroom in her Barry home to a unit on Penarth Road in Cardiff with five employees.

"I’ve always wanted to work for myself," says Ms Leigh Hall.

"I’ve tried a few different companies that haven’t really worked out. Selling dog clothes online (my bathroom is still full of dog jumpers if anyone needs any) making hand cut confetti with custom boxes (worst idea ever) then I taught myself to sew and set up an online shop called Franks Boutique.

"The girls and my little sister would help stuff cushions until four in the morning before we’d go to craft fares. I had to Google every step of sewing, I didn’t even know how to set up the sewing machine but somehow I made it work. We were selling draught excluders, cushions & doorstops all over the world from my kitchen.

"As much as I loved sewing it just didn’t feel like something I could scale so I decided to learn how to use Photoshop and start a card shop. I always bought so many cards so just thought it might save me some money!"

(Image: Rob Browne)

The start of Banter Cards wasn't so smooth, but it did help shape Ms Leigh Hall's customer service.

"I spent the morning on the sofa watching the Eastenders omnibus, eating Nutella out of the jar, Googling how to use Photoshop and that afternoon I set up a new Etsy shop called Banter Cards," she explains.

"I registered the company and within the first day I had two sales. I didn't even have any card. I popped to Tesco, printed the most shoddy card you can imagine and sent it out in a hand-written envelope, I also wrote a message to the customer on the envelope telling her how much I loved her. That carried on for a week until the first order arrived and the person complained about the quality.

"I sent the girl a refund, then spent my lunch break looking for a card supplier. I found someone who was happy to send me smaller batches rather than having to buy in bulk, but for the same cost. We still use that supplier to this day, they’re a small family run company.

"The next day the card arrived and I resent out all the orders I’d already done with a sorry note in each one. I also sent the girl who complained an email thanking her for her feedback. I just knew that if Banter Cards was going to work I would have to give the very best customer service I could and we've stuck by this from the start."

(Image: Rob Browne)

Ms Leigh Hall was working as an analyst for British Gas during the day and then spending her nights working on Banter Cards, as well as spending as much time as she could learning about how to run a business, SEO and Facebook marketing. She would listen to audio books while she ran and watched YouTube videos while in the gym.

"It got to the point where I was falling asleep at my desk so had to make the decision to leave British Gas and work for Banter Cards full time," she says.

"Lots of people told me I was crazy to leave a well paid job to ‘just sell cards’ but I just thought if it fails I’ll do any job and work my way back up so really it was win-win because I was leaving to work for myself or I’d end up having a new career with a new company."

In January 2016 it was just Ms Leigh Hall working from her home in Barry. Valentine's Day meant she needed to hire someone to help with the orders. Her best friend Becky - "we’ve been friends since playgroup" - had just been made redundant, so she joined the company.

Ms Leigh Hall was also able to call on friends and her sister to help as the orders started to grow. By March they were outgrowing the home office. When she started looking for a unit to rent, Ms Leigh Hall found that most wanted a three-year commitment , but she found someone willing to take a chance on her and let her take a unit for a year.

The business has had to grow on its own, partly due to the nature of its work.

"We were part of the Accelerate to Grow programme with the Welsh Government but after a few weeks they contacted me to let me know they could no longer help the business due to the swearing," she says.

"I also applied for Entrepreneurial Spark - when they called to talk me through the interview they suggested changing the business, asking us if we could remove the swear words. I genuinely believe in Banter Cards so didn't want to change the business. I could have given up at that point but I just knew I had to keep going, not just for me but for the team.

"We are also driven to inspire and encourage other young women to follow their dreams. My advice to anyone is to believe in themselves, even at times when people tell you’re not good enough."

Banter Cards are available online but they're also stocked around the world - a shop in Las Vegas and one in New York have the merchandise on sale.

And Ms Leigh Hall has plans for the brand.

"We have lots of new stock being released all the time," she says.

"We constantly work on new cards to ensure we stay up to date with trends online – we made lots of Love Island-inspired cards which did amazing.

"We have diaries which are being worked on at the moment. We also want to launch a subscription box. We just want to continue to grow but ensure we keep the best level of service we can.

"We’re just about to launch a website for our new company called Banter Prints, which is printed clothing and lots of custom printing. People can now drop off stuff for hen parties/stag parties.

"We also do printing for some local companies like Bad to the Bone Co, The Roaming Caravan Co & Spectrum Collections."

The recent news on the gender pay gap has also encourage the team to get political.

"We want start our own campaign with the aim to inspire own woman to follow their own business dreams.

"We started the Small Boobs Big Dreams range, which aims to motivate and encourage woman to follow their dreams."