Entrepreneurs try to make card shop float

Over the past two months, Dana Norman and Michele Rothberg have developed a mantra they repeat every night: "Did we make enough today to pay the rent?"

Norman, 45, and Rothberg, 46, laugh as they describe their nightly conversation, but the question -- one repeated by countless other small business people -- has particular relevance for Norman and Rothberg.

They bought a card shop, CardSmart, in the Plainview Center mall off South Oyster Bay Road, and just started doing business two months ago, during what continues to be one of the toughest economies in memory. And a card shop in this digital age?

Can Norman, a former ultrasound technician, and Rothberg, a stay-at-home mom, now find happiness and success in this 1,600-square-foot shop filled with greeting cards, balloons and new items such as wood plaques, food platters and a wooden box for keeping restaurant menus?

"I think that people are still going to buy cards," Norman said. "If we're able to sustain ourselves in whatever you call this economy, then the only place to go is up."

They bought the place for an undisclosed sum from another woman, who holds a note on the store.

Rothberg, whose family was in the retail business, does the buying.

Norman does the business end, with help from her ex-husband, Lake Success accountant Michael C. Allen, who checked out a few other businesses for the women and does the accounting for CardSmart.

Any hard feelings eight years after their divorce are now "water under the bridge," Allen said. "I was happy to do it."

Norman said she is certain she and Rothberg have done the right thing. "We weren't making money in the stock market," Norman said. "This was investing in ourselves."