Selling Gift Baskets with No Foods
Anna asks:
“I want to make baskets with gifts rather than with just food. Can I make money with that?”
Absolutely. When I began my business in 1990, I started by including all gift items. The only edible product in my baskets was a handful of lollipops with my business name pre-printed on the candy.
I launched with all gifts because I wasn’t sure, at the time, if my city’s laws allowed me to store and sell pre-packaged foods from my home base.
Some of my most-popular items included:
As with food baskets, the marketing you choose to promote your all-gift baskets must be positioned to help you reach the intended audience.
That’s what I did, and my baskets sold quickly.
I constantly reminded customers that the gifts would last a lifetime. That’s what worked for me. Perhaps that same type of message will also work for you.
Are the Holidays a Good Time to Open for Business?
Ruby asks:
“I’m thinking of starting a gift basket business next year, but I want to make money now so that I have some extra cash to officially start making baskets. So are the holidays a good time to jump into this business?”
Wally Amos, the man who put Famous Amos Cookies on the map, once said something similar to, “If you don’t start your business now, when will you?”
The way your question is posed makes me think that there is some underlying reason why you’re hesitant, but if you have enough capital (cash) to buy inventory and enough contacts who will buy, why not start business by selling holiday gift baskets?
You wouldn’t be the first. In 2002, I worked with a designer who started business on November 12. She was confident that her business would make $5,000 gross (income before expenses are deducted) because of her business connections.
We crunched numbers, determined the inventory, and she started marketing a few days before Thanksgiving. On December 31, we checked her financials. Her gross sales were $4,893.78, and she continues to thrive today.
Some of the marketing tactics in her plan are documented in 101 Ways to Market Gift Baskets.
If your research convinces you to start now, do it without hesitation. Or wait. The choice is up to you.
How Do I Get Customers for My Home-Based Business?
Helen asks:
I have a home based gift basket business and it has been a struggle to get customers despite trying all the techniques suggested by experts (at least most of them).
Could you please advise? i am actually considering opening a store so as to be in the public eye maybe that might help.
Thanks
Lack of customers is not a symptom of being based at home. If that were true, home-based businesses would not exist.
In addition, opening a retail store in itself will not guarantee success.
Both spaces require marketing, and without it, you’ll sell to no one.
I don’t know everything about your situation – how you’ve marketed, who your target market is, what types of online and direct mail promotion you’ve completed – all of this is important.
Simply telling someone that you have a gift basket business will not bring sales.
Are you talking to people about the time you save them from traveling to buy gifts, other buying benefits, perks/incentives you provide, how people feel when they receive your gifts and baskets, etc.?
Marketing and follow up is the key to sales success. Take a good look at your marketing plan, get advice from other business owners while networking at meetings and events, and watch how successful retailers make money.
The ebook, 101 Ways to Market Gift Baskets, also provides sound ideas for increasing sales.
All of this will guide you to make sound decisions that start the cash register ringing.
Gift Basket Biz Plan
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Gift Basket Books
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