Mar

12

How to Decide If Making Gift Baskets for Stores is For You

Filed Under Pricing Strategies, Sales-Increasing Strategies | Leave a Comment

It’s natural, as word gets around about your designs, for other retailers to contact you to create their gift baskets.

At first, you may be flattered.

Then you might wonder if splitting your time between your business and someone else’s is possible or if it’s a smart move, as this new type of client may ultimately become a competitor.

Your decision to accept or decline these projects depends on pre-set goals. If “no,” you simply turn down the request, but if “yes:”

How much will you charge?

Will you supply the products, or will items come from the retailers’ inventory?

What stipulations will you place in the contract?

Will you design on a seasonal basis or all year long?

Is training the retail store’s staff a good move or one that will cause you trouble?

These questions are part of the decision-making process, as setting goals and objectives ahead of time will allow you to understand the monetary benefits of becoming your area’s ultimate gift basket expert.

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Creating gift baskets for other stores may be glamorous, but without knowing how to get accounts and what to charge, there’s a huge chance that you’ll leave lots of money on the table. Can you afford that?

Join me on Tuesday, April 1, for a 60-minute teleseminar that reveals how to increase your income by outsourcing your gift basket expertise. This teleseminar is open to the first 12 people who sign up to ensure that all questions are addressed during the call.

More information on this page:

http://www.GiftBasketBusiness.com/teleseminar.htm

Feb

24

Do You Wrap Other People’s Gift Baskets?

Filed Under Cellophane, Shrink Wrap, Bags, Ribbon and Bows | Leave a Comment

When I arrived at a bookstore to promote the book, How to Start a Home-Based Gift Basket Business, a woman attending the event asked me to use the gift basket she brought to show people how to make and wrap it.

I declined her request, as I had my own gift basket with me. In addition, my policy at the time was to only wrap my gift baskets and not ones presented elsewhere or brought into my store.

Within months my policy changed because I began receiving many cellophane wrapping and bowmaking requests. It became a lucrative part of business because customers preferred my professional styling.

You’ll find cellophane wrapping tips and a video at CellophaneWrapTips.com.

What’s your policy on wrapping gift baskets that you didn’t make?

Feb

17

Make Marketing Your Gift Baskets an Easy Process

Filed Under Sales-Increasing Strategies | Leave a Comment

Your own sales records of who’s purchased gift baskets from you in the past gives you reliable information about three marketing must haves:

1. The market that currently buys so that you can target similar people.

2. Knowledge about which gift baskets sell most often versus which ones are lagging in sales.

3. Mailing addresses and/or Email addresses to notify customers and prospects about reasons to buy.

These elements help you develop a solid strategy for connecting with people who are most likely to purchase every month.

What’s your marketing plan to show how valuable your gift baskets are in the lives of people you serve?

Feb

10

Who Thinks You’re Wasting Time with Gift Baskets?

Filed Under Startup Help | Leave a Comment

You’re surrounded by two types of people: the ones who believe in your dreams and the others who can find every reason why your goals won’t work.

It seems that the people who are negative about what you want to accomplish make the most impact on your decisions. Why is that?

My gift basket business may not have started if I had listened to an uncle who was dead-set against it. Read the story here entitled, Who’s Telling You Not to Start a Gift Basket Business?”

If you’re surrounded by people who put down your dream, how do you plan to push your fears aside and begin turning your dream into a reality?

Feb

3

How Do You Price Your Gift Baskets?

Filed Under Pricing Strategies | Leave a Comment

Many pricing formulas exist for gift basket designers. The best way to decide how much to charge is to balance value with profitability.

For example, some home-based designers keystone their costs to arrive at each gift basket’s retail price.

Other designers triple their wholesale costs.

Retailers who maintain storefronts abide by a different formula, as they must account for store upkeep.

How do you decide what to charge for your gift baskets?

Jan

27

Five Steps to Achieve Success with Gift Baskets

Filed Under Sales-Increasing Strategies | Leave a Comment

Designers whom I mentor asked me to put together a report to help them build a better business in 2010. That special report was created late last year and is now available to you.

To receive your report, join the Gift Basket Business fan page on Facebook. The fan page is the only place where you’ll have access to links to receive additional reports available throughout the year.

Here’s the link to join the page and download the report, Five Steps to Achieve Success with Gift Baskets:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Gift-Basket-Business/271093563655

Also, be sure to follow BasketSupplies on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/BasketSupplies for tips, techniques, and links to your favorite wholesalers with products and supplies to grow your business.

Jan

20

How Would You Shop The Fancy Food Show?

Filed Under TRADE SHOWS | Leave a Comment

The Fancy Food Show, currently underway in San Francisco, is a true culinary experience.

It’s said that if you cannot find a particular food or beverage there, it doesn’t exist.

What would be on your list of “must haves” at the show if you attended? That’s the question posed on the Gift Basket Business Facebook group page.

There are many answers and room for yours, too. Join the conversation through this link:

http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=74453386284&topic=12685