Home-based Gift Basket Business

First Train Your Creative Side

Beyond the curling ribbon and sparkly cellophane, a well-proportioned gift basket can make even a few items pop with celebratory delight. However, there’s a knack to placement, similar to flower arranging.

To improve your skills:

• Study catalogs that feature gift baskets to gain a better understanding of items and arrangements.
• Check out craft books or basket-making videos.
• Take a community education course, usually offered for a nominal fee over a couple of nights or on a weekend.

Decide on Your Specialty

Deciding on a specialty is not to limit your abilities, rather to help you decide what you want to focus on. Home-based gift basket businesses are part of a multi-million dollar industry with good reason: the versatility.

Do some stealth marketing by visiting other gift basket shops in your area. Some retail shops do more than gift baskets, such as cookie bouquets and flowers. Also, very few retail outlets only do one kind of basket, so if you’d like your business to focus on wedding gift baskets, for example, you create a lucrative niche market for your company.

However, maybe you’d also like to create various types of gift baskets. If so, don't hesitate to add a "signature:" a certain kind of chocolate; the way the baskets are packaged; a little something extra, or lagniappe, the customer might not be expecting; that separates your gift baskets from the competition. It becomes an instant marketing vehicle.

Starting a Home-Based Gift Basket Business

One of the best ways to understand this industry is to visit the myriad fancy food shows and gift merchandising conferences. You’ll network with wholesalers and experience firsthand how many options you can include in your baskets, pricing strategies, what the trends are popular and other valuable tips.

Then:

• Develop your business plan.
• If you’d like your business to be online, visit E Commerce to start the process.
• Secure a business license and a resale number.
• Establish a shipping account.
• Create business cards and brochures.

While most people these days have a digital camera, if you don’t, you might find this to be a good investment also to capture your various creations. Perhaps you can build a simple Web site to display your work or provide a digital brochure on CD to prospective clients.

You’ll also need to dedicate a particular location in your home with plenty of space for basket assembly, storage of stock items and gift inventory.

The amount of inventory you start with will dictate how much funding you’ll need to get off the ground and how much to charge for your work. Visit How To Start a Gift Basket Service for more pricing details.

Inventory for Gift Baskets

Stocking the right amount of inventory is a delicate balance for any small business, but for a home-based gift basket business, it’s imperative that inventory moves quickly, otherwise you have money sitting on the shelves instead of in the bank.

Gift baskets can be stacked with just about anything, however, having a clear view of the direction of your business will keep costs down by allowing for flexibility in your item selection.

What you will always need:

• Baskets and special containers
• A variety of ribbon and bows
• Base material, such as packing straw, for item placement
• Cellophane for wrapping the baskets
• Gift cards
• Scissors, glue/glue gun, tape, etc…

How to Advertise Your Gift Basket Business

There are many simple marketing avenues for a home-based gift basket business. Whether you choose to work part time or full time will determine how aggressive you approach marketing.

• Distribute business cards and brochures at church, the health club, your child’s daycare center, bridal shows/dress stores and the like.
• Tuck extra business cards in with a customer’s invoice and offer a referral discount.
• Talk with the maternity center at the hospital. Many extend a variety of services to new parents, and a gift basket from your company might be an item they’ll consider.
• Demonstrate your work at business breakfast meetings, realtor sales meetings and cleaning services.
• Arrange a partnership with a local wine shop – you’ll provide the gourmet items for their wine baskets and vice versa.

In other words, apply the same creativity used with your gift basket creations to your marketing and you should experience great success.