Creating a Successful Gift Basket Busines

Creating a successful gift basket s can seem very whimsical yet can be approached very methodically and systematically. Looking back on many false starts we have found that there were things that we should have done more consistently that did not cost anything that would have grown our basket business at an even greater rate. Listed below are a few suggestions that have helped us greatly in establishing a niche basket business, and building our customer base, as well at mistakes we made along the way.

• Things That Worked
• There is a lot of competition.
• Making your product different
  
  shower gel and 23 other bath and body products. We also customize the basket in any designer or generic fragrance the client wants. We make therapeutic baskets for any emotional or mental problem. This sets us apart from other gift basket shops.
  Although we make many or our own products, filling the basket with fun unique items is always a challenge. We have had great success at farmers markets and local craft shows finding home based business that really love having a consistent resource to sell their products to. To meet our price point many of the home based business are willing to modify an existing product or make an item exclusively for us. All we did was ask!

Word of mouth advertising has been one of our best growth mechanisms. Trying to attract "Social Butterflies" has paid off greatly. These are people that promote your business to everybody and who seem to know everybody, and love to tell them about

their special relationship with you. Giving the social butterflies sample products and gifts will keep your business on their lips to everybody they come in contact with. You can't be stingy with them!

A picture may say a thousand words, but the real thing speaks millions!! Having sample baskets made up and ready to go, is money in the bank! For some of us this sounds like a given, but many gift basket sellers work strictly of off verbal descriptions or simple printed catalog sheets. Some people can not visualize the scale or scope of the gift item from a picture. Because they are giving it as a gift and purchasing a gift for someone is very stressful, looking at a picture leaves to many unanswered questions so they most likely will move on to something else, or go someplace else!

Be flexible! Although we may have 25 baskets done, someone always wants to add products or simply change the color of the shred or basket style and they want it done right away. Sometimes this can be very inconvenient for us and staff. We try to limit on demand last minute custom changes but we also try to accommodate the customer as well. Setting visible limits to on demand changes in terms of minimum time needed, additional cost (if any) and deposits amounts helps you and the customer make decisions better.

If the customer is placing and order to be picked up or delivered, everything must be written down. Ideally the customer should sign off on the order form and given a copy, but worst case the information should be read, and reread over the phone to make sure everything is correct. Never, ever do large orders without a purchase order from the client with a signature and delivery dates and specifications spelled out. You can loose a lot of money and time redoing an order because your client thought (assumed) one thing and you thought something different.

Try to establish relationships with business owners that includes your product as a part of doing business. For example, real estate companies and car dealerships are always trying to distinguish themselves from the competition with there customer service and customer appreciation. You can make really good money having a few accounts that send your product to every new account they set up!

Some of our printed descriptions don't list every product in the basket, but sets the mood of what each basket is for. This helps us by allowing us to be flexible in the product selection and making slight changes to match the client. This also allows us to develop printed material that does not go stale if items are discontinued or modified. Listed below are some of the descriptions and pictures of some of our generic gift baskets.