If you are planning to start up a gift basket business or home based gift basket business or just add a sideline to a business you have now, one of the most significant things to consider is the type of gift baskets you’ll offer.
You can offer a wide range of gift baskets, or try to focus in on unique specialty gift baskets . If you are just beginning out in the business, it is important to keep your overhead low . The easiest way to do that is to specialize in one or two themes for your gift baskets.
There are several types of specialty gift baskets to consider. Get well gift basket are a terrfic starting point Make up a demo gift basket so that you are able to showcase your work. For marketing your specialty gift basket you may have to get really creative, and take your demo to one of the local hospitals and wander though the cafeteria and set it down on a table while you have a beverage. People will assume you are delivering it to a patient and will most likely as where it came from. Make sure you have plenty of business cards and or brochures to pass out to people as they inquire about the gift basket. It would be a great idea to stop in and ask the administration if you can put up your brochures on the hospital message board . Stop at the gift shop, show the demo gift basket and ask if they would consider taking any on consignment. If they do, and they get enough orders, they’ll probably start ordering on a regular basis from you without consignment. If you know of any health professionals, show them your demo baskets or even give them one and ask for referrals in exchange.
Now that you are currently selling in the hospital , you should then be able to add another specialty gift basket for new baby gift baskets. To limit your expenses, try to purchase gender neutral items to go into the basket. To help differentiate between the boy and girl gift baskets, try using blue or pink baskets , but while still using the same filler items to go into the gifts. As time goes by you should be able to have several of the hospitals in your area carrying your baskets in their gift shop as well as becoming a known name amongst the hospital staff.