The Gift Baskets Business: Could it Be For You?
What You Will Need
This is a business that is easily run from home. You will need room in a basement, garage or extra bedroom for your supplies. You will also need a desk or small office space to organize your billing and invoicing, as well as a separate phone line and computer to take orders. You may want to secure some capital in advance, to make sure you have enough money to cover supplies until your customers start paying you. If you take orders by computer, customers can pay you using online payment services like PayPal, which allows them to use a credit card. Otherwise, you will have to accept checks and money orders by mail, which can be risky if the customers are not trustworthy.
Finding Materials
Good baskets are easy to find. Garage sales, thrift stores and estate sales are great places to get baskets, often for pennies. Whenever you see a decent-sized basket, go ahead and buy it. Shop basket sales at craft stores as well. Keep the baskets in storage until you need one.
Then, consider filler materials. Plastic “easter basket” grass, shredded newspaper, crumpled tissue paper: they are all good materials for filling up the bottoms of gift baskets. Depending on what else you are putting in there, you may need a lot of filler material, or just a handful. If you plan to wrap your gift basket in colored cellophane, you can crumple up some of that for a base as well.
What To Put In Your Gift Baskets
Finally, and most importantly, you need to think about what you are going to put in your gift baskets. Fruit and other edible treats are a popular choice. A child could get a basket of small toys and books. An amateur chef might enjoy kitchen gadgets and spices. Wedding baskets can include champagne, candy and disposable cameras for the honeymoon. A Father’s Day basket could contain a tie, golf tees and shaving supplies. A poker player may enjoy a basket filled with decks of cards, poker chips and cigars. The possibilities are as limitless as your imagination. Just remember that whatever you put in there should have a fairly long shelf-life, or you risk the basket contents spoiling before the recipient can enjoy it.
You will also have to consider delivery options. It may be hard to ship your baskets, so you will have to stick to local deliveries or pick-ups until you can work out other delivery arrangements.
A gift basket company is one of the best home business ideas and opportunities for someone who is creative and likes working with their hands.
