If you are planning to start up a gift basket company or home based gift basket company or just adding additional services to a business you have now, one of the critical things to consider is the types of gift baskets you’ll create.
You can offer a broad assortment of gift baskets, or try to focus in on one type of specialty gift baskets. If you are just starting out in the business, it is important to keep your overhead low. The best way to do that is to specialize in one or two themes for your gift baskets.
There are several types to consider. The first is get well gift baskets. It is important to create a sample basket or two to be able to showcase your work. It is important to be creative when marketing your gift baskets, and take your demo to one of the local hospitals and wander though the cafeteria and set it down on a table while you eat lunch. People will assume you are delivering it to a patient and will most likely ask 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. Some hospitals will allow you to post your information on the message board so that people can grab your information as they walk by. Swing into the gift shop, show the sample gift basket and ask if they would consider taking any on consignment. If they do and get enough orders, they’ll probably start ordering regularly from you without consignment. If you have any friends that are health professionals, show them your sample baskets or even give them one and ask for referrals in exchange.
Once you establish yourself with the hospitals, you should then be able to add another specialty gift basket for new baby gift baskets. To help keep your cost down, consider purchasing gender neutral items so that you can use them in gifts for both boys and girls. You can utilize a blue baby basket and pink baby baskets to help differentiate between boy and girls, but while still using the same filler items to go into the baby baskets. As time goes by you should be able to have a good number of the hospitals in your area carrying your baskets in their gift shop as well as becoming a known name amongst the hospital staff.
