Gift Basket Articles, Stories, and Lessons
1. Newsday.com recently spoke with a designer who operates a gift basket/flower shop, asking her how the high price of gas is affecting business. You can read the story here.
I was surprised to read that she only charges $1 per delivery.
How are you handling delivery charges? Are you passing the cost to customers, or do you provide additional incentives to keep them buying?
2. TBO.com (Tampa Bay Online) profiles a woman who recently opened a gift shop. You’ll see a tall gift basket in the photograph accompanying the article.
Do you find that your taller designs sell faster than shorter ones?
3. A designer recently asked how she can stay within a fixed budget to photograph her baskets. I respond at Ask The Gift Basket Expert, explaining that it doesn’t take a lot of cash to create your own photography studio.
The photo shown is from the Gift Basket Design Studio Extreme Makeover.
4. Thank you to everyone who sent well wishes after my emergency surgery this week. I urge all of you to care for yourself the same way you care for every order.
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What’s In Your Gift Basket Toolbox?
A broken balloon. Newly-torn cellophane. The strangest things happen to baskets while traveling to a client.
When the destination is important and there’s no time to waste, you can be sure that something will happen to that gorgeous basket somewhere between getting into and out of the car.
To solve the worst of problems, designers carry their own version of a doctor’s bag, a suggestion I share in The Gift Basket Design Book.
Move over aspirin — the contents of this bag promises to remove all the pain associated with having the smallest of things go wrong to ruin the event.
Your bag doesn’t have to be an actual bag. It could be a toolbox, a wire-bound carryall (shown above) or a small cardboard box. Use whatever works for you and fill it with the following products, which will travel inside of your vehicle at all times:
1) One sharp pair of scissors
2) Sticky tape or glue
3) One roll of transparent tape on a dispenser
4) Two to three unfilled balloons with matching cups and sticks
5) A minimum of three star sprays in the color of your choice
6) One all-purpose pick enhancement
7) One bunch of raffia, any color
One roll of brushed gold curling ribbon (unless another color is preferred)
9) One roll of all-purpose ribbon (determine the best color and width to carry)
10) One queen-sized carry bag
Today’s gift basket designer always carries these tools in case of an emergency. If the vehicle’s tire suddenly goes flat, you need a ready spare. The same can be said of a basket design that’s just suffered a hazard.
Keep these tools handy. It’s a great investment in time and against headaches.
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Gift Basket Gets Stolen
Did you know that the gifts we make are targets for crime? Here’s a story from West Virginia I read on the weekend about a women who, while supposedly delivering event photographs, was lifting a gift basket valued at $200.
“…when they returned to the conference room a little later, one “Family Entertainment Fun Pack” basket was missing. The basket contained $150 to $200 in merchandise including gift cards and gift certificates, candles, a blanket, cookies, candy, popcorn and four pounds of fudge.”
As you’ll read in the story, the basket was found in the suspect’s car “covered with coats and blankets.”
This article brings to light the need for security when delivering gift baskets. Look for back rooms, curtained areas, and other locations within a large facility where baskets can be temporarily stored so they won’t disappear.
If using courier services for deliveries, it’s wise to talk with the representative about security measures in place when your baskets are in transit. What if one of your gifts is taken from the truck? Who’s liable, and how do you file a claim?
Be sure your courier contract covers that, and find out how you own business insurance provides coverage. Business insurance is addressed here.
I’m glad to read that the basket was recovered. Has this situation happened to you?
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You Delivered a Basket to the Wrong House. Now What?
If you work for someone else, there’s a good chance that if a problem occurs during a team project, you can blame the supervisor or co-worker.
That’s not true when you work alone. Every snafu belongs to you. If you’ve encountered no problems so far, that’s great. However, one is just around the corner.
My first problem happened when delivering a gift basket during my first year in business. I knocked on the door, but no one answered. I looked around, set the basket on the enclosed porch, and ran off the property as if a virus was seeping through the door.
The client said that the recipient didn’t get the basket. Then I learned why. I wrote the wrong house number. The solution? Make another basket and deliver it to the right house, and write a note of apology to the client.
It’s advisable to not retrieve a basket from the wrong house and deliver it to the right one because you don’t know how the basket’s been treated since leaving your care.
This is just one problem. Another problem is fear of competition, which is explained in this article. Others will happen during your business lifetime, and thankfully most are fixable and easier to adjust as you become more experienced.
Many people don’t start a business because they’re terrified of making mistakes. You’re the exception. You understand that problems pave the road to success. As you progress toward your goals, I’m honored that you consider this site and the entire Gift Basket Business family of sites as your silent partner.
What problem has made your heart temporarily stop? How did you solve it?
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Will Gas Prices Slow Your Basket Sales?
Last Tuesday, my area’s newspaper (The Record) published a front-page story on gas prices and how small businesses are coping with deliveries, charges, and making sure costs are covered without losing lots of customers.
The reporter interviewed several businesses including a limousine firm, pizza shop, and mattress distributer. The company that most interested me was a flower shop. They recently increased the price of flower deliveries from $7.50 to $8.50.
“That hasn’t had much effect on orders,…People know it costs them just as much to drive here and pick it up.”
Rather than increase their local $1.25 delivery fee, the pizza shop owner raised the price of a plain large pizza from $11.75 to $12.50.
Are you making sure that your delivery costs are covered? Here are three tips, one which hopefully fits the way you do business.
1. Schedule gift basket deliveries for once daily. Deliveries outside of this schedule (rush or special orders) include a gas surcharge fee.
2. Resist driving to retail stores to buy gift basket inventory. This practice consumes many gallons of gas that’s best conserved for marketing purposes.
3. Become familiar with streamlined ordering from manufacturers and distributors than you may have in the past. Such firms are listed on the wholesalers’ page and at Gift Basket Wholesale Supplies. Expect a nominal increase in their delivery charges, which is offset by the increase in your gift basket prices.
How are you coping with the gas price explosion? Is it difficult for you to raise prices, or are you absorbing the cost on your own?
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