Gift Basket News for You to Know
Gift basket news arrived in my Email overnight. The first one is very important to share with you.
Wine.com just announced that it’s recalling some gift baskets because of certain products that may include contaminated peanut butter. The products in question are made by Torn Ranch.
Read the article here to learn which specific items are on the recall list. Then check your inventory for similar products. Either discard them or call the supplier from which they were purchased for credit.
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A Florida-based gift basket retailer has decided to close her business. After five years, she cites the economy as the culprit.
“We rely on corporate gift basket clients and so many businesses are down themselves, so they were not able to do — or they had scaled back — for their clients this year.”
Earlier this week, I talked about business building tactics but certainly understand that not everyone will thrive. I wish this retailer the best in her next venture.
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On a positive note, a gift basket retailer based in Maine has purchased another gift basket enterprise and is merging it with her own. This quick-to-read story is found here.
Maine is a beautiful state, brutally cold in the winter, but gorgeous and friendly. I wish this retailer a mountain of success.
The recall article is from an online source, but the other two were found in newspapers, proving that publications are interested in all types of gift basket news. What newsworthy story about your business are you preparing to submit to your local paper? See this article for ideas.
Changing Your Business from Ordinary to Extraordinary
Participating in the gift basket industry since 1990 makes me keenly aware of what separates designers who know how to maintain a constant flow of orders and customers from designers who liquidate their inventory because they don’t understand what motivates prospects to buy.
I knew, at the beginning of my business, that it would take more than great gifts and a smile to connect with buyers. I started with good basics. However, I had to learn how to:
It wasn’t easy, but once I understood all of the steps to create a regular stream if sales, I repeated the process over and over and refined the steps to make everything work like a well-oiled machine.
Is that the way you’ve structured your gift basket business?
I remember floundering, wishing that sales would miraculously appear, when deep in my heart I knew that I was doing nothing to make sales happen.
Working for someone else and raising a family also seemed to be a burden, but after setting up my business for success, I realized that blaming them for my inability to make money was wrong.
The problem was all mine, and if I didn’t learn how to run my business, with all of the other “stuff” in my life, I’d quickly be out of business.
Some of what I developed is documented in How to Start a Home-Based Gift Basket Business. The larger parts of the system reside in the Golden Basket Club, which I promised last week to introduce to you.
I’ve worked with several designers throughout the U.S. who’ve mastered the club’s techniques and are now smiling when they see their sales charts rather than wondering when the knot in their stomach would ever disappear.
That’s what I want for all of you if that knot constantly reminds you it’s there.
Take a look at what the Golden Basket Club offers. I’d love to know, through your comments, what looks beneficial and what, for you, is missing. Perhaps it’s not really missing and part of the process that’s not revealed.
The Club is available to you, during this initial introduction, on a monthly trial basis. It’s how I appreciate joining membership groups, and my hope is that it’s beneficial for you, too.
I truly believe that this is the year for positive action to turn ordinary businesses into extraordinary enterprises, and the Golden Basket Club is my way of assisting you in creating a rich and rewarding lifestyle through a business you’re more passionate about each day.
What’s Going on With Gift Baskets?
Here’s a roundup of recent gift basket stories reported on the net.
1. What is it about gift baskets that make some people grab happy? That’s what I asked myself when learning that a Connecticut woman was arrested for stealing two gift baskets at a hospital Christmas raffle.
Here’s the story, which also says she tried taking other items but was unsuccessful because the items were tied down.
Must we travel with our glue guns in order to cement gift baskets to tables? I can see all of us now, retrieving the glue gun from a belt holster while looking around the room and daring anyone to come close.
2. A Rhode-Island based designer aggressively marketed her gift baskets this past holiday and was rewarded for her being proactive. The story is found here in Providence Business News.
Although the holidays are over, this retailer’s action plan is one to consider for your yearly plan to boost sales.
3. Terri and Wally August, owners of Fancifull Gift Baskets, are partnering with a non-profit group in a huge fundraiser to “give back to the community and help expand the arts within inner city neighborhoods.”
I bet many of you donate or partner with a charity. If that’s not yet part of your overall plan, perhaps the article will provide insight on how to create a partnership that spreads joy for everyone.
Tomorrow, I’ll attend an event with more than 30 corporate executives whose firms donate time and money to local charities. I’m going because I want to learn how they create these initiatives and find one to join.
The event is just $25, a great investment to mingle with business execs I would not meet otherwise.
I found the event in the newspaper roster of upcoming meetings. Perhaps your local paper prints the same type of list that’s to your advantage to review to find similar events that support charities and your business promotion.
My thanks to Cindy Carothers for alerting me to a broken link in the 1-800-Flowers.com story I talked about yesterday. Here’s a new link to the story which hopefully is working this morning.
Designers are Determined to Succeed
One of the most frequently-asked questions that I hear is, “Where do I find suppliers in my state?”
A designer posed that question at Ask The Gift Basket Expert. If you’re searching for local companies, the three options I share in the response may also help you.
This is one question that, to me, fuels a renewed spirit for getting back to business to continue relationships, re-establish connections, and find new clients.
Lots of calls have arrived in my office from many of you with a renewed commitment to success. It’s a great sign that even though the media tries to drum into your head that times are hard, you’ll still move forward with determination to market, sell, and profit.
If attending the Philadelphia Gift Show this weekend, I’ll be speaking about spring gift baskets on Saturday at 11:30 am. Books and CDs will be available. Please introduce yourself; I’d like to meet you at this event or at any of the upcoming seminars listed at GiftBasketClass.com.
Baby Baskets – New Laws, New Liabilities
I couldn’t get Elaine McCool’s thoughtful comment to this baby baskets article I wrote earlier in the month off my mind.
Elaine is concerned, and rightfully so, about the new Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) that goes into effect in February. You can read more about it on the Toy Industry Association Web site.
For clarification, here is the focus of the CPSIA, quoted directly from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission’s Web site:
“Beginning February 10, 2009, children’s products cannot be sold if they contain more than 600 parts per million (ppm) total lead. Certain children’s products manufactured on or after February 10, 2009 cannot be sold if they contain more than 0.1% of certain specific phthalates or if they fail to meet new mandatory standards for toys.”
The bottom line, as I interpret it, is that the children’s products you purchase to create infant, baby, and children’s gift baskets, must pass rigorous testing for lead before placing it on store shelves for consumer purchase and including it within your baskets.
All of the mass produced, low quality, untested products shipped into the United States and sold by big box stores – the same products attributed to lost jobs and a sour economy – are now affecting us in a new, sinister way.
If you’re unsure about the quality of the targeted products in your inventory, contact the manufacturer to learn if it can be sold or if it must be discarded.
This is a huge problem that affects your investment money; however, it may become a legal problem for you if it’s added to a gift basket.
Suppliers that sell these items to us and retailers that sell baby products to the public are no doubt reeling, and some may go out of business. I’m hoping none of you are headed for closure.
There may be one bright spot in this matter – organic goods. Organics are made under specific guidelines, and even though it’s still necessary to make sure manufacturers and suppliers are within the law, organic infant and children’s goods may be out of harm’s way.
See the Organic Wholesale Supplies site for companies that will fill the void while the shakeout continues.
Thank you, Elaine, for voicing your concerns. Does anyone else have an opinion about baby goods and the new law?
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