When I started my business, my thought was that wholesalers that provided me with baskets, chocolates, and baby products never closed their doors for good.

There seemed to be so many wholesalers and so many of us who needed them. How could they ever cease operation?

Wholesalers close their doors the same way we go out of business. That’s why wholesale directories can’t be printed. As soon as it’s published, one or more entries are old, or wholesalers that open soon after the printing aren’t included.

So how can you possibly know where, in your area, to find wholesale products? This dilemma is the reason why Flora Brown and I recorded How to Find Products In and Around Your State.

During our travels speaking at gift trade shows throughout the U.S., we visited many areas where wholesale products are found and noticed similarities on how to find these little-known places.

This valuable information is available on a 50-minute CD so you can easily locate whatever you need to buy at wholesale cost and stop spending more money than necessary at retail shops.

How much money can you save by finding wholesalers in your area to buy from versus retailers?

Shirley George Frazier

Shirley George Frazier is recognized as the world’s authority on the gift basket industry. She is head basketologist at Sweet Survival LLC (known on the web as GiftBasketBusiness.com), which assists creative people to turn their passion into rewarding businesses. Shirley is also author of How to Start a Home-Based Gift Basket Business, The Gift Basket Design Book, and Marketing Strategies for the Home-Based Business. If you're looking for a speaker who's easy to work with, one that attendees will thank you for bringing to the event, contact Shirley at 973-279-2799 or Shirley@ShirleySpeaks.com.

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3. Secure the Products in Your Gift Baskets, or Face the Consequences

Not everything you buy to make gift baskets will be an instant hit with customers. This is especially true if your business is one year old or younger.

You’ll make buying mistakes at the beginning. It can’t be helped. You think customers want one thing, and they end up wanting something else, so you buy whatever it is and sell it over and over while the first item gets dusty and forgotten.

This situation leads to decisions you’ll have to make about the inventory.

• Do you sell it?
• Will you toss it?
• What about eating it?

There are lots of routes to take to turn these non-sellers into promotional items and income generators, and the choice of what to do is in your hands.

I gave away my non-selling items to people to show appreciation helping me in personal and professional situations. Each item, whether presented individually or as a bundled gift, was included in a tote bag or another container so the presentation was attractive and customized.

That’s how I turned my duds into delightful gifts, and in the Golden Basket Club, designers like you learn no less than a dozen ways to turn this lemony situation into lemonade. What’s your method?

Shirley George Frazier

Shirley George Frazier is recognized as the world’s authority on the gift basket industry. She is head basketologist at Sweet Survival LLC (known on the web as GiftBasketBusiness.com), which assists creative people to turn their passion into rewarding businesses. Shirley is also author of How to Start a Home-Based Gift Basket Business, The Gift Basket Design Book, and Marketing Strategies for the Home-Based Business. If you're looking for a speaker who's easy to work with, one that attendees will thank you for bringing to the event, contact Shirley at 973-279-2799 or Shirley@ShirleySpeaks.com.

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1. Happy to Make and Sell Gift Baskets? You Have Lots More to be Thankful For

There are lots of sales happening now, as brick and mortar stores are looking to unload as much merchandise as possible before returns start on December 26.

I’m curious to find out if any stores, whether retail, discount, or warehouse, have products of interest to you whether you normally buy them for gift baskets or are considering buying because it’s on sale.

It’s normal to feel compelled to buy, especially when an item is at a lower price, so don’t feel as though you’re alone. I’m sure many designers are considering these buys or have purchased products to take advantage of the opportunity.

Which sale merchandise is in your sights?

Shirley George Frazier

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1. Now Where Did I Put Last Year’s Christmas Bears?
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3. Why Old Excuses About Why You’re Not Making Gift Baskets No Longer Work

If you haven’t visited wholesalers or distributors in your region that cater to the florist industry, now’s the time to get there.

Their tables and shelves are filled with inventory to create bountiful gift baskets this holiday season and the early part of 2012.

In no way am I suggesting that you not purchase products from wholesalers out of the area that you’ve worked with for years. I’ve found it beneficial to know who in the immediate area has supplies I can get my hands on quickly when I cannot wait for a shipment.

As an example there are four of these facilities within an hour’s drive in northern New Jersey and many more available in Southern California. Blood starts rushing through you the minute you step through the door, as you cannot wait to see what’s available down each aisle.

It was easy to find local facilities when the Yellow Pages were popular. One look in the “floral supplies” section led you to locations in your neighborhood. Now you have to hope these suppliers have a website that’s search engine optimized so you can find them through Google, Yahoo!, or Bing.

Was it easy for you to find a facility close to your location, or are you still searching?

Shirley George Frazier

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1. Here’s Why Taking Chances to Grow Your Gift Basket Business is Worth the Anxiety

As the big holiday sales season approaches, now’s the time to unearth older inventory you weren’t able to move all year and incorporate it with this season’s merchandise.

Carrying this year’s products into 2012 is not what you want. It’s important to reduce as much of that inventory as possible before this year closes.

Some of the ways you can easily add that product into gift baskets are:

• Tie a holiday bow on or around it
• Theme it according to packaging colors
• If all else fails, offer it as a gift with purchase

How do you plan to move merchandise this holiday that’s been waiting for a reason to be sold?

Shirley George Frazier

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Foods and snacks are items that customers want to see, touch, and taste within the baskets we create, but what about the gifts?

I think back to when I began making gift baskets in 1990 and remember how I started with gifts and no foods.

The plush animals, stationery and writing instruments, paperweights, kitchen utensils, and spa tools were part of the non-edible inventory that I believed would set me apart from other gift basket designers.

When I was booked to appear on The Food Network, that broadcast and many appearances after that initial one forced me to ditch the gifts for foods. However, gifts stayed on my radar, and I continued searching for and buying great keepsake items that lasted long after the foods were consumed.

It’s important to buy inventory according to customers’ requests, which is one topic I’ll address during the upcoming teleseminar, Drop Shipping: 12 Things You Must Know to Make Bundles of Cash When Someone Else Makes Your Gift Baskets. Click on this link to read more about this telephone event.

Which gift items in your inventory are the ones customers ask for most often?

Shirley George Frazier

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One big lesson I learned as I built my gift basket business was to be very careful when choosing inventory.

Buying products that don’t match what customers want in their gift baskets is a recipe for wasted money and shelf space reserved for items that sell fast.

Thinking back, I now laugh at the buying mistakes that were made back then, but spending money on the things that don’t sell is no laughing matter.

What did you buy to make gift baskets that hasn’t been the big seller you expected, and how can you position those products in another way that markets your business?

Shirley George Frazier

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Do you have products in your inventory that haven’t sold as quickly as you thought they would?

That was a problem for me, too, when I first started making gift baskets. Snacks and gifts I believed to be favorable turned out not to be.

I asked myself, “How can I get rid of these items creatively and not throw them away or eat the goodies?”

I realized that a good way to discard this inventory was giving it away as appreciation gifts.

These items were included within tote bags, decorative boxes, and other containers outside of baskets, which are saved for making revenue-generating gifts.

Another option was to wrap individual items within cellophane, a technique you’ll see on the CellophaneWrapTips.com site.

Of course, everything didn’t qualify as a “thank you” memento, but most did.

This new way of thinking about my inventory helped me decrease waste, and as I developed a customer profile of what they prefer and what they don’t, I was able to buy more items that they wanted every season.

Which items in your iinventory double as appreciation gifts?

Shirley George Frazier

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