There are parts of the world (yes, even in the U.S.) where wholesale gift basket items are hard to find.

This problem can occur for many reasons including the popular and relevant geographic location dilemma. Sometimes a wholesale source is simply too far away.

That’s what has made the Gift Basket Starter Kit so popular. It arrives at your doorstep with everything (except scissors) needed to make your first gift basket, plus it includes instructions in text and visual formats.

If you’re wasting time running around trying to find products at this store and that store, perhaps the Starter Kit is a better option so you can spend more time doing other things on your list.

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. Why It’s Time to Operate Your Gift Basket Business Full Time

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

This post on The New York Enterprise Report’s site from an anonymous CEO reminds me of what I knew about every job I held during my many years of working for someone else.

The attitude of this executive may not be what you face each day, but unfortunately, these words ring true for many employees even if it’s not recognized.

We get it. We understand. We all know that if you don’t like where you are, you need to move on. The words in the article can’t be tied with a pretty bow to make you feel better.

The harsh reality of working for someone else is that you are putting the employer in charge of what you earn every year. Your salary and benefits are dependent on that company, period.

Now consider the alternative. Visualize this:

• You operate a full time business practicing your dream profession.
• Every day you enter your office and can earn as much as you wish.
• You call the shots according to your plan to thrive rather than survive.

Can you see the dream of working for yourself changing into a reality? How do the words written by the anonymous CEO move you into action so your business becomes a reality faster than it is now?

Shirley George Frazier

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There wasn’t much support – no, let me update that – there wasn’t any support for me in 1989 when I began developing a plan to open my gift basket business.

One book that was written in 1983 existed, penned by a woman living in England, but there was no Internet to help me uncover that source.

More than a decade after my start, I found gift basket articles in magazines dating back to the early 1900s, but finding such resources weren’t on my mind when I began. I wanted like-minded people to learn from and a blueprint to help me decide what to buy and where to buy it.

Most of all, the one thing I would have changed when starting my gift basket business was opening the business in a storefront rather than at home. That one change may have forced me to be more business minded than I was in the beginning.

Still, I rose in the ranks to speak at conferences, appear on popular television shows, and write How to Start a Home-Based Gift Basket Business and The Gift Basket Design Book, all which allowed me to support designers worldwide through my experience, but owning a store in the first years was a goal I did not achieve.

Looking back at your roots, what’s the one thing about starting your business that you’d change today?

• Did you make mistakes that cost you too many dollars?
• Which corporate client did you run from rather than towards?
• Was not having access to certain people caused unnecessary hardships?

What’s that one tweak that would have made a positive difference in the way your business is structured today or, by chance, did you get it right the first time?

Shirley George Frazier

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“It costs under $100 to start.”

“Go into business with your friend.”

Someone, somewhere said something about gift baskets that made sense at the time, but as you became more familiar with the industry, that advice went straight out the door.

You realized that the person, who’s never owned a business let alone a gift basket business, didn’t know what they were talking about.

The advice may have cost you time or money, or perhaps you didn’t act on it and are glad nothing was wasted.

My worst memory comes from a woman who attended a recordkeeping course with me as I planned to open for business. She said, “You should make gift baskets for 10-year-old boys. I’d buy it.”

Wanting to please this potential first customer, I searched high and low to find products for this age group. Unfortunately, I purchased everything from a wholesaler, which meant buying cases of products.

I called the woman when the gift basket was made, but she never returned my call. There I was, with a big investment and no buyers. That was a lesson in understanding my target market before buying inventory.

What was the worst advice you’ve received about gift baskets?

Shirley George Frazier

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Launching a gift basket business is not for anyone who’s timid.

You’re both excited and nervous, asking yourself all types of questions:

Why not create affirmative statements from these same questions?

Designers who launched their businesses before you were also anxious and apprehensive, and today many of them earn six-figure incomes. That future is yours, too, if you focus on the good that can and will happen.

There’s no doubt that problems are part of your future. However, all of the trials that you mastered with designing and administrative work, along with in-person and/or online mentorship, are part of your success package.

Think positively, and you’ll reap the rewards that were waiting patiently for you to take this monumental step.

Shirley George Frazier

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