Great Gifts Start with Beautiful Baskets
Baskets reign in our industry as the basic foundation.
Containers, boxes, wire-framed items, and more also anchor great designs, but the basket identifies this business more prominently than other vessels.
That’s why designers are so choosy about sizes, colors, shapes, and pricing.
It’s all to make sure that our customers and recipients are pleased with what they give and receive.
We’re also very careful to find the best basket sources in the closest locations. If you’re located 3,000 miles away from the supplier, shipping charges will cost a pretty penny. But if you happen to live close to a facility, the cost per basket will stay low. That’s a big part of the profit potential.
Want to know more about your basket choices? Start here. There’s a link at the bottom of that page to a second page which explains more on selecting your vessels.
Where Do Clients Come From?
At the Washington Gift Show, one of the first trade shows I attended when starting my business, a woman sitting next to me at a lunch table asked, “How do you market your gift baskets?”
The answer was a big dilemma for me. I had a great product. How would I find people to buy?
After displaying my gift baskets at street fairs, I realized that public events weren’t the best place for marketing.
It seems that being in the wrong place to market is usually your first route. When no sales occur, your ideas change, bringing you closer to the right way to find customers.
Soon after, I began to find clients by understanding their traits. My clients were:
When you began selling gift baskets,how long did it take to realize that clients were within your business and personal circles?
Wholesale Florists - A Great Local Resource
Baskets, pre-packaged foods, cellophane, and enhancements — you’ll find all this and more through wholesalers outside of your area, but have you located a florists’ facility in your own backyard that provides alternative inventory?
If not, keep searching. You’re missing out on a bounty of items that can be purchased on site a minimum of six days a week.
My region includes four such wholesalers, with the closest being five minutes away from my workspace. They have a $30 minimum. Their baskets are shallow and not gift basket friendly, but gift merchandise and enhancements are attractive and plentiful.
You won’t find everything required for gift basket design at every local wholesaler, but it’s still good to know each one’s location and what they sell.
How many wholesale florists are in your area, or are you still searching for local suppliers?
How Gift Basket Photographs Generate Loyalty and New Business
A florist in New Zealand was recently highlighted as one that Emails photos to clients showing the bouquet arrangement before it’s mailed or delivered to recipients.
Many of us have practiced this for years.
In fact, lots of designers mailed a photograph of the requested gift basket to each client along with a note of thanks when the Internet didn’t exist.
If this isn’t a habit you practice, perhaps now is the time to include a photograph by mail or Email each time you thank clients.
This is one of the reasons why photography, discussed on this page at GiftBasketBusiness.com, plays a huge part in marketing your business.
You don’t need to set up a photo studio in your workspace, although it may be helpful. Setting the gift basket on a table in front of a solid-colored wall is adequate.
The picture also acts as a great reminder when clients call and ask questions about previous designs create for them.
There are six more ways that I’ve turned each photograph into a revenue generator. How has photographing your completed designs generated new business?
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