Michael asks…
Can I save my failed gift basket business?
Hi everyone,my mother & I opened a gift basket business, primarily home & internet based last year. While we have had some sales, it has not been enough to keep us going.Most of our supplies expired and we are out of money to try to keep going. While we bought enough supplies to make a nice variety of baskets, we didnt go completely overboard…or so we thought. We thought we were doing everything right but I guess not.We have talked to other owners on forums like this one and it seemed as if we were doing the same things.We marketed the business in local newspapers, attended a tradeshow (home tradeshow…maybe not the best type to attend?), did a couple radio ads, handed out promotional pieces at major events and walks, donated to other events, did presentations at real estate office, etc.We have even priced our baskets below what most business are asking for so I cant see the price being the problem.We took out about a $10,000 loan and its all gone and we barely made 1/4 back.
The cost of maintaining the website, paying for merchant accounts, marketing, etc without much income has depleted the entire fund over a year. I have heard others saying that they didnt see profit for the first two years but I am wondering how they get by and keep going. We havent been doing anything for the past few months due to not having the funds to replenish our supplies on top of paying the loan back. Does anyone have any advice or any similar experiences? I really want to be able to save our business and make it work well for us but I honestly dont know how to do so. We have taken business & marketing courses and I even used to work in promotional marketing but I just cant figure out how to swing this. Where do most of your sales come from? Should we try to attend gift tradeshows and if so, do baskets really sell at those shows? Should we focus on consignment? I just dont know what else to do. I hope someone can give us the advice to start us in the right direction.
Well we did do some counseling with SCORE early on and we have also read a few books on how to start a business. Im sure doing more cant hurt though. No, we havent done anything with the Chamber of Commerce, so I will look into that. Thanks
Nagesh answers:
Sounds like you have a good general approach to business, but you’re ignoring your market.
Who buys your products? Where are they located? How can they find you?
The problem with home based and web based is the trouble in being found, visibility is low for both, especially the web.
If you want to sell using e-commerce try selling on ebay, it already has the traffic. Think about ebay as being a mall full of people, and your website is just a random place on a random street. Point is you have to advertise a lot more to get people to even see where you are, whereas through ebay you get the people just “walking by” as it were.
The same goes for real world. Have you considered branching out of your home? How are people to find you there? Do most people feel comfortable just stopping in at someone’s home to get a gift basket made, or do they feel more comfortable at a mall for instance?
One great place for your product that’d probably be lower cost is a flea or farmer’s market. People go there for handmade stuff, authentic stuff, which is what you have to offer, with the added bonus of it being customizable.
So my advice is that if you’re gonna go further, go all out. Branch out of your home and out of your website on the web. You can still maintain both.
Get a stall at a flea or farmer’s market, have a bunch of pre-made gift baskets and also supplies to make one up and offer easy customization. Then get an account on ebay and sell pre-made gift baskets there.
So your business is fairly good, but your locations are wrong. You need the foot traffic, both real world, and online. Without that natural traffic you end up trying way too hard to bring them to you, rather than just letting them find you.
Chris asks…
How do I grow my business?
I need persons from all over the world in my business. Its home based. What is the best way to make contact?
Nagesh answers:
Advertise. However your business sounds like one of those get rich quick schemes. Many people may overlook that so if it’s legit you need to make your ad stand out from all of the rest.
Mandy asks…
Need advice Fast?
I need persons from all over the world in my business. Its home based. What is the best way to make contact?
Nagesh answers:
You can use this resource!
Post in free ads sites
or use Viral Marketing
If you could speak another language…you can open more doors!
Alx
http://www.ensutiempolibre.ws
Daniel asks…
advertising help????
what is the best online advertising solution for a home based clothing business?
Nagesh answers:
You need to use free services like http://www.sellit-right.com – accepting businesses and products. Links allowed there.
Create a blog and allow comments from users.
Hand out flyers offline and encourage people you know to do the same.
You can us Facebook and or Bebo or Myspace.
Carol asks…
Are there any web-based inventory management systems out there?
I am starting a small business out of my home (mostly sales from catalog and slowly getting online) and I need to know if there are any web-based inventory management systems that don’t require downloading since I will be doing most of my updating and whatnot on my down time at work and cannot download anything. I don’t mind of there is a charge, although free or cheap is always best! 🙂
Nagesh answers:
It is a tricky question and a difficult business, due to competition and supply problems that you are likely to encounter. I think it will be a good experience for you, but unlikely to produce massive success or quantities of cash. But I wish you well, for it is evidence that you are working hard and looking for new avenues to success. Best of luck.
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