I Want to Make Gift Baskets. Now What?

"I’ve read books 'til I’m blue in the face. I even took an adult school course. But I still don’t know how to start my gift basket business!"

Sound familiar? This is the statement that I hear most often from aspiring entrepreneurs.

When you decide to start selling gift baskets, trumpets will not blare, the ground won’t shake, and the sky won’t fall. There will be nothing that signals the start of your business --except the results that occur because of your actions. Those results will be:

1. Product catalogs arriving in your mailbox. This happens when you decide to call manufacturers that sell baskets and supplies, as well as those who make the types of products that will fill your baskets. You need to look at these catalogs to make informed decisions about what you will buy and who you will buy from.

2. Increased mileage on your car. This happens when you begin investigating places to buy products. You’ll travel from store to store, looking for products to fill baskets. You’ll see potato chips, popcorn, pretzels, tortilla chips and candies in one store. Then you’ll find cookies, coffee, tea, cappuccino, hot chocolate and nuts in another. Finally, a different store will have crackers, preserves, chocolates, mints and jelly beans.

Your car’s mileage will also increase because of trips to stores that sell competitive baskets and drives to semi-annual trade shows to see new merchandise.

3. A new mindset when shopping at grocery and department stores. As you drift from aisle to aisle, you’ll begin seeing everything as a potential gift basket item. Pasta sauces in the spaghetti aisle, canned nuts in the candy aisle, potato chips in the snack food aisle, and even jelly in the bread aisle look like perfect gift basket candidates.

Were these items here all along? Of course, but now you’re focused on potential products, which brings a new dimension to the average shopping trip.

4. Interest in your gift baskets. This happens when you start telling people about your baskets. Everyone within earshot stops and listens. At first, you may not notice, but everyone secretly loves entrepreneurship, especially if it seems fun, inventive and creative. When people have interest in what you do, hand them a business card. Tell the person to remember you the next time a birthday or other occasion calls for gift giving.

5. Less time to do other things in your life. You’ll be making baskets in-between working, cooking, cleaning, shopping, mending, exercising and driving. Is it worth the sacrifice? You bet it is. Just ask any one of the thousands of gift basket professionals who wake every day to new opportunities.

So how do you start? You start by doing -- calling, checking, driving, creating, meeting, talking, looking and deciding. These are the actions that determine your success.

Do I hear trumpets?