A number of my acquaintances have asked about how I earn income at home, and as is obvious from this blog, my work-at-home job is in writing and editing.  That's not necessarily the right path for Workerettes who have an eye for design and a flair with crafts, though.  Whether you're looking for something to do part-time for a little extra income or looking to head home from a corporate job, knowing your skill set and talents is vital to figuring out what will really be a viable source of income for you.

I spotted this business article today about the basics of building a gift basket business (reprinted by permission) and just had to share it with you.  When I worked in property management, our apartment agency had a contract with a small business owner who created lovely "welcome home" baskets for our new tenants.  She made a certain number of baskets for us each month which we then placed on the mantel or kitchen counter to welcome new residents into their homes and our community - and since there were about a dozen other apartments in our area, I'm sure we weren't the only ones who used this little touch thanks to her business!

Gift baskets can also be a major hit at baby showers, retirement ceremonies, and a multitude of other celebrations.  If you enjoy hitting the craft store for empty baskets to fill up with gifts for friends and coworkers and everyone raves about your creations, perhaps you should consider this market.  Read the article over - and be sure to let me know if you've already set off in this direction and seen success.  I'd really love to feature you (and your basket business!) in a future Meet & Greet here on Workerette.com!

Starting A Gift Basket Business?

So you have a knack for creating wonderful, unique, creative gift baskets and everyone you know says you should start your own gift basket business, right? Well whether you do it for love, or to utilize special talents and skills, starting a gift basket business is a wonderful way to do what you love and are good at, while making money from it too.

Starting a gift basket business can be done from your home, and there are a variety of ways to do this. If you plan to grow your gift basket business quickly though, you'll want to dedicate at least one small room to your supplies and to use for a work and business area.

Knowing how you'll sell your gift baskets will help you get things setup properly though. If you sell your gift baskets online through EBay or your own website for instance, you'll need to set up a packaging and shipping area. If however, you plan to simply sell your gift baskets at local flea markets or craft fairs, you won't need shipping zones but you might need storage zones instead.

Let's say for instance, you only sell your gift baskets at flea markets and craft fairs once each month. All the rest of that month is likely spent designing and putting together your unique gift baskets. So you'll need a safe, dry, clean place to store them until it's time to take your business to the markets and fairs.

Another thing to consider when starting your own gift basket business, is whether you'll create just certain types of gift baskets only. Will you for instance, only create baby shower gift baskets, wedding baskets, or graduation baskets? Or will you create all sorts of different gift baskets for different occasions? A similar decision to make involves custom gift baskets... will you offer this service to customers who ask for it?

Setting up your product line and sales methods are very important steps to starting your gift basket business. Streamlining these things will help quite a bit too, particularly when things get busy.

If for instance, you create a line of ten different gift baskets to start with, you can create a list of each item that will go into each of those gift baskets. You can also decide on one or more decorative color schemes, and even one or more basket types for each gift basket. Then when you're ready to get started, you'll have lists of supplies that must be purchased to create each basket. And if you have enough funding, you can buy enough supplies to create ten or twenty of each gift basket right from the start.

When buying supplies for your gift basket business, be sure to keep track of how much it costs to create each basket. You'll need to know exactly how much your supplies cost, and also how much time it takes you to create each basket. This way you can price your products appropriately.

If you offer a gift basket in your business for instance, which costs $20 for supplies, but takes you 30 minutes to put together properly, you should not base the sales price of that gift basket on the cost of the items alone. You'll need to work in a set fee for your time, plus profits as well. So for instance, if your time is valued at $20 per hour, you'd add $10 for the half hour it took you to create the basket. That's a cost of $30. You'll then want to add in a profit margin, and that's generally anywhere from 20%-50% depending on the markets your gift basket business will cater too.

There are of course many other factors involved in starting your gift basket business, but these are some general things for you to start with.

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For additional information, help, and resources on starting your own gift basket business, please visit www.gbexchange.net/