If you enjoy making crafts and have outstanding creativity, starting a gift basket business could be perfect for you. People love customized products, so if you could cater for many popular occasions like engagements, wedding, birthdays, anniversaries, and festive seasons, your services could be in high demand all year-round.These days, many people looking for ‘rare design gift’ now are likely to choose customized gift because it can be made to suit the event. Thus, this home-based business has great potential to grow further. In addition, if you have many contacts, you probably would not have any problem on the marketing part. The best first target group where you can easily promote your product to is your relatives. After relatives, you move to your friends. If your friends and families were happy with your products, they would voluntarily promote it to their contacts as well. That is how a home business like custom-made gift basket tends to grow.Gift baskets not only popular among individual, but business organizations. Now, business organizations are sending it to their employees, business partners and clients, where they form a large part of the market for this home-based business.Before launching your new home-based gift basket business, you will have to make some important decisions. You probably want to decide on these things:
Do you have enough space for your business activities?
What kind of gift basket can you offer?
How much would it cost you?
Who is your target group?
How will you market your business?Although the prosperity of this business is greatly depends on your creativity, do not under estimate the importance of other skills. Success in running a business requires good marketing skills too, so if you have little time for marketing part, get someone that can help marketing your business.Good luck for your home-based gift basket business.
A Home-Based Business Idea – Starting a Gift Basket Business From Home
Auction Listings Are Vital to the Success of Fundraising Auctions
Fundraising Auction Tip: You should always provide potential bidders with a printed Auction Listing of both your Live and Silent Auction items at any Fundraising Auction. A printed Auction Listing is vital for several reasons:
An Auction Listing informs bidders of the order of sale, and what is coming up next. If you keep your bidders guessing, they will simply not bid.
If bidders are not 100% certain of what they are bidding on, they will not bid. A printed Auction Listing should answer any and all questions about what is being sold in order to encourage bidders to bid as much as possible.
Bidders often need time to plan their bidding strategies, especially on multiple and/or larger value items. A printed Auction Listing helps them to do that.
Couples often need time to consult with each other about what they are willing to spend on something. A printed Auction Listing helps them to do that.
Potential bidders need to know the specifics, the benefits, and the restrictions on any item they are going to bid on, especially on travel and/or other higher value items. A printed Auction Listing should answer all of their questions, in writing.
After bidders see that they have lost an item to another bidder, a printed Auction Listing makes it easier for them to re-strategize on what else they can bid on.
Printed Auction Listings generally come in 3 forms:
Printed in the Event Program or Auction Catalog.
Printed on loose sheets of paper and hand-inserted into the Event Program or Auction Catalog.
Printed on loose sheets of paper and hand-delivered to all attendees, or left on each dinner table in the room.
Auction Listings cost practically nothing to produce and they can make the difference between the success and failure of a Live and Silent Auction. You should never conduct a Fundraising Auction without one.
A Case Study
Let me share a real-life experience with you. Once I was hired to conduct a Fundraising Auction for a nationally renowned organization. The event was held in a major hotel, in one of the country’s largest cities, with several hundred “black tie” participants attending. It was an extremely professional event, with the music, singing, lighting, speeches, and awards all perfectly timed and choreographed. Everything was done to perfection… exception the Fundraising Auction.
Although I had signed an agreement to serve as their Auctioneer nearly one year in advance of the event, no one bothered to contact me for any advice or help. Approximately one week prior to the Auction date, I contacted the group to see if they had replaced me with another Auctioneer. But they said that I was still their man.
Upon arriving at the event I asked for a copy of the Auction Listing. I was told that there were none. I’m not sure whether they felt that the Auction Listing wasn’t necessary, or whether someone forgot to have them printed. This was never made clear. When I asked what I was to use at the podium, I was told to copy the list of Live Auction items from a committee member’s computer. It took me about 30 minutes to copy three pages of hand-written notes in order to prepare for my role as their Auctioneer.
I knew that they had created a PowerPoint program showing the various Live Auction items. When I asked whether the PowerPoint slide order corresponded to the order of sale I had copied from the committee member’s computer, I was met with a blank stare. The committee member left to check the slide order, and returned to let me know that the slide order did not correspond my notes, and he provided me with the correct slide order… hand-written on a paper napkin. This forced me to re-arrange my three pages of hand-written notes before taking the podium.
There was a Live Auction Table with descriptions of the Live Auction items that were to be sold, but the table was not clearly marked, and it received significantly less attention than the Silent Auction Tables, which were clearly identified. Since the Live Auction Table was located adjacent to the “Raffle Table”, it appeared that most people thought it was part of the raffle and therefore paid very little attention to it.
According to the event program (which did not include an Auction Listing), I knew approximately when I was to begin the Live Auction. At the designated time the Master of Ceremonies announced the start of the Live Auction to the several hundred people in attendance, and introduced me as Auctioneer. As I approached the podium I realized that photographs of award winners were still being taken… directly in front of the podium where I was to stand… which required me to stand aside for several minutes until the photographers were done. Can we say “awkward moment”?
As the photographers cleared, I approached the podium and began my Live Auction introduction. Approximately one minute into my introduction, the “Raffle Committee” approached the podium and stopped my Live Auction Introduction in order to pull the 8 or 9 Raffle Winners. These drawings lasted about 5 minutes. Upon it’s conclusion I was allowed to resume the start of the Live Auction.
When standing at the podium two intense and extremely bright spotlights were pointed directly at the podium. The lights were so bright that I literally could not see the center 1/3 of the room. I could see the tables on the right, and on the left, but was totally blinded when looking straight ahead. It took perhaps five minutes before the spotlights were turned off.
While at the podium and describing Lot #1, I had to ask someone to start the Lot #1 PowerPoint Slide… because apparently no one was assigned that job.
So with only the Auctioneer’s verbal description, and a PowerPoint slide, it appeared that few people in the room had any idea about what we were selling… or when we were selling it… until it was announced by the Auctioneer. As a result, bidding was extremely light and the final results fell several thousands of dollars short of where they should have been
The learning experience is this:
The Live Auction is where you place your better items, and where the real money should be made at any Fundraising Auction. Let bidders know as far in advance as possible what you will be selling, and the order of sale, so they can get excited about the Auction, and plan their bidding strategy accordingly.
Auction Listings are absolutely vital to the success of both Live & Silent Auctions. In my opinion, revenues at this Auction fell thousands of dollars short of where they should have been, because no Auction Listing was provided to the guests.
If bidders are not perfectly clear on what is being sold, including both the item’s specifics, benefits, and restrictions, they will not bid.
When you have a committee of volunteers, especially volunteers having full time jobs and/or very busy schedules, the services of a professional Fundraising Auctioneer can help to keep the committee on track.
And once you retain the services of a professional Fundraising Auctioneer… use the services that you are paying for.
Building a Home Based Business For Locals and Tourists Alike
Many home-based businesses are built online, anyway, so it really doesn’t matter where you are; but there are particular benefits to being based in a specific area, just as there are specific benefits in living anywhere else. For example, if you live in a state than has a major tourist focus on gambling, there are more niches to promote other than just that one industry.Catering to the Tourist CrowdWhile focusing on highly publicized tourist industries in building a home-based business, remember that those industries are already pretty saturated, and the goods or services that you can offer are quite limited since there are already many businesses that focus on these. Tourist revenue can also sometimes be seasonal, and long-term customer relationships can be quite hard to maintain since your customers will be transients.Your business’ survival will depend mostly on referrals from satisfied customers. You are at an advantage if you are living in an area that relies on tourists when you build your home-based business; but remember to also make a point to set trends rather than just following them.Tapping the Local MarketThis route may present more of a challenge, but it will be a welcome home-based business. If the market for tourism is substantial in your locale and there are few that are delivering the products and services that they need, you have a great place to start. Again, if you are native to the area, you would know what the local population will need better than anyone else outside of the state. You will also know the local culture better and be able to communicate in local time.Another advantage of having a home-based business that caters to tourist industries already in place in your locale is that the delivery time will be cut a lot shorter and it will be less expensive. They can even opt for pick-ups should you wish to offer the option, which means that you can offer products that are bigger in bulk or heavier. They will save on the shipping cost, and you will be saved from the bother of having to ship it out.Use Your Location to Your AdvantageNo matter which option you choose, your best bet to make your business work is to keep an eye on the local trends. This would not be such a hard thing to do since you will have all you need right where you are. Watch local TV newscasts; visit a few famous local hotspots; listen to local radio broadcasts. This will help you fefine and create your own brand of a home-based business right in your own backyard.