Where to start

torch2010

Hi guys,

For some time now I have been making hampers and gifts for family and friends and not making any money (they just pay me back what I have spent making them) I would now like to turn my hand to making them and making a profit but I have no idea where to start. I wont be making much of a profit maybe £200 a month.

What do I need to do?

martindow

I think the first thing is to price what you could sell them for and to see whether the margin is sufficient to make it worth your while. There is always a danger that something you like doing as a hobby in a small way stops being enjoyable on a larger scale.

Business Link or regional equivalents are very good with free practical help with start ups.

Good luck and I hope it works out well.

Savvy_Sue

Businesslink

Do you know how long it takes you to make an 'average' hamper? Using a 'baseline' of £10 per hour, I'd start by asking the people you've made the last few for whether they'd have paid £x more. Or try charging more for the next few baskets you make, to include something for your time.

You'd also need to register with HMRC as self-employed. Ask them about a small earnings exemption certificate, otherwise they will want you to pay self-employed National Insurance from the start, even though your income from self employment will be too low to NEED to do so.

Do you have other earnings? If you do, then you'll need to put aside at least 25% of your profits to go towards your tax bill, which will be worked out when you complete a self-assessment. If you don't, you'll still have to do a self-assessment, but you almost certainly won't be paying tax on the figure you mention.

paulwf

Can you handle the seasonality? You might take £50 in June but £1000 a month leading up to Christmas, can you deal with the peaks (and have cash flow for the troughs)?

Have you thought about scaling things up? I'd imagine the only way to make good money is to be able to buy wholesale in bulk quantities, at £200 a month you won't have the economies of scale.

If you can do £200 you can do £1000 a month...think big!

XxXfashionqueenXxX

Price the hampers certainly. What you could do is do different types of them like one for Mum's birthday, a children's one if you get where i'm going? Also look around for the sales and user internet vouchers you could find some bits in the clearance for a price next to nothing. This way you'd make more of a profit. Sort out how many items it would be in a basket and list how much it costs for the whole hamper.