making gift hampers

grollyzbird

Hi guys,
Can anyone offer me any advice on how I can go about sourcing cheap gift ideas without proving I am self employed?

I am not classed as self employed yet as I want to see if I can make a go of this before I actually start, by making some hampers and taking pictures, but unable to buy in bulk online without proving this

I don't drive and live in a small village with shocking public transport (want to go anywhere on a sunday or after 6pm? then walk) so unable to get to a wholesaler.

I have managed to find some cheapish baskets on ebay, plus a sweetie wholesaler online, but I am truly struggling with 'gifts' I went into town the other day and bought some bits for a large hamper,
2 boxes of chocolates,
2 small bottles of wine,
slippers,
fleece blanket,
bag of chocolates,
natural scrub mitt,
natural sponge,
Dove cream,
3 face masks,
teddy bear,
Large mug,
4 hot chocolate sachets,
Mini marshmallows,
creme shower oil

I think that is a decent amount of stuff, but pricing it all up at the end including the basket/cellophane etc came in at over £33, for the amount there is, £33 is pretty good, BUT now I don't know if anyone would pay for it, as I have no idea on how much to charge for this 'luxury' hamper, I don't think I jumped in feet first, I think I wrapped myself up into a tight ball and just rolled over the edge! :eek: but just really want to make some different baskets up so I can get photo's and show people as explaining the idea to people is all well and good but they want to see what they are buying.
Do you think I should give up already?
My partner isn't happy with me because of the amount of money I have spent altogether and he really wants me to make back at least the amount I have spent.
Please if anyone can help me at all with any advice, or pricing then I will be eternally grateful
Thank you

ms_night_ryder

He is not happy because you spent £33? or have you spent more?

Are you sure they are asking you prove self employment? that seems strange, more likely to be if you have a selling outlet or Vat registered.

You sound a little in over your head, you don't seem to have done due diligence, why don't you break up your big hamper into smaller ones and take pictures of the different ones that way? if you are paying retail it is going to be more than wholesale.

How are you going to get the money to pay for wholesale stock? obviously you are going to need a bunch of items and it's all sold in bulk, how you planning to sell the items? what price points will you use? are these solely for Christmas? In most cases you have to spend loads of money to make money and wholesalers usually have a minimum amount either on items or money you can spend.

The only 2 options I can see you using for now is, ordering stuff from ali express like the baskets etc and using discount stores the £1 shop etc, I know some people that do this, or buy in bulk when a supermarket has a good deal, since you don't have any capital, this might work for you.

grollyzbird

Thank you for getting back to me, I have spent about £250-300 total on everything I would need to make for a few various hampers and sweetie cones, things like baskets, cellophane, cellophane cones, ribbons, boxes, wholesale sweets, card, ink etc

One of my main problems is figuring out how much I would make on each item, a wage so to speak, obviously I don't want to charge to much as people wouldn't be interested, so I was thinking £5 profit minimum on a hamper would be ok? I know that isn't even minimum wage, plus there is all the time spent going into town to buy the bits, plus putting them together etc.

I have been researching for a while now, maybe I am in over my head, sorry I didn't mean they wanted me to prove I am self employed, they want me to prove I am a business. I worded it wrong.

I don't just want to do this for Christmas, I want to do this year round, valentines, easter, birthdays, mothers day, fathers day etc but this Christmas I am basically testing the water, maybe I should do as you say and break down the size of the hamper so I can make multiple smaller ones, I have some people already interested (family/friends of family) my sister wants 2 hampers and instead of buying all her friends children selection boxes she wants sweetie cones from me (39) I have orders so far for 65 sweetie cones for Christmas. At the moment it is purely word of mouth, I am hoping to do local school fares, I want to advertise in local papers if I get good feedback to spread the word, possibly Gumtree and Facebook, all once I am registered.

I will take your advice on board and look in £1 shops and buy in bulk from supermarkets when I find good offers, I know I sounded like a right idiot after reading back my message, the reason my partner is worried about money is because we are getting married next September and he doesn't want me to end up blowing the cash on this especially if I don't break even. I have savings but it is going towards the wedding mainly, but I have decided to dip into it to try and get this off the ground. He thinks I will do ok with this but is just really hoping I can at least make the cash back, because then he will feel calmer about it.

I guess all I can do is see what happens this Christmas, see what feedback I get from people and take it from there, if I get good feedback then I will make it official and the money I make from this Christmas I will put back into my new business, and then buy wholesale as I will be registered.

Thank you again.

skintsocks

Good advice up there. Be careful with the alcohol thing, I'm pretty sure you have to tell your local council/get a licence if you are selling it.

ms_night_ryder

Ah, I see.

First thing I suggest is reading some info from the Norfolk Hamper co from last year, that would be how not to run your business.

If you already have sweet orders, get yourself to the £1 shop with a voucher from the paper or one of those till spits, or get down to the market and talk to the guy who does those bagged sweets, see if you can work out a bulk deal, try and find someone who is a member of Costco or Makro, although sometimes I find the supermarket cheaper if they have a deal on, just be savvy where you buy, until you can afford wholesale.

Ebay for cellophane, ribbons etc, set up a facebook page, get your family and friends liking it, so it shows up on other peoples feeds.

The price you sell at is normally around 2.5 of the price you picked the items up for, this gives you a chance to offer wholesale prices at double what you paid iyswim? But I can see why you want to just make £5, charge as much as you feel is reasonable, FYI once you are self employed minimum wage goes out the window, it doesn't really exist.

School fares etc would be really good, I have seen another person doing cones and sweetie pillows, keep an eye on the competition and good luck, once your trading you should technically register as self employed.

[Deleted User]

:wave:Hi grollyzbird

I read your post with great interest because the gift basket idea was one I toyed with a few years ago. I kept seeing people online recommending it as a great run-from-home business and decided to give it a go. I bought books about it and researched the nitty-gritty of doing it until I thought I could make a real go of it. Needless to say, I'm not doing it now:(

I don't want to sound like a killjoy but please think very carefully before you commit any serious money to it. It might be OK at Christmas when people are often willing to buy such gifts, or Mother's Day, but the rest of the time is very difficult.

One of the main reasons I ran into difficulties was that I started when the recession had really begun to bite and people had less disposable income. I think lots of people who saw my baskets (and really admired them as I went to endless trouble with the look of the finished product) decided that they could make up their own at less cost:(. (if they just wanted the occasional one).

If you are making specific baskets 'to order' you might be OK on a limited scale but if you intend to make several as 'stock' you might well find that you are stuck with them after the event they were made for and you will either have to dismantle them and store the contents for re-use (not always a good idea if the contents are Christmas-related/perishable etc) or sell them off for less than you paid in the first place.

Then there is the problem of delivery:eek:. This is OK if buyers are local but if you intend to advertise to buyers further afield there are all the logistical problems of getting the baskets to the buyers. Packing and getting them delivered by third-parties is a nightmare........cellophane-wrapped baskets with bows and embellishments and with contents which stick up rather than lying flat are incredibly difficult to get to the recipient without damage in-transit (even after packing in a sturdy outer box):eek:. You really need them to arrive looking 'finished', not for the recipient to have to open them up and re-assemble them before they look as you sent them. Then, of course, you have to factor in the cost of delivery which can add more than people are prepared to pay unless they are local and you plan to deliver yourself. Like you, I am in a very rural area and the cost of my petrol or use of couriers was a killer when I tried to scale-up the 'business' beyond the purely local.

On the plus side, it's a lovely thing to do if you are at all artistic and creative but, to be completely frank, unless you can buy the components and produce and sell your baskets on an industrial scale there is no serious money to be made long-term from what can never be more than a hobby.

The idea of sweetie-cones is lovely (not something I tried and I wish I had:o) and I'm sure that will be a success especially at school fetes and suchlike as advertising would be minimal and word-of-mouth is a wonderful thing. Well-done on getting such brilliant orders so far. But it is more Christmas-related and a time when people tend to buy inexpensive gifts for lots more people than they would at other times. I also sold a fair amount of Mother's day mini-baskets at school fetes etc (purely to children for their Mums) but these were very small and cheap with hardly any profit to be made even though I sold a lot of them. It is hardly a year-round business.

I feel really awful pouring water on your dream but I would genuinely think very carefully before you commit to anything once the Christmas buying-frenzy is over as it just doesn't carry over throughout the whole year. If you go for it I wish you the very best of luck and success:beer:. Every successful business,whatever line they are in, had to start somewhere and you could be the one who could make a profitable business from gift-baskets. But after all my efforts I couldn't manage it:o

Please keep us posted how you get on.
Take care x

P.S. Sorry to have 'gone on' a bit:o and for the length of the post but I wanted to mention as much as I could before I got sidetracked by all I've got to do today.

grollyzbird

skintsocks wrote: »

Good advice up there. Be careful with the alcohol thing, I'm pretty sure you have to tell your local council/get a licence if you are selling it.

I have a licence

grollyzbird

ms_night_ryder wrote: »

Ah, I see.

First thing I suggest is reading some info from the Norfolk Hamper co from last year, that would be how not to run your business.

If you already have sweet orders, get yourself to the £1 shop with a voucher from the paper or one of those till spits, or get down to the market and talk to the guy who does those bagged sweets, see if you can work out a bulk deal, try and find someone who is a member of Costco or Makro, although sometimes I find the supermarket cheaper if they have a deal on, just be savvy where you buy, until you can afford wholesale.

Ebay for cellophane, ribbons etc, set up a facebook page, get your family and friends liking it, so it shows up on other peoples feeds.

The price you sell at is normally around 2.5 of the price you picked the items up for, this gives you a chance to offer wholesale prices at double what you paid iyswim? But I can see why you want to just make £5, charge as much as you feel is reasonable, FYI once you are self employed minimum wage goes out the window, it doesn't really exist.

School fares etc would be really good, I have seen another person doing cones and sweetie pillows, keep an eye on the competition and good luck, once your trading you should technically register as self employed.

I will have a read of that thanks,

I have bought some sweets from a wholesaler online but have no idea if it is as good a deal if I could have gone to a wholesalers myself, they were about £12 for 3kg including delivery costs, plus just bought 10 bags of 160g Haribo sweets from morrisons 50p a bag, so 1600g for £5 not to bad lol only thing I need to buy now are marshmallows.

I will make a facebook page up, my sister knows loads of people so hopefully they will all see her like it, I know she has already talked to some people and got orders in for me without me even talking to one person lol I have offered personalised sweetie cones too, they will have a printed card on with their name and who it is from, so far people seem quite excited my it, I am charging more for personalised.

I will be getting my baskets today or tomorrow so I will make a couple of hampers up, I will make the large one up with everything and see if I get any interest and then I will break it down into a couple of smaller hampers to see what people think.

Things seem to be moving along quite quickly now, the sweets are here, just need to weigh out how much I put in then do a price break down on it all and break down the cost I bought at wholesale so I can work out how much I can charge for them.

I am trying to source someone that has a Makro card and ask them nicely to take me

I will talk to my ESA advisor about all this, I know when I spoke to her before she said she will help me as much as she can (I am disabled) as she was worried about money etc for me.

Many thanks for your help

whitewing

I would potentially impulse order a Halloween basket up to £20, if all the sweeties were scarily themed. I don't have time to go and organise that myself.

Or a light and sparkly comfort basket for a home firework party (hot chocolate, squirty cream, cartwheel lollipops, popcorn). I would have that even if I went to a local firework night.

I don't tend to make much effort for those occasions but would be susceptible to impulse buys if it were convenient enough.

If the hamper was well presented and reasonable value for money then I would be happy to order at other occasions through the year.

grollyzbird

Hi carbootcrazy
You are not a killjoy at all, this is the sort of thing I need to hear, I know there is another lady in my town doing this as well, she seems to be doing very well, so hopefully if I can match her prices or go slightly lower then fingers crossed I will be fine, but obviously it all depends on how much I can buy things in at.

I have a few people working out who they need to buy for, but they all want to see pictures so I will have a clearer picture of what people want in the next couple of days.

I am going to let people choose what products they want as I think this will be better, my mum is now interested in the large hamper for her friend, plus she now wants some smaller ones, some with alcohol and some treat ones with cookies, teabags etc in for people, I normally do hampers as presents for people every christmas and they all love them, it was that that gave me the idea of making this into a business, the kids love a sweet/drink/snack hamper. I think it is the novelty of going through and seeing all these different things, plus I think personally as a gift it is more personal than just going to grab any old thing in a shop and hoping they like it, but if you know brands of chocolates/drinks/toiletries they like then you know they will love it no matter what.

I know a friend of mine has decided not to buy the adults a gift at christmas and are planning on just getting them a birthday present, they have a very large family and are very generous, so I am going to have a word with them about giving a gift hamper as birthday presents
They absolutely adore their parents to, and I know he dotes on his mum and always wants her getting pampered, so I think he will love the thought of a luxury hamper for her

I don't intend to deliver outside of my local area unless it is for a family member as I will explain about packaging the item, I would be so disappointed if it turned up looking awful, local deliveries will be fine, and once I have insurance set up then people can also collect if they wish.

I know I won't be able to make serious money from this, I am hoping that once word spreads then it will hopefully be a year round thing, but as it stands I am concentrating on this Christmas and will take it from there. I know with me being on ESA that I can get help, especially as I won't be making anywhere near the £100 a week I am able to make over a 52 week period, allowed 52 weeks on then 52 weeks off, but if after the first 52 weeks or sooner it takes off then I can officially make a go of it, but in all honesty I can't see that happening, she did explain it all to me briefly but I need to go into more detail with her now and see what she says.

The sweetie cones seem to be really popular, they all come in different sizes and start from £1 a cone from what I have seen, but obviously it depends on how much you source the sweets for, I will be making a cost breakdown very soon to see how much I will charge the cones at.

I haven't really sourced anything Christmas related, just in case they don't sell, the only thing I have ordered that is to do with Christmas is 10 Christmas boxes and a box of mini christmas crackers, they are going to be turned into little activity/sweet boxes, small colouring books, crayons, mini cracker, small toy and sweets, they are like a smaller version of McDonalds happy meal boxes, really cute. People sell these at £6.50 a box, so I want to go lower, everything I need to put in them I have priced up at £3.50, so can sell at even £5 and still make some profit

I am excited by this but also very realistic, I know it may not take off, and even if it does, then it may not last very long, all I can do is take the plunge and give it a go.

I appreciate all your advice, and I am very sorry your business didn't take off for you!

I will keep you posted on how this all goes, I have butterflies every time I think about it Don't apologise for going on a bit lol it is everything I need and want to hear, especially don't apologise about the length of the post, I am the queen of essays LOL

Many thanks

[Deleted User]

Thank you so much for your reply, grollyzbird, I'm so glad what I said didn't upset you:kisses3:

It sounds to me that you have already sussed out the potential pitfalls and have made your plans accordingly. It also sounds as if you have a large network of friends and family who can buy from you and advertise your business and products by word of mouth. I didn't have much of a 'network', I was working pretty much on my own from scratch. Also, personalising the selection of your basket contents seems the way to go. In the absence of definite orders and being so full of ideas for lovely baskets I made loads of 'stock' ones which proved hard to shift at certain times of the year:(.

The worst bit for me was the delivery:(. I might have carried on longer if I could have sold more of the larger hampers/baskets locally or if they were for buyers near enough for me to deliver myself. I'm afraid living in such a rural backwater has a lot of drawbacks:mad:

I did make some money but not enough to consider it as a year-round business in its own right. It just amounted to a bit of extra cash and thankfully I didn't have to rely on it as the trade was sporadic once Christmas/Mother's Day and such events were done with. It might be different for you if you have a wide network of family and friends who might buy for birthdays on a regular basis.

As I said before, I wish you every success with it. I wouldn't be surprised, from all you've said, if you pull it off:A