making gift hampers

whitewing

Have you seen those Santa sleighs made up of kitkits and other chocolate bars? I reckon you could sell them made up, although they'd be fiddly.

grollyzbird

whitewing wrote: »

Have you seen those Santa sleighs made up of kitkits and other chocolate bars? I reckon you could sell them made up, although they'd be fiddly.

I have seen them and think they are really cute
I was planning on making them, some using candy canes etc, love them, going to be pricing those up as well.

I just made a hamper up using some bits from the large hamper because my baskets turned up (beautiful) and my sister walked in and said oh I love the hamper, so I asked her if she went into a shop etc how much would she pay and she said probably about £25-30 which shocked me as putting it all together only cost me £14 including the basket etc so thinking of grabbing a couple more bits like a wine glass to go in it and selling it for £25, it looks really nice and I am quite proud, I have taken a picture to show people, but will also take one with the glass and then wrapped up, if anyone wants it then I just need to replace a few pieces for the large hamper

Things are moving so fast now! it's quite crazy, I think it might be the whole novelty thing though lol, oh my sister also just ordered 2 activity boxes for her 2 younger children, I said I am thinking of marketing them as Christmas eve gifts to keep the children amused ready for the big day as children normally want to open a gift the night before, so hopefully they will be popular, they are like a McDonald's happy meal box but smaller and Christmas themed, with sweets, chocolates, bubbles, colouring books and crayons, a little toy and mini Christmas cracker, very cute lol

soolin

I am pleased it is going well so far, but please allow me a little note of gloom as I have spoken to many people who have lost money through trying to turn hobbies into a business.

I have done direct sales before, mainly when my children were very little and the first few months went well as all my friends and family ordered things. Then when they had enough, it got a bit embarrassing as they couldn't keep buying just to keep me afloat so tried to avoid talking about the items- yet I couldn't get enough strangers to buy to make a real go of it.

personalised sweet cones are about £1 each from a number of sellers on my facebook selling pages - to make a profit from that is going to mean you sell hundreds a month.

I do wish you well but would urge you not to spend any more money on this until you can market yourself and sell successfully to complete strangers.

I do still do direct sales - but it costs me a lot of energy as the venues I go to where I know I can sell involve a whole weekend and several hundred miles in the car. The rest of the time I sell online or in smaller local events - none of my face to face sales would be possible without a car though. I do have a niche product though and my stock is not edible so I can afford to store it .

[Deleted User]

soolin wrote: »

...... yet I couldn't get enough strangers to buy to make a real go of it.

I do wish you well but would urge you not to spend any more money on this until you can market yourself and sell successfully to complete strangers.

Excellent points here, soolin.

Sums up my experiences to a tee:(. Without any family within 150 miles and a very small circle of friends who are not into buying hampers and baskets anyway I found the development of a 'real' business that would be my sole source of income impossible. Even after a lot of advertising etc I found people who were prepared to pay for the more expensive baskets and hampers were very few and far between. It was when the recession was really starting to bite and people were thinking long and hard about spending on 'luxuries'. I'd cut my profits to the bone but even at what I considered very reasonable prices they were still things that people could do without:(.

I think grollybird's Christmas sweeties are a brilliant idea and should be a good little earner. The sales of selection boxes and the like skyrocket in the run-up to Christmas and grollybird's cones sound so much nicer and excellent value for money. Plus, all the potential basket/hamper sales so far to family and friends is a great start but it is Christmas after all when people buy lots of gifts and probably spend more on them than they might at other times of the year.

grollyzbird

soolin wrote: »

I am pleased it is going well so far, but please allow me a little note of gloom as I have spoken to many people who have lost money through trying to turn hobbies into a business.

I have done direct sales before, mainly when my children were very little and the first few months went well as all my friends and family ordered things. Then when they had enough, it got a bit embarrassing as they couldn't keep buying just to keep me afloat so tried to avoid talking about the items- yet I couldn't get enough strangers to buy to make a real go of it.

personalised sweet cones are about £1 each from a number of sellers on my facebook selling pages - to make a profit from that is going to mean you sell hundreds a month.

I do wish you well but would urge you not to spend any more money on this until you can market yourself and sell successfully to complete strangers.

I do still do direct sales - but it costs me a lot of energy as the venues I go to where I know I can sell involve a whole weekend and several hundred miles in the car. The rest of the time I sell online or in smaller local events - none of my face to face sales would be possible without a car though. I do have a niche product though and my stock is not edible so I can afford to store it .

Gloom is fine

I understand as it is right now it is family and friends buying, I am hoping that once I can show the pictures etc, it will be word of mouth with their friends and family etc and hopefully I will get some more orders in.

My sweetie bags aren't £1, I weighed it all out, they are quite large, they weigh in at 195g, the ones I put together last night actually came in at 90p to make as they were so large, then 5p with the cone and ribbon.
I have seen cones selling at £1 on facebook, they have some rainbow drops/jelly beans in the bottom, a few different sweets and then mainly flying saucers at the top, I could also do those ones at £1 as the cellophane cone and ribbon only cost 5p together, then the smaller amount of sweets, so I could still do those and make a profit, I am trying to be different with them, they are £2 each, but as I said very large and weighty.

I compare it to buying a bag of sweets from the shop, 160g bag of haribos are about £1.30 when not on offer, but the difference as you know with the cones is having a selection of different types of sweets, mine have 7 different sweets in, so far people have been shocked by the size of them, but I can offer to do them smaller ones for £1 if they want.

I like giving people the choice, but so far everyone has wanted the size I am doing for £2, then I have orders for personalised ones at £2.50.

I might actually make a smaller cone up and price it at £1, if I put it next to the larger one people can see the difference themselves and that way they have a choice on what size they want.

I will get more of a clearer picture of everything once I have shown different people what I have to offer.

When I said about buying a few bits, I meant the glass for the smaller hamper, and if that one sells then I will need to replace the bits I have put in it for the large hamper again, I'm not going to go and buy stuff to make a whole new hamper, just want people to see the difference between the large and small, just more options for them, plus if it doesn't sell then its ok as it is just a wine glass (I can use it , seeing as the large one is sold already

Thank you very much for your advice and I will take it all on board

grollyzbird

carbootcrazy wrote: »

Excellent points here, soolin.

Sums up my experiences to a tee:(. Without any family within 150 miles and a very small circle of friends who are not into buying hampers and baskets anyway I found the development of a 'real' business that would be my sole source of income impossible. Even after a lot of advertising etc I found people who were prepared to pay for the more expensive baskets and hampers were very few and far between. It was when the recession was really starting to bite and people were thinking long and hard about spending on 'luxuries'. I'd cut my profits to the bone but even at what I considered very reasonable prices they were still things that people could do without:(.

I think grollybird's Christmas sweeties are a brilliant idea and should be a good little earner. The sales of selection boxes and the like skyrocket in the run-up to Christmas and grollybird's cones sound so much nicer and excellent value for money. Plus, all the potential basket/hamper sales so far to family and friends is a great start but it is Christmas after all when people buy lots of gifts and probably spend more on them than they might at other times of the year.

Yep very good points, I guess in a way I am quite lucky with the amount of people my sister/mum and friends know, they all seem to have really large families as well, same as I do, but so many friends I am surprised they can remember their names haha :eek:

They do spend big at Christmas and birthdays, but they seem to just buy random gifts for being great friends etc, I don't understand why but I guess its because I personally don't have a lot of friends or enough disposable income lol

I am hoping that with the amount of people they know, it will create a knock on effect, they are always getting together and throwing parties, they buy in loads of nibbles/drinks/chocolates etc so I am hoping to run buy them a 'party' hamper, they could get everyone around and then bring in the hamper and all have fun digging into it lol I wouldn't use a basket unless they wanted it, I would use a box instead, they also love Ann Summers parties and do them quite often. Maybe I could drum up further business through those parties as well, I am going to be leaving contact numbers/email with all hampers and cones etc so fingers crossed people will like them

I don't know how far this is going to go, all I keep thinking is that I would be silly to not at least try.

I am taking in everything you all say, good points and the gloomy points If I can make it work then I will be over the moon, and if I can't then as I say, at least I have tried

[Deleted User]

grollyzbird wrote: »

I don't know how far this is going to go, all I keep thinking is that I would be silly to not at least try.

I am taking in everything you all say, good points and the gloomy points If I can make it work then I will be over the moon, and if I can't then as I say, at least I have tried

I agree 100% with that grollyzbird

A vast network of family and friends (and friends of friends etc etc ) is an asset beyond price:j. I would have been green with envy when I was trying to establish my business Make the most of the opportunities that Christmas will offer you.

I wish you the very best of success:beer:

grollyzbird

carbootcrazy wrote: »

I agree 100% with that grollyzbird

A vast network of family and friends (and friends of friends etc etc ) is an asset beyond price:j. I would have been green with envy when I was trying to establish my business Make the most of the opportunities that Christmas will offer you.

I wish you the very best of success:beer:

Aww thank you very much, I will try as hard as I can to make this work :j

[Deleted User]

Hi, grollyzbird:hello:

We haven't heard from you for a while ( you're probably rushed off your feet fulfilling your orders etc) so I thought I'd just ask how things are going.

ALittleInLove

Hi Grollzbird,

Just wanted to wish you luck with your enterprise. Whether it succeeds or fails at least you have given it a shot.

If you are planning to make it a long-term venture you could save some money by buying items such as cauldrons and xmas pieces after this halloween/xmas.

Items like bonfire toffee used to go down to 9p in Morrisons after bonfire night but still had a year or twos date on them so could go in next years hamper?

The same is true of most occasions, valentine's day (fake roses, candy hearts etc) and mother/fathers day (badges, certificates, magnets, mugs etc) too. Especially useful if you are thinking of testing the water for a special occasion but it is a more long-term issue as you will need to store them all for a whole year!!!

A small (ish) sweet hamper might be a good year round seller too. I've always wanted to get a nice professional looking one for my sister. I tried one last year and it was fine and she appreciated it but i'm not exceptionally creative and i spent hours trying to get the "finish" right (Before i gave up completely!). I know they pull it apart to eat/use it but if its a gift i wanted it to look nice. Now i confess i cheat and just give a mug full of choc bars/wrapped sweets.

Good luck!!!