Do you have any advice to give in starting a new gift boutique business?

Question

My sister and I are considering starting up a new venture and eventually opening up our own business. We both, for years, have been crafty and creative and she has her own line of bath products and I have my line of gift baskets and gifts in a jar. Do you have any advice or tips you might want to share? We are in the Central Valley in California and would have even thought about more or less Internet selling to begin with, but obviously we are pretty new to the retail selling part outside of bazaars and boutiques both locally as well as those we travel to. Any thoughts? Thank you much!

Answer 1

Do lots of homework into finding the right shop and the legalities of forming a partnership, etc. If you can do it, get a job in a boutique part time to see how things work and don't work. I made the mistake of starting a business without fully researching the market, and I lost a lot of money. Make sure that you have enough capital that you are willing to lose for a year. Sometimes a business takes time to get off the ground. But you have to be willing to lose that capital if the business does not get anywhere.

You might consider working from your garage and selling in a home shop via ebay, your own web site or Amazon.com. You would have a minimum overhead and could then build up a clientele.

I wish you lots of luck and enjoyment from your venture.

Answer 2

Go to http://www.score.org/ to find the nearest SCORE chapter. Contact them to arrange for a free one on one meeting with a SCORE counselor about starting your business.

SCORE is a nonprofit organization. They provide a public service by offering small business advice and training. .

SCORE's 10,500 volunteers have more than 600 business skills. Volunteers share their wisdom and lessons learned in business. The volunteers are working/retired business owners, executives and corporate leaders.

Answer 3

You may want to consider a website to expand your business.

Look up http://www.excelyourbiz.com
to learn how to build a personal, business, or merchant website on your own without the high cost of paying for a webmaster. We show you everything you need to know to build your own web site for the same cost as paying for dinner.

We don't ask for money here. We offer advice and guide you through the steps to build your very own web site. Basic computer skills are needed and you don't need to be a computer whiz to build your own website.

Check us out at www.excelyourbiz.com and you should be a proud owner of a website you designed and built yourself without spending hundreds of dollars to have somebody else do it for you!

Answer 4

People love hand-crafted items. However, they do not want to pay what the items are worth - not even close to it. Those who are not crafters have no clue about the hours involved in making something, i.e., a little 2 1/2" x 3" cross-stitch ornament takes anwhere from 6 hrs. to 20, depending on the detail, stitches per inch, etc. The bare kits cost about $1.25, but who is going to pay $7 - $50 for a finished one - no one. If you want to sell your crafts, get your wholesale license so you can buy cheap and in volume, and choose a craft that takes very little time to do but looks great. And don't forget to add S & H to your prices. Good luck.

Answer 5

Yes. A website. http://business.hammocksurvivalguide.com/
It's got over 900 articles. You're sure to find something interesting there, and things you probably haven't even considered.

Answer 6

Please take a look at this new Leveraged Cash Rewards program that I've joined. You can easily recive Cash Rewards on up to 9,840 online shoppers just for registering into the program. There is no cost what-so-ever to join and No Purchase of any kind required.

http://bestcashrewards.com/

Give referal No. as 923 when contact is made at the site.