Start-Up Your Gift Basket Business
“Lean Start-Up”. It’s a new term being bantered about Silicon Valley and it applies to any new business venture. “If it works, it will reduce failure rates for entrepreneurial ventures and boost innovation”. Full Story…
The concept of “lean start-ups” was taken from Japanese business ventures and “focused on eliminating any work or investment that doesn’t produce value for customers”. It emphasizes an early and constant focus on customers. It assumes that the product being offered is something consumers really want. It requires regular feedback regarding customer satisfaction and constant tweaking of the product. Then, more analysis of customers’ responses to product alterations. In other words, it is a dynamic, organic, process.
So how does this concept apply to your gift basket business? First, you need to make sure that the product you’re offering is something that your customer base really wants. Have you surveyed your customers recently to learn for what occasions do they buy gift baskets, and what they to hope to convey when they send a gift? Have you asked your customers about their favorite products? Then, take a look at your basket designs. Does your product offering match what they want? Use social media such as Facebook or Twitter to send mini “surveys” to your customer base and get answers to these questions.
Next, once a gift basket is purchased, do you follow up with your customer and the recipient? This is a perfect opportunity to use social media technology. Did the recipient like how it looked and enjoy the products that were included? Was your customer satisfied with the delivery time and overall service? Based upon this feedback, what could you do differently? Take the time to personally call your customer and the recipient, use text messaging, or email the recipient to get this feedback. Then make the changes you need to make to “do it better” next time!
In this competitive market, where consumers have hundreds of options for their purchases, it is critical that we run our businesses in the most cost effective and efficient manner. We can do this by making sure we are selling the products that consumers want, then making adjustments necessary to keep the customers satisified.
1 comment April 25th, 2010
A mission statement for your business defines who your company is, what you do, what you stand for, and why you do it. “It captures, in a few succinct sentences, the essence of your business’s goals and the philosophies underlying them. Equally important, the mission statement signals what your business is all about to your customers, employees, suppliers and the community.” 
Too often, when we’re trying to tackle the everyday problems in our businesses, we immediately start thinking about solutions and strategies before clearly understanding the questions. Nick Burkholder, from First Resource, suggests that a good strategy needs to be based upon a clearly defined mission for your company. 
Chicago, Illinois is the home for the 2010 Sweets & Snacks Expo (formerly the All Candy Expo), May 25 – 27, 2010. This is the largest venue in the Americas to see new products and new trends, in new categories, with new merchandising concepts, from new exhibitors.