Pera ni Juan

Valentine's Day is almost near and once again this is the perfect time to make profit for people who buys roses, chocolates, stuff toys and valentine cards for their special someone. Hallmark cards made a fortune mainly on selling cards on Valentine's day.

Why should we let Hallmark have all the fun when you can make a killing by making Valentine Gift basket. Gift baskets are extremely easy to put together, but you have to be creative enough to make the results look stunning. Since the theme is Valentine's day you could place items that are related like red roses or daises, a black gorilla stuff toy, a "La Maison du Chocolat" chocolate set, and most important of all a letter from the sender indicating how important that person is.

Making gift baskets is the easy part, what to put in is a little bit tricky. It will entirely depend on the buyers needs and desires. If the customer wants to send a Valentine gift basket to his boss, a couple of good branded wine, some chocolates, cigar maybe, and a note requesting for a pay increase or a promotion. If the buyer wants to please their mothers on Valentine's day he or she could include in the gift basket a good set of new books to read, some good soap and shampoos, chocolates (if she is not diabetic), flowers, and love letter thanking their mom for bringing them to this world.

Gifts basket are not only for Valentine's day. There are a lot of occasion that you could use a Gift basket. There is Christmas, Birthdays, Wedding Anniversaries, Baptism, Graduation, Job Promotions, Thank You gift, Easter, Halloween, and Engagement gifts. There are numerous themes that are out there, you just have to use your imaginative mind.

Gift baskets are suitable for people who cannot decide on one particular gift item, so they prefer giving away an assortment of goods all wrapped up (or, in this case, placed) in a nice package. And the best thing about Gift basket is the target market is huge. Anybody from all walks of life are being tap in. No age or gender targets. It doesn't matter if the customer is rich or poor as long as they can pay your products.

Once you have your theme you can promote it on the internet to get customers. Remember the internet is the fattest way to expose your Gift basket products. If you want help to promote your Gift basket business on the net you can log on to: http://pinoybusinessbooster.blogspot.com

Here is some guidelines on how to start your Gift basket business:

Materials Needed:
* Empty basket
* 2-3 yards or wired ribbon or a ready-made bow
* Scissors
* Glue
* Clear tape
* Ribbons
* Valentine flowers
* Gift items to be placed inside the basket

(All available at supermarkets or bookstores)
Gift items to be placed inside the basket.

5 Easy Steps to Make a Gift Basket
1. Decide what the basket “theme” will be first – is it for Christmas presents? Mother’s Day? Birthday? Your decorations will revolve around that theme. For this project, we are making a Valetine-themed basket.

2. Place the gift items in the basket starting with the tallest items toward the back, forming a “wall.” Place medium-sized items in front of the “wall” (so that they are leaning against it); the smallest items will fit along the front rim of the basket.

3. Wrap a colorful ribbon around the handle of the basket.

4. Fill in the other blank spaces of the basket with Valetine flowers and other trimmings.

5. Using the same ribbon, make a bow. Measure 8 inches from the end of the ribbon and pinch the spot firmly between your thumb and index finger. Make a loop and pinch tightly, then make a second loop and pinch over the first two pinches. Repeat this process, forming as many loops as you want. Pinch and tie all the loops together with tape or wire. Trim off the excess, and glue this bow to the front of the basket.

Tips: When buying ready-made bows, make sure the size is right for your basket – for example, don’t hide a small basket with an oversized bow.

How Much Will You Make:
Your production cost will vary depending on the amount of the items inside the gift basket. However, a safe bet would be to put a mark-up of 20 percent on the final price.

Gift baskets are fun to create especially if you make the customers come back to buy more products that you produced. This small business venture can turn to be a big time business if you got the right target market. Target the high-end market. This people love to buy things that won't waste their time. Their time is to much valuable to make Gift baskets for their loved ones. It's you should be doing it for them... with a price of course.

Garage Sale are becoming popular nowadays. Before the purpose of a Garage sale is to dispose your old and unwanted stuff to the nearby houses or within your community/village. They usually do this once a year when home-owners clean up their house and notice that they have lot of old piles of things that they don't use anymore.
That is why Garage sale was invented to dispose their unwanted things.

Now it's different especially here in the Philippines. They make Garage sale into a business. And they do it every week. They just don't sell their personal stuff they buy from "ukay-ukay" or divisoria and they sell it with a profit margin.
In the States they sell their old furnitures, equipments, and clothes. But here everything is edible and for sale.
There are a lot of things that you can buy from a Garage sale here in our country. There's clothes (both old and new), shoes, slippers, sandals, jeans, shorts, jackets, hats, caps, jewelries (the not so expensive ones), wrist-watch, beads, and sunglasses.

There are electrical equipments too. There's cellphone, i-Pods, digital camera, TV (usually the 21" inch), microwave, stove, oven, electric fans, aircon, stereo, playstation, PSP, X-box, computer monitors, laptops, desktop, washing machine and even freezer.

Sometimes you could see a good quality mountain bike or a scooter that you can still use. And sometimes you get the chance to buy an old antique furniture (this very rare).
There are also old books and magazines, and even dog cages. You will be surprise but sometimes they include their dogs with the dog cages that they sell (just hope it's not an adult Rottweiler).

The trick here is to go to high-end villages and know when do they held their Garage sale. If you got a friend or relative who lives in a high-end villages contact them immediately and tell them to call you if there is a Garage sale coming up.
You can get the chance to buy a 2nd hand 52" inch flat screen TV at only Php 15k (I'm not kidding). Or avail a kitchen showcase at a minimal price where you can use the equipments to put up your own bakery (they sell good baking equipments).
Clothes they sell are relatively new (2 months used) and are branded. Either you use it or sell it again at a minimal margin.

Aside from high-end villages you can comb divisoria, quiapo, or tutuban. Buy things that you think your community will need. Normally it's clothes, sandals, toys and home equipments that are popular. Don't increase your selling price. Set a price that is enough for you to have a profit. Remember, you are not in a mall, there's no rent. Therefore there's very minimal expense on your Garage sale venture.

Set up an inventory and let your maid help you with guarding your stocks when there are customers. Theft is common in Garage sale and you need to be sharp on looking at shop-lifters.
Week-ends is the best time for you to open your Garage sale since most people are free from their weekly jobs and students don't have schools.

Just don't forget to inform your community about your Garage sale. Send out flyers and give it door to door. Post an advertisement on the village association bulletin board. You can also give flyers to people who goes to Church to hear mass.

Garage sale is not only to dispose your unwanted stuff. Nor it is not just a sideline money making one-time scheme. You can really make it a regular business. If you know the ins and outs you will earn good profit from it.