As you move into high gear for the upcoming holidays you may be feeling excitement or anxiety. You may even feel a little scared.

By now you may have gotten so many orders that you wonder if you’ll be able to get them all done in time. Or you may not have gotten any orders and are having that sinking feeling that you’ll be left with cases of gingerbread cookies or cheese shaped like snowmen.

Along with the potential for profits, there is also great potential for stress. Take these ten steps to ensure you emerge from the holiday gift basket season

1. If you don’t have the orders you had hoped for, get busy. Call your old customers, visit the business offices in your community, contact friends and relations who work in corporate environments. Contact the services you use: cleaners, beauty shop, fitness center, church, and so on. Some companies wait until the last minute to decide on their gifts for the holidays.

2. If you’re still buying inventory, order holiday-specific products very sparingly so you don’t get stuck with them in the new year. Then use your green items first for Christmas gift baskets. The red items, if left over, can be used for Valentine gift baskets.

3. Be prepared to refer potential clients to other businesses rather than taking on orders outside of your niche or that exceed more work than you can handle. For last minute out-of-town orders consider referring clients to a designer in the delivery area.

4. Use as many local or nearby sources as possible. Paying high shipping fees to rush an order, or biting your nails while you hope that a shipment arrives in time all add to your anxiety.

5. Take care of your body. Eat sensible foods. Start with breakfast and don’t skip meals. Your body must be strong to withstand the hours and added pressure.

6. Take care of your mind. Avoid getting over-tired. Stop to take a break, a nap or a walk when you begin to feel tired.

7. Enlist the help of your family for decorating your home and doing the family holiday preparation and cooking.

8.  Say “no” to clients who make unreasonable requests and family who make outlandish demands on your time and energy.

9. Make time to laugh, watch a movie and any other stress-relieving activity that will enable you to return to your work rejuvenated.

10. Set a time to end your season and close your business. Even if your business is home based, once you’ve closed your business for the season, stop taking calls and let them go to voice mail.

Make time to be with your friends and family during the holidays. Don’t slip into letting your business rob you of energy and time. This way you’ll be able to prevent undue stress and really enjoy your profits.

When designers think of holiday gift baskets, they usually think of Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa. But there are 5 good reasons you should promote Thanksgiving gift baskets.

1. Thanksgiving is a nonreligious holiday.

While the other major fall holidays are have religious connections, Thanksgiving does not. Americans think of Thanksgiving primarily as an American holiday, but the truth is that wherever cultures have farmed and gathered crops, they have celebrated the harvest. It is a time to show appreciation for the bounty of the year, to pause from work, and enjoy time with family and friends.

For these reasons, you can assure your clients that Thanksgiving gift baskets won’t offend or clash with religious beliefs. Whether given as business or personal gifts, Thanksgiving gift baskets are welcomed by all.

2. In the USA Thanksgiving occurs the same time every year, the fourth Thursday in November.

Even though the actual date of it changes, Thanksgiving occurs at a consistent time each year. This enables gift-givers and designers to plan ahead for creation and shipping.

3. A wide variety of themes can be given as Thanksgiving gift baskets.

For businesses, your Thanksgiving gift basket can be a snack basket with fall themed products or a sports theme if you know the recipient is an avid football fan.

For personal gifts, your Thanksgiving gift basket can be full of after-dinner treats for the family, a collection of board and card games or a pamper basket for the hostess to enjoy the days following the holiday.

4. Thanksgiving gift baskets are very affordable to create.

Just by using fall-colored packaging and ribbon, you can design dazzling baskets without heavily investing in holiday specific ribbon or packaging. Not one item in your design has to say “Happy Thanksgiving.” You can express this on the gift card instead.

5. The Thanksgiving gift basket will stand out from the other holiday gift baskets.

One Christmas season I delivered a gift basket to an office during the second week of December. Fifteen gift baskets had already been received by this company and were lined up on a long counter. It was tough for any one gift basket to stand out or make an impact on the recipient in this sea of competing designs.

When your clients send a Thanksgiving gift basket, however, it’s likely to be the only one or one of very few. Thus, they will capture the attention and appreciation of the recipient well before the onslaught of the Christmas and other December holiday gift baskets.

As your clients begin placing holiday orders, encourage them to order for Thanksgiving instead of waiting for the more crowded December holidays. They will appreciate getting a jump on the other gift-givers, and you’ll enjoy getting profits into your business sooner.

With the holidays fast approaching you will be asked to make in-person presentations at the offices of potential clients. There are ten steps to giving successful presentations that help ensure that you walk away with the order.

1 Ask questions before you go and use those answers to plan. Be sure you know the budget, occasion and preferences so you can design baskets accordingly.

2. Dress professionally. That first impression will either put your clients at ease or make them uneasy about trusting their gift-giving to you.

3. Take only one to three baskets in the price range requested. Some business owners believe that should take their top-of-the-line showcase baskets in the hope of driving up the sale. But if a client has told you her budget, why step outside of it?

4. Shoot photos of your designs and print them along with descriptions to distribute to the committee.

5. Take charge of the meeting by giving a very brief, but formal introduction to yourself and company background. This is important even if you have personal friends and acquaintances on the committee.

6. Then do your Vanna White thing. Hold each basket up individually, explaining what’s inside and how each item can be used.

7. When you finish showing the baskets, ask for the order. Ask how many they will be needing, the delivery date and contact person for receiving baskets.

8. Get the order prepaid before you begin ordering inventory and creating designs. Have a form ready for them to sign agreeing to the order as discussed, giving their credit card information and the signature of the decision maker. This way your order is prepaid before you leave the office.

If you must make changes to the agreement before they sign, do so as soon as you return to your office. Then fax the agreement back to them for credit card info and signature.

9. If they want the order shipped, request that they provide an emailed or faxed list of addresses. This will help avoid spelling and other errors.Thank them for their time and leave with your order.

10. Don’t leave baskets behind unless the client buys them. Potential clients who love your work but don’t want to pay your price will often try to recreate the design or ask an employee to copy it. You can’t stop them from copying it, but there’s no need in making it easier for them.

The holiday season can be an exciting and profitable time for your business. Your success depends on how well you conduct and conclude during your presentation.

Like any other business product or service, gift baskets must be marketed. Those who promote their businesses do well, and those who don’t will be disappointed.

Three ways to make your gift basket business profitable.

1. Set up a way to capture the names and emails of visitors to your site.

You’ve no doubt been on many websites where a box floats into the page asking you to sign up for a free item.

You can do this by offering a free newsletter, free reports, tips or other item they may value. This list is very valuable. If you don’t capture this contact information, you may have lost the chance to sell to these potential customers forever.

But if you are emailing them announcements, special sales information, gift-giving tips and so on, they are more likely to return or call to buy a gift basket.

2. Sell more to your current customers

Once you’ve landed customers, stay in frequent touch with them. Encourage them to expand their purchases by adding a balloon or other added value for which you can charge an additional fee.

Your current customers are valuable because they’ve already shown faith in your company and product. One example of a company that does this well is Vistaprint. You probably know them for their free business card offer.

Each time I take Vistaprint up on an offer for free postcards, a free t-shirt, or other imprinted product, I must go through several pages of offers to upgrade my order or add additional products. I don’t mind going through these because I’m getting the product free.

How do they make money, you wonder? Well, they don’t offer everything free. And, you must pay to use your own image if you don’t want to use their stock images.

Each time I receive a shipment from them, there’s another little sales booklet offering more free items with the special access code to purchase from their website. They are smart marketers and know that waving the offer of free products in front of me works. Besides, once I receive the products and see the quality of their products I’m much more inclined to buy at regular price.

3. Hustle

The owner of a balloon supply store once shared with me that folks keep calling his store asking if they sell gift baskets. He had to keep turning them away. He said to me, “You gift basket designers aren’t doing your marketing.”

Unfortunately he was right. During the 18 years I’ve been consulting and speaking to gift basket business owners, I’m amazed at how many do very little to go after business. Putting an ad in the paper and putting up a website is not marketing.

To make your business profitable you must

• take advantage of every networking opportunity possible to ask for orders
• follow up on every person you meet at Chamber and network meetings
• keep up with trends such as putting updates on Twitter and Facebook to keep news about your business in the public’s mind
• modify your business to draw in more business. This may mean partnering with another company, raising your prices (some of you aren’t charging enough and people think you must offer an inferior product,)  or changing your designs and offering to meet trends and current demands.

I recently heard a story about a sandwich shop that was in a busy shopping center. During the summer, people kept coming in the store all day long asking, “Do you sell ice cream?”"No,” the owner announced to each person. Finally, he got so annoyed that he put a sign in the window: WE DON’T SELL ICE CREAM.

What would have been a smarter thing for the store owner to have done since there was obviously a demand for ice cream?

Are you meeting current demands of customers, or are you turning away money?

When I began my gift basket business in the early 90’s I didn’t even own a computer, a website and certainly not an e-commerce system.

My first customers were friends, relatives and people I met at networking meetings. They ordered by telephone and paid by check or cash.

Even after I invested in a computer, I still didn’t have a website for about a year. Of course, many other businesses had not moved into cyberspace either. When my customers would call for information I would describe some basket ideas on the phone and mail them a brochure.

The Internet has definitely changed the way I do business, and I suspect it has changed the way you do business as well. If you want to be profitable, there are three ways you must change your business now that the Internet is at the hub of modern communication.

1. How you get customers

Meeting potential customers at networking meetings, Chamber events, holiday boutiques are still popular ways to attract new customers.  But with the advent of the Internet you have access to larger number of potential clients and can meet them at a much faster rate.

Now you can get at these potential clients by going to them virtually.  One way to do this is be sure your website is optimized to place you near the top of the top page of search engine results.  This happens when you carefully select and place keywords.

The second way is to build up leads by offering a free newsletter or other incentive that appeals to your customers.  Once you have the email addresses of your leads you can keep in frequent contact with them, reminding them of your services and announcing new products.  Unlike regular mail that takes time and costs postage, email enables you to create one message and send it to an infinite number of people for a very low cost.

The third way to get customers is to build online relationships on social media sites. Facebook and Twitter are at the top of these. On YouTube you can post movies that you’ve created that give some advice or offer demonstrations.

To neglect any of these ways to get customers via the Internet and you’re leaving money on the table.

2. How you serve customers

Unless you are intentionally restricting your sales to just a few customers, you need a website to extend your reach.  And not just any website.

Because your website is competing against thousands of others who sell gifts, gift baskets, flowers and other retail gift items, it needs to stand out.  In addition to being attractive and easy-to-navigate, it must also have a seccure and easy-to-use e-commerce system. Reassure your customers by using a safe system and announcing it on your site.

Modern customers expect a variety of choices, options to customize and payment system that not only takes their credit card information, but confirms their order with an email that arrives within minutes of the sale. Customize the thank you email so that it takes customers back to a page on your website where you can also list other similar items and services for sale.

In addition, to be competitive with other online sellers your shipping method should provide tracking information so that your customer can follow if she wishes.

Once visitors land on your website the selection of a gift or gift basket through payment should be a smooth, seamless process.

3. How you keep customers

Regular contact helps keep your customers coming back to you. When they make a purchase be sure to follow up with a thank you email. Reward loyal customers with something special, a bonus or an add-on.

Find out what your customers want and need by asking them on a survey. This will help you better serve them when you shop for inventory and supplies.

One of your most powerful Internet tools in staying in touch with your customers is email. You can set up regular emails to go out through an autoresponder program such as AWeber. It is a proven business fact that it is much easier to sell to existing customers than it is to get new customers. So once you have earned a customer’s trust and business, nurture it by frequent contact.

One of my subscribers sends out an attractive newsletter to her customer base and has experienced increased sales. Here’s what Jean, owner of Bountiful Baskets by Jean said,

Since [I began sending out my newsletter] I think [sales have] increased at least 30 to 40 %. Consistent reminders of holidays have improved my customer contact and have also given the ones that have never ordered ideas on what to order!

Another way to stay in touch with your customers is to find out where they hang out. If your customers are active on Facebook, Twitter, Linked In and other social media, connecting with them there will help strengthen your business relationships. Be sure to post the social media icons on your website to encourage them to follow, friend and link with you.

Speaking of rewarding loyalty

To thank you for being a loyal subscriber I’ve set up a special 48 hour sale of my special report, Prescription for a Successful Gift Basket Website. This report will save you money and time by avoiding the mistakes I made in the early days. It will also point you to tips, strategies and advice I gained from my experiences and those of other successful businesses.

In addition to my 96-page special report, you will also receive as a bonus a report by marketing expert Marcia Yudkin, Charge More and Get It where she gives actionable advice on pricing your products and services. You will be able to download both reports as soon as you place your order.

Follow this link to download this 90-page special report and the free bonus report. Remember this sale only lasts 48 hours and will end promptly at midnight on Thursday, October 1, 2009

If you think that people who frequent Facebook, Twitter and other online social media sites are holed up in their offices or homes working in isolation, you are wrong.

Increasingly, business people who have first met on line are meeting in person to further connect and cement their business relationships. Consider extending the reach of your business by getting engaged on and offline.

One example of the online and offine worlds coming together is when participants on Twitter hold in-person gatherings, called Tweetups. They get face-to-face contact with friends who were until then just user names .  My first Tweetup was at a local Italian restaurant where 90 other twitterers gathered, eager to exchange business cards and look to connect with others in their interest areas. The organizers prepared gift bags with donated items and invited the marketing representative from a local shopping center to attend and invite all of us to a media-only event. It was a lively and fun event.

While still at my first Tweetup, a colleague, Edward Phillipp, and I discovered that we were both going to be attending the same seminar the next weekend. We scheduled a Tweetup to take place when the last session ended on the first day of the seminar. We met with a few other twitterers to chat about the highlights of the speeches we had heard that day.

Attending the Tweetup that Ed and I scheduled was Warren Whitlock, BlogTalk radio host, speaker, blogger, social media expert and co-author of “Twitter Revolution: How Social Media and Mobile Marketing is Changing the Way We Do Business & Market Online.” Since Warren’s show airs on Friday nights, he recorded our Tweetup as part of his show via his cell phone. (The photo above shows me attending this Tweetup.)

Another example, Biznik, is an online community of entrepreneurs and small businesses dedicated to helping each other succeed. By sharing ideas with others of like mind you grow your business and even find new clients. Biznik members who live in the same geographical area schedule meetings, seminars and mixers to meet in person. One member, a marketing consultant, hosts weekly meetings at a popular Los Angeles restaurant.

No matter what product or service you offer, your business will benefit when online and offline worlds meet.

Social media is one of those terms you hear buzzing about, but perhaps aren’t sure what it means. To make it even more confusing, social media is often used interchangeably with social networking and social marketing.

Social media refers to the many websites designed to encourage communication among members. It’s the modern version of word of mouth. Some of the more popular ones are Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and LinkedIn.

As you meet people through these websites, you network by exchanging ideas, tips and leads. As you get to know each other, you will gently market your services or ask for tips on how to market your service.

If you are still hesitate about whether or not you need to be involved with social media, it’s time to take action. According to Forrester’s Research, 51% of online Americans have joined a social network and another 73% are consuming some form of social content.

Your present and potential customers are on Twitter, Facebook, and other social media websites. So you should be too.

Some of you are not convinced because you think

• it takes too much time
• you don’t know what to say
• you don’t know how your participation will lead to more business

I don’t blame you. I had these same questions at first. But my success with building my business through social media convinces me that it is one of the most powerful marketing tools.

My tips for building your business through social media are:

1. Become a member of one or two to start, let’s say Facebook and Twitter, with a carefully chosen username.

It only takes a few minutes and it’s free. Be sure your user name reflects the way you want to be viewed by customers and colleagues.  “Singleandgoodlooking” may be your current status, but think about how this name relates to your business as well as future employers, customers and your constituents if you ever run for public office.

2. Complete your profile with a photo.

I won’t confirm friendship or follow anyone who hasn’t taken the time to post a photo, write a description or include a link to their website.

3. Write a brief description of your service and interests that will attract your target market.

We don’t need to know about all your hobbies or your favorite hamburger joint. We do need to know enough about your service and niche to help us decide if we want to hire you or collaborate with you.

4. Read what others are posting.

One of the easiest ways to get started is to respond to what others are posting. Many give links to articles of interest. You could thank them for pointing you to the article.

Some posts are direct links to a radio show or video in progress.  It’s good practice to go back and leave a comment to let the user know you appreciated the lead.

5. Agree to be Facebook friends or follow folks are Twitter who are in your area of expertise or can offer ideas, resources that will help your business grow.

You aren’t obligated to accept everyone’s request to be your friend or to follow everyone who’s following you.
This isn’t high school. Follow and friend those with whom a business relationship will be mutually beneficial.

6. Select the settings or tools that allow posts directed at you to come to your email. That way you don’t have to manually visit these sites to keep with messages that are relevant to you.

Maximum your time by linking the social media sites with each other. There are hundreds of tools that can do this. One of the best is ping.fm . Once you sign up on this free service you can post one message and it’ll go out to all your other sites.

Many services allow you to link to some of the others when you sign up. When I post an article on Ezine Articles, for example, it is announced on Twitter and Facebook.

When I schedule an episode on my radio show at www.blogtalkradio.com/florabrown it is announced on Twitter and Facebook as well.

7. Respond when you can offer tips, resources and content of value.

Blatant self-promotion will turn people off and tarnish your credibility.

To build your business with social media takes time and patience.  With the contacts you make, you will network and market your services.  Just like marketing offline, nurturing quality relationships online builds your business and increases your profits.

Get busy with social media to bring about positive results.

If you’ve spent the year attending networking meetings and building business relationships, it’s time to reap the benefits of all that connecting. Begin by sending greetings expressing your gratitude for the help, advice, leads and encouragement you’ve received.

If you aren’t a member of a networking group, perhaps you enjoyed exchanging tips, strategies and constructive criticism with a mentor, colleague, peer or informal group of business associates. Time out for tea or brunch would be a wonderful way to show your appreciation. If this isn’t convenient, how about sending a small gift with a card.

Next, let your contacts know how you can save them time and stay within their budget by taking the stress of holiday giving off their hands. Wise companies know that the recession is no time to cut back on their gift-giving. With keen competition going aggressively after customers, it’s time for your business clients to thank and reassure their customers with tasteful and affordable gifts.

The time you spent nurturing your network can pay off in holiday orders if you take the steps now. The rewards of a business network are countless and priceless.

As you plan your holiday designs note that during times of economic downturn one of the hottest niches is the spiritual and inspirational market. Many people are drawn to products that comfort, encourage and draw them closer to family and friends. To find the wholesale sources you need for this niche, get our directory, Religious and Spiritual Products Directory, priced affordably at $17.

Much is made by realtors about the importance of location. But is this equally true for gift basket businesses?

Most gift basket businesses are home-based. Your first job is make sure your home-based business is legal and acceptable in your city.

The business license department located in your civic center can answer this question easily. In some cities it has to do with the size and nature of your business. In many cities, you must be in a certain zone. In other cities it’s not allowed at all.

Once you’ve verified that your business can operate within your home, the second concern is your comfort level and ease of use.

The IRS will only acknowledge your home office if it’s a dedicated space. So find a space or add room to your home that will be devoted just to the operation of your business. Your office must be functional and fit in with the lifestyle of your family. Check out the creative home office spaces on the blog 2 Minute Commute.
If you already have a home-based gift basket studio, but want to organize it for effective use, get help from the narrated photo story Gift Basket Design Studio Exteme Makeover that shows you step by step how to remake your studio.

If your city doesn’t allow home-based gift basket businesses, you’ll need to seek retail, industrial or shared space.

A retail space in a busy location is best if you plan to target the walk-in consumer. Ample walk-around space with attractive displays will be critical. You will still need, however, storage and assembly space probably hidden from public view.

Some gift basket designers opt for industrial space where they can store and assemble designs, but with no plan to invite walk-in traffic. These owners show their wares at the offices of their clients and take orders by phone and the Internet.

Finally, there may be another retail business who will sublease, share, or partner with you. A gift basket center within a florist shop, a gift shop, wine store or gourmet food shop can be convenient for the customer, beneficial for the other retailer (who now gives customers another reason to come into his store,) and profitable for you.

Some Mary Kay directors, for example, split the rent on an office/meeting facility where several of them can meet clients and have meetings with their sales team.

In Denver, the Hive, is a shared facility concept that is desirable for many startups.

No matter where your gift basket business is located, however, you will still need to market and promote yourself on and off the Internet. Occasionally I hear from small town gift basket designers wondering if there is any chance for them to succeed.

Success is within reach whether you are located in a small or large town. Finding the right customers wherever they are on the planet, marketing your business, and promoting yourself well are the key steps that ensure success.

The increased use of the Internet as a shopping source has now closed the gap between gift basket businesses and potential customers, no matter where you are located. So, while location is certainly a factor it is not as critical as it once was.