Gift basket designers long for mega orders of 1,000’s of gift baskets, but few actually win these coveted orders.

A Texas gift basket designer, Teresa Nelson, won an import award for handling a 4,000-basket order for which all the items arrived on the same day. She was among three area businesses awarded the 2006 Mayor’s Global Business Award. Teresa was so successful, in fact, that she has had to restrict her company’s growth.

Before you rev up your efforts to go after mega orders, be clear on what’s involved in fulfilling these orders:

1. Confirmation from your vendors, manufacturers and other wholesale sources that all the products you need for the order are available and ready to ship.

2. Adequate capital to order all the inventory. For mega orders, retailers often ask for a deposit, with the balance due upon delivery.

3. Enough warehouse space to store the inventory, and working space to assemble the designs and pack for shipping.

4. A trained staff who can keep meet the deadline in a timely and efficient manner.

5. A delivery service that can handle mega orders if hand delivery is required.

6. Staff to keep your regular operations going while you the mega order is being completed.

Mega orders can help your profits swell if you’ve priced your designs correctly and have everything in place as outlined above. But if you have undercut your competition to get the order or not planned ahead for the reality of completing the order, your hard-won order can become a non-profitable crazy-maker.

Learn about a mega order I turned down when it didn’t promise to make profits for me.