Wholesale Gift Basket Catalogs

Im trying to start a business….?

Im now a stay at home dad of my newborn for a few months ’cause my wife makes more than I did. Im trying to start this while I do nothing at home. It’s a gift/sales kind of business but I have no idea what I’m doing. I wanna make gift baskets, jewelry, toys, perfumes, flowers, etc. I want to buy things wholesale and put them together, make a catalog to distribute, things like that.
What I need is a business plan which I don’t know how to make or where to get it; a sales license that I believe I can get at my local city hall; the supplies, which I cannot seem to find good prices online for; and a grant, which I have no idea as to how I am going to attain.
I graduated high school, did ’some’ college, and have a trade that I can always fall back on.
Can you guide me as to where I can find the information I need? Or, if possible, give me some tips yourself?
Thanks everyone.

Okay, let me take a shot at your list.

1) Business plan – go to the web site of the Business Development Bank of Canada http://www.bdc.ca/en/my_project/Projects/starting_business.htm and click on step 2. This will give you more than enough information to do a Business Plan.

2) Licenses and permits – You will need some kind of business license from the local government, so you are right about going to City Hall. You will also need to get a state sales tax certificate (assuming the state you reside in charges sales tax) and if you plan on doing business using anything other than your name you will have to register DBA (Doing Business As) — try City Hall to get this done. If they can’t do it they will be able to tell you who does.

3) Supplies – You will have to do a search for wholesalers and manufacturers of each type of supply you are seeking. You will find that prices are going to depend on the quantities you buy and when starting out quantities should be small and as a result the cost to you will be high.

4) Grant money – Forget it! Unless you are going to hire a number of unemployed workers and set up shop in a depressed neighborhood getting grant money to start a business isn’t about to happen. Since you will be starting off small this shouldn’t be a problem.

To keep your costs down you should look into using a web site instead of a catalog to promote your gift baskets. You can set up a web site complete with a shopping cart, paypal and credit card sales for less money than even a simple low volume catalog.

Hope this helps
Jerry-the-bookkeeper

The Mississippi Gift Company in Greenwood, Mississippi Visit MSGifts com

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