Gift buying business, advice please!

[Amy89]

Hi, I'm looking at going self employed, as I hate my job and the hours will kill me when I go back after maternity leave. I've been thinking about starting a gift buying business...basically an easy way to get gifts for friends and loved ones birthdays/occasions/Christmas. It can be a yearly subscription whereby I keep the dates on file and do it yearly for the customer, or as a one off.
Basically, you join and I send out a short questionnaire. From this, I will determine need, and send back 4 suggestions within budget, then the customer can choose one - be it jewellery, clothing, spa days, etc.
Also, can send reminders 3 weeks before the date to remind customer, and send out handmade cards (I have a friend who makes gorgeous cards and stationary).
What do you think? Am I setting myself up for failure? I think it could work well with the right research, and getting contacts with independent and local manufacturers to get a good deal.

 

[supertabby]

Honestly I think it would take a lot of work - and some good investment - to work. I know you hate your job but hours-wise you need to be prepared to work long hours when starting and running your own business for profit.

I think your key things to make it work would be a very good website, marketing and contacts. None of which come cheap. Do some research into website costs - setting up as well as maintenance. I've set up websites for work (as in briefed external web design companies) and they can be costly. A cheap website will put customers off.

I would see how much it costs to get feedback from a focus group - I like your idea but personally I wouldn't be a customer. As far as birthday reminders go, you can get free apps to do this and many websites like moonpig do it for free. Gift suggestion functions are available on all the major gift websites (notonthehighstreet etc). So as an unknown brand without the clout of the big guys how would you set yourself apart? Perhaps if you have a service that sends out the gifts automatically without them having to be emailed and spending time selecting - kind of like a pa service. You'd need to be careful to set up the right contracts to do that.

I think I've been quite negative - but I think it's easy to see the positives already, so trying to present the challenges you need to consider and investigate.

 

[Eleanor ace]

Have you done much market research yet? It sounds like it could work, if you have good contacts and an identified client base, but I'd imagine it would take an awful lot of time and marketing to start turning a profit.
It's the sort of thing I'd imagine people would use if they had a lot of money, and a lot of people to buy gifts for. But then those peoples tastes might well change a lot and the customer would have to keep giving you updated questionnaires and I imagine the people your service would appeal to might not want to have to do any leg work, if you see what I mean.
But if you're offering unique, bespoke gifts that they wouldn't have though of on their own, organised and delivered with minimal effort to the client, I could definitely see it appealing.

 

[Amy89]

Honestly I think it would take a lot of work - and some good investment - to work. I know you hate your job but hours-wise you need to be prepared to work long hours when starting and running your own business for profit.

I think your key things to make it work would be a very good website, marketing and contacts. None of which come cheap. Do some research into website costs - setting up as well as maintenance. I've set up websites for work (as in briefed external web design companies) and they can be costly. A cheap website will put customers off.

I would see how much it costs to get feedback from a focus group - I like your idea but personally I wouldn't be a customer. As far as birthday reminders go, you can get free apps to do this and many websites like moonpig do it for free. Gift suggestion functions are available on all the major gift websites (notonthehighstreet etc). So as an unknown brand without the clout of the big guys how would you set yourself apart? Perhaps if you have a service that sends out the gifts automatically without them having to be emailed and spending time selecting - kind of like a pa service. You'd need to be careful to set up the right contracts to do that.

I think I've been quite negative - but I think it's easy to see the positives already, so trying to present the challenges you need to consider and investigate.

Thanks for your thoughts
I was going to start up whilst on maternity leave, in my spare time and so I'm not rushing it - that way, I still have the option of going back to work if it flops.

Website we can do, my OH works in IT and does all that sort of stuff, can maintain it etc. Obviously need to look into hosting costs and such though.

I will definitely look into a focus group, thanks for that

I meant send stuff out automatically, the original survey type thing would be to get an idea of what's required, or I was also thinking to make it easier just to ask for a list of requirements/preliminary ideas to make to gift suitable for the recipient.

You hit the nail on the head with the pa service, that's what I'm thinking, sort of an online/virtual pa or lifestyle management service.

 

[Amy89]

Have you done much market research yet? It sounds like it could work, if you have good contacts and an identified client base, but I'd imagine it would take an awful lot of time and marketing to start turning a profit.
It's the sort of thing I'd imagine people would use if they had a lot of money, and a lot of people to buy gifts for. But then those peoples tastes might well change a lot and the customer would have to keep giving you updated questionnaires and I imagine the people your service would appeal to might not want to have to do any leg work, if you see what I mean.
But if you're offering unique, bespoke gifts that they wouldn't have though of on their own, organised and delivered with minimal effort to the client, I could definitely see it appealing.

Not yet, it's just something I thought of and had been turning over in my head. I'm lucky contact-wise, from my previous jobs I've got a lot of contacts in my city in varying professions, offering lots of services.
You got it, it's meant to appeal to lazy people in effect - I'm just trying to puzzle out how it would work with minimal effort and continual input on the clients behalf.

 

[pinkpolkadot]

Sounds like a great idea! Yes it is hard work setting up your own business but it is so worth it. If you can start off in your free time and are not giving up your salary for it then even better. You have nothing to lose really, only your time spent on it.

Money wise it's great your OH can sort the website, the hosting etc... you can get really cheap. DH and I have started a couple of businesses with no money, just means you have to do a lot of the work yourself.

I guess your clients would be lazy/busy people with money to spare, the hardest part would probs be finding your clients I guess.

Have you thought how you would charge, would it be a fee, a commission, would you add a bit to the cost price? Maybe look at commission from the suppliers too?

I think the info gathering part would need to be really straight forward to make it worth while time saving wise for them but I guess you could do an interactive online quick quiz or something.