How to Start Gift Shop Business 1-2-3
Starting a Gift Shop Business
Gifts are purchased year round. Although you can purchase gifts online and through catalogs, gift shops are
not extinct.
Last-minute gift shopping never seems to go out of style, so local gift shops will always have a market.
Some gifts like helium balloons, fresh food items plants need to be purchased in person, so this is another
group of customers that shop at gift stores.
However, gift shops still have plenty of local competition. Supermarkets, drug stores, department stores and
even coffee shops have their offerings. To compete effectively, gift shops should regularly provide new and
unique merchandise that is hard to find in other places. For example, you could feature handmade work of local
artists or all-natural or organic products.
Another way to stand out from the crowd and meet your customers' needs is through location. You can lease a
storefront in a strip mall or shopping center, but depending on the items you're selling, you may be able to
run a very profitable business (with less overhead) selling from a kiosk or renting space within
another store.
Since gifts are items that everyone buys, a gift shop can partner with a variety of similar service
businesses to increase it's customer base. For example, party or event planners, florists, delivery services,
personal shoppers and cake decorators can all be sources of referrals. If a gift store customer needs a cake
decorated, the shop can refer them to a local cake decorator with whom they've partnered - and vice versa.
For basic steps to opening your shop, including registering a business name, leasing a storefront and
obtaining a business license, use the Business Start-Up Checklist.
Gift Shop Business Plan
You can view business plans online from other
businesses for free to get an idea of you to write your own, potential start-up costs plus product and
marketing ideas.
Start with a business plan template so you can
organize your business properly. You want a plan for a gift shop, not a generic business plan. With the
Gift Shop Business Plan
Package, you not only get a plan specifically for your line of work, you get over 100 forms and
templates to assist you in starting and running your company.
You also get 1 year of free web hosting free of charge, which you can use to help grow your business and
save on advertising costs.
If you want step-by-step
instructions on launching your start-up, expert Katherine Wellshear leads you through start-up and
management of your own gift shop with her "Start Your Own Gift Shop" guide.
You'll know how to develop new customers and accounts, handle bookkeeping and accounting tasks, get
necessary licenses and permits, 
how to price your products, how to increase
sales with customer loyalty and coupon programs and more.
Basically, she saves you months of time in research and trial and error. Instead, you can
start enjoying the income that your business brings in.
Start Your Own Gift Shop 
Gift Shop Marketing Ideas
Get Free Publicity
In addition to advertising in your local yellow pages and placing ads, you can lower your marketing expenses by
submitting a short press release or "letter" to your local paper announcing the opening of your local gift
shop. You can also use press releases on a regular schedule to announce events, news and activities within your
store.
Offer a special discount or free offer for first-time customers, and publications are more likely to publish
your story in a prominent location. You can either hire a public relations specialist or write your own press
release. You can find press release samples to help you here: How to Get Free Press.
Postcard
Marketing
Announce the grand opening of your gift shop to the local community by mailing out postcards. Residential
neighborhoods can be good targets - but don't forget businesses as well.
Using low-cost online services makes this an easy marketing task. First, choose a special offer that you
want to announce to potential customers. Second, design your postcards online using professional postcard
templates with VistaPrint (you
can get 50% off here). And third, get targeted leads from a lead generation company like Resource Nation.
Build a Free
Website - Create an online presence for your gift shop and show off a professional visual display
of your products and services. This is a great way to attract local clientele - and your website can do much of
the "selling" for you. It's easier and cheaper than you think with a Free Website Builder.
Local
Search - More and more people are looking for local businesses online, and you want to reach
these potential customers as well. Local Search sources that are affordable and receive substantial traffic
include: Google Local, Yelp and Super Pages.
Want people to find your website in the search engines? Get listed in 20 search engines for free or in
300 search engines for $4.
GiftShopMag is an online resource for gift retailers. The site has lots
of ideas every month on how you can imporve your sales and more effectively manage your business.
Gift Shop Business Resources:
- Small Business Tax Deductions
Get informed of basic business tax laws, and you can save yourself lots of money. Find out 20 different
ways that tax deductions can increase your business profits, and how to complete your tax returns for
less.
- Do-it-Yourself Small Business Legal Forms
Instead of hiring a lawyer to draw up general documents, you can buy standardized legal documents that can
accomplish the same thing and save you lots of money. Do you vendor or supplier contracts? Hiring forms?
Borrowing and lending paperwork? You'll find over 60 legal forms WITH Instructions! See also: Legal Document Finder
