Welcome of the Basket Biz Cafe Newsletter! I'm so glad to have you as a member of our newsletter readers. Just a note here, if you see crazy characters in the text, it's to help this newsletter get through the spam filters to reach your inbox instead of your junk mail box, I really do know how to spell!

Editor's Note

Well another month has past and we're another month closer to the busy holiday season. We're all super busy with some of you wrapping up vacations or getting kids ready to head back to school. It may seem like your customers are in the same boat and business may be down a bit, but don't worry, the busy holiday season is just around the corner. As soon as those vacations are finished and the kids are settled in, your business will jump back up as well.

Personally, it's quiet around our house since our kids are just about grown. Our youngest is preparing for her junior year at Texas State University where she is studying Recreation Administration and is a busy DI athlete on the Bobcats Volleyball Team. She just moved to her first off-campus housing yesterday with a new roommate and is really excited that "two-a-days" are getting ready to start off her volleyball season.

Our oldest daughter is a first grade teacher and is moving to a new school district this year. She's excited to be learning a new reading program she'll be teaching the slower readers along with math and science to the general student population.

It's exciting times for all as summer starts its decent. As for you and your business, I hope you're using this slower time of the year to prepare for the overload of business you will receive starting in just a few months. In this newsletter you'll find lots of industry news and an article about how to handle being overwhelmed. We're also introducing a new section for Product Highlights. I hope you gather a few tips from the information.

Reba
Follow me on Twitter! www.twitter.com/rebacollins

New Suppliers

Well again, since our website is basically new, we have too many new vendors to list them all. We actually added over 50 new vendors in July and that is fantastic for you. More vendors for you to choose from makes it easy to find exactly the right products to create the best and most beautiful gift baskets ever.

On the other hand, a huge selection of vendors may be overwhelming and make decision making a tough job. Many of the vendors you have never heard of and don't know if they will deliver. Believe me, we understand and that's why we'd like to ask you to help us out.

On each of the listings there is a place to RATE and REVIEW each vendor. If you take a minute each time you visit the site to write a review about a vendor you have used or take a couple of seconds to place a rating, it would help our entire industry. You will help with one rating and then benefit from some else's review. This give-and-take helps us all grow strong. The good reviews help your favorite vendors gain new customers, while the bad reviews help vendors to know what's going wrong and make corrections. This helps the entire industry, so please consider giving just a minute of your time and even remain annoymous if you like.

Since there were so many new vendors added to the directory in July, I decided to list only the Top 10. I pulled a list of all the new July listings and sorted the group by how many hits their listing received and the Top 10 are listed below.

Each of the above companies are linked to their listing in the directory. Let them know you read about them in our newsletter. They will be excited to know.

Lastly, we're still running our $1 Three-month Premium Listing Special for Charter Members. So if you like what you see and you think this new supplier directory could be helpful to you, please encourage your favorite suppliers to join if you don't already see them listed. When talking to your salesperson, tell them to "take a look-see," and if they want a listing, tell them to sign up for the $1 Three-Month Premium Listing by using Coupon Code GBWS-PREM-TRIAL when they sign-up. The code will discount the Three-Month Premium Listing down to $1.

Industry News

2008 National Association for the
Specialty Food Trade sofi™ Awards

Transatlantic Foods Aux Délices des Bois Black Truffle Butter named Outstanding New Product of 2008

The 2008 National Association for the Specialty Food Trade held it's 54th Summer Fancy Food Show earlier this month at the Javits Center in New York City. The show hosted 2400 exhibitors who showed their goods to an estimated 24,000 attendees. This year's show was the largest ever with 304 new exhibitors.

If you were lucky enough to attend, you saw, touched, tasted and maybe even gorged yourself on new gourmet products that will soon be filling gift baskets everywhere. Some of the new trends to watch will be:

• spice blends and dry rubs for meat, fish and poultry
• labels that designate a food as organic, kosher, or gluten-free
• and a widening selection of tea, especially green tea
  

One of the highlights at the Summer Show is the sofi™ Awards for outstanding products of 2008. This year's contest included a record 2,191 entries. Gold winners in 32 categories, including Outstanding New Product of 2008, learned of their honor at a ceremony, where they were presented with a gold statue of a chef. "sofi" stands for specialty outstanding food innovation.

The winner of the Outstanding New Product of 2008 was Transatlantic Foods for their Aux Délices des Bois Black Truffle Butter. The winner for the Outstanding Cooking Sauce category was a vendor of ours, Delicae Gourmet for their Strawberry Zinfandel Balsamic Glaze.

Big Government May Make It Hard For Small Cosmetics Companies

Do you depend on a small organic soap company to supply beautiful chuncks of soap for your spa baskets? What about your lotions and gels for a pamper basket, are they supplied by a small, maybe homebased business? Do you like having tons of choices when it comes to buying the products to make your baskets?

Well that choice may become a thing of the past if our Dept of Energy and Commerce has it's way. They have published a Discussion Draft of the FDA Globalization Act of 2008 and it's not looking good for the small and homebased cosmetic industry.

Basically, our government is looking to make it impossible for a small company to do business by imposed steep start-up and ongoing licensing fees. Personally, I just despise when govern wants to take away ANY of the freedom and choices I now enjoy and I hope it makes you mad as well.

If so, follow this link ~ STOP THE FDA GLOBALIZATION ACT OF 2008 ~ view the video, sign the petition and let your voice be heard by supporting Donna Maria at Indie Business Blog and her March on Washington on Aug 5th, 2008.

Price for Gift Retailers Network Going Up Soon

Have you considered joining Gift Retailers Network? Well now might be the time in order to beat the price increase scheduled for August 15th. Joyce Reid, a gift basket industry veteran, recently debuted a new website at http://www.GiftRetailersNetwork.com. It's up, running, and features:

• articles and resources for growing your business
• vendor discounts (currently at 24 vendors and growing)
• merchant account and promotional product discounts
• and a private forum

One big bonus of joining this growing educational network is that your website will receive a listing in Gift Basket Network for F*R*E*E. Gift Basket Network is the number one rated gift basket directory on the internet with super high rankings in all the search engines. It's a great way to help customers find your site.

On August 15th, the price for membership at Gift Retailers Network will increase from $125 to $175 annually. Anyone who has joined prior to August 15th will be "grandfathered in" at the same rate as when they originally joined for as long as the network is owned by Joyce and your membership has no breaks.

If you are serious about growing your business, join Joyce in her new venture and receive this great bonus before the price goes up. Tell Joyce that Reba sent you.

Upcoming Gift Basket Convention

Rave Reviews Magazine's Basket Connection 2008 is just around the corner to be held August 7-10 in Atlanta, GA at Atlanta Hilton Hotel.

Billed as the #1 Trade Show and Convention for Gift Baskets, Gourmet, Florists, Coffee & Tea, Candy, Confection and Packaging, this event just might be the largest the industry has to offer. Three and half days filled with sessions teaching topics like, Sell To Men, Basket and Bow Making Basics, Internet Business That Sells, Pricing For Profit, and Inventory Management and Cash Flow, and that's just to name a few. When you leave this event, your head will be spinning with tons of useful information.

And then there's the Trade Show, Gift Basket Competition, Networking, Luncheon, and so much more FUN! What an event! Learn more by checking out their listing at Gift Basket Wholesale Supply where you can click to their website.

Product Highlight

Artistic Gift Baskets -
Gift Basket Supplies with Service

Understanding the Business End

Running a gift basket business is fun. It's exciting to be your own boss while creating a beautiful product that your customers love. And to top it all off, you may actually be making money. These are all good things about being in business for yourself. On the the other hand, being a "company of one" or even of a few, can be totally overwhelming at times, especially during the holiday season. No one wants to admit when they are in over their heads, but if you want your business to continue to thrive, knowing the warning signs and getting help is vital.

Let's examine a few of the warning signs:

Do you waste more and more time each day? I don't mean to nag as we all waste a fair amount of time, but it's important to know when it's becoming excessive. You could be wasting time by using too much of it to answer emails or maybe it takes far longer than it should to look something up on the Internet. How about when it takes you thirty minutes to write a “To Do” list and then only one or worse yet, none of the things on it get done. Maybe you just got a large shipment from a supplier and instead of excitedly opening the boxes to see your new arrivals, you leave the boxes sitting unopened. Has it become increasingly difficult to make designs you actually love or even like?

This could be a sign that your business is beginning to overwhelm you. Instead of jumping in and tackling the tasks that need to be done, do you find yourself avoiding them, all the time knowing they need to be addressed. Maybe you don’t have the answers or maybe you just don’t want to deal with something that will take a big chunk of time. Whatever it is, the stress of having unfinished work can start robbing you of your creative ideas and stop you from doing the the things you love. If you allow the situation to continue, your business is going to suffer.

One way to overcome these feelings and get back on track, is to seek help from fellow business owners. This is why it is important to participate in forums and organizations that include others who are in the gift basket business. You are not the first gift basket company owner to feel this way and I'm sure you won’t be the last. Someone out there has practical "first-hand" experience and can offer tips that will help you to get over this hurdle and get back in gear.

Check out these message boards: Gift Basket Exchange and Cherie Reagor's Gift Basket Exchange. If you want to join an educational network that includes a forum, Gift Retailers Network is available for an annual membership fee.

Does it seem that you work more and more each day but the pile of work never seems to get any smaller? This is a sign that you either need help or need to find a better way to do things. Take a step back and look at your business as a whole. What is consistently not getting done? What is the nature of the majority of the work that is left each day? It's probably the work that you don't like to do.

Consider how you're doing things and find a better way. For example, if bookkeeping has you bogged down, find ways to organize things so it isn't piling up. Set up your work day to include an hour for bookkeeping. Input and print your invoices when the sale is made, not just before you're getting ready to ship it. Input your purchase orders when you place the order, not when the order is received. And input your expenses as soon as you spend the money, not when the bank statement comes at the end of the month. Leaving everything to do at one time can make that task a real burdon.

Is it marketing that concerns you? Are you afraid to make cold calls? Then find a way to gather warm leads or read books to become more knowledgable about making cold calls. Maybe choosing one industry to focus your marketing efforts on would help you overcome the fear. This way you could become familiar with the people in that industry and soon your fear will fade. This doesn’t mean you need to limit yourself, quite the contrary, you're just narrowing your focus until you learn what you need to know to be comfortable doing what you need to do. Once you get this area of your business going strong, you can explore another part of your marketing strategy. Diversifying is necessary but doesn't need to be tackled all at one time.

Don't let your business overwhelm you. Take time to discover the source and develop solutions to alleviate your stress.

Until Next Time

Thank you everyone for your wonderful support. I hope we are able to help you grow your business as you have helped us grow ours. Now don't forget to click over and look at our newly revamped website!

Good Luck and God Bless !

Reba Collins
Gift Basket Wholesale Supply
www.giftbasketwholesalesupply.com

Gift Basket Wholesale Supply | 18515 Lodgepole Pine | Cypress, TX | 77429