One of the foremost attractive features of being in the gift basket business is the creativity you get to exercise. You can design and execute gift baskets that stagger the imagination. But many naturally creative people have to work a little harder to develop the many practical skills that a home-based business requires.

Creative people are often not oriented toward making money. They want the income, but they sometimes feel that if they make a stunning product, the dollars will flow like wine. If only it were so! Some knowledge of accounting and website creation and maintenance are only two of the practical skills needed, for example.

Creative people sometimes aren’t very good at even thinking about money. They don’t consider how much is needed, for how long, and where it should go. Running a business makes those decisions mandatory. Very few have unlimited funds and some planning is required. Those plans have to be updated periodically.

It’s vital, for example, to be realistic about how much making and marketing gift baskets will cost. Materials on a per basket basis are often relatively inexpensive. Small bath items, miniature bottles of wine, even jewelry can be modestly priced. But add everything together, and multiply by the number of baskets you offer (which hopefully is large!) and you can be talking about substantial funds.

Start as low as possible and keep inventory to a minimum. That will allow you to stretch your capital as far as possible. Design a great website, but hold off on purchasing that shiny new software that would just make everything so much easier. Trade your time for expenses as long as you can.

At some point, though, you’ll need to budget your time, too. Time management is another skill that often doesn’t come easily to highly creative people. They become lost in the dream, thinking about executing that superb idea they just had. But you’ll find that creating products is a relatively small part of the day. More practical considerations will force themselves into your attention. If you are to succeed they can’t be ignored.

That shopping basket on the website won’t fix itself. That marketing flyer takes some creativity, so it may pique your interest. But slogging through all those places you’ll need to distribute it is often a lot less interesting. Perhaps, but it’s vital.

Handling all these practical needs to generate and maintain a successful business isn’t for everyone. Sometimes the best solution is a division of labor. If you can find a partner who enjoys the more practical aspects, while you focus on the creative (though there’s a lot of overlap), that’s great. But you’ll be splitting the profits. You may possibly not be splitting the costs, though. Sometimes a partner inputs time and expertise, but not capital. All kinds of arrangements are possible.

But even reaching out for that extra expertise or character attribute you lack requires some hard headed practical thinking. Creative people sometimes put these things off… because they’re not practical!

Few of us have that rare combination that is the perfect blend of creativity and hard-nosed business savvy. But the gift baskets business, like every other business, is competitive. Use your creativity to beat the competition. But keep your eyes off the stars and onto the road.

Good luck!

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