Gift Rep Sandy

Special Deal on The Complete eGuide!

Spring is upon us! Along with spring, COVID restrictions are loosening.  Good news for producers! If you’ve been thinking about selling to retailers, but have been holding back due to COVID — OR if you need a quick refresher course on how to update your business to connect with store buyers, I have a sweet deal for you. I am going to do something I have not done is a long time — if ever! My basic…

Inspirational Words from Rosabeth Kanter

Rosabeth Moss Kanter (born March 15, 1943) is the Ernest L. Arbuckle Professor of Business at Harvard Business School. She is also director and chair of the Harvard University Advanced Leadership Initiative. Kanter was born in Cleveland, Ohio, and described her childhood as “benign” and herself as ambitious, having written a novel and entered essay contests as early as 11 years old. “Confidence…

12 Years Ago …

It was 12 years ago when I first started this website and began writing weekly articles and newsletters to creative entrepreneurs. My March 13, 2009 post went like this … Welcome to my blog on selling wholesale to gift stores. After working as a independent gift sales representative for over eight years, selling wholesale gift products to retail store buyers, I find so many crafters and producers…

Inspirational Words from Yelena Baturina

Yelena Nikolayevna Baturina (born 8 March 1963) is a Russian Billionaire businesswoman and philanthropist, based in London, and was married to Yury Luzhkov, mayor of Moscow (from 1992 to 2010) until he died in 2019. She founded Inteco (1991), an investment and construction company and for two decades served as president. She is also the founder of the Be Open foundation. “I demand a lot from…

Late Payments and Collections

With the widespread use of debit and credit cards, late payments and collections may not be an issue, but if they are, here are a few tips. Dozens of times over the years, I’ve collected payments from stores that were late in paying for their order. Sometimes this was for our own lines, more often I called on behalf of a client who experienced trouble collecting (and was holding up that part of…

Inspirational Words from Stephen Jurvetson

Stephen T. Jurvetson (born March 1, 1967) is an American businessman and venture capitalist. Formerly a partner of the firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ), he was an early investor in Hotmail, Memphis Meats, Mythic and Nervana Systems. He is currently a board member of SpaceX and Tesla,  among others. He later co-founded the firm Future Ventures with Maryanna Saenko, who worked with him at DFJ “I…

Define Your Wholesale Terms

When making your first (and subsequent) wholesale sales call, you want to define your wholesale terms in an easy precise manner.  You don’t want your potential customers to be confused or misled causing a stumbling block to ordering from you and/or your company. Wholesale in a Box compiled a list of mistakes you may not think of when preparing your sales materials. Following is a summary from…

Inspirational Words from Guilherme Leal

Guilherme Peirão Leal (born 22 February 1950 in Santos) is a Brazilian billionaire entrepreneur. He is the co-chairman of the board of directors and owns a 25 percent stake in, Natura, Brazil’s leading manufacturer and marketer of skincare, solar filters, cosmetics, perfume and hair care products. According to Forbes, Leal had a fortune worth roughly US$2.1 billion as of 2010.  In May 2019 Natura…

Do you tell your story to potential buyers and customers? A few weeks ago, I was coaching 1-on-1 with a producer helping him to expand his business.  When we first started the meeting, I, as always, let him present himself and his business.  I was fascinated with his story on how he got started and why he developed his products.  Once he was done, I told him it was a wonderful story, but wondered…

Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou ( born 14 February 1967) is a Greek-Cypriot entrepreneur. Born into a wealthy ship-owning family, he is best known for founding the low-cost airline easyJet and the Stelmar shipping line with start-up funds provided by his father, Loucas. easyJet’s foundation in 1995 marked the beginning of a series of ventures marketed under the “easy” brand, managed by easyGroup and…

Product Pricing Analysis, Part Two

In Part One of this topic on Product Pricing Analysis, we talked about Pricing Analysis based on cost. Now, we are going to pursue Market Pricing Analysis and how you reconcile both analyses to come up with your pricing. ‘Market’ Pricing Analysis Now, we are going to compare our “cost-plus” analysis, to what the market will bear, through a competitive analysis. The price of products like yours,…

Inspirational Words from Chris Gardner

Christopher Paul Gardner (born February 9, 1954) is an American businessman and motivational speaker. During the early 1980s, Gardner struggled with homelessness while raising a toddler son. He became a stockbroker and eventually founded his own brokerage firm Gardner Rich & Co in 1987. In 2006, Gardner sold his minority stake in the firm and published a memoir. That book was made into the motion…

Product Pricing Analysis, Part One

Over my years selling gift products, one particular area critical to wholesaling that producers often misunderstand the importance of product pricing analysis.  Finding an appropriate pricing schedule for the wholesale market needs to start with a detailed analysis. First, Start with Pricing Analysis As a “manufacturer” or producer, you should aim to retain around a 40% “gross” margin on the…

Inspirational Words from Cindy Gallop

Lucinda “Cindy” Lee Gallop (born 1 February 1960)[1] is an English advertising consultant, founder and former chair of the US branch of advertising firm Bartle Bogle Hegarty, and founder of the IfWeRanTheWorld and MakeLoveNotPorn companies.  Gallop worked as a theatre publicist and marketer in England for several years before switching careers to advertising.  According to the TED blog, Gallop’s…

Last days for the 1-on-1 Intentions Program Special

Time is running out on the special 25% off 1-on-1 Intention Setting Program! If you are looking to create workable intentions and goals to build or expand your business, this Intention Setting Program is just for you! Let me help you define your goals for 2021 with the special techniques used by business, personal growth and spiritual gurus. Here are the details: 1-on-1 Intention Setting…

Inspirational Words from Chad Hurley

Chad Meredith Hurley (born January 24, 1977) is an American media mogul, co-founder and former CEO of the video-sharing websites YouTube and MixBit. In June 2006, he was voted 28th on Business 2.0’s “50 People Who Matter Now” list. In October 2006, he and  Steve Chen sold YouTube for $1.65 billion to Google, Hurley worked in eBay’s PayPal division—one of his tasks involved designing the original…

2021 Setting Intentions Coaching Session

The New Year has started!  Maybe you are feeling lost or disoriented about where your business is going … or should be going! Announcing the 2021 1-on-1 Intention Setting Coaching Program which teaches Intention Setting Methods, used by successful people, to create workable goals for your business. Whether you run an existing business or are looking to start one, this program can help you…