Start a Personalised Gift Company

Gifts are big business: birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, “Thank You’s” etc. But gifts can also be impersonal. This is where the personalised gift market comes in, where you brand the gift with the person’s name, photo or even company logo (if you wishing them well with their company).

The local landscape
At the moment we have the “novelty” market which we’ve covered here before: mugs, meaning of name certificates, balls, clocks, canvas printing etc. You can do that if you want to but today I will look at something a bit different. Taking existing products: alcohol: wine, whisky, brandy, sweets & chocolates and relabeling it. This is a much better gift, as the person can not only keep the gift on display but also later on enjoy it, it definitely won’t be put in a cupboard and forgotten about. Here is what I am talking about (a gift I made for the Minister of Small Business Development to show how much we all appreciate what she does):

Before

After

So this can be done with any product, but make sure its a well known brand to keep it classy.

This business model is simple:

• You choose which items you want to make gifts of (don’t be too cheap)
• Create a template on your computer for each label, make sure you get the font/typeface used (for Jack Daniels you can use “Black No 7” (or “Jasper Daniels” for a free knock off) and for the Tennessee cursive you can use  Jackie Alternative.
• Get a nice paper
• Get a foil stamping machine if you can
• I would suggest using a laser printer for output, as its sharper, wont bleed and because its only once off gifts, it will sort a printing technique that is economical in single runs.

Now you buy the booze, popular kinds, try to buy when on special.
Add a markup, say if the booze cost R200, and sell it as a gift for R350 – R400. This is a unique item, people will pay the premium.
Your expenses, maybe R10 for the label, some glue, and you can knock together a wooden box put some straw in, say R50 in all.
So you looking at a profit of around R100 – R200 per gift for a few minutes work.

This business does not involve a lot of hard labour, to make R1000 profit a day, even more, is certainly attainable if you can get your business out there. Website, social media, partner with local shops even Gumtree.