This 'n' That

Feeling the need to catch up.....it's been awhile since our last blog.

January, is always a pretty slow month, a good/bad thing, actually. Good because we get a much-needed breather, good because we have a chance to regroup/assess where we are, and good because we have a chance to "fabulate" a new collection of gifts for Valentine's Day. But really not so great for our cash flow. Thank God for the awesome corporate customer we acquired last year who keeps us going on a daily basis.

It was actually that very same customer who requested the 40 last-minute holiday gifts I mentioned in my "Merry Christmas..." entry. We were winding down on Friday, our last business day before Christmas, so very glad to have everything under control, knowing that all we had to do was get through the afternoon. Julie had been in discussion with our contact at the company for some time about this particular order, trying to pin down the details. We knew it was due soon, and we knew we would be out of the store until after Christmas. When she told us the gifts had to be in the hands of the recipients by the January 2 , she didn't realize, but we knew we had a "gift basket emergency" on our hands. The gifts were going all over the country, some all the way to the West Coast. They had to go out that day. At that point in our season, 40 of anything was a challenge. We had gaping holes in our stock. and we were pretty much fried crispy. Fortunately for all of us, our customer's first choice of gifts contained seasonal items we would have had left over after the holidays (bonus!) And fortunately Julie and I were both there, as well as our new "Girl Friday" in- training and our awesome holiday shipping dude. Awesome shipping dude called in our part-time guy, and we dug in our heels...determined to get it done in time for the UPS pick-up at 4:30. Julie constructed all of the gifts, I made bows and shrink-wrapped, Girl Friday wrote message cards and shrink-wrapped, and the boys packed and ran everything through UPS. We pretty much ran at warp-speed, and just did it. As Joe (shipping dude) said, if we had thought about what we were trying to do, it would have freaked us all out. Anyway... fast-forward to bottom line: gifts made, gifts packed and sent in time for the deadline. Customer happy, us happy. We closed the doors at 5 and left for a much needed holiday break with our family.

With that story finished, there is one other potentially more interesting story to update. Julie started our company blog in the summer of 2006, when we were asked to provide a group of baskets for a Tom Hanks-produced movie-in-the-making, "The Great Buck Howard" (See July 2006 "The Craziest Story"). We took our chances at the time, not knowing if it was some sort of weird scam or a real opportunity. We decided it was just something we couldn't afford to pass up. We also knew that it would be an unbearably long wait for the movie, with a release set originally for the summer of 2007. We created the 20 requested baskets, delivered them, and moved forward, trying to tend to everyday business. We intermittently Googled for information on the movie, with not much of anything beyond cast and synopsis of the movie coming up. The summer of 2007 came and went, and the projected release was revised to 2008. Finally, in December I found a couple of stills and a potential movie poster when I searched, and I figured that it might actually be getting close. And then, interestingly enough, my search last week netted several reviews of the movie, which is/has been shown in the past week at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah. The reviews are all favorable, especially in regards to John Malkovich, who plays the title role.

At this point we really have no idea if our baskets will actually be in the movie, and if so, whether or not we will be identified in any way. To be honest, neither one of us are holding our breaths. It was originally explained to us that delivery of the baskets would be an ongoing thread throughout the movie, and that the name of our company would be evident. Yes, it's a little hard to imagine, but we decided that if it was for real and we passed on the opportunity, we wouldn't want to have to deal with "what if?"

We've made countless changes in the operation of our company since we sent out those 20 baskets to Hollywood. We've reinvented ourselves and streamlined and improved our processes and products. Some of this evolution has occurred as our company has grown, but much has been done as a result of our unusual "opportunity". From that aspect, we will never consider it a mistake. We're able to smoothly transition to 5 times our normal business, and we do it well every November and December. Give us the opportunity to accommodate a substantial increase in business every day, and we'll be ready. All we can do is wait and see!

Merry Christmas to All

Blog coming soon about our last day of business before the holiday..... a 40-piece "emergency" order for one of our best customers was filled in 3 hours ( packed and shipped all over the country). Nothing like a little frosting on the season!!!


At the moment, Julie and I are savoring a few days of freedom and normalcy. Playing catch-up for Christmas is always a challenge, but a fun one. Just wanted to take a minute to thank all of our customers for their business, and for all the great feedback we recieved...we so appreciate it!

Wishing a very Merry Christmas to all.

Twelve Days and Counting.....

Just a quick entry to note that things are going frighteningly well here in Basketland. All the large orders have been put to bed, including the Monster Order that puts our panties in a bunch each year. (Whew!) Aside from an awesome shipping dude we acquired this year (worth his weight in gold), our extra labor has been minimal.


So it's twelve days and counting until December 23. It's pretty much a love-hate thing this time of year... grueling and gratifying. But no matter what, December 24 is when family time begins, and we can't wait! We both survived crappy 3-week colds and Julie, a nasty stomach bug. On the plus side, neither one of us has snipped finger tips off with scissors or slashed open any body parts with utility knives. No hysterical meltdowns either. I did spill a pile of ravioli in one of my sneakers today, but that was a minor mishap.


Twelve more days? Bring it on...we're ready to handle anything!!!

My Orange Nightmare

What do you do when you unpack your last shipment of baskets for the season, and discover that 85 of the large ones you need the most are an unfortunate shade of orange? It was my orange nightmare revisited...ARGHHH!

I had just finished re-staining the last remaining few from a batch we got last fall. It was messy, smelly, and time-consuming the first time around...I used oil-based stain and I did it by hand with a brush. It took forever to dry, and alot longer for the odor to disappear. I was so happy to see the last one finished! The very last thing on earth I ever wanted to do again was to re-stain another basket.

But, there they were...85 more baskets that we couldn't send back and coudn't send out the way they were. We need most of them for a big project we're working on right now. Julie is beyond busy at this time of year, running the whole show. So there was no way around it...it was time for me to take one for the team.

I was pretty psyched to discover that water-based stain is not sticky, dries quickly, and doesn't smell like a carcinogen. It had to be the answer! I tried the stain-by-hand with a brush method, and it took at least 20 minutes per basket...it also looked like hell.

Plan B involved dipping the baskets in a some sort of container I could use as a vat. I scoured Home Depot for supplies, and came home with 9 quarts of stain which I diluted with water, several brushes, vinyl gloves, and a large plastic tarp. I emptied my Christmas ornaments out of a large plastic storage container and voila, I was in business!

The next part was tricky... I really have no open area in my home to work on an insane project like this. So I set up the dipping operation in my little kitchen on top of some large trash bags, and spread the long plastic tarp in the kitchen, and all across the length of my living room. I have off-white carpeting, so I was pretty much playing with fire.

Much to my delight, the new plan worked like a charm. It took only about 4 minutes to dip each basket! I was determined to finish the job up by Tuesday, just to get the whole big mess out of my little house.

Untimately WHERE TO PUT THE BASKETS WHILE THEY DRIED became the next nightmare. Picture 85 baskets the size of a shallow laundry basket. I sat on the floor and worked out a system...Dip three, set aside. Stand up, transfer into the living room. Carry in a dozen more. Dip three, and on and on. Every possible space was covered with freshly stained baskets, and I had piles more. So as they dried, I began piling them upside down in layers so they would all fit on the tarp. I worked for 4-5 hours straight, and when I was finished, I had a mountain of baskets about 4 feet high covering my living room. It was a Kodak moment!

My sense of relief and accomplishment at a job well done began to fade the next day when every part of my body began screaming at me, "What were you thinking? You are 59 years old, you have arthritis, and your knee is an orthopedic disaster zone!!! That day I dragged myself to work at the hospital, literally in tears. One of my R.N. friends threw a handful of assorted over-the-counter pain meds at me and said, "Take three of these and two of these, and don't argue with me!" It helped. Another friend went home and brought me back a miocrowaveable rice bag to use on my knee. I really have some good friends.

It's Friday and the pain is down to it's normal dull roar. My off-white carpeting is still off-white, and we're using the formerly orange baskets... they really look great! I just have to make a mental note to remind myself that I'm really not 25 anymore. And that the gift basket business is so fun...isn't it???

Our Thanksgiving Thank You

Another wild week! Our usual early-order customers did order early, and their Thanksgiving thank-you gifts are made, wrapped, and out the door. Over the years we've encouraged corporate customers to consider client thank-you gifts for Thanksgiving, and several have made it a tradition. This is a win-win for our customers and for us. Their beautiful fall-trimmed gifts are usually the first holiday gifts to arrive, making a bigger impression (we think). On our end, the plus is our holiday workload and cashflow are spread out over a little more time.


Beyond that, we've been amazed at how many of the "Usual Suspects" are checking in early this year. "Usual Suspects" is an absolute term of endearment I use for the wonderful clients we hear from each and every holiday season. It seems that this years' early Thanksgiving has spurred customers into thinking about client gifts about a week earlier than usual. This is all to our advantage in so many ways...extra time for production and the availability of stock allows us to increase our volume, and hopefully accommodate everyone who wants holiday gifts from The Syracuse Gift Basket Company. There is nothing worse that having to turn down orders because of time and stock constraints...it's something we absolutely hate to do. But integrity is integrity, and we won't ever promise anything that we can't deliver.


We had an unexpected surprise yesterday when Shelby Stafford of Channel 9 called, wanting to include our business in a piece she's working on about "Cyber Monday". I guess we're a little out of the loop(?) because we had no idea what that even meant. Apparently, after "Black Friday", there is a comparable shopping day in cyberspace, occurring on the following Monday. She talked to us about many aspects of our business and the impact of the internet, with some shots of Julie making a basket, and of our shop. Some of the Thanksgiving baskets were still waiting to be picked up, so we got to show off some of our larger gifts. As usual, I backed off when the camera started rolling...Julie is so comfortable with that whole scene, and I am so not! Shelby said the piece would air on Monday, early a.m. (5-6:00) and may possibly pop up elsewhere. No matter what, it's nice to have the exposure on TV without the expense. Thanks Shelby!


All in all we have so much to be thankful for. We're off to a phenomenal start to the holiday season, in spite of the ecomony, in spite of the late start, in spite of the fact that alot of people (including us) thought we wouldn't be around this season. In no small part, this is due to our very loyal customers, who come through for us every year with holiday orders and referrals (our best advertising!) It's always so very gratifying to know that our customers appreciate what we do.


Tomorrow Julie will be cooking Thanksgiving dinner for our family, and I will be thankful for our precious time together, probably the last until Christmas. This weekend we'll begin a month of long days and heavy holiday production. Piles of baskets and piles of stock, miles of ribbon and trim are waiting. I'm definitely not complaining, but exactly where are all the elves???

Wishing all a warm and Happy Thanksgiving!

Off and Running!

It's been a crazy couple of weeks. After looking over our catalog, we realized we still had alot more gifts to reshoot, in addition to our holiday gifts. We're actually reshooting our entire catalog---partly to update and standardize the photos, but also to get them into the format we need to easily reproduce them. Since we downsized our customer area substantially in the shop, we decided to create a catalog with color photos and descriptions of all of our standard gifts. It's virtually impossible to have all of our 75 plus catalog gifts on display at all times, and it was crazy to send people home to look at our website to see them all. So-o-o-o, we came up with the idea to have a loose-leaf type catalog at our customer service counter. Lots of work! Last Sunday, I spent about 16 hours making gifts (marathon day). Laura was scheduled to come back on Monday to finish with our pictures, so we didn't have much choice. Julie had an urgent house project to finish last weekend, so I glued myself to the work table on Sunday and got it done.

Laura commented on Monday that shooting all of these gift basket pictures was better than getting poked in the eye with a sharp stick, but not much.

Unfortunately for Julie, she is the lucky partner who knows about photoshopping the new pictures and working out the spreadsheets for our online catalog (tedious!) We needed to recalculate prices on alot of gifts due to all of the price increases we have been absorbing, so it was time for a re-do anyway. (After all, we are trying to stay in business!) Most of the time, it's just Julie and I here, so when we are working on something extra besides our normal business, it's challenging.

But, there is good news! Our previously mentioned "Girl Friday", Susan offered to come back and work 2 days a week, and more when we get down to the nitty gritty of holiday production. Yay for us! She started back this week, and has accomplished wonders of organization already. We had hoped to consolidate our operation enough to get by without the 1500 square feet we have been renting upstairs. This was just fine for everyday business. But the day the wall of baskets for holiday gifts arrived, we knew it wasn't enough space for the November-December madness. So, we are again setting up production areas upstairs.

And more good news...our biggest holiday client placed their annual monster order on October 30! Last year it didn't come in until December 1, and it impacted our entire holiday season. Most people don't even think about holiday gifts until December 1. But when you have a 2-3 week project on your plate that late in the season, it becomes extremely difficult to commmit to much more (no matter how much help you pull in.) So we talked to them early about the state of things, and they were kind enough to place their order early this year. (We love them for that!)

Several other large orders have come in already, so it's feeling like it's going to be an awesome season. We're winding up the catalog project, and things are coming together. The work area is being readied and the elves are being summoned. We are off and running!

Back in the Game

Part of our streamlining process for the business included weeding out "dead weight" gifts on the website and redesigning some existing gifts that we wanted to keep. Dead weight gifts are things that never really took off, for whatever reason (often a mystery to us.) Redesigns become necessary when major components or containers become unavailable (frustrating!), or we find a better way to design a gift. We've had some new ideas simmering on the back burner for awhile, as well as the urgently needed holiday designs for this season. Bottom line.....we had alot of work to do!


Julie set the photo shoot for Monday, and we were off and running. We've been so busy, it came down to the weekend to get it all done. We spent most of Saturday cooking up new designs, and continued to add more on Monday morning until our photographer came. We're fortunate to have Laura Brazak (Laura Brazak Photography), who's willing to come to our shop and take the photos in-house. She's a good friend of Julie's, and does a great job with our products. (Adjusting cookie boxes, shower gel, and Kit-Kats to the proper angle can be challenging!) In the olden days, Julie had to load all of the new gifts into her van, lug them to the photographers', and then cart them all back again to our shop. Logistical nightmare.

Happily, Julie and Laura have the shoots down to a science, and it all goes pretty quickly...adjustments made, photos taken, done. It's all pretty laid back, and so not stressful! Laura finished the job yesterday in no time. We still have some holiday gifts to work on this week, but most of our standard designs are done for the time being. And then there are the spread sheets, descriptions, and uploads to do. But...we're on our way!

After the photo shoot yesterday, I looked at all the great new gifts, and then looked at Julie. "I guess we're not rolled over playing dead anymore....it looks like we're back in the game!

Where's is Susan?!!

Susan was our Girl Friday. She came to us a couple of Christmases ago, and decided she liked the work (and us) enough to come and help us part-time on a regular basis. She has a young family, and needed the schedule flexibility that we could offer her. She made gifts, checked in and organized stock, ran errands, made deliveries when we could spare her, and made the store presentable when we couldn't find time. On top of that, she was awesome with customers. We trusted her to hold down the fort for us when we both needed to be out of the store. It was a great fit! Unfortunately for us, Susan moved outside of the city over the summer. She lives too far away now to come in for the few hours a day that she was available.



So here we are, reorganizing our operation, gearing up for the holidays (with piles of stock hitting the door everyday), and business on the increase. At the moment we're trying to complete the 150 small gifts we're making for one of our regular corporate customers, due to go out the door on Tuesday. Susan was always our g0-to girl on this type of project. We made the prototype, she would pretty much take it from there, and we took care of everything else that was going on.



It's a 3-day weekend, and we're planning major time in the store to try to catch up. The weather has unfortunately been gorgeous for months. I say unfortunately because we've had little time to relax and enjoy, AND we still can't ship the damn chocolate because of the heat! (Bah, humbug!) There are holiday designs, photos, stock, and staffing to figure out, and we both have job committments outside of our business this year.



Probably this is enough complaining for now, don't you think? Many people in our industry would love to have the customers and volume that we have. (And and we've worked way to hard not to appreciate it ourselves. ) We know we'll get it all done, just as we always do, and eventually we'll find another Girl Friday. But Julie and I just look at each other and say, "Where is Susan?!!"

Making Lemonade...

Anyone who's followed our blog probably wonders WHERE ON EARTH we've been for the past few months. In a nutshell, Julie and I made a joint decision in the spring to get out of the business. We weren't sure how we'd do it...we just knew we were crispy and READY! Julie has some other business opportunities brewing, and I just want to "retire" to my nursing career.
So...we began formulating an exit plan, and wondered what we would do with all of this "stuff". Very unexpectedly, a pair of potential buyers asked if we would consider selling the business to them. They recognized the value of our name in this area, and the value of our corporate client base. We were excited! They were excited! We hired a business broker, fast-forwarded through a complete inventory, put all of our records in order, and made sure the store was in great shape. We all met over the summer, and spoke on the phone intermittently about what progress was being made. The buyers were doing what they had to do to get their financing in order. They had asked if we would give them first opportunity at taking over the business and we honored that request. (We did not make the business available to the general public.)
The summer months were passing, and we were anxious to move on. We kept busy, tried to be patient, and kept everything running as normally as possible while we waited. The irony of it all was that we were having our busiest summer ever. We acquired some valuable new clients, and had several substantial orders booked into the fall. With shortened summer hours, we were barely keeping up. Still we were confident that the sale would go through, and we were happy to pass on a thriving business to our buyers.
Then one day a couple of weeks ago, we got our unexpected surprise. Julie was on the phone as I was flying out the door to make my evening shift at the hospital. She put her hand over the mouthpiece, and let me know that the sale was not going to happen.
To say we were disappointed is an understatement. With such positive feedback all summer from our potential buyers, we were pretty sure we would be out of the business by fall. Julie is already into some other projects, and I had been mentally filling my upcoming free time with family, travel, and assorted fun projects.
So...I'm fond of saying that what we're doing now is taking our lemons and "making lemonade". With sales on the increase, we're on course to have a fabulous holiday season, and all in all a banner year. We've always prided ourselves on being "gritty girls", so we put our disppointment behind us and dug our heels in for yet another holiday season. Being about a month behind (we usually begin mid-August) will be challenging. Fortunately, we've been through seven Christmas seasons, and have learned volumes along the way.
Last week we began streamlining our inventory and reconfiguring our facility to accommodate our current and holiday business. The store is upside down at the moment, but will be a fully functioning thing of beauty by the end of the week. And then we jump head first into the nitty gritty of holiday prep.
I have to say that twenty hour work days with hair-on-fire stress is not something we thought we'd be doing again this holiday season. But with increased sales, and half of our annual revenue coming in November and December, it wouldn't be such a bad thing to go for it and finish out the year.
And then there's "The Great Buck Howard". While it's still in "post production", you just never know.....we'll just have to wait and see where we are in January!

The Dynamic Duo

Modeling our "uniform" we created for the movie debut

New Store Pictures

New Store Pictures

New Store Pictures

Spring Cleaning

We haven't posted in a while....we've been making some changes at the Syracuse Gift Basket Company.

With spring finally here, we were inspired to revamp our space to make better use of our showroom and main workspace. More pictures to follow...

We Did It!

Routinely the very hardest time of year for us is January. Why? Business is generally down to a crawl, and we are burnt crispy after the holiday season. What we'd love to do is take a couple of weeks off (or burn the shop down), but what we have to do is wrap our brains around our most (not!) favorite time of the year. You know, the February holiday that's all tacky red and lacey, and full of corny stuffed animals, expensive flowers that last a day or two, and mountains of bazillion calorie chocolates. And bear in mind that red is one of our least favorite colors to design with.....
But okay, we're game. It has to be done. Looking through the product catalogs helped a little, and we put in our orders, with some new stuff thrown in to spark ours and everyone else's interest. Julie tried to be encouraging..."You know we always do better when we have new things to work with!" I wasn't so sure. Summoning up that creative gene again so soon after Christmas is always like pulling teeth (painful!)
Then a Really Funny Thing happened when our new Valentine's Day stock started to arrive. We began to feel cautiously excited as we opened each box, and the little light bulbs started going off in our heads. New design ideas! Yes! We forged ahead, gave ourselves some deadlines, arranged a photo shoot, and jumped in. As I've said before, Julie and I work pretty well together most of the time. When the pressure's on, we kick into creative overdrive, and usually come up with some great gifts. We bounce alot of ideas off each other, and even finish each other's designs when one of us is stuck. It works for us.
So we were off and running, and within a few days we found ourselves with 2o new gifts for the Dreadful Holiday. Roses, bears, chocolate, red. All of it. We sat back, looked at our work, and liked it! And then we tried to figure out just exactly why we had so much fun doing it.....?
If you'd like to check out our new Valentine's Day creations, go to syracusegiftbasketcompany.com or click on the link provided here.

Ten Things We Learned...Holiday Post-Mortem

1. If all of your large corporate orders come in after December 1, you should know you're in deep doo doo.
2. When you're surrounded by green and red, accepting a $5000 order for orange and blue gifts a week before Christmas will put you over the edge in any number of weird ways.
3. Filling your store fridge with lo-cal foods does actually equal weight loss during the holidays, even if you're awash in a sea of good chocolate. BIG Happy Dance!
4. Instead of being annoyed, be happy that a competitor actually has the time to crank call you in December.
5. We've learned that seasonal help will make or break us. Finding out what each person is really good at is key, and drastically cuts down on the dreaded "tweaking". (I'd really rather make it from scratch than fix it!)
6. Prepping really does save your butt, especially when everything is last-minute. This year we de-tagged, pre-cut, pre-bowed, pre-filled, and pre-messaged ourselves silly.
7. Our logo apron, purple crocs, dress jeans and white shirt "uniform" was one of the best ideas we've had. Besides being super comfy, there was no "what do I have to wear that is clean, not wrinkled, and matches" dilemma every morning. Our favorite dry-cleaning man, Frank Principato even picked up, laundered and starched, and delivered our shirts for us! How great is that?
8. We've learned that when we have 100 plus shippers on any given day, we need to give UPS a "heads-up". They tend to freak.
9. When your son calls and reports there is nothing to eat at home except stale marshmallows, it's time to squeeze in a trip to the grocery store to pick up something besides the 250 bags of Lindt Truffles you need to fill an order.
10. We learned, to our dismay, that corporate and private customers are still mistakenly placing orders with "syracusegiftbaskets.com", thinking they are ordering from us. We are seriously, seriously not the same company.

With all this being said, it's onward and upward to Valentine's Day, as well as several other projects we have simmmering. As we jump into our 7th year, we take the good and the bad, learn what we can, fix what we can, and try to do everything better!

Merry Christmas!

Lots to tell about our CRAZY holiday season...coming after the holiday. Right now Julie and I are scrambling to make Christmas happen for our family. Two days isn't nearly enough, but that's all we have!
Wishing all a peaceful and joyous holiday.

Bulletin from Basketland

What else can I say? We're BURIED ALIVE. Due to a tremendous increase in the amount of corporate business we received this year we're now evaulating new orders on an individual basis. We've always felt that putting out a high quality product is preferable to sending out gifts that aren't up to our usual standards....even if it means we leave a few bucks on the table.

Emily, Matt, Ross, Susan, Kayleigh, Sara, Deb, Deanna and Jill are all working hard to help us complete our holiday orders. Sleep has become a fond, distant memory and we're contemplating replacing our water cooler with Red Bull.

Buried!

No, we haven't died...but we are buried. Several of our regular corporate customers put in their holiday orders last week. The monster order that we expected about 3 weeks ago is one of them. We're looking at our calendar, and counting 20 days to complete everything that's come in, plus whatever else happens in the next few weeks. Yikes!!!

The extra elves are being summoned, and truckloads of stock are being ordered. Hopefully, the streamlining we've been working on all year will pay off. We know we'll handle it, whatever it takes...we always do.

The upside is that it's only 20 days of Basket Hell. Wish us luck!

Custom Gift Basket - Bianchi Industrial

This fun project was a gift we designed for Bianchi Industrial, a local demolition company. The toy crane and miniature dumpster were filled with goodies for the office to share and we used chicken wire to simulate the chain link fencing they use on their job sites. It was huge - 3 feet wide and 2.5 feet high!

Hunkering Down

NO time to post this week...in fact there's been no time for anything but making gifts! We had the good fortune to have several substantial orders all come in at the same time, all due within the same week. It seems early to be putting in these hours, but we're not complaining! After all, we did take a break last Thursday to watch Grey's Anatomy (our most favorite show ever), right before we crashed and burned for the night.

Hunkering Down has officially begun here in Basketland! The old store fridge is almost filled to capacity with frozen diet food (yum!), yogurt, and Diet Coke. Our little bunk room upstairs will be readied this weekend for the short nights ahead. And, the previously mentioned logo apron/purple Croc uniform is a reality. It's already saving our butts every morning...love it when a plan comes together!

By early next week this batch of projects will be finished, and just in the nick of time. The Big Corporate Holiday Order is due to land on our doorstep by the end of this week... and then the marathon begins. Ho, Ho, Ho!

The Wren's Den

A long-time customer came in recently to purchase some of our handcrafted Wren's Den soaps. When he comes in he buys them in quantity for his wife, who just loves them. We've even made soap-filled gift baskets for him. When we were located downtown, some of our customers came in just to smell The Wren's Den soaps...that really made us smile! Seems as if it was a form of aromatherapy, and customers always left feeling better.

What and where exactly is The Wren's Den? New customers are usually surprised to hear that all of our bath and body products are made locally in Marcellus by our long-time friend Mary Carlic. (She is sometimes also assisted by her husband, whom she affectionately refers to as "The Soap Slave".) We've used Mary's products from the beginning, when her only product was soap. Her line has since expanded, and her products can be found in gift shops around the Northeast. While we've experimented with some nationally made bath lines in the past, we decided a few years ago to use The Wren's Den products exclusively. Why? Anyone who has received one of our pamper/spa gifts knows just how unique these products are. Carefully handcrafted with quality ingredients, The Wren's Den line is available in the most delicious scents...traditional lavender, cucumber, oatmeal and honey, and raspberry are our favorites, as well as Mary's original Yuzu and Day at the Beach. We tuck Mary's Tubby Time soap in our baby gifts, and offer her whimsical Tickle Toes foot care online and in our store. She also creates special seasonal soaps, which we include in some of our Syracuse-themed gifts for the holidays. Besides the fact that we prefer her products, we've always felt it was important to support fellow women entreprenuers.

The other great thing you may notice about Mary's products are the beautiful labels. Every design is an original piece of artwork, created expressly for each of her scents. Why would anyone be that fussy about labels? Mary believes as we do, that her products should always be something special. We LOVE that !!!

For gifts that feature Mary's products, you can click on our company link, then "Gifts for Her".

Purple Crocs?

Julie says everyone will think we're crazy if I post this, but really you have to be at least a little crazy to even be in this business. And I do think that being silly sometimes is good for the soul! So, here goes... I'm posting a blog about purple Crocs.


We all know that putting together a fashionable ensemble every day can be stressful. When you're knee-deep in monster holiday orders, and running on no sleep, it's a nightmare! We decided this year that we absolutely needed something easy, something comfortable, something neat. Maybe even something that ties in with our new sage and plum corporate colors. When I was making our green logo aprons for "The Great Buck Howard" movie, a LIGHT BULB went on. It's perfect! No muss, no fuss... a no-brainer in fact! Tie our soon-to-be-famous aprons on over comfortable pants and a shirt and Voila! Dressed in 5 minutes flat and looking good!


But what about our poor on-em-for-twenty-hours-a-day feet? Foot comfort is absolutely KEY...in fact, it can pretty much make or break your day. Julie bought her first pair of Crocs last winter, and swears they are the most comfortable things ever. Okay then, we decided...Crocs, it is! We sat down together after a crazy busy day last week, clicked on the Crocs website, and placed the order. Green or purple...purple or green? We spent more time on this earthshattering decision than we will ever admit. Green would be the more tasteful choice, but we decided we wanted something FUN...fun, comfortable, and PURPLE!

A week has passed, and our fun and very purple Crocs have arrived. I gave them a test drive on Friday, and my feet are doin' the happy dance!

Support your local economy

Durstons, a local landmark on West Genesee Street, closed for business a few weeks ago after 50 years of operation. 50 years! It's always sad when a locally owned company is forced to close it's doors, but even more so when the business has been around that long.

As a small business owner, I can sympathize with how hard the decision must have been. Entrepreneurs pour their whole lives into their businesses; we spend a lot of time wondering if the "success" we crave is just around the corner...... or if it's time to call it a day. Success requires tenacity, but at what point do you declare defeat?

I always find it interesting when a business like Durston's closes and people say, "I LOVED that place! But I haven't been there in years". Well......maybe that's the problem. People take for granted that a business will always be there, but if the community doesn't support it you can't blame the owners for giving up.

For example - we have some top-notch locally owned restaurants in Syracuse, and yet the chain restaurants are the ones who seem to be busy every night. Why go to The Olive Garden when you can go to Aunt Josie's, or Joey's or Gentile's? Why eat at Denny's when we have Stella's Diner? Alto Cinco, BC, Dante, Arad Evans, Twin Trees and Peppino's all have amazing food from pizza to fine dining and they're locally owned. You will be hard pressed to find pre-made, heat-and- serve menu items in any of them, but in the chain restaurants this is the norm. So why is The Olive Garden packed every night?

I was having a conversation with a friend (also an entrepreneur) recently, and we were trying to decide where to go to dinner. She suggested a few places, one of which was a national chain. I told her that I never go to chain restaurants, just on principle. I believe that every time you make a purchase or go out to dinner, you have a choice - you can support another local business, or you can support a big national conglomerate. It does make a difference. She had never thought it of that way.

I'm certainly not advocating patronizing a business with substandard service or products just because it's locally owned, but chances are good that in the family owned business you'll find better service (and much better food) than the homogenized experience you'll have at the national chain. Which would you choose?

Francis House

One of our favorite customers asked if we would donate a gift for a Francis House fundraiser. Normally, our donations are a little less extravagant than this, but Francis House is one of the most worthwhile causes I can think of. Many of my oncology patients over the years have chosen Francis House for quality end of life care. I've heard nothing but wonderful things about their services.

For this gift I hand-picked the painted trunk, chenille throw, journal, and a couple of bath items locally, then coordinated our own oatmeal and honey bath products, vanilla candle, bath pillow, puff, herbal tea and mug, and a relaxation CD to the colors of the trunk. We're pleased to report that the lady who won this was thrilled!

Marcia

Custom Gift Basket - "The Gardener"

This is a custom gift that we sent out recently to an avid gardener. She is retiring from her job at Loretto and plans to spend more time digging in the dirt!

Virtual Design

Julie and I spent a lot of time this past week trying to nail down exactly what our standard gifts will be this holiday season. We've been tossing ideas around for weeks, but the first of our large shipments is due any day, and it's time to get down to the nitty gritty! Anyone who creates their own designs in this business will understand... coordinating product, boxes, baskets, ribbon from catalogs, picking trim and price points, and having everything come together and look fabulous is a daunting task. Julie used the phrase virtual design the other day, which I thought was pretty appropriate. It involves seeing a gift in your mind's eye, then (hopefully) finding everything you need to make it happen. I say "hopefully", because sometimes a key component in your design is either out of stock, discontinued forever , or not really what you expected. Then of course it's back to the "virtual" drawing board.

With our 7th holiday season fast-approaching, keeping our designs fresh and fantastic is a top priority. And with sales up each year, we're always looking for ways to do it better. Besides changing our design and shipping methods this year, we're focused on using our army of holiday "elves" more efficiently. We're fortunate to have some great people who come back for every holiday season, and there are always newbies who sign on for all the "fun".

But is it fun? There are loads of things we love about this crazy time of year. All of the gorgeous holiday ribbon and trims can be truly inspiring, and seeing our clients' faces when they see the gifts we've created for them is The Best. Flashbacks of 20 hour days and sleeping in our little upstairs bunk room, living on fast food and caffeine, chocolate and Excedrin... really not so fun. BUT, we're digging our heels in, gearing up, and getting down to it. Bring it on!!!

Custom Gift Basket - "Global Traveler"

We just finished up a special project for Tracy Cifra, who is an account executive for Haylor, Freyer & Coon. HF & C is a Syracuse based insurance company, and Tracy needed a give-away for a trade show. HF &C is going global, and she wanted the gift to reflect that. We collaborated on the concept, and Tracy picked up a large decorative box that looks like a suitcase, some imported gift ware (including a fun carved elephant from Africa) and a world music CD. We added chocolate from Italy, Germany and Holland, French mustard, Scottish shortbread and a set of chopsticks and bamboo placements.

The same....but different

Mont Blanc Pen or Bic?

Godiva chocolate or Hershey's?

Mercedes or Neon?

Coach leather bag or vinyl knock-off?

Manolo Blahnik or Payless BOGO?

800 thread-count sheets or $29.95 "bed in a bag"?

Dom Perignon or J. Roget?

These items are in the same catagories, right? Well, sort of. The pens will both write, and the cars will get you from Point A to Point B. Either purse will hold your wallet and keys and both sets of sheets will cover your bed. But that's where the similarities end.

The Godiva and the Dom are made from finer ingredients than their counterparts. They taste better. Have you ever driven a Mercedes? It FEELS better. Very much like the 800-thread count sheets.

Is it worth the premium price? It's a matter of debate; everyone has different priorities. Some women would rather spend $50 on a bag every year rather than $200 for a Coach bag once every 4 years - even though the price is the same in the end. One pound of Hershey's chocolate is about $4. One pound of Godiva chocolate is $30 to $45. So, for the same amount of money I can get 10 pounds of Hershey's or just one pound of Godiva. Quality or quantity? (personally if I'm going to blow my diet I want the best I can find - it had better be worth it!)

It's a question we run into often at SGB from new customers - "How many items go into a $30 basket? How about a $50 basket?" - and it's tough to answer. When we first opened we only carried "gourmet" brands - Lindt, Ghirardelli, etc. We honestly didn't think anyone would want gifts with grocery store brands like Snickers, Reese's and Hershey's. We eventually realized that there are situations where they are MORE appropriate - kids and teenager's gifts in particular, so we developed a line of fun, less expensive "junk food" gifts. And guess what? We now sell TONS of them.

Back to our question - how many items does a $30 gift basket have in it? Well, it might have 15-18 assorted boxes of candy and candy bars, or it might have one box of Lindt truffles, some delectable cookies, gourmet nuts, and premium coffee. 15 things vs. 4 things. Which is better? It depends on your audience. Is your client's 8 year old daughter going to appreciate the Lindt truffles? Probably not. But she'll be thrilled with some peanut butter cups, gummy bears and chocolate chip cookies.

What if the gift is a "thank you for your business" for your biggest client? Are you going to send Lindt or Snickers? Neither is right or wrong and both have their place. Giving a gift to a client or business associate sends a message and demonstates your appreciation for the relationship. What kind of message are YOU trying to send?

Invisible Woman Blues

A customer holds the basket (I) made for her earlier in the day and says, "The gift is beautiful... she's so talented, isn't she?" The phone rings and a voice says, "Can you have Julie call me when she gets in...I'd like to order a gift". Julie's out of the store, another day is unfolding at The Syracuse Gift Basket Company... and I am The Invisible Woman.

Why are you The Invisible Woman, you may ask? My daughter has always has been the face of our company...and that is as it should be. Even though we've been partners for some time now, Julie founded the business before I ever entertained the thought of jumping into this crazy hamster cage. And while I'm pretty comfortable in my skin, I'd really rather poke myself in the eye with a fork than stand in front of a camera of ANY kind. (Just a very weird hang-up I have.) I was actually dragged kicking and screaming to Laura Brazak's studio for the head shots you see on this blog, and on our website....just so that everyone would know I exist.

Anyway.....for some reason that we can't fathom, most of our customers seem to think that Julie does everything! While I know she's a bit of a Wonder Woman ( we both are), there is no way that one person could singlehandedly manage everything involved in our little 1/4 million dollar operation. I'm pretty sure that almost no one knows who I am, or what I really do here.

So what is it, you may ask, that I do do??? The very first duty I took on when I started was what we now classify as Hunting and Gathering. Hunting and Gathering consists of shopping locally for items we need in a hurry, can't find in a catalog, or prefer to see before we buy...mostly ribbon, foliage and floral enhancements, but also alot of other odds and ends and bits and pieces. It's one of the things I do best, and Julie enjoys the least. She has little patience or time to be bothered with it, and over the years we've located wholesalers for most of our stock and supplies. So while she does the catalog ordering, I do most of the outside ( local) buying. I like to call myself The Trim Fairy. The Trim Fairy keeps an eye on what enhancements we have, what's missing and what's needed, and makes sure that we always have great "stuff" to work with.

I've always considered myself a creative and fairly artistic person. After all, there was that fabulous dental health poster I won a prize for in 6th grade, the yellow chiffon dress with the crooked stitching I made and wore for my junior prom, and that charming Chewbacca costume with no fly that I fashioned for my son in elementary school. Making gift baskets? Easy. Wrong!!! Believe it or not, Julie's mentors in Wisconsin waited months before they allowed her to design a basket on her own (Julie, the gift basket queen!) When she tried to teach me, I understood why. A beautiful basket is a combination of balance, color, and content. This is all challenging enough, then throw in the layered hand-tied bows we use, and a cellophane wrap. I had 10 thumbs and it took a long time.

Now fast-forward to the present. Besides Julie, I am the only other designer in our company. When we're super busy, we hire a lot of people to copy our designs, which we then QC. Yes, we are very fussy! There are days when I actually make most everything that goes out the door, and you would be hard-pressed to guess who made which gifts either in the store, or on our website. I am also usually the designated Mutant Gift Maker. A Mutant Gift is one that is next to impossible to design, due to unusual content, color, or theme. Think pastel pink baby gift, with Dinosaur BBQ sauce or S.U. orange products included. The key is CAMOUFLAGE!

Julie and I have also evolved into a well-oiled web team. She handles the technical parts...uploading the photos from disks, creating spreadsheets to cost-out each gift, and creating links. I tweak the names of the gifts, write the descriptions, and manage most of the text on the site.

So, there you have it...The Invisible Woman's jobs at The Syracuse Gift Basket Company; Hunter and Gatherer, Trim Fairy, Other Designer and Head Mutant Gift Maker...Website Tweaker. Pretty impressive. eh?

Leisure Suit + Play Money + Disco music = Customer service!

I spent this morning at Franklin Square Orthodontics - my son got his braces on. Dr. Mike Meharg (that's his picture to the left) came highly recommended, but I was still a little surprised when we had our first consultation a few weeks ago.

The office is bright, open and cheery and there also appeared to be a party going on. The friendly staff explained that at the end of the summer a lot of their young patients get their braces off before school starts. They like to make a big deal about it, so they have a table set up in the waiting room with goodies and treats, balloons and streamers everywhere, and disco music playing. Each time someone got their braces off the staff would sing and clap, and Dr. Meharg was dressed in a powder blue leisure suit with a ruffled shirt and shiny white bucks. I can't be sure, but there may have been dancing.

As we toured the office, we saw lots of pictures of patients, fun contests and "Meharg Money". It's play money (with Dr. Meharg's picture on it, of course) that the kids are given at each appointment and they can redeem it for items from the "Meharg Store". They can earn more by not breaking their braces and getting good grades. The have a terrific website with all kinds of useful information on it. The office located in the same building with Boulangerie, which is a totally fabulous little sandwich shop. While the parents are waiting, they are given coupons for a free cup of coffee or a sweet at the sandwich shop. They even have good magazines in the waiting room.

I couldn't help but compare this to my own orthodontic experience, circa 1984. The office was dark and cavelike, and the dentist was recently divorced and liked to talk about how much he hated women while he was working on my teeth. He also decided to pull 3 teeth with no warning one day, and I almost lost my job because of it.

It's clear from one visit to Dr. Meharg's office that it's all about the patient. He clearly understands that getting braces on isn't anyone's favorite thing to do, so he makes it as pleasant and fun as possible. It doesn't sound difficult but after you leave are really struck by how rarely you enounter a business of any kind that puts the customer (or patient) first. As a business owner, I think it's brilliant.

Last one!

Here is the last one, using the "Whimsical Flower" series and "Merry Go Round".

More neat stuff from Jackie...

Here is one we did in a brown faux leather CD box to go with her "Hot Chocolate" design....

Jacqueline Savage-McFee

I had a chance recently to reconnect with an amazing woman I met at the WISE conference earlier this year, Jackie Savage-McFee. Jackie is a Liverpool native (currently living in Charlotte, NC) who produces a line of stationary and school supplies that are as exuberant, fun and colorful as Jackie herself. She graciously agreed to donate some of her products for a cystic fibrosis fundraiser here in Syracuse and she wondered if we would be willing to package them up so that they weren't just laying on a table. Of course I jumped at the chance to work with her - Jackie is a pretty cool chick! This is a picture of one of the gifts we designed with her "Perfectly Plaid" and "Flutterbys" collections.

For those of you who attended WISE, you might remember that Jackie was part of the panel discussion with Amy Tormey of Ray's New York Bagels, moderated by Julie Abbott of Bridge Street on Channel 9. Her story was fascinating - she had an opportunity to work for Hallmark right out of college, which had been her dream job. But then she got an offer from a much smaller company called Notebound. It was a critical turning point, but Jackie took the risk because it would give her more creative freedom. Her JSM Design Studio produces a fun line of products that are sold all over the country - you can find them at Target, Wal-Mart, Rite-Aid, and locally at Wegman's. When I spoke to her last week, she was jetting off to Hong Kong to work on some new business ideas. How cool is that?

Evolution

As my mother mentioned in her last post, we've been very busy EVOLVING.

evolution - ev-uh-loo-shuhn - noun
1. any process of formation or growth; development
2. a product of such development; something evolved
3. a process of gradual, peaceful, progressive change or development

I should give some background. Before I started this business, I worked for a gift basket company in Madison, WI. I thought it sounded fun, and I had the idea that I could learn the business and maybe start my own someday. Jan and Catherine were the two women who owned it, and they were a dream to work for. Catherine was a very talented trained artist. She handled the creative part of things while Jan took care of the books and the business end.

If you've never been to Madison, it's a phenomonal place to live and work. Aside from being the capital of the state, it's also home to several company's national headquarters. The crime rate is low and so is unemployment. It's very clean, there are bicycle lanes on most of the roads, and an ordinance stating that no building can be taller than the capital building (which is a smaller version of the capital building in Washington, DC). The city sits on an isthmus between 2 lakes and someone had the forthought to allow for a lot of green space (urban planning - what concept!) It's beautiful. More importantly, the economy is thriving, which makes it a perfect city to have a corporate gift basket service in.

Anyway, I digress......I learned a lot about the business while I was there, and a few years later I made the decision to move back home to Syracuse. Jan and Catherine encouraged me to start my own gift basket business. They pointed out that I had at least dabbled in most aspects of running the business during my time with them, and we wouldn't be competing geographically. They even offered to mentor me when I got started.

It took a couple of years before I launched my own business. I had actually started with a tiny part-time venture in 1998 and called it Gift Basket Express. When I began thinking about putting up a website, I quickly discovered that there were at least 4 or 5 other companies with that name, both gift basket services and wholesale suppliers. I certainly didn't want to be confused with them, so Syracuse Gift Basket Company was born in July of 2000.

I was so grateful to have the skills and the knowledge I learned from Jan and Catherine, that for a long time I didn't even consider doing anything differently. After being in business for a few years I became more comfortable with my own abilities, and every once in a while I would stumble across a better way to do something. An "Aha moment", if you will. "Aha moments" serve an important purpose - they smack you out of your complacency about the way you run your business. I also find it useful to remind myself that Jan and Catherine's business has certainly evolved too - I'm sure they aren't doing things exactly as they did when I worked there 10 years ago.

I was talking to my friend, Dr. Mike Morris recently about my business. Dr. Morris is one of the most brilliant people I know, and he runs the Entrepreneurship department at the Whitman School of Management up at SU. I value his insight immensely. I mentioned that I was thinking about what my next business venture might be. He expressed disappointment that I seemed to be giving up on Syracuse Gift Basket. Why are you giving up? When was the last time you took a risk?, he asked.

It dawned on me that losing your passion isn't just something that happens to couples. It's also what happens to entrepreneurs who have fought their way through a business start-up, battled cash flow problems and unethical competitors, made inventory and advertising mistakes, and ended up exhausted and burned out.

Mike brought up Cordia Harrington, who was a keynote speaker at WISE last year. She owns the Tennesee Bun Company, which supplies the hamburger buns to Chili's, KFC, Ruby Tuesdays and McDonalds. Cordia started from nothing, and has built her business into a multi-million dollar empire. She was also warm and funny and very down to earth, and she calls herself "The Bun Lady". She had our audience of 500 absolutely enthralled. One of the things she said stuck with me:

“Without the disappointments in our lives, we can’t appreciate the good times. Instead of spending energy being disappointed, use that energy to take yourself to the next level. There is not an easy path for an entrepreneur. You will have huge problems. Persist. Have PASSION."