Biz Idea - Thoughts?

[Rosie27]

Hi!

(I thought I'd better rename this post! Sorry for the double print!)

I've got this interesting idea for a business to start, but I had a couple of questions to see how plausable it is. I think it would be catering to the weathy a bit more, but anyone short on time may like it.

Do you enjoy purchasing gifts for family / friends for whatever occassion?

Would you pay someone a small fee to shop, wrap, and send the gifts for you? (Thus saving you the time and hassle of doing it yourself)

Any feedback would be great!! Thanks!

[Lex]

Well people do it with birthday cards, so yeah i suppose if it reduces the hassle. But i think if you gave a list of prospective gifts to people to choose from, then let them choose the wrapping paper and what to put on the card then it would be a very personal gift still while reducing the hassle of that person doing it all.

[sl.market]

Sounds interesting... Lex is right,

If you set it up where they choose the gift, wrapping paper, and package and you send it out, no hassle, simple, and effective = TONS OF REWARDS

On top of that, you can market online and offline adding more revenue possibities.

Like 1-800-flowers in the USA

it can be 1-800-GETGIFTS

Where do you make money though?

Do you charge more for the gifts

Charge more for shipping

charge more for wrapping

[artdrops]

Just wanted to let you know that people already do this, it's called "Personal Shoppers", and usually only the wealthy hires them. Not that I don't think it's a good idea, I think you should go for it!

[akula]

Hi!

(I thought I'd better rename this post! Sorry for the double print!)

I've got this interesting idea for a business to start, but I had a couple of questions to see how plausable it is. I think it would be catering to the weathy a bit more, but anyone short on time may like it.

Do you enjoy purchasing gifts for family / friends for whatever occassion?

Would you pay someone a small fee to shop, wrap, and send the gifts for you? (Thus saving you the time and hassle of doing it yourself)

Any feedback would be great!! Thanks!

I don't say this often, but your idea may well be a good commercial opportunity, dependant on the way you execute it.

Your failure will come if you choose the wrong target market.

Your ideal client has to be investment banking and law firms. Partners at these places really need what you have to offer, and these clients will be a lot more profitable.

The point is, corporations lose millions of dollars every year because executive personal assistants have to be distracted to run errands for their bosses. You are the solution and you will save PAs from having to do shopping for their bosses.

[jdoc]

The point is, corporations lose millions of dollars every year because executive personal assistants have to be distracted to run errands for their bosses. You are the solution and you will save PAs from having to do shopping for their bosses.

Ah, but don't they need to justify to their bosses why they need a personal assistant? If not, then who cares if its a company waste? Obviously no one from above. If they do, then no executive in their right mind would make their assistant look less busy and thus increase the risk of them losing their PA (or more likely having to share one between 2-3 execs). While I know of some PAs who are busy 100%+ of their working time, most I have met and/or read their blogs demonstrate that they could do their job in less than half time.

I'd still go upmarket, but instead target business-to-business gifts. Specialize in the corporate gifts that get passed around for various reasons (holidays, new contract, etc.) and then work on getting the PAs on your side (they're motivated to do less work, so they can probably convince their bosses why they should get outsiders to do this type of task).

[akula]

Ah, but don't they need to justify to their bosses why they need a personal assistant? If not, then who cares if its a company waste? Obviously no one from above. If they do, then no executive in their right mind would make their assistant look less busy and thus increase the risk of them losing their PA (or more likely having to share one between 2-3 execs). While I know of some PAs who are busy 100%+ of their working time, most I have met and/or read their blogs demonstrate that they could do their job in less than half time.

I'd still go upmarket, but instead target business-to-business gifts. Specialize in the corporate gifts that get passed around for various reasons (holidays, new contract, etc.) and then work on getting the PAs on your side (they're motivated to do less work, so they can probably convince their bosses why they should get outsiders to do this type of task).

there's that brilliant analysis again

welcome back!

[jdoc]

there's that brilliant analysis again

welcome back!

Thanks, I've been lurking but haven't found too many topics that interested me. Lately there's been some good discussions/ideas being tossed around though.