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Home
Based Business Idea
C
U S T O M C A N D Y W R A P P E R S:
What
Does a Custom Candy Wrapper Designer Do?
Custom
candy wrappers are just what they sound like. Your business will
include creating specialty and personalized wrappers to celebrate
special occasions, use as novelty gifts or to even promote an event or
use as marketing material. A custom candy wrapper can give your client a
product that shows they went that extra step in finding a specialty
product with a custom touch. You will choose fine
chocolates, or a specialty product for any occasion and design your wrappers to attract the type
of client for occasions ranging from the birth of a baby to a gala
event.
Your
Unique Skills
It
is funny but most of the people that either investigate or decide to go
into this business are typically fond of handicrafts. Someone who
works with their hands and sees
themselves as artistic. If you are truly interested in producing
the candy wrappers to be successful as a small business then you must
also be a talented marketer and able to understand production and
distribution of your product.
You
will need to have a firm understanding of the mass appeal of certain
designs and what your potential clients are looking for. You should be able to design and produce your product.
You are the designer and you can either hand design or use sophisticated
computer software to develop your designs. Many graphic designers
dabble in producing "digital art". You need to have a good understanding of what your client is
looking for and transfer that to a final design.
You should
be a skilled organizer to both organize
your inventory and incoming orders. Once you establish accounts be
prepared to accept and fill orders that may vary in quantity and order
ship date.
Tools
of the Trade
You
should have a computer to organize your inventory, customer orders,
billing, and general record keeping. If you are producing computer
art for the wrappers you will need application software that is specific
to graphic design. Some of the more popular applications include: Photoshop,
Quark and Corel Draw. A less expensive product which may suit your
needs is Paint Shop Pro. If you become proficient in a graphics
application you can even create your own logo, website graphics and
promotional material. You will need a reliable and high quality printing resource
for your wrappers. Good quality paper for the wrappers themselves,
a place to either have them wrapped or to do it by hand. Finally
you will need a resource for your chocolate.
Create
a professional portfolio of your work.
Getting
Your Foot in the Door
Do
you have what it takes? You do not want to invest a lot of money
or time into this home-based business if you are not willing to
"grow" the business. This business normally advances in
baby steps so you need to be able to survive on other means while you
establish all of your connections and create a name for yourself.
You will have to invest up-front in tools and product that is perishable
so understand that once you start you are serious.
Establish
a relationship with a small specialty shop that would like to sell your
product on consignment. If nothing else you will get honest
feedback from the shop owner because they have nothing to loose.
Secure
orders through
corporate accounts such as customer appreciation gifts etc.
Creative
Marketing Techniques
As is true with many small business ideas it can be difficult to
locate the right market. Or when located it may be difficult
to establish and maintain the right presence. Having a unique
edge on the market will be one key to success. The other is
providing superior customer service. Find
someone who creates specialty baskets and offer them customized bars for
their corporate clients. Create a school fundraiser with a
kid-friendly picture. You may even want to create an on-line site
and have the kids submit their artwork online and then produce the
wrappers and send them directly to their home and have a portion go to
the school.
Show
Me the Money
Be
honest with yourself. When you decide this is the home based
business for you, you will have to sit down and go through the
numbers. Determine all of the costs of production. Once you
have created an original design and performed a marketing test to
evaluate the consumer response to your product then you can determine if
it is viable. You must price the product so that your costs are
covered and you show a profit on the bars. Determine what the
market will bear. If your design and target market can command a
higher price then you will make a larger profit per bar and your
production can be limited to your goals. If the profit margin is
small for each bar then you will need to increase production. With
increased production you will typically have increased costs which then
must be factored into the cost per unit.
As
you can see determining the viability of this business is not for the
faint of heart. You may want to hook up with someone that has
already started a successful business and learn some of the tricks of
the trade and how they priced and distributed their product.
Remember
corporate clients will typically pay more for the product. Your salary could be anywhere from
$12,500 - $40,000 a year.
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