OMG Digital Magazine OMG Issue 332 15th November 2018 COMPLETE | страница 22

OMG Digital Magazine | 332 | Thursday 15 November 2018 • PAGE 22
Business
5 Unique and Inexpensive Holiday Business Ideas for Women
Business Idea  No Comments  Amber McClincy  business
idea It’s the holiday season! Everyone is decorating trees,
digging out their favorite family recipes, and making
travel plans. But, while Christmas brings joy, it also comes
with stress as something bigger is weighing on people’s
minds: buying gifts. And, gifts aren’t cheap.
December offers a brief window in which seasonal
businesses thrive. So, this is the ideal time to make extra
money with a unique Christmas business to fund your
holiday gift giving.
Whether moms, 20-somethings, college students or
wives, women tend to get stuck with the bulk of the
gift shopping. But, why not turn that experience around
and make money with one of these inexpensive holiday
business ideas? Here are five business ideas to inspire you
this holiday season.
#1 Gift Wrapping Service
There are two kinds of people: People who wrap gifts akin
to presents out of a holiday décor magazine and people,
like me, whose finished gifts look like they went through
a trash compactor. If you’re blessed with the talent of gift
wrapping, share it with the rest.
In addition to making Christmas gifts look good,
professional gift wrapping also saves people time. And,
time is more valuable than ever around Christmas time,
when people are traveling and rushing to wrap up work
before the holiday break. This is why people are willing
to pay $3 to $10 per gift to have their gifts decked out in
pretty paper, bows, and ribbons.
To start a gift wrapping business, the initial investment
will only consist of some gift wrap, ribbon, and tags. You
can then allow customers to choose from your inventory
and charge them by the size of the gift. If you’re unsure
where to find clients, start with family and friends. If you
have a crafty side and enjoy wrapping gifts, this is one of
the easiest services to start up during the holiday season.
#2 Mrs. Claus Events
Everyone gets wrapped up in Santa Claus during
Christmas time and you’ll find a Santa in every mall, taking
gift requests from children. However, Mrs. Claus is also an
enchanting part of the Christmas magic.
With a simple costume, you can appear as Mrs. Claus and
charge for events, parties, and children’s storytimes. You
can also team up with a Santa and do appearances as a
couple.
You can even double your investment and charge more:
Find public areas that will let you wrap gifts dressed as
Mrs. Claus or sell cookies in costume.
Regardless of what you’re doing, you’re selling the
character and Mrs. Claus adds Christmas spirit to any
event. Children especially love Mrs. Claus if she’s passing
along their Christmas wishes and letters to Santa.
#3 Shopper Service
Every year, my stepfather sends one of the women who
works for him to buy gifts for my mom for Christmas. He
wants my mother to have gifts that she’ll love, but he’s
clueless about her taste. Not to mention, he’s running a
business and business equals busy.
He’s not the only one. We live in a society that works in
overdrive, even through the holidays. It’s not uncommon
to find people hitting the malls on Christmas Eve to
purchase last-minute gifts for the next morning. People
are so busy that they have to wait until they’re almost out
of time.
So, if you understand other people’s taste and always give
gifts that people ooh and ahh over, offer shopper services.
Professional shoppers can charge  $25 to more than
$250 to shop by the hour. Capitalize on your gifting skills
by using your talent to help busy people find the perfect
gifts for their loved ones.
#4 Holiday Card Photography
Do your friends send you holiday photo cards? I get a ton
of them at Christmas, especially from friends who recently
had babies. Everyone wants to show off their cute kids!
Families often visit big box stores for photos. But, as
someone who worked in one of those stores, I can testify
to the stress of having holiday photos taken in a chain
store.
Imagine waiting in line behind ten other families, listening
to the children having meltdowns over dress shoes and
the mothers fussing over their hair. When it’s finally
your turn, you get rushed through your fifteen-minute
appointment, which includes a stock Christmas tree
background and some teddy bear props. So, you spend
hundreds of dollars on Christmas photos that look like
everyone else’s.
Yet, holiday photos are handed down in families forever.
They’re hung on walls. They’re stuck in baby books.
They’re sent to everyone the family knows. They should
be special. So, if you own a nice DSLR camera, you can
offer families a better and more personalized option.
Set up a studio in your house or talk to small businesses
about renting space to set up backgrounds and props for
their customers. Charge by the half hour or the hour and
advertise that people won’t have to rush through their
sessions. Thrift stores, craft stores, and flea markets are
great sources of inexpensive props.
There are even websites, such as SmugMug, which allow
you to upload photos to password-protected albums that
families can access to purchase prints from you online.
You can sell the holiday photos, but, more than that, you
can sell the experience of preserving family history in a
caring way.
#5 Gift Baskets
Out of all of these ideas, gift baskets have the biggest
upfront investment cost as you’ll have to buy baskets
and the products with which to fill them. However, on
sites like Etsy, gift baskets start at $15 for a small basket
with three or four items and can cost over $100 for fuller
baskets.
You can create any kind of gift basket. Fill them with non-
perishable gourmet food, with wine, glasses and stoppers
or with cosmetics and beauty products. Choose a niche
and create gorgeous baskets embellished with bows and
high-quality tags.
Gift baskets allow you to fulfill the need for thoughtful
holiday gifts, while expressing your creative side. These
unique Christmas business ideas serve the needs of
customers during the holidays and are inexpensive to
start up. If you’re looking for an easy way to make quick
cash during the holidays, without a huge investment,
choose one of these ideas and get started.