Make Money Selling Irn Bru Hampers!

Always remember the moral of the “Acres of Diamonds” speech:  If you need to make money then start by looking in your own back garden – or perhaps your own Kitchen cabinet.
 

   Did you know that if you type “Scottish Hampers” into Google you’ll get 18,500 hits? This is a very competitive market. My idea on this would be to go for the absolute quality end of the market. By setting up Google alerts you can quickly find out the best Whisky, the best Oatcakes, the best Black Pudding, the best Haggis, and the best Biscuits etc. How I would actually work this would be to take the Award Winning food for the year and then promote my Hamper as “The Best of Scottish Food 201X”. The best way of working this business (if lines of supply were readily available) would be to wait for the orders to come in before laying out any cash. This is therefore a zero risk game. A real top notch hamper could go for up to £100. I would therefore be looking at maximising the cost of sale (including delivery) at somewhere under £80 therefore giving me £20+ profit per sale. The web is the best bet for sales of these once again. If you wanted to push the boat out I’d put an ad in The Scots Magazine or Scottish Memories Magazine.

   Here’s an idea, why not do the Official Unofficial Irn Bru (you might have to call it Iron Brew) Hamper? You could put in Cans of the Golden Nectar along with any limited editions there has been that year (for example the recent Fiery edition). You could put the TV adverts from that year onto disc and include them. Some Iron Brew chew bars if you can find them. Also, check out Iron Brew Square Sausage (http://news.stv.tv/scotland/211673-irn-bru-sausage-the-perfect-hangover-cure/). You could pretty much include anything which is orange and blue. I recently saw Irn Bru Cupcakes being advertised. They were basically just normal cupcakes with Orange piping and blue cases.

   If you use your imagination you could definitely think up some exciting and original Scottish hampers for sale at Christmas this year.

Davy Hutton

   I met a guy called Davy Hutton tonight. He was an interesting and colourful character. His talk was supposed to be about property but he went off on more tangents than a Standard Grade Maths paper. Refreshingly he didn't spend his time promoting his latest product or service but rather gave us his view on the World as he sees it.

   In regard to Moneymaking you could probably boil his speech down to:

• You can sometimes find diamonds amongst the coal. In property terms don't turn your nose up at the £30k and £40k flats.
• Be resourceful. He said that he is now buying kitchens from Gumtree.
• Boil things down to the basic parts. How do you eat an Elephant - bite by bite.

Nice guy. I hope I meet him again one day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubN1WIwyaXE

Various Updates 17.7.12

   Various Updates:

• Sold wedding dress and tablet on Ebay for a combined total of £160.
• Made a 2nd batch of ice cream and it was fantastic. A few more practice runs and I'm sure I would have a saleable product at Farmer's Markets or such like.
• I'm slightly ahead of par on my "Walk a Mile a Day" challenge. I've done 203 miles at the 198 day mark. It is a harder task that you might think!
• I'm up to 400 listings on Amazon - but really want to get to the 1000 mark this week.
• Talking of Amazon, I'm on £39 for this fortnight so far which is much more like the thing. Remember, I want to do 3 months of at least £100 before making the switch (post positive calculation) to Amazon FBA.
• I blew my abstinence from Crisps and Chocolate at the weekend. Before failing I hit a high water mark of 47 days abstinence on both. Let's see if I can get by the 50 day mark this time. Shouldn't be a problem!
• 5 comps done the other night. Still waiting for my first 2012 winners. I've noticed a major switch to Facebook and Twitter comps this year.
• My Tatties, Onions and Tomatoes are all going well. I made up a batch of "Mel's Mix" and I've now planted my onions out in it. This weekend, all being well, I'll make up a second batch and get more onions out. The toms are going to go in a growbag on the Greenhouse floor shortly.
• I've now got 2 compost bins on the go. I'm going to toss up the mix in Bin 1 and transfer it to Bin 2 soon. Believe it or not, my Lawnmower didn't have a grass collection box so I purchased one online the other day. The next batch of grasscuttings can get in there soon, along with a shovel full of lime. I've been amazed how much Compost I've got through this year so having my own supply in 2013 will be a moneysaver.
• Following on from above, I'm getting more and more interested what cash crops can be grown from the garden. I'm reading "Cash from Square Foot Gardening", which is v interesting but very American focused. I'm interested to see how it can be applied to Scotland. What we do have in Scotland now is a network of Farmer's Markets over the Summer where produce could be sold. In terms of what to grow, I am of the opinion that you should be growing stuff that you would eat yourself. For me that is Tatties, Toms, Onions, Leeks, Peppers, Garlic. Unfortunately these are not very exciting because they are not ridiculously expensive in the shops. In light of this I am looking more into growing legal highs which could then be resold via Ebay or my own bespoke site. San Pedro cactus would be a good start but I'd like to do more than one thing. I think if I could make some sales I would invest in a second greenhouse for the following season. What do you think?
• last week, whilst in England, I picked up a big box of Scot's Magazines. I'd say there are about 200. The whole box cost 99p. I'd say these could be knocked out eventually for £1 (net) each. I'll list a dozen or so on Ebay at the next Free Listing Day to see if I can get any action. In the meantime they are not going to rot.
• My first Youtube video is now live. I now need to make shooting and uploading into a habit. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQLJHjLIehM The first lesson I learned is that Youtube don't like long vids. Of my 30min masterpiece, only the first 2mins went online. That leaves you the option of putting your vid on in many parts or just sticking to separate little vids. Think I will go for the latter of the two on my next efforts.
• I signed up at Five Squids and got my first ad listed. I'm offering to interview anyone via Skype for 5 mins for a fiver. I will then send a transcript of the interview back to the client. Don't suppose I'll get any takers but I wanted to get my foot in the door.
• Still losing my fight against sleep. Had an hour on the settee at teatime and then another 40 mins at 9pm.
• Last point for today. Over the last few days I've watched the series "Hidden Talents" via 4 on Demand. The program took random people and asked them to sit various tests aimed at discovering talents which the participants may not have known that they had. For example, they found a homeless guy who could pick up languages really quickly and a Wedding Attire Shop Owner who was a fantastically gifted Mountaineer. Simple question - why aren't these tests dished out in our Secondary Schools? There is so much talent going to waste in Scotland. It's a real sin.

Check out Super-Jam

   Super Jam is a good example of how a Cottage Industry can take of:

SuperJam™ is a range of 100% pure fruit jams; sweetened with grape juice and made using Super Fruits, such as blueberries and cranberries.
SuperJam was created by Scottish jam-maker Fraser Doherty, after being taught to make jam using his Gran’s secret recipes at the age of fourteen.

From humble beginnings, the company has gone on to sell millions of jars, has won a variety of awards and is even exhibited in the National Museum of Scotland as an example of an ‘Iconic Scottish Food Brand’...