Home Business Profile: Post a Present

Company name

Post a Present
 
Where are you based?
Selby, N Yorkshire
 
What is your name?
Helen Johnson
 
www.postapresent.co.uk
 
What does your company do?
We are an online gifts company offering affordable gifts and a giftwrap service, so you can send direct to friends and family.
 
When did you start it?
November 2007
 
What were you doing before you started your home business?
Owned a pub
 
What made you make the switch?
Sold the pub due to changes in licensing laws, imminent smoking ban and back injury. Didn’t like working for other people and found it difficult with back problems, so set up at home, which also enabled me to be around for my children.
 
What made you think of this idea?
I’ve always fancied a gift shop as I’m fairly creative and used to make my own crafts, but overheads for a retail unit are too high and your market is limited. I also have family overseas and know how hard it is to send gifts to UK and this is predominantly where I market my business with many customers in New Zealand and Australia.
 
How many people work in the business?
Just me, with family help when required.
 
How did you finance the start up?
I got a small grant from Yorbac through Business Link and personal finance.
 
How do you market the business?
Online and offline advertising (local and national), but find that the best way to market it is get the SEO right for the search engines. I aim at overseas customers and Forces, with connections in the UK.
 
What is your customer base?
Overseas customers and women 30+
 
What’s next? What plans do you have for the coming year?
To survive! I aim to keep tweaking my site, adding new products and continually work on optimization and promotion via blogs, articles etc
 
What tip would you pass on to other home business owners?
Make use of Business Links free courses, it gets you out and even if the course isn’t exactly what you want, the networking with others is far more fruitful. Also, depending on your business join some online business forums and network. Not only do you promote yourself, but they quite often have very useful information on businesses and you can share problems with others in the same boat. A word of warning though, it’s probably best not to start the day on it, as you may find it is lunchtime and you haven’t done a thing! You need to allocate a set time and stick to it.
 
 
What’s your best/ most useful gadget?
Not a gadget as such, but my integrated labels paper for printing my orders. I don’t know how I lived without them before, saves me having to retype all the packaging address labels for my orders.
 
Do you have any anecdotes about home working?
I talk to the radio a lot!!