Write an article based on this "Offer additional services that appeal to customers. Set up your displays to attract customers. Put items on sale seasonally. Bookkeep Decide if you need to hire additional workers."
It can be tough to keep a gift shop afloat financially. Once way to increase your profits and bring in additional customers is to offer services beyond gift-item sales. For each service offered, you can charge customers a small fee. Be flexible about the fee structure: if customers turn down a service due to the expense, lower the cost. You could offer gift-wrap services, and charge a small fee (say, $2 USD) per item wrapped. The shop could also offer to customize certain pieces by engraving a monogram on them. The fee for this could be larger, perhaps $10 USD. The gift shop could also offer monthly community classes, charging $20 USD to participate. For example, hands-on classes could focus on making various crafts which could be used as personalized gifts. Since many of your customers will be walking in from the street, make sure that the displays in your windows, or items placed on the sidewalk in front of your shop, are appealing. Set up seasonally-appropriate displays with a visual flair that will indicate what's currently in your inventory. Displays inside of the store should also be visually appealing. Avoid having a cluttered store, and organize inventory in clear categories: books, decorations, holiday-themed gifts, etc. Maximize the amount of merchandise you can display by investing in shelving and cabinetry. This will also allow your customers to peruse a larger amount of inventory than they'd have access to otherwise. Sales are a great way to draw in customers and acquaint them with parts of your inventory they may not have purchased from before. Theme sales around specific holidays or seasons. For example, put patriotic and flag-inspired paraphernalia on sale in late July, once the Fourth of July rush has passed. Pumpkin- and witch-themed gift ideas should be on sale in early November, right after Halloween has ended. Alternately, if you feel that one section of the gift shop is being overlooked, attract customers by placing items on sale. the financial expenditures and income of your shop. Keep track of your business finances, including financial assets, loans (and loan payments), monthly rent payments, and income from sales. As a small business owner, you'll be responsible for keeping track of tax deductible expenses, and paying taxes every year. When you first open the gift shop, you'll be on a tight budget and won't have money to hire help. After several months or a year, though, if your shop is financially stable enough, start thinking about bringing in additional help. Think back to the gift shops that you visited. Were most gift shops run by the owners themselves? If not, how many employees worked at the shop?