Gift basket business start up

Basket business delivers good will

SYRACUSE - Reaching new businesses and residents can sometimes be a difficult task. Tracking newcomers often requires assembling lists from marketers and public records. One Central New York entrepreneur is inviting companies to let her help them reach out to newcomers with a free basket of information about the area. Amy Kaschel, owner of Amy's Greeting Cart, began delivering her first welcome baskets in May.

Delivered to new businesses and residents, the baskets contain information from area businesses, as well as trade-show type freebies such as candy, pens, and coffee mugs.

Kaschel encountered the concept several years ago while living in Fayetteville, N.C. Soon after moving in, Kaschel received a welcome basket containing maps, menus, coupons, and other information from local businesses. She used the information to select an insurance agent and visited many of the participating restaurants.

"I thought the stuff was great," she says. "I kept all of it."

The concept of a welcome basket struck her as a business idea. When she moved back to New York, Kaschel researched the basket business model and kept the information handy for the day when she could start her own company.

After making enough contacts through her work with the Greater Syracuse Chamber of Commerce and her Business Network International group, Kaschel decided May was the right time to test her idea.

Approximately 30 companies are signed up for June's basket deliveries. The baskets can hold information from up to 100 companies. The businesses pay $2 per basket to have their materials included, and they receive a list of where the baskets were delivered.

"The salespeople can follow up on the materials," she says. "It's a better opening than a cold call."

Amy's Greeting Cart has no exclusivity for the types of companies that appear in a basket, she says. Several insurers, car dealers, or other similar businesses may be found in the same basket.

The first round of baskets contained items such as pens, magnets, flyers, and a $10 gift certificate to Roman's restaurant in Franklin Square.

Delivery of residential baskets begins in August, and Kaschel expects to deliver 200 per month in Onondaga County and adjacent communities. Time Warner will use the baskets to tell newcomers about the company's suite of television, security, and Internet products, she adds.