When Michelle Hensley, now founder and CEO of the luxury basket and gift wrap company Nifty Package Co.she lost her husband, a pastor, to cancer in 2014, she was 50 years old and “had a complete identity crisis,” she says.
Image Source: Courtesy of Nifty Package Co.
Hensley’s husband handled their funds while she ran the nonprofit, and although she received an annual stipend from the church after his death, she had to search out one other approach to make ends meet. She had two more children at home at the time.
Hensley had to start out from scratch. She hadn’t worked in over a decade; she didn’t know easy methods to pay the bill online. She entrusted some of the money to an advisor who didn’t understand her needs as a widow and lost 1000’s of dollars.
Hensley then hired a financial coach to assist her work out her next steps. The coach suggested that she use her consulting experience and start her own company, but Hensley wasn’t interested in that path. “I was already grieving,” Hensley explains, “but I just wasn’t ready for it.”
But Hensley was intrigued by coaching, by being hands-on with someone and helping them achieve a specific goal. So she became certified in financial, life and grief coaching, eventually working in the financial services industry. At one point, she considered becoming the director of a rehabilitation facility, but it required 60 hours a week and Hensley didn’t need to spend that much time away from her children.
“I was just in a hurry like everyone else, but I had no idea how much the stuff cost.”
Hensley was determined to search out a approach to work when and where she wanted, and she also desired to support other women entrepreneurs. When she shared her goal with her sons, they suggested she revisit the business she had run many years earlier: gift baskets. Hensley liked the idea and asked her daughter-in-law and several other women if they’d have an interest in joining her company and working from home.
Image Source: Courtesy of Nifty Package Co.
They were: Nifty Package Co. was established in 2015. Hensley continued working in financial services and built Nifty Package as a side business, learning a lot about entrepreneurship along the way. “I was just in a hurry like everyone else, but I had no idea how much the stuff cost,” Hensley says. “I didn’t understand profit. I gave everything. But I learned to go out and talk to people even though I was terrified. I just went out and said I have a gift basket company.”
It didn’t take long for Nifty Package Co. has evolved into offering luxury baskets that meet customer requirements. Hensley kept her day job and redirected all of the side hustle’s profits back into the business. A few years later, during the 2018 holiday season, inspiration struck again – Hensley discovered a recent approach to develop her side hustle.
“Every day I got up at 3:45 and I prayed and I read the Bible and I looked out the window,” Hensley recalls, “and I saw my van was sitting there, not being used, so I thought, Gosh, this van is sitting there and it’s not generating any income, so I’m wondering if I could drive around wrapping gifts for people. I’m already making gifts. I wonder if I can wrap them“
“I was very tired, but I had business to attend to, another addition.”
Hensley immediately arrange a website promoting her gift wrapping service, and inside 4 days, a current client who didn’t like gift wrapping desired to hire her. So Hensley loaded all her supplies into the van, drove off and set to work, excited to complete the job until she realized her mistake. “I didn’t label the gifts,” Hensley recalled. “I had to unwrap and rewrap every gift. I was very tired, but I had business to attend to and another addition.”
At the time, Hensley didn’t know much about social media marketing, but she experimented with sharing her side hustle on Instagram and eventually her photos gained popularity on the platform. In 2019, Too Faced Cosmetics commissioned her design services. It was Hensley’s first major investigation: 400 gifts to wrap.
One day, Hensley received a call from the administrator of the Kardashian estate. She wondered if it was a joke and didn’t really know who the Kardashians were, she says. Her sons gave her the information, and then Hensley and her team traveled to Calabasas, where they showed Kim Kardashian their gift wrap designs. Several ideas missed the mark — until Hensley introduced a style with Furoshiki, a Japanese wrapping fabric, that turned out to be a hit.
These projects helped propel Hensley into the corporate and celebrity sphere, which was quickly turning into Hensley’s full-fledged profession. Nifty Package Co. continued to focus on locally sourced and high-end products to face out from the competition and expand its impressive client list that features Justin Bieber and Hailey Bieber, Meta, Van Cleef & Arpels, Mont Blanc, Hugo Boss, Versace and Coach, and many others.
Image Source: Courtesy of Nifty Package Co.
“Everyone is treated the same, whether it’s wrapping a $20 gift or wrapping a $100,000 gift.”
Hensley says last year was a pivotal year for the company. Nifty Package Co. doubled in size, and gift wrapping services accounted for 68% of all sales – valued at over $316,000. No wonder Nifty Package Co. had its biggest quarter. falls during the holiday season, when the company generates roughly 50% of its annual revenues.
About three years ago, Hensley began exploring franchising options. Nifty Package Co. currently has a licensing program that “provides tools, support and guidance [licensees] they need to thrive in the world of personalized gifts.” The company currently employs over 20 people on its local team and 60 across the United States
“They’re contract workers,” Hensley says, “so they do something on the side. They are single mothers. These are older moms. These are older women who have never been married but need a job. Maybe they are retired, or they are gift baskets [business] owners and want to add packaging.”
Image Source: Courtesy of Nifty Package Co.
Currently Nifty Package Co. is now not Hensely’s side business, but a full-fledged business and profession that her family and support network help her pursue.
As Nifty Package Co. continues to grow. Hensley plans to uphold the company’s “entire purpose” of “bringing joy.” “[We have] such a system [ensures] every gift, every one who orders a gift, every one who invited us to wrap a gift, everyone is treated the same way, rather well, whether it’s a $20 gift wrap or a gift wrap price $100,000.”
This article is a part of our ongoing Women Entrepreneur® series highlighting the stories, challenges and triumphs of running a business as a woman.