Ideas of what to give this Christmas?

With rivals for your business, it has come to be absolutely required to give a thank you and appreciation present at seasonal time. Like it or not the approach of saving money worked for only a couple of those rough economic years. The accepted trend was austerity and we all assumed and secretly hoped it might become custom and a way of life. Most of us cut down on everything. We cut down the extras like travel and vacations, Starbucks, newest fashion pieces, new cars, and entertainment. We also monitored our pennies as we were cognizant of multi-tasking duties to cut gas costs, attentive to food price tags and shopping the special offers, turning off lights and turning down heat, making gifts or regifting. It was interesting and some parts of it made us recognize we do squander. However, we also understand how much we really like spending our time and money on things we take pleasure in. Take Jason from Denver, as an example. He missed not skiing, not going to Avalanche or Nuggets or Broncos games, not eating out and relishing a movie. He dived into the economic downturn with stamina and mentally told himself he could cut personal and business expenses and that would be the best way for him to handle both operations. He didn't like it but he was amazed at how much money he could save. He viewed games on television. He shopped at the grocery store instead of take-out food. He give up his gym membership and used the exercise equipment in his place. At first it was a novel experience and definitely eye-opening. In business he cut one of his workers and spent more time doing the work himself. He cut the usual treat Friday by not bringing in breakfast and his employees understood when he told them times were hard and to keep jobs it was sad but there would be no Christmas party or holiday gifts or the traditional birthday gift. It absolutely saved money. There were three major problems. One was that cutting the extras in his personal life influenced Jason's mental and emotional health. He found himself missing something and becoming more grouchy. Second was that cutting business extra perks greatly impacted the morale and spirit in his business for the employees and for Jason himself. Before long efficiency went down and the atmosphere of a positive place to work took a turn for the worst. The helpful teamwork turned to competitive survival as employees questioned who would be cut next and missed those small birthday and holiday perks. Jason himself found that he missed the positive vibes he got at work which were now replaced with uncomfortable silences. The third major problem was that his main competitor had taken the total opposite strategy and as he and others cut costs and services the competitor decided to maintain and even raise the bar. That Denver based company hired a few additional workers and took a vigorous approach to steal customers away from the competitors who were cutting everything. It even hired away one of Jason's strongest employees. It chose to take a risk and go into debt to keep workers and keep giving gifts for birthdays and Christmas. Take the holiday gifts for example. The Denver company ordered their regular thank you and appreciation holiday baskets from Baskets By Rita and maintained their regular customers. Why? Because the customers had few other gifts, so when the holiday gift basket arrived it endured alone. The customers responded with calls of gratitude and acceptance of using that company for the next year, since they seemed to be the strong one that would be there for them. The Denver company even put out more by ordering the Grand Gourmet basket to send to their competitors' best clients. For Jason it was a devastation because he lost two of his strongest. When he contacted them they said they were wondering if he still was in business and they knew the competitor seemed to be doing well. Jason decided it would be economical to make phone calls to his clients to keep contact. That worked for some, but he had lost some clients who would didn't come back. The next year he called Baskets by Rita in November to set up an order for baskets. He ordered a less expensive basket but had them sent in mid-December. It did help. He also ordered a huge basket filled with candy bars and individual treats for the staff workroom. It arrived with a big bow and he was astonished at the results of his $200 investment on morale. The next year he did the same thing but also called Baskets by Rita and ordered small baskets to give his employees at their annual pot-luck lunch before the holidays. They were delighted and he felt he got so much more appreciation than just giving them cash or a gift card. It was a noticable Wow and a festive gift instead of a card. Also they didn't find out how much he had spent where they used to know their importance by the value of the gift card. This year Jason called Baskets by Rita the first of November and mentioned he needed a few grand baskets and gourmet baskets sent to competitors' clients. Jason jumped at the next option they gave. They suggested he send them out to be delivered right after Thanksgiving. Their motto is to be the 1st holiday gift received. The first gift creates more bang for the buck because they take time to read the card and it's around for a while. Some even hang the cards and the top one is yours for folks to read over and over again. Jason did remember there were clients before who had seemed to forget which company sent which gift because they all arrived at once. Baskets by Rita said to let yours be the first and rock star gift for a lasting impression. Jason is happy because his gourmet comfort gift baskets will arrive early not a few days before December 25.

Be the First to give corporate gifts to your clients this Christmas!

Top 2 strategies for corporate savy gift giving at holiday time: give a gift with that is impressive and not gift cards and make yours the 1st gift your patron or perspective clients or clientele will receive. Leading two mistakes for business gift giving at holiday time are: Not acquiring the gift soon enough and giving gift cards or gift certificates. Let's start with screw ups.... Not planning/lateness. By sending it behind time your gift gets mixed up with all the others in a stack or in the break room and people tend to forget about what they got from who. The cards get mixed up and in the haste and hustle and bustle in the days before Dec. 25 your gift is misplaced and you have lost money by now. Administrative assistants are normally in the position of giving the holiday corporate gifts and bosses, you need to listen up! Don't come to your administrative assistant at the last minute and expect her or him to work miracles...lateness on your part should not be an emergency on their part. You are putting them in a really arduous position to scavenge and locate last minute products or gifts and to get them sent. Many times gift companies, especially holiday basket companies like Baskets by Rita in Aurora are immersed with last minute desperate demands. This year looks like a excellent one so don't be surprised if local and national basket and food companies run out of stock. Your secretary will be wasting time and spending way too much time on your tardy gift giving task and it not only will worry them out but take away from their regular duties. The remedy to last minute gift giving issues is to plan early. Give them a chance to make an order and get the gift at the price point you want to spend. Did you know that most people and companies who put it off end up spending a lot more than they had planned? The items they wanted are sold out and they have to take what is left even if it costs more. So the two consequences or mistakes with sending it late or the hassle itself and the cost of over spending and more importantly the less optimistic impact for your money. So what do you do? First of all in timeliness, give your administrative assistant a budget and time to make the order. Be sure it comes as soon after Thanksgiving as possible to have that ultra positive effect at your clients and customers businesses. Secondly, fore go the gift card and gift certificate plan. Those have been famous in the past but in past years everyone gets and gives gift cards and they have lost their luster and impact. It also is the easiest way to go..it shows they weren't worth the time or effort or they were a last minute gift thought. Gift certificates to restaurants have worked in the past too except someone is now in charge to order the food and go get it. Choose a gift that comes with a joyful wow isn't that great or how nice or isn't that beautiful. These days individuals buy practically what they want, so send a gift that comes with bling and a bow and the gift basket is probably your most effective. Check out local places where you can probably just go and pick them up to save shipping costs. In Denver or Colorado Baskets by Rita in Aurora is a good start.

This the season not to delay!

This season I will plan to give corporate holiday gifts early. Horror story. Last year I thought there was no hurry and that I would get true deals by waiting until mid December to order gifts for my clients. Client gifts of appreciation for their business is really important and if you falter to send a holiday gift you have botched the customary gift that has come to be expected yearly. Don't forget how important and necessary these thankfulness tokens are. Three years ago I decided to skip the gifts because of a budget crunch. Thinking it made little or no difference I felt quite dapper about the amount of money and time and headache I would save for this extra frivolous expenditure. Was I ever wrong. In fact many of us were wrong. The other firm people I meet with weekly all talked it over and were in agreement that one year couldn't make that much change and we were quite smug about our money saving tactics. In my business my principal competitor is someone who has tried to get my clients but I've always gained their devotion. Unfortunately for me he made the decision to take the risk and send out gifts early. The next year I found I was losing some of my clients because they had decided to take a look at other companies that could deliver the same or equal service. As we approached new clientele many of them had already signed up with the rival and my laid back and secure style that I would easily keep clients was slipping away. I had to work really hard to keep the clients I had and put in a lot of time and effort for the next few years to get some of my essential companies loyalties back. Maybe it wasn't just the holiday gift, but the next year I took note. Listening and asking questions of friends and relatives about what made them faithful and things that made a difference I noted that follow up letters of thanks,telephone calls, and gifts aren't just tokens they are are reminders and stamps of assurance for the clients. So two years ago I made sure I had money for gifts at holiday time calculated. I started looking for gift ideas and sent them out the first of December. What I recognized was that I immediately got cards and calls from clients. They loved them plus mine were the first gifts to arrive at their office. My secretary and I were talking and she pointed out the gift we got at Thanksgiving one year with the note that here's your first holiday gift to enjoy. Since it was the first and only gift at that time it did make a difference. Most gifts of food, gifts baskets, and cards come that last week before December 25 and although we appreciate them they sometimes get tossed in and mixed up and we can't remember exactly who gave what. Besides personnel are bringing in treats and food for each other all week. So my secretary and I started talking and analyzing that the first gifts that come in are the most noted and appreciated and you always remember them. That brings me to our plan for this year. We have already contacted a basket business to send out holiday gift baskets to be delivered no later than December l. Why? Because last year we thought we'd get them later and they were sold out of the one we really wanted. Since we have clients in 10 states we had failed to note that many would not arrive on time because of shipping days needed. We gave up after checking about sending flower arrangements or poinsettias which seemed useless for a few days in the office. As a last resort we scrambled to get gift cards for area restaurants or bakeries near each client. It took way too much time. We were able to find some gift cards in food market, but they were not the right denomination. We also felt uneasy that the exact amount we were spending was evident, putting a dollar value on the client. But we got the cards sent out. It was fine and at least we sent a gift. However one of the more vocal and boldly honest secretaries called to thank us and did say she preferred the gift baskets because she was the one who had to order and go to the eatery to bring back what was ordered with the gift card. She also made it clear that to feed everyone they had to add more money. Yikes, not a good plan. This year I called Baskets by Rita the first of October and placed my order for Healthy Holiday Gift Baskets and Colorado gift baskets to be mailed just before Thanksgiving so they will arrive that first week of December. They explained to me that they have to order all holiday products in August and September to have enough stock to not run out plus suppliers run out early. We're feeling really smug. Our clients will know these are gifts of appreciation, there are food items to be shared by all, they come packaged amazingly giving that WOW factor and our card and gift will be the first one they get and will be hanging around the break room all holiday season. It won't get misplaced with all the other gifts. Since there is not a dollar amount attached you are not blatantly telling them what money amount they are worth. Plus my secretary is so happy because this is a slower time for us and she was able to make all preparations in a more relaxed way. We found another money-saving hint for giving holiday gifts. We will have baskets shipped to 9 other states, but the majority are in the Denver area. My secretary has arranged to save some of the shipping and delivery costs by going to pick up most of the baskets and deliver many herself. We've added a wine and cheese FAC the first Saturday in December in our office for clients and we'll give most of them out then. If not, it would be good for me to take them and give them myself and make the personal call. The lesson of the story is do not underestimate the power of the holiday appreciation gift and order early.