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.