Do you need some ideas of what to give this Christmas?

With rivals for your business, it has turn out to be absolutely necessary to give a thank you and appreciation gift item at holiday time. Like it or not the mindset of saving money worked for only a couple of those difficult economic years. The accepted fashion was austerity and we all assumed and secretly hoped it might become custom and a way of life. Most of us cut back on everything. We cut down the additional items like travel and vacations, Starbucks, newest fashion pieces, new cars, and entertainment. We also monitored our pennies as we were cognizant of multi-tasking errands to cut gas costs, attentive to food price tags and shopping the deals, turning off lights and turning down heat, making gifts or regifting. It was interesting and some parts of it made us discover we do spend. However, we also realize how much we love using our time and money on things we take pleasure in. Take Jason from Denver, for instance. 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 vigor 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 shocked at how much money he could save. He viewed games on television. He shopped at the grocery store instead of take-out food. He quit his gym membership and used the exercise equipment in his house. At first it was a unique experience and definitely eye-opening. In business he trimmed out 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 tough and to keep jobs it was regrettable but there would be no Christmas party or holiday gifts or the traditional birthday gift. It absolutely saved money. There were three significant issues. One was that cutting the extras in his personal life damaged Jason's mental and emotional health. He found himself missing something and becoming more irritable. Second was that cutting business extra perks greatly affected the morale and spirit in his business for the employees and for Jason himself. Before long output went down and the surroundings of a positive place to work took a turn for the horrible. The accommodating teamwork turned to competitive survival as employees thought 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 gamble 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' strongest 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 cheap 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 expenditure 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 moved 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 worth 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 recall 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 christmas beer gift baskets will arrive early not a few days before December 25.

Get ahead of the game, get your holiday gifts.

Best 2 strategies for corporate wise gift giving at holiday seasonal time: send out a gift with wow and not gift cards and make yours the very first gift your patron or perspective clients or customers will receive. Leading two mistakes for business gift giving at holiday time are: Not obtaining the gift soon enough and giving gift cards or gift certificates. Let's start with mistakes.... Not preparing/tardiness. By sending it behind time your gift gets mixed up with all the others in a mound or in the break room and individuals tend to overlook what they got from who. The cards get shuffled and in the flurry and hustle and bustle in the days before Dec. 25 your gift is lost and you have lost money by now. Administrative assistants are commonly in the position of sending the holiday corporate gifts and bosses, you need to listen up! Don't come to your administrative assistant at the last second and expect her or him to work wonders...lateness on your part should not be an crisis on their part. You are placing them in a really tough place to scavenge and find last minute products or gifts and to get them mailed. Many times gift companies, especially holiday basket companies like Baskets by Rita in Aurora are swamped with last minute frantic 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 squandering 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 usual duties. The remedy to last minute gift giving difficulties is to plan early. Give them a opportunity 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 procrastinate 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 downfalls or errors with mailing it late or the hassle itself and the cost of overspending 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 appears as soon after Thanksgiving as possible to have that highly 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 appeal and affect. It also is the easiest way to go..it shows they weren't really worth the time or energy 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 cheerful wow isn't that great or how nice or isn't that pretty. These days people buy just about what they want, so send a gift that comes with bling and a bow and the gift basket is probably your best. 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.

Get ahead start and make the holiday season less stressful.

This holiday season I will plan to give corporate holiday gifts ahead of time. Horror story. Last holiday season I thought there was no hurry and that I would get true deals by waiting until mid December to get gifts for my clients. Client gifts of thankfulness for their business is very 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 very little or no difference I felt quite dapper about the amount of money and time and hassle I would save for this extra meaningless 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 difference 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 earned their trust. Unfortunately for me he made a 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 businesses that could deliver the same or equal service. As we approached new clientele many of them had already signed up with the major competitor and my laid back and trusted 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 original companies loyalties back. Maybe it wasn't just the holiday present, but the next year I took note. Listening and asking questions of friends and relatives about what made them devoted and things that made a change I noted that follow up letters of thanks,phone calls, and gifts aren't just tokens they are are reminders and stamps of self confidence for the clients. So two years ago I made sure I had money for gifts at holiday time budgeted. I started looking for gift ideas and sent them out the first of December. What I found out 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 big 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 generally remember them. That brings me to our approach 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 purchase 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 totally obvious, 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 strategy. This year I called Baskets by Rita the first of October and placed my order for Holiday Wine 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 fantastically 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 lost 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 arrangements in a more relaxed way. We came across 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 morale of the story is do not underestimate the power of the holiday appreciation gift and order early.