Ideal gift giving for this Christmas

Holiday gift giving is now a difficult task. The past easier days of giving a scarf or mittens or a sled are over. Everyone would like technology gadgets. You can't give household things because people already have them or they are more fussy about kitchen, household, and particular items that they want specifically. The issue is that now with internet and huge stores and even much larger varieties of merchandise, we each can choose from a multitude and surplus of possibilities for each item. Plus many people go out and buy those items themselves. I am in a genuine problem of what to get people this year. Let me give you some examples. My mom wants a specific set of serving dishes and she already obtained it yesterday in an early Black Friday special. My nephews now have more electronic games than they can even play and my brother gets them the newest one immediately when it comes out. My sister wanted top quality luggage and told me yesterday at Thanksgiving dinner that she found one online and has already ordered it for herself. My dad was up early this morn to buy new power tools for us for Christmas and I just know that he got himself one of each too. The last few years I asked people at Thanksgiving for listings and that truly helped me. Yesterday at Thanksgiving meal no one was able to come up with a list of stuff. This has been a rising situation over the years. I don't have as much time to shop and I detest to fight the crowds. My wife and I decided to go to a theme holidays and buy everybody something by the motif of the year. One year while at a neighborhood book shop we started buying books and then went to a major box book store to pick up not only books but calendars and games and they even packaged a lot of them for us. It turned out to be quite pricey but it did work. The next year we had been so busy that we just went to the grocery store and bought gift cards for everyone. That was totally easy but it was pretty detached and we didn't have time or want to take the effort to wrap them, so we ended up appearing cheap when we handed people just an envelope. Plus it wasn't cheap in the long run and the thank you letters turned out that people got our gift cards and amounts mixed up with other people's gifts. They liked them and could use them but we noticed that we forgot to use our gift cards or lost them which was a absolute waste of money. In fact it was published that stores like gift cards because so many people never use them or find them way beyond the expiration date or lose them. The next year we customized it a bit more and bought food and restaurant coupons we thought each person would appreciate. It was okay. Yesterday my wife and I were complaining about the fact that gift giving has basically become a gift card exchange and lost its whole appeal and purpose. We lost for the past days of taking time to shake and open packages or people excited about something they have been wanting realized in a gift. Those days have simply vanished. People go online and just buy what they really want. A lot of her family members are restructuring and do not need more things. When they need or want something they go buy exactly what they want and our gifts are either regifted or go to Salvation Army. This year we want to make an impact. Quite honestly we are usually doing our shopping at the last minute. We went online last night and decided we are going to either order or go out and battle the crowds today and do our shopping. This year we want our gift to be the first one people get. So for the friends and colleagues and extended family we won't see, we found a website and nearby company right here in Denver called Baskets by Rita. There are all kinds of holiday baskets to send. We ordered online those baskets to be sent as soon as they can. Will they ever be stunned. Not only will ours be the first one there, but the packaged baskets are wrapped so nicely with holiday ribbons that will probably be put on exhibit in their house as a decoration. It was so easy. We are done and don't have to panic about those gifts. Then we talked about going to our relatives houses for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and we want to take the gifts ourselves so we didn't order baskets to be sent to their houses. Then we had a terrific idea. Why not order those gift baskets and have them sent to our house and then we will have them to take. We are thrilled because we can walk in with a gift that is WOW and that is not the usual mail order basket from the major companies. The baskets we are ordering today for family members are bundled with gourmet food items and that is just fine. Plus we decided that is one of the only things people don't buy for themselves. My mom just goes out and buys fresh flowers when she wants them. But none of us order a gift basket for ourselves. Perfect. We are placing the order today and guess what? We can now unwind. We will have sent and gotten the gift baskets even before December l. That buys us not only gifts but the whole freedom of not scrambling. The gift baskets to take Dec. 24 and Dec. 25 will be on display on the shelves in my home office ready to go. This year we will go to holiday parties and watch other people stress out while we are eating out, going to movies, holiday parties and relaxing. Not only is Baskets by Rita doing all the work of buying, wrapping, and sending the gifts, but it turned out to be cheaper than what we usually spend because we already paid for shipping, wrapping and bows and all the extra costs that creep up each year. Perfect. We are placing the order today and guess what? We can now relax. We will have sent and gotten the gift baskets even before December l. That buys us not only gifts but the whole freedom of not scrambling. The gift baskets to take Dec. 24 and Dec. 25 will be sitting on the shelves in my home office ready to go. This year we will go to holiday parties and watch other people stress out while we are eating out, going to movies, holiday parties and relaxing. Not only is Baskets by Rita doing all the work of buying, wrapping, and sending the gifts, but it turned out to be more affordable than what we usually spend because we already paid for shipping, wrapping and bows and all the extra costs that go up each year.

What should I give to my corporate employee this year?

With opposition for your business, it has become absolutely essential to give a thank you and appreciation present at holiday time. Like it or not the viewpoint of saving money worked for only a couple of those rough economic years. The accepted trend was austerity and we all assumed and privately hoped it might become tendency and a way of life. Most of us lessened on everything. We cut down the additional items like travel and vacations, Starbucks, newest fashion pieces, new cars, and entertainment. We also watched our pennies as we were conscious of multi-tasking duties to cut gas costs, paying attention to food costs 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 realize we do spend. However, we also realize 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 recession with endurance and mentally told himself he could cut personal and business expenses and that would be the best way for him to deal with both operations. He didn't like it but he was surprised at how much money he could save. He viewed games on television. He shopped at the supermarket instead of take-out food. He discontinue his gym membership and used the exercise equipment in his home. 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 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 complications. 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 short-tempered. Second was that cutting business extra perks greatly touched the morale and spirit in his business for the employees and for Jason himself. Before long efficiency went down and the setting of a positive place to work took a turn for the awful. 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 constructive vibes he got at work which were now replaced with uncomfortable silences. The third major problem was that his main competitor had taken the entire opposite approach and as he and others cut costs and services the competitor decided to preserve and even raise the bar. That Denver based company hired a few additional workers and took a forceful approach to steal customers away from the competitors who were cutting everything. It even hired away one of Jason's most effective 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 reacted 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 disaster 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 on the scene 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 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 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 gives 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 excited because his christmas teapot gift baskets will arrive early not a few days before December 25.

Don't delay sending out this year's Christmas gifts!

This year I will plan to give corporate holiday gifts early. Horror story. Last season I thought there was no hurry and that I would get big deals by waiting until mid December to buy gifts for my clients. Client gifts of appreciation for their business is extremely important and if you fall short to send a holiday gift you have botched the regular gift that has come to be expected yearly. Don't forget how important and necessary these appreciation tokens are. Three years ago I decided to forego 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 headache I would save for this extra frivolous expenditure. Was I ever incorrect. 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 won their trust. Unfortunately for me he decided 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 asked new clientele many of them had already signed up with the competitor and my laid back and risk-free 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 gift, but the next year I took note. Listening and asking questions of buddies and relatives about what made them devoted and things that made a change I noted that follow up letters of thanks,telephone calls, and gifts aren't just tokens they are are reminders and stamps of confidence for the clients. So two years ago I made sure I had money for gifts at holiday time set aside. 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 business 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 delight in. 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 employees 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 normally 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 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 local 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 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 brazenly 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 bistro 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 gourmet gift baskets and Colorado gift baskets to be delivered 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 in addition 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 wonderfully 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 preparations in a more relaxed way. We discovered 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 moral of the story is do not underestimate the power of the holiday thankfulness gift and order early.