What should I give for Christmas this year?

With competition for your business, it has turned out to be absolutely vital to give a thank you and appreciation present at seasonal time. Like it or not the mindset of saving money worked for only a couple of those hard economic years. The accepted craze was temperateness and we all believed and secretly hoped it might become habit 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 conscious of multi-tasking errands to cut gas costs, attentive to food costs and shopping the specials, 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 using our time and money on things we like. Take Jason from Denver, for example. He missed not skiing, not going to Avalanche or Nuggets or Broncos games, not eating out and relishing a movie. He jumped into the economic slump with stamina 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 astonished at how much money he could save. He viewed games on television. He shopped at the supermarket 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 rough 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 key 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 irritable. Second was that cutting business extra perks greatly damaged the morale and spirit in his business for the employees and for Jason himself. Before long output went down and the atmosphere of a positive place to work took a turn for the awful. The cooperative teamwork turned to competitive existence as employees questioned who would be cut next and missed those small birthday and holiday perks. Jason himself found that he missed the optimistic 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 approach and as he and others cut costs and services the competitor decided to keep and even raise the bar. That Denver based company hired a few additional workers and took a strong 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 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' 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 serve. 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 surprised 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 observable 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 happy because his Grand Gourmet Gift Baskets will arrive early not a few days before December 25.