I am fond of giving gifts. I love making others feel appreciated; showing them that they matter. You can say one of my five love languages is gifts but I give them verse expecting to receive as a way to show love. I do love receiving them to, don’t get me wrong. Always open to new shoes, Chanel bags and trips around the world.
If you’re a small business owner you know how tough it can be sometimes. With the ladies in my mastermind group I make sure to send them encouraging words during the week but I purposely pick one or two a month to send an actual gift to. In addition, to that you can show the same love to your clients, customers and supporters. If you want to keep it simple when rewarding them, read our article, “Reward Your Best Customers“. It has some great tips.
Baubles Are A Girls Best Friend
1. Lucinda Lime Statement Necklace 2. Lavender Ice Necklace 3. Crystal Frosting Necklace
My friends Tiffany and Jennifer of T+J Designs, own an amazing small business that sells beautiful pieces, hand selected with some exclusive designs available. You can stock up on little trinkets like earrings if you have a small budget.
Real Women Read
1. The Art of Work
Buy me a book and I’ll love you forever. Buy a really good book and I won’t let you go. Most business owners are always wanting to learn more. Find out what they love reading and order them a book. People send me books all the time and I am utterly thankful!!! Amazon is my go to shop, unless I shop at Half Price Books in Austin.
Travel
Before you look at me crazy, you can give the gift of travel by purchasing gift cards that cater towards hotels and flights. Last year, someone gave me a Southwest airlines gift card for $100. I also had a couple of Hilton gift cards. I got to go on vacation for free because the kindness of my friends, family, and followers.
Beautiful Illustrations
1. Passport To Fabulous 2. Mommy Chic 3. Welly Weather
I have a Pinterest board solely dedicated to fashion illustrations. There are some amazing designers out there, but I truly love Holly Nichols Illustrations. She was featured in our “What’s In Your Bag” series. She has amazing pieces you can purchase and even customize.
T-shirts
One of my dear friends, Katrice is a lover of T-shirts. This past year, I gifted her with the Women Celebrate shirt from DSR Apparel. Which, I also own and love. Great conversation starter and easy gift to give. If you don’t know their clothing size you can also find a gift card for that store.
Help
When others ask me how they can truly help me, I am extremely grateful. As I embark on scaling my business, there have been a couple of friends who have truly been instrumental in helping me. They are reading, editing, critiquing, and do much more with my future projects. This is a great gift to others. We all need help, sometimes were too proud to ask for it.
Body Scrubs
After a long day of working, what I love most is getting all fancy in the shower. Scrubs are great gifts to give people. You can make baskets with them inside. The peppermint coffee scrub that Oh Honey Skin Care makes is AMAZING!!
Flowers
This is something I really got into this year, solely from The Bouqs floral arrangement done. I always wanted to gift people flowers, but with companies having epic fails with bad arrangements and dead flowers, I was weary. In addition to that, it seemed local stores were super expensive. I get beautiful hand cut arrangements sent from The Bouqs and everyone always loves it.
Education
More and more people are yearning to learn. I have a friend who wants to build apps, so I gifted her an Ecourse that came highly recommended. If you’re in the service industry, you can always give away your Ebooks or Ecourses to your audience to reward them.
Food
I got excited when thinking of the gift of food. Some nights as business owners, you are extremely busy and don’t have time to truly plan your meals. However, Plated is a perfect gift to give people who have hectic lives. If you don’t want to do that, sending cupcakes in a jar is always a great idea. A couple years ago, I sent my friend macaroons.
Giving your clients, customers, supporters, and fellow business owners gifts isn’t that hard. If you engage your audience and know other small business owners really well, you already know what they love. For my birthday I received over $500 in Kate Spade gift cards from my followers. Everyone knows I love KS. I am thankful for each gift card. In addition to that, I have gotten Target and Nordstrom gift cards. What have you done to make your clients, customers, supporters, and fellow business owners feel special?
