Corporate Business Gifts That Say WOW!

Corporate Business Gifts That Say WOW!
Your corporate business gift should have "WOW" written all
over it. Your business gift should stand out, it should be
memorable and most of all it should turn a few heads. It
should amaze the recipient.

Let's face it, that traditional gift basket just doesn't
cut it anymore. Nor does that dusty bottle of wine or that
heavy dull paperweight.

Your company's employees, patrons and clients deserve more
from you. They need a business gift that goes beyond the
'normal yawn' or 'that's nice!"

But creating or buying corporate business gifts that say
WOW takes a little bit of planning and time on the part of
the giver. However, like all things in life which take a
little longer to do, the rewards are worth it. The same
applies here.

Maintaining high company morale is a sometimes forgotten
aspect of today's modern company or workplace. But creating
a good working atmosphere pays high dividends in more ways
than one. Savvy managers and bosses already know this and
they also know keeping everyone happy only adds to your
productivity, no matter what business you're pursuing.

However, like all gift-giving, it's not easy to find the
perfect corporate gift that will wow the receiver. Short of
a Lear Jet, here are some suggestions to increase the WOW
factor in your next corporate business gift.

1. WOW them with Personalization

Might sound a bit obvious but nothing is more desirable or
pleasant as seeing your own name on a well-thought-out
gift. So include a name plaque or engraving to show your
real appreciation. Remember, almost anything these days can
be laser engraved, so there's no reason not to personalize
your gifts.

Moreover, whatever you give, make sure it relates to the
person receiving it. Relating the gift to an employee's
interests and hobbies is always more effective than a
generic gift. Getting a practical gift that you can
actually use and benefit from will greatly increase the wow
factor.

2. WOW them with Uniqueness

Along the same lines, making your business gifts unique,
one of a kind, will obviously make them stand out. High
quality hand-crafted items and works of art can sometimes
produce that wow moment.

3. WOW them with Style

High style always wows the receiver. Make sure if you give
business related gifts they are stylish and in demand.
Fashionable gifts are always much more appreciated.

4. WOW them with Surprise

Everyone loves a surprise. So a surprise gift will always
wow them. Unexpected gifts can be the most fun; everyone
expects the Christmas Turkey Hamper but a half day surprise
holiday will wow them over to your side!

5. WOW them with High Tech

Truth be told, no one ever grows up. We are all still kids
at heart. We still like the latest toys, especially high
tech toys and gadgets that wow us.

So don't rule out giving the latest smart phone, PDAs that
do everything under the sun, LCD TVs that dazzle the eyes
or computer games that will have everyone jumping or
looking on in amazement.

6. WOW them with Fun

All kids like to play and have fun. Corporate gifts don't
have to be dull and boring, instead spice them up by
including the element of fun. Have corporate sponsored
games, parties or trips to sporting events and concerts.

Think outside the workplace.

Cater to your workers' interests/hobbies and plan such
things as fine dining, hiking trips, wine tasting parties
or trips to Vegas. Whatever the majority of your clients
and workers do to have fun - within legal limits of course!

7. WOW them with Money

Money never loses its WOW factor! If all else fails or you
just plain forget, money always works. Bonuses and stock
options have been wowing them over for years. Probably
always will, everyone loves getting more money. Pay raises
at the appropriate gift-giving time will put a smile on
everyone's face except your accoundant's.

8. WOW them with Emotion!

Remember, corporate business gifts are first and foremost
just gifts. The best gifts are the ones that surprises us
and literally makes us jump for joy. If we look a little
deeper we would probably discover gifts play a much more
important role in our lives.

Gifts fill an emotional need we all have, the need to feel
appreciated and wanted, whether it's from a loved one or
from the company we work for. Likewise, the reciprocal is
also true, the giver never forgets the feeling and joy of
giving a gift.

Gifts work both ways.

Any company, boss, manager or worker can use corporate gift
giving to accomplish or fulfill these human needs. To make
the sometimes cold sterile workplace just a little more
human. A well-thought-out and heart-felt corporate business
gift will show the recipient just how much they are
appreciated. And vice versa.

Perhaps, underneath it all, whether we realize it or not,
this is the true corporate gift that really says WOW.

----------------------------------------------------
For the latest corporate gifts ideas for any occasion and a
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http://www.bizwaremagic.com/corporate_business_gifts.htm
For Timely Special Savings/Deals/Coupons on Corporate
Gifts...Click Here:
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2007 Titus Hoskins. This article may be freely distributed
if this resource box stays attached.

Five Nagging Start-up Questions Facing Small Business Owners

Five Nagging Start-up Questions Facing Small Business Owners
Starting a business from scratch is intensely creative,
exciting, and adventurous. In my work as a small business
start-up coach and consultant, I've noticed that all of my
clients tend to struggle with similar issues. Here are the
five nagging questions they most often deal with:

1. Is my idea good enough?
2. How do I obtain the money to start up?
3. Can I run a successful business and still have a life?
4. Do I have the necessary education and experience to do
this?
5. What if I fail?

IS MY IDEA GOOD ENOUGH?

By the time you have reached the place where you are
thinking of starting up a business, you have likely
accumulated a lot of life experience. You've acquired
general information and developed expertise in one or more
areas that is unique and specific to you. While you may
share similar strengths and traits with others, in the
final analysis, there is only one you. You have a viewpoint
that is distinctly yours. The world wants to see what you
have to offer and hear what you have to say!

It's impossible to know completely at the start of the
journey whether your initial idea is good enough. You
simply must go down the road, allow your idea to be tested,
and see what comes out at the end. It's the only way to
discover your niche and to know what your unique
positioning in the world will be.

HOW DO I OBTAIN THE MONEY TO START UP?

Most people believe the only way to fund a start-up is
through angel investors or venture capitalists. That was
never true in the past, and it isn't true today. Yes, some
opportunities require too much capital for self-funding,
but certainly not all.

When considering the difference between funding your
start-up yourself or funding it with other people's money,
consider this: An outsider who makes a large investment in
your business will usually want a say in how their money is
going to be used. The same is true for family and friends
who invest in your business. This is why I encourage my
clients to get creative and find a way to fund their
start-ups themselves. That way, they are in complete
control of their success, are inspired to become profitable
sooner, and won't be spending a lot of time answering to
other people's expectations.

CAN I RUN A SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS AND STILL HAVE A LIFE?

You bet! The key is to realize that being a small business
owner is only one piece of your total life pie. It's not
the whole pie.

Just as your business is one piece of the pie, your family
is another. Your friends, another. Other pieces include
your physical and emotional well-being, your wealth and
financial health, and your service to your community. You
don't need to juggle anything. It can all flow beautifully
together, one piece dovetailing nicely into another. This
is called "having a life."

Many people think they have to give up having a life to
start a business. Sure, starting up a business takes time.
It requires focus, dedication, and energy, but not at the
expense of everything else you value and enjoy.

DO I HAVE THE NECESSARY EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE TO DO THIS?

As part of the start-up journey, one of the first things I
address with my clients is the belief that they might not
have the education or experience to start up a business.
Most of the time my clients come in with a great deal of
experience and education, but they don't realize it's
applicable to their business idea. By focusing on what they
have done in the past, we can quickly make a short list of
what skills they might need to develop. They can work on
acquiring these skills while they are starting up. Just
because you don't have a business degree doesn't mean you
won't be successful at running a business. Accounting can
be outsourced. Teleseminars can be taken. Books can be
read. Questions can be asked. Experience can be gained. You
don't have to do it all! Whatever you don't have right now,
you can learn.

WHAT IF I FAIL?

What if you don't? What if you don't fail? What then? It is
better to have tried and lost than never to have tried at
all - to embellish upon an oft-repeated phrase by Alfred
Lord Tennyson.

Letting the thought of failure come into your mind whenever
you are embarking upon a new journey seems only natural.
After all, none of us knows if we will fail or succeed at
something new. We can, however, set the tone for success.
And setting the tone makes all the difference. Let
yourself consider failure for as short a period as
possible. Then move on.

GET ON WITH THE ADVENTURE

Don't let those nagging questions stop you from starting up
your business. Instead, address each question
straightforwardly and with an open mind. Once you answer
them, you can start enjoying the creative, exciting
adventure that starting up a business was meant to be.

----------------------------------------------------
Susan L Reid, DMA, Small Business Start Up Coach &
Consultant is the author of Discovering Your Inner Samurai:
The Entrepreneurial Woman's Journey to Business Success.
Hailed as The Secret for business, Susan is known for
taking the fear out of small business start-ups for
entrepreneurial women. For intuitive small business
solutions, powerful attraction marketing tools, inspiration
and direction, visit http://SuccessfulSmallBizOwners.com

Choosing Small Business Payroll Software

Choosing Small Business Payroll Software
Running a payroll for larger organisations with full time
accounting staff is easy. Full time professionals are
employed or the payroll function may be outsourced to a
payroll bureau. For the small business the payroll task
often falls to the proprietor demanding even more time to
familiarise with current payroll legislation and a not
insignificant amount of administration time that could be
better spent making profits than number crunching. For
small business organisations with five to ten employees
calculating the income tax and national insurance
contributions in producing the weekly payroll can easily
take an hour or more each week. An hour that could be
better spent earning profits or at the very least having an
extra hour of free time each week. Free time that small
business owner's value at a premium since the majority of
small business owners either work or think about work from
dawn to dusk 7 days a week. A payroll software package to
satisfy the PAYE requirements can be just one part of
making that small business more efficient.

Small businesses that fail to operate a sound payroll
system can produce a negative effect on the employees. The
pay an employee receives is expected, often spent or spoken
for on receipt and provided the amount is a competitive
rate would only rarely have an effect on staff relations.
However operating a payroll system that does not provide
each employee with a payslip is like telling your employee
he has received a personal letter that was opened for him
and discarded as not important. To the employee a payslip
is very important. And so important in that every employer
has a legal responsibility to provide each employee with a
payslip and at the end of each year a P60 End of Year
Employees Certificate. A Payroll Software package will
satisfy both the legal requirement and the employee's
requirements. Failure to provide employees with payslips
can only reduce the respect hat employee has for his
employer. Every employee must receive a payslip that shows
the amount of income tax and national insurance deducted
from the gross pay. Every employer must also calculate the
employer's national insurance contribution. Employers not
using a payroll software package such as available from DIY
Accounting Payroll Software must design their own payslip
to give to employees to satisfy legal requirements.

In the UK producing a weekly or monthly payroll can be a
burdensome task to comply with the HMCE requirements. HMCE
provide much expertise advice in this area both via their
website and each year through the distribution of the
Employers CD-Rom. To fully appreciate all the
technicalities and complete all the correct documents such
as the P11 Deductions Working sheet is time consuming. It
doesn't have to be a problem. Payroll Software can automate
this knowledge and functions and is available at
insignificant cost. The DIY Accounting Payroll Software
package is available for five to twenty employees at a cost
of £15 to £25. That is a payroll software package that
could save a small business over an hour a week, for twenty
employees more like two hours, for less than 50p per week.
All small business owners should at least consider suitable
efficient payroll software.

Many payroll software packages are written using databases
and can put many small business owners off using them due
to both the cost and the fear of the unknown complexity of
using such a payroll package. Many payroll software
packages written on a database provide an excellent
solution but have a tendency to be extremely politically
correct and cover all potential rules and regulations and
consequently become more complex to operate as they can
demand at least a minimum knowledge of the payroll system.
There are other PAYE solutions. The DIY Accounting Payroll
Software is written on excel spreadsheets requiring no
payroll experience and a minimum of entries to produce all
the essential calculations of income tax and employees and
employers national insurance. In addition excel copies of
the time consuming P11 Deductions working sheet, P60
Employees Certificate and the P35 Annual Employers Return
are all automated to save the small business valuable
administration time. A significant advantage of a payroll
software system written on excel is that it can also be
used with an open office spreadsheet package but not least
all the entries are visible and therefore transparent.
Errors and mistakes can be easily corrected simply by
changing the numbers on the payroll ensuring the payroll is
produced both quickly and accurately. Payroll Software is
an effective tool that should receive serious consideration
by all small business proprietors.

Payroll Software also has the advantage because it can be
simple and fast to use of avoiding late payments to the
revenue and the consequent unwanted letters and potential
fines this can invoke. By having all the information
required for the monthly or quarterly revenue payments late
penalties can be avoided and by producing the Annual
Employers return on time small business owners can submit
their returns online and receive a tax free online filing
bonus. The current online foiling bonus being £150 and
substantially more than the payroll software might have
cost. And it's Tax Free. As they say in Yorkshire. "If thar
you ever gets owt for nowt, Tec it"

----------------------------------------------------
Terry Cartwright designs Payroll and accounting Software
packages for small top medium sized businesses at his
website DIY Accounting
http://www.diyaccounting.co.uk
with Payroll Software packages for 5 to 20 employees at
http://www.diyaccounting.co.uk/payroll.htm

Does helping others really hurt?

Does helping others really hurt?
I have been in the Network Marketing Industry for over 35
years and one thing that I have found is that the idea of
helping others is lacking and has been lacking in many
network marketing companies.

I have been in a total of 47 companies in the past 35 plus
years and have found only a couple that care not only for
the associates but also for the community and mankind at
large. So I went out looking for the companies that really
help the associates and the community. I only found enough
to count on one hand.

These few companies are growing by leaps and bounds. Their
social work in helping others places them head and
shoulders above the rest. They reach down to help others
and spend more time giving more money to their associates
and others.

The value that the companies give to their associates is
1000% more than what the associate pays.

Here is an example:
This Company takes a dollar from every sale and a dollar a
month from the Associates just to help with world literacy.
Further they support several homes for abused and battered
children with company profits. To me this is the kind of
company I want to be an associate for, so I dug further to
see what this company is made of.

With the Membership fee being a low $35.00 a month, they
give a value of over $1,200.00 a month back to the
associate. Plus they have an unconditional guarantee that,
if after 12 months you are not satisfied, they will give
back the $35.00 monthly fee for all 12 months no questions
asked and the associate gets to keep all the items they
have gotten, including all the training items. This company
will also pay you $35.00 every time you add an associate to
your program. That way, if you only add one associate a
month, it covers your monthly membership fee. WOW! In 35
years I have never run across anything like this program.
Your influence for good expands beyond your local area and
is a blessing in the lives of people you may never meet.
This company is not the normal Network Marketing Business.

This is what the number one item from the traditional
Network Marketing company places out there for you:

1. Expensive Products - Many network marketing companies
sell expensive products that, studies show, would not
likely be purchased were they not part of a network
marketing structure.

2. Complex Compensation Plans - Network marketing
compensation plans are difficult to understand and poorly
understood by distributors.

3. Poor Income/High Attrition Rates - By design, only a
small percentage of those in network marketing companies
actually make a profit, leading to high dropout rates.

This company has over come this old way of doing business
by the following:

1. The monthly fee is $35 - by far the lowest of any major
network marketing company and there are no hefty
requirements for stocking, storing and selling a huge
monthly quota.

2. There are NO qualifications.

3. The company's compensation plan is unique to the
network marketing industry and designed to create both
quick profits and potentially substantial long-term profits.

Company has found a way to break the traditional Marketing
problems and help the associates to really achieve their
goals. No pie in the sky for this company.

I guess there really is no cost or pain to helping others.
So, as you can see, there is at least one company that
looks out for its associates.

I then researched other companies and in future articles I
will be explaining their programs and what it costs to help
others. I will be covering many industries and areas that
have now moved into your TV and radio. Network Marketing is
no longer the program that when you told your family about
it they all applied for the witness protection program and
you never heard from them again.

I will continue to research and update my readers to the
different programs that can help other as much as they help
you.

----------------------------------------------------
=====================================================
If you'd like to learn more about the different Network
Marketing Companies
go here: http://blindgevity.com
Remember you can also learn more of the 35 years in Network
Marketing from Dr Robin Rushlo at
http://www.cashwithbooks.com
=====================================================

Getting Things Done: How to Conquer Procrastination

Getting Things Done: How to Conquer Procrastination
We all do it; we push the things we enjoy least to the
bottom of our to-do list. Day after day that list builds
and builds. No matter how much you love your business,
there are always the mundane duties that you just can't
stand to do. Putting off these jobs allows them to multiply
until the tasks seem insurmountable, creating stress and
anxiety. If you are one of the many entrepreneurs who find
themselves overwhelmed by dreaded duties, the following
tips may help you defeat the urge to procrastinate and
finally get those tedious tasks done:

1. Schedule these tasks early in your day. Decide how much
time needs to be spent on each task and mark it in your
calendar or agenda. If they need to be performed weekly,
work on them first thing Monday morning. If they are daily
jobs, work on them first thing each day. Deciding to work
on the functions you enjoy least as early as possible will
actually make your job more enjoyable. The rest of the day
or week will then be dedicated to carrying out the duties
you really enjoy. You will find yourself looking forward to
your days instead of feeling a sense of dread over the
mounting piles of monotonous work.

2. Reward yourself. When you have completed these
wearisome deeds, reward yourself by taking a break, getting
a coffee or having a snack. Knowing that there is a treat
coming when you finish may not make you enjoy these duties
any more, but it will likely give you the extra motivation
to get the job done.

3. If the job seems huge, break it up. Divide the tasks
into sections and schedule 2 or 3 times throughout your day
to work on them. After completing each section, give
yourself a little reward and move on to more enjoyable
work. Be sure to set some kind of alarm to remind you when
it's time to get back to them, or you may get carried away
with doing the jobs you love.

4. Don't allow yourself to get distracted. While
performing these despised duties, it's very easy to become
distracted by anything and everything. In fact, you may
find yourself looking for distractions to avoid this work.
The more focused you are, the faster you will complete
these tasks and be finished with them. During this time,
don't check your email, chit chat with employees or
colleagues, and don't answer any personal phone calls.

5. Delegate. If you have employees, delegate some of these
responsibilities to them; that's what they are there for.
If you don't have employees, or your employees are as
overwhelmed as you are, consider outsourcing. As a result
of today's advanced technologies, there are very few jobs
that can't be outsourced. Decide which task(s) you enjoy
least and contract them to someone. There are Virtual
Assistants to handle administrative duties, Accountants and
Bookkeepers to manage financial functions, and there are
even companies and individuals to whom you can outsource
sales duties.

Procrastination leads to stress and anxiety, but these can
be easily avoided. Don't allow the urge to procrastinate
overcome your desire to run your business efficiently.
Following some or all of these simple steps may help you
conquer your inclination to delay performing dreaded
duties, allow you to more thoroughly enjoy your work day,
and let you run your business mote effectively.

----------------------------------------------------
Kelly Sims is a Virtual Assistant and President of
Virtually There VA Services. To find out more about
virtual assistance and how using a Virtual Assistant can
simplify your life, visit her website at =>
http://www.virtuallythereva.com . While you're there,
don't forget to sign up for her free monthly newsletter
providing useful information that enhances and simplifies
the lives of busy entrepreneurs.