It always feels so much better and nicer to give than to receive, if you are relish the act of giving yourself. But then there is nothing worse than that act of ripping off colorful fine wrapping paper to unveil some gym socks, a ubiquitous CD box set of any kind or that oh-so-obviously re-circulated scented candles. Well, it can be just enough to make you seek a lump of coal, know why!

Of course, an array of online tools have long been there to let you cobble together a quick list of things that you would love others to gift you.

Pinterest

• As its name suggests, this service indeed acts as a virtual pinboard wherein users can save items that have caught their eye online.
• The site is developed with the basic understanding that  surfers in their zigzag across the online realm are constantly stumbling across interesting books, cute trinkets, pieces of furniture, iPad cases and other objects. It lets them save all these items and organize them into specific sets, including holiday wish lists.The service allows users to follow others’ lists to come up with enhanced gift ideas.

Evernote

• It’s a note-taking service that lets users add tags to the photos and notes they save. Adding a ‘holiday gift’ tag to those items will create a list of desirables.
• It has teamed up with ShopAdvisor that analyzes gift ideas in your account and searches the Web to look for matching products. It sends information about where to find them - online as well as offline.

HavetoHave

• HavetoHave allows people to clip and to save products from across the Web and then assemble them into handy shopping lists.
• The website allows members to find and to follow their friends as well as browse through the items that they have saved, either as a way to get gift-giving ideas or as suggestions to add to their own wish lists.
• As a bonus, it has put in place a built-in blue-light-special alert to tell people when an item they have flagged has actually gone on sale.

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Corporate gifting is very important to maintain good relations with your key clients. If you do come up with an idea of a novel gift for them, it will do the trick for you. Conversely, if you give a gift that really looks silly or makes them feel awkward, you may even stand to lose the deal. All of a sudden you find yourself in an unsavory situation. So you need to be careful and judicious. Of course, with a good selection, gifts can help to build lasting corporate relations.

Corporate gifting is done to promote relationship with our employees, clients and others, as we all know. Imagine presenting a beautiful cross pen to a prime customer with his name on it. It’s the ultimate excitement one can get from a gift and render it the most memorable gesture. In essence, corporate promotional gifting is an expression of appreciation of the client’s importance to your business. Here are some important things to keep in mind in this regard:

• A key aspect of corporate promotional gifting is ‘customization’; i.e. just the manner in which the company’s brand logo can be impressed upon the gift, the customer’s name can be embedded upon the gift too.

• As a rule, the person gifting his/her client must know some very specific details about the client. These specific details could be major characteristics, like/dislikes, habits, age and other facts.
• Getting acquainted with your client’s personality and thinking patterns would make up a great deal while choosing the right gift for a corporate client.
• Every person may love a certain gift and might dislike a certain gift. It is better to know your clients and then choose specific gifts for them rather than pick a random item without knowing the clients’ personality and characteristics. It would do more harm than any good.

Corporate gifting is a gesture that in a small, albeit significant way acts as a recall medium - when the client has to make a decision; your logo appears automatically in front of his eyes thanks to the timely and pertinent gift. Even little things that are personal in nature and spell the difference between you and your competitor will help generate sales and build long-lasting relationships. Corporate promotional gifting will always remain as a premium business etiquette and relationship-building activity.

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In this article, we shall go through some unspoken norms of giving and receiving a gift in the corporate world:

• Even though your intentions may be honest and it may just be a small gift, if the client firm objects to receiving any gift, giving a gift should be avoided. It will be inappropriate on your part to force a gift on the person.
• Conversely, if receiving a gift makes you feel slightly uncomfortable or you believe it can cause some damage to an important business relationship, it is correct to refuse the gift, but in an appropriate manner.
• Do not ever think of recycling a gift that you have received, at least, within the same circle of friends or else you will be caught. (Remember, that TV commercial of the same gift changing hands, doing rounds of different homes, and ultimately landing with the first person who had gifted it, to start with.
• On other hand, if you receive something that you know is not original, try not to look dejected or disappointed. Accept it with a smile on your face and set your mind to it. If you want to return the gift, do so without opening it, if possible.
• Avoid the temptation of what the ‘generous’ giver has opted to gift. This gives the person the option of recycling the gift. In fact, it always makes sense to check your office policy on accepting any kind of gift from clients.
• Though it might just be a small gift, if your company’s policy says that accepting any gift from the clients is not appropriate, it should be returned. If a gift from one of your business associates looks like a favor, it should be returned.
• In certain cases, a giver might refuse to take the gift back. In such a case, do not make a coworker or a client feel embarrassed about giving. Keep a formal record of your correspondence, if any. Make sure you’ve notified the senior person in your office about the chain of events.

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Funskool continues to be in the forefront of developing dynamic games for creative and alert children keeping pace with today’s competitive world. Their products - ranging from traditional to high-tech - are developed keeping the evolving needs of children and changing times in mind. 

In the next few blogs, we shall be checking some interesting games across broad themes. They also have on offer tantalizing travel games and superb strategy games for those who ‘have or claim to have a greater percentage of the gray matter, or for those aspiring to increase that.’

These games are a series of intriguing and exciting ideas that sure will enrich and sharpen your thinking process. On the other hand, their series of travel games ensure that you do not miss out on fun quotient when going on a picnic or a vacation with your family, friends or office colleagues.

Funskool’s fun-filled travel games are compact to carry. They are thoughtfully designed and come with self-contained storage trays, making them absolutely convenient. Plus they have quick set-up facilities. Just open them up and enter a world of boundless fun!

Here are some interesting games on offer from the leading toymaker:

Snakes & Ladders: A game that’s been around for centuries! Land on a ladder to climb, on a lippery snake and oops it’s downhill all the way. Find out who makes it first!

Tr. game stay alive: It’s all about staying alive! A subtle game that needs an alert mind and thoughts that keep racing!

Game of games: For those who can never be satisfied with one game here are 14 games in 1! Action strategy words and chance come together on a single board. 14 times the fun!

Globetrotters’ game: Jet set around the world answering questions on each region. A Trivial Pursuit game that takes you at break-neck speed across continents!

Monopoly deal card game: The fast-paced, addictive card game where your luck can change in the play of a card. 
(Information and image courtesy: Funskool)

Tags: business gifting, corporate gifts companies, Corporate gifting India, Best corporate gifts, Business Gifting
Corporate gifting, corporate gifting for employees, Popular corporate gifts, gifting to clients, Best business gifts, gifting india

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Easter is the historic day when Jesus came back to our land from the grave to vindicate his teachings and justify to the Romans the ideologies handed down to us. Those who opted to follow this ideology remember this occasion as one, which signals the end of Lent - a period of abstinence from material pleasures when one returns to the old adage of piety.

Easter is a great opportunity for a get-together and gifts! The first thing that strikes one’s mind when you are wished Happy Easter is a toss-up between Easter Eggs and Easter Bunny. Home-made Easter Eggs can be packaged prettily and presented to office colleagues wrapped in cute baskets.

Easter Eggs are wonderfully chocolate-y with a colorful (gold being the main color) surface. Arranged well they make for great decorative items for the desk. If your colleague is married, gift enough eggs for everybody.

Rope everybody else in the office and make a gift hamper for the boss. Make it complete with bunnies (either the soft toy variety or the edible variety), large eggs in a suitably big basket, with a dashing bow.

Keep the right colors and patterns in mind. Opt for a deep color for the bow and for the wrapping material – pick stripes and checks and muted colors.

Opt for an Easter hamper – a beautiful basket, two or three dozen eggs, depending on the number of people in office, confetti, popcorn, sponge balls, or your choice of filling. Get a small gift each for your colleagues and of course, the Easter Bunny. Order a bunny cake, too.

There are options in form of Le Meridien and Patchi for Easter Bunny! Almost every patisserie and cake shop will have its fair share of Easter goodies to select from for every budget.

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Corporate gifting

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Gifts give a great joy, it goes without saying. They convey your emotions to the receiver, who in turn, appreciates your sentiments. Gifts enhance relations and strengthen bonds of love. But gifts also serve a practical purpose when it comes to financial planning. You may wish to know. Let me bring to your notice that gifts can serve as a simple albeit very effective tax planning tool.

The provisions of Section 56, relating to tax on gifts, along with the basic exemption limit provisions to make your income is tax-free are applied simultaneously, to ensure tax-free income.

An individual falling in a higher tax bracket, can manage to cut down on the tax liability and increase his or her capital into tax-free income through gifts. This is essentially made possible by tax planners.

The method they follow is to make a person give gifts from post-tax capital to the parents and major children, who mostly are non-taxpayers. To double the benefit, when the recipients of these gifts invest the same, the family can earn more tax-free income.

Of course, there are certain issues, precautions and clarifications that you need to seek from your tax consultant who will address all these aspects so that you are able to put this gainful tax planning strategy through gifting into practice.

In a nutshell, gifts given to your parents and children (above 18) will not invite clubbing provisions. We shall learn about the finer aspects of tax planning and gifting in the subsequent blogs.

Tags: business gift baskets, business gifting, Worst gifts, gifting etiquette, Corporate gifting, promotional gifts, Corporate gifting India, Business etiquette, Cheap corporate gifts, gifting india

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Nearly eight in 10 Indians (77%) prefer Clothes, Sweets (including chocolates- 69 %) and Books (49%) as their preferred gifting items. Importantly, more than half of the people surveyed indicated they would shop online.

Following are the broad findings of a survey conducted by Nielsen India on gifting patterns research panel.

• Differences are there across different age groups in terms of gifting items, budgets and shopping channels.

• Sweets, Clothes and Books are universally popular, but more so with the mature group aged 45 and above

• The younger crowd (15-24 years) prefers to gift technology gadgets such as mobile phones and MP3 players.

• Holidays (travel and accommodation), travel tickets and tickets to amusement parks are popular new-age gift ideas.

• About 20 percent would like to give wine as a gift.

• More than half of the people surveyed indicated they would shop online.

According to N. S. Muthukumaran, Director, Online Panel, the Nielsen Company, India, the technology that has entered our lives in the last 10 years is deeply affecting young people in their twenties who have grown up with it. He says, “To many, it is cool to be seen with the latest model of phone or music system and giving one as a present is in the same league, albeit a costly option for these young folks.”

Look for more findings of the survey indicating the habits and beliefs of Indians regarding gifting in the next blog posts…

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Gifts with something inscribed, something engraved or a scrapbook can add a personal touch.

Gifts with something inscribed

Books can indeed be a thoughtful and very special gift, but inscriptions carry them to a whole new level of intimacy. Buy your buddy a new book of fiction (need not be romantic) that she or he has been always talking about and is craving to read. It can also be his or her favorite classic, a journal, or a coffee-table book, the subject matter does matter, but your inscription does make it special.

Something engraved

An obvious gift may not be on its own such an innovative idea, but there’s an easy method to take it even the simplest and commonest of gifts into an entirely ultimate romantic orbit by engraving! By branding a cell phone, bracelet or even a simple key chain with your feelings and emotions or simply with your initials, or a memorable day, you can send the message in a subtle way.

A personal scrapbook

Don’t think that we are suggesting you simply cut & paste some pictures into a scrapbook but this is definitely the wonderful way of preserving and rekindling romantic memories. It’s rather about as near to any home-made gift and isn’t it nice narrating the story of your romance or friendship with a personal scrapbook as gift.

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In every organisation, there is a hierarchy of executives at different levels. To maintain a communication channel with all of them directly is not possible at most times. However, it is neccessary for us to maintain our communication with as many people as possible or atleast keep the word that the relationship exists between two people.

Corporate gifting enables you to maintain those communication channels and also keep them open all the time. Sometimes, we have not been in touch with a couple of colleagues for a long time and we require to connect with them again. We can just send them a card that wishes them well or expresses some words of thanks along with a small gift that they would love. Naturally, the gift bought shouldnt be so expensive as you must not make an impression that you are gifting them because you need them for some reason/purpose you wish to accomplish. This simple practice can be done just to keep ones relationship fresh and alive, and keep remain connected somehow with more number of people at the same time you havent been for a long long time.

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Giving corporate gifts is the perfect way to encourage your employees to work hard and to remain loyal to your company. After all, if you treat people well and offer them gifts and incentives for their hard work, then why would they want to be anywhere else?

They are also a great way to encourage customers to remain loyal to your company and your brand of product or service.

The down side to offering incentives is the cost. Although these kinds of corporate gifts tend to pay for themselves over time in terms of loyalty earned and extra hard work on the parts of your employees, they can still be expensive to begin giving out

When we talk of cost involved, it is not essential that every corporate gift handed out has to be very expensive or fancy. Good corporate gifts can be purchased from a number of sites online which offer variety of gifts ranging from desk clocks, mouse mats to golf sets, safari trips etc. And very often, discounts can also be availed if bulk orders are made.

I wouldn’t deny that “Personalization is the key to effective corporate gift giving.” But personalization can be implemented when it comes to the really important gifts or the really big moments.

So if you are trying to entice your new client or mould your difficult boss in your favor or gift the person that was just hired to run your business for you, you can do so by giving them unique gifts.

You can find sites that offer exclusive and personalized corporate gifts that you want to give, and they do so at prices that wont drive you to bankruptcy without compromising with the quality of the gift

Spending carefully on corporate gifts could mean a world of difference to how well your business operates in the future, with the best employees remaining steadfastly beside you and your customers remaining loyal, even when the market gets a little competitive.

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