I Love the Winter Jacket

I can not claim to be a winter person. But sadly as my business is not yet a multi-national, I have to keep regular seasonal patterns along with my collegues, freinds and family.

So while I am trapped in winter, I have to find things to be thankful for and one of thise is definately the winter jacket. Thankfully there are a lot more fashionable items in the corporate clothing and promotional clothing ranges of of winter jackets. Even ladies have now been recognised when it comes to corporate clothing with more and more ranges including both a ladies and gents version of the winter jacket.

Lately I have been eyeing out ladies belted jacket. The one that I have in mind (see image above), has lovely top stitching detail and is a fully padded jacket. Oh what a joy to be snug, warm and stylish as well.

Winter jackets are very well received as corporate gifts. The trick is to start planning in advance and to keep a database of the sizes of your best clients. That way you can reuse it for golf days, soccer viewing get-togethers, and other corporate events. Keep in contact with your client's PA who can discreetly tell you if too much winter comfort food has been on the boss's desk and that they may have to upsize.

Always order and few additional sizes so that if your client does not fit their winter jacket, that you can easily swap the jacket out with your winter jacket stock without too much fuss or embassment.

If you are using winter jackets as a branding tool, then put your logo on big and bold. But if you are relationship building, then you may want to keep your logo on your winter jackets small and discreet.

Plan, Plan and Plan some more

Every year I say it and every year we have last minute orders.

Planning makes a huge difference. With a cretain percentage of orders things do go wrong. And as the odds are, it is usually with rush orders. A classic example was of a client who had artwork designed by their adverstising agency for banners. The designs were fantastic but when they were submitted to the factory the factory noted that the artwork was not large enough and that the background images would not come out clearly.

As the artwork was submitted only a few days before the production deadline the advertising agency did not have the time to make the changes. Becuase there was no way to change the function date they elected to use the artwork that was originally submitted. Although the banners have a very clear logo and were perefectly fine, they could have been a lot better if there was sufficient time to make changes if neccessary.

Whenever people are rushed their attention to detail drops and errors are sometimes made. By planning ahead everyone wins.

Plan Ahead for Spring Corporate Gifts and Clothing

I have just declared that toe socks are probably the greatest invention of the modern world. This comes in light that I have not been able to feel my toes for a great portion of the day. More than halfway through winter I decided the drag my toes socks out. But I realized that I am not alone in the this delayed reaction to the cold. In the last two months we have delivered tracksuits; fleece jackets; fleece tops and long sleeve shirts.
The last batch of long sleeve lounge shirts were delivered on Monday. That gives the wearers about two and a half month before they start sweating in those shirts. In order to get the best use out of your promotional clothing, you should plan ahead so that the clothing has arrived before the warmer weather arrives.
That goes for spring day gifts as well. Plan ahead. Do a staff or client head count now and order your spring day gifts ahead of time.

Plan Ahead for Valentine’s Day

The first big event of the year is Valentine’s Day. Every year masses of people make panicked Valentine’s Day gift decisions. When companies are handing out gifts to all there staff then they often require very large quantities which are often not available as stock items. For your Valentine’s Day gifts you should plan at least 8 weeks in advance. For very large quantities of over 5000 units often a special manufacturing run is required and these manufacturing runs have to be pre-booked. At Belle Regalo we often have to turn away clients for Valentine’s Day Gifts as they have not planned well enough in advance.

Enrich your mind with books

I remember when I was at school, that after a long holiday where I had no mental challenges, that it took a few weeks to adjust to normal daily task, like writing the date, reading text books etc. In the corporate work this is true as well, it takes a while to recharge yourself into “go” mode.

So this year I decided to give gifts for gifts. They make a terrific gift and keeps the recipient mentally stimulated as well.

Some of the titles that are on my Christmas gifts.

For my teenage recipients: 365 Awesome Facts & Records About Nature
With an awesome fact or figure for each day of the year, this book covers every aspect of our natural world, from the beginnings of life to the end of the dinosaurs, and from the structure of the plant and animal kingdoms to animal behaviour and natural disasters.

For the kids I am giving: African Myths and Legends by Jay Heale and Dianne Stewart. Vividly told and illustrated, the book sustains the intrigue of storytelling that has been passed on from generation to generation. The magic lies in deciding whether the stories are fact or fiction.

For my Partying friends: Make Your Own Cocktails by David Biggs
A collection of over 100 tantalizing classic and unusual cocktails and mixed drinks. Includes a range of ideas for non-alcoholic drinks for drivers, non-drinkers and children.

One of my staff has a dream about studying law, so for her I am giving a teaser gift: Everyone's Guide to South African Law (2nd Edition) by Adriaan Anderson, Anelia Dodd and Rolien Roos This book is aimed at every South African who needs to know whether to obtain professional advice on a particular legal issue, or who simply wants to acquire a general understanding of the law. Few people know enough about the law or even understand legal terminology, yet the law is a vital part of society that affects all of us to some extent or another.

For my travelling friends: I chose Hiking Trails of South Africa by Sandra and Willie Olivier. Every major trail in South Africa is covered, with a clear description of each hike, its length and estimated time, plus information on hike accommodation, facilities and activities, such as abseiling and diving.
So choose a book as a gift this Christmas season whether they are humorous, historical, coffee table types or self help, this gift has longevity and builds the mind and spirit.

Belle Regalo offers a range of books for corporate gift buyers. We also offer branded tip in pages with your corporate logo and message for corporate gift book purchases. For more details visit us on

www.belleregalo.co.za

How I Relieve End of The Gift Shopping Blues

Preparing for your Christmas list can turn you into a crazed manic shopper scurrying around at the last minute and turning a time of “peace for all mankind” into an opportunity for tranquilsers for all family-kind.

I have found that there are some deliciously unfair advantages of being a corporate gift specialist.

On Sunday we celebrated my stepson’s 26th birthday. He is currently working with an art gallery but has also been studying to be a tour guide operator. He has a great love for wild life and has a very enchanting way of telling a story, which is a great advantage in this industry.

Taking into account his passions an opportunity presented itself in July. A client ordered a consignment of binoculars for the end of the year function. I have to tell you that this is easily my most organized client, as I have met no one else that ordered their gifts four months ahead of the function. If I ever expanded to a level that I needed my own internal event coordinator, I would definitely seek her out.
But back to my tale. When I received the order, I thought, “This is great” and ordered a set for both of my stepsons. One as a birthday gift for the 26 year old in September and one as a Christmas gift for my soon-to-be 13 year old step son.

In December my 13 year old stepson comes to visit us for the Christmas holidays. He is a wonderful addition to my life, but I have to admit that travel time with a demanding 5 year old and an irritated older step brother drives me to distraction.
So opportunity presented itself again. I have just received an order for 1000 USBs. It just so happens that the importer for the USBs also has some stock of great MP4 players. Bonus, get two MP4 players, one as a birthday gift for my stepson (his birthday is early in December) and one for my daughter. Then we have two occupied children instead of two terrorists saying “mommy, Mathew won’t give me any space.” Or, “No Margaret, move up”.

My stepdaughter and her fiancé recent bought a house and regularly have guests over on weekends for a braai, so I am thinking of getting them some of those outdoor camping chairs. In fact my dad just may like one of those as well, so that knocks him off the list.

This may seem a lot like cheating to you, but every job has its stressors and its perks. I consider this to be a perk. I have happy family members, who get gifts that they actually like and I save the time and fuel costs of rushing around buying gifts at what is arguably the busiest time of the year for a corporate gift specialist.

Everyday Family outdoor events and gifts

As I write this I have a lot of physical tenderness We spent yesterday at a horse and game farm.

The last time that we went horse riding was in December last year. But yesterday was the first time that my daughter went riding with us. Her experience of horse riding has been a 5 minute guided pony ride.

We went out for a 1 hour ride, which was perfect for the heat of the day. Long enough for relaxation, and short enough without giving us heat exhaustion.

During the day I used several corporate gifts that I have acquired during my career. The joy of being a corporate gift specialist is that if there is something that I like, I order extra unit for us to use as a family.

We had a braai at the farm and so we packed our cooler bags, plastic plates, plastic glasses and knives and forks. I even have a great set of braai tongs which were also from my corporate gift stock. We were a group of ten, but the rest of the group had not planned properly for the event and so we were the only ones with the correct gear. A team was sent out of a type of foraging expedition to get paper plates, but in the end we had to use one of our plates for the braai meat and my family and I had to use our plates in relay to have lunch. This made me realize that when you have a large extended family, extra outdoor gifts are always a blessing.

We packed the picnic blanket and the umbrella for my grandson. Yes, I am probably South Africa’s youngest grandmother. My grandchild is from my husband’s daughter from his first marriage.

We packed our caps and my daughter took her water bottle. Accidentally my husband took one of my manufacturing samples of my caps out with us and in the dust (because the area was quite dry), it became stained. We have so many caps at home and so I wondered how many caps a person can actually have, but the more time we spend outdoors, the more I come to realize that a cap is always a useful gift.

The day was a leisurely day in the morning as we braaied, had some refreshments and I added a few centimeters on by binging on jelly babies.

At about 15H30 we went out on our ride. There was some game on the farm and we were able to see zebras, waterbuck and gemsbok. I realized that I had left the binoculars and home. We pack the binoculars away because my 5 year old daughter tends to think that they are her personal toy binoculars, so it slipped my mid to consider taking them and for that I was sorry because she could not get a decent view of the game that was further away. I would have loved to have had the digital camera binoculars with us, because that way we could have captured the event for Margaret.

My daughter had insisted on riding the white horse, but when we got on the owners said that we needed to choose another horse as we needed something slower because of Margaret.

So I swapped with my husband Colin. Well this horse was so fast that it just stopped. My husband had to get off and had to start walking the horse. The irony of it was that just on the way to the ride he mentioned that we should go hiking more often. So we went for a ride and Colin went for a hike because he walked more than 50% of the way.

So last night when we returned home, we were all sore and tired, but of course Colin was exhausted.

As the weather begins to improve of the next few weeks and we welcome spring, we are looking forward to a lot more outdoor experiences. So this may be a good time for you to begin thinking about outdoor gifts for your corporate gifts for your clients.

Enjoy Spring.