Valentine's Day Quick Last-Minute Gifts

Bills do not take a vacation, neither do helping with the kids’ homework, or chauffeuring them from activity to activity. So when do you get time to just relax and have some adult fun? As a busy mom and entrepreneur, life gets hectic. But this Valentine’s Day, make it happen! Listed below are several ideas for gifts on the fly for Lover’s Day that will be romantic, yet won’t bust your budget.

 

Dinner for Two

Applebee’s is having Valentine’s Day meal special. Make plans to get two great meals in a relaxed atmosphere for under $20. And share appetizer over some much needed conversation time about everything except the kids and the bills. And don't forget they have a $5 off on your online orders if you'd like to chill at home with a little Applebee's www.applebees.com.

 

Love for the Weekend

Can’t seem to squeeze in the time on Tuesday? No worries! Check out Holly Johnson's "Seven Cheap Romantic Getaways." for a nice one-on-one quick trip this weekend. And don't worry if you can't reserve any quick trip on the list! Take a look around your town or city. Book a hotel room and enjoy the museum, picnic at the park, take in your fave movie together that you've both been dying to see, go skating, bowling, or if you both are kids-at-heart, hit the arcade.

Men’s Quick Valentine’s Day Gift Cheat Sheet

Guys has Valentine’s Day snuck on you like a thief in the night, causing you to scratch your head and sweat bullets on what to get for your leading love? Are you one of those guys who loves your girl, but you’re not all that interactive with the love-day idea? Below I’m sharing some cheat sheet gift ideas on how to save your bacon and put a smile on her face, while keeping your comfort of not having to sit through another chick flick at the movies this year.

 

• Candy and flowers are still great quick-n-easy gifts, but how about going a little wild this year! How about surprising her with a spa day package. It’s great, because she can use it when she needs it, and what girl doesn’t like to be pampered?

 

• What is her favorite place to shop, but you just don’t have the money to let her go swipe-card crazy throughout the year? Surprise her with a nice gift card of $50 to her favorite store.

• Tomorrow is one day and you want to still be able to pay the bills for the rest of the month. Stick with your budget and be creative. Come up with many ways to say 'I love you.' Singing telegrams (do people still do these?), have a photo album of your greatest memories created for little or nothing, or frame a picture of one of your greatest memories together. Simple, yet so valuable!

Don't make this day about going broke. Make it memorable. Show your special someone that you love them everyday, but on tomorrow - go the extra mile. Take a 365-day trip back to 'I love you.'

 

The Gift of 2015

This is the last month in the year. So much has happened and many moves have been made. Now it's time to sit back and reflect on the year.

What events were successful? Did you start a business, and what strides did you make? What were your failures? What changes are you looking to make in 2016?

In reflection, don't forget the gift that you received in 2015. Every success and failure was a gift. See each success as giving you more gumption to move forward and be creative. Take account that your failures educated you, and gave you the opportunity to explore new ways to improve yourself. Sometimes we can get so caught up in the budgets, the guest lists, the decorations, venues, and forget the lessons we learned and how we grew from amateur to professional.

Don't miss the gift in looking at how much money you made - or didn't make. Take into account each client that failed to pay, each vendor that supplied the wrong items, and each cake that was delivered to the wrong address. Take note on how each success and failure fit into what your goals were for 2015, and how they will improve 2016 or just plain need to be discarded.

The end of the year is reflection time. Look at the good and what you think was the bad. Every experience has a gift attached. All of them teach you something about yourself that you didn't know before, and opens a level of creativity that you never knew existed. So, as you celebrate your wins, don't miss the gift in it all.

Put A Lid On It

Now that Black Friday and Shop Small weekend and Cyber Monday is done, we can breathe a little bit. Well, not really. Now we have to scramble for Christmas. Biting and chewing nails to come up with some hip and catchy Christmas specials and deals, because this is the time of year that people spend money, right?

We jump on the bandwagon quickly to sell. But what kind of Pandora's box are we opening? Do we rush to push out the deals, and not focus on how to market our businesses?

It's very important that we must market our business and push the solution to what our clients really need. Am I against sales or discounts? No, but the focus shouldn't be so much on the sales and discounts, but more on marketing the business, and building the brand. Building your brand will do more to establish trust and longevity with your clients than just pushing the sale. Promote who you are and why you are in business to give your clients that comfort that regardless of what they're in need of, you are on their top list to get it.

If you run an event planning service, offer some helpful tips during the holiday season. Put a lid on it that "salesy" catering service that costs an arm and both legs to boost your commission. Just plainly appeal to the gift of empathy and sympathy to your clients. Even gift certificates are nice, but what your clients would appreciate most is that you understand what they're going through in planning a wedding or putting together a holiday shindig with the stress, budget, flowers - and let's not leave out dealing with the uncooperative staff.

I love giving gifts, but I'm learning that the best gifts to give in business are the ones that appeal to the need more than the wants. Put a lid on pushing clients to open up Pandora's box to frenzied shopping of gadgets and frills, and just simply open a gift of meeting the need.

Ideas to Give

Sooo, Christmas is right around the corner. People are saving their pennies for Black Friday and already scribbling down their lists and marking down electronics at Wal-Mart and Target as we speak.

This is usually the most generous part of the year for companies and for individuals alike. I like it when I see people giving. I also like to see what they give and whose like they're going to bring joy to.

And that brings me to my point of this post. Giving can mean different things to different people, but I love it when people give. Giving doesn't have to cost an arm and a leg. Just as long as it comes from the heart and is the best you can give, I say do it.

Although we are in an upswing in the economy, money still isn't growing on the nearest tree limbs.  So, I thought I'd provide a few ideas for giving this year that I believe would be great for family members, clients, co-workers or employees.

1. Gift baskets. They are the new cool thing when you're not exactly rolling the dough. You can even make them yourself, which puts a pretty nice personal touch and I like to include things I know people like such as fruit or snacks. Gift baskets don't exactly have be food-based, and can include books, CDs, socks, crochet kits etc. They're really nice gift givers.

2. Gift cards. They are not as personal, but they are pretty nice gifts for businesses. Now there are graphic designers that can personalize them for you with cute pictures or logos. I think having a designed photo of a funny office moment or office party selfie or group photo would go nice to personalize for co-workers or employees. For customers or clients, add something that you know your client likes. If your client is a pet lover, have a picture of the dog, cat, bird, etc. on it. 

3. Throw blankets or snugglies. Some may think that's corny, but these still made my list because of the cold weather coming upon us. They are pretty nice for co-workers and family members. If you want to personalize them, get a graphic designer to embroider a name on it. Match it with a nice coffee mug and you've got a pretty nifty gift.

4. Gas cards. Who in their right mind would turn their nose up at a gas card? Yeah, gas prices are pretty low, but we all still need gas. You can put them in a nice greeting card and they are pretty reasonable ranging from 20 to 100 upload amounts. Pretty cool, if you ask me.

5. And good ole cash. No one would turn down cash. I think that anything above 20 bucks is a nice gift for family members. Even children won't turn down money. I've known some to do money jars, where they put an unspecified amount of cash in a Mason jar and decorate the jar as a gift, or do a money tree. Whether you choose to "dress" your cash or not, it's still a great gift that no one will turn down.

I hope these ideas will be of a help to you in making decisions for your gift-giving as you stress out over holiday menus, decorating, and activity planning.