innovative

Want to save $1000 this year for very little effort? Gift giving is an area where impulse buying is a frequent occurrence. I was amazed to discover I was spending over $1500 or more per year for gifts. What have you spent for gifts in the last 12 months?

In my experience, gifts were last minute purchases for which money was no object. I now spend less than $500 per year for gifts. Take two hours of your life and save yourself $1000 or more per year on gift giving.

Get Prepared

Label 12 manila folders January - December. On the front of each monthly folder, write the days of the month. Next to the appropriate date on the folder, write in the occasion for which a gift and/or a card will need to be purchased. Then, write the amount of money you will spend on that gift. Inevitably, a wedding or birthday will come up that you didn’t know about, so be sure you leave a little money left for these unexpected occasions.

The key is, don’t exceed what you budgeted for each gift. For example, for Mother’s Day, I will write $15 next to the holiday. I only allocate $400 for the known holidays and set aside $100 for the unexpected gifts such as a wedding or birth of a child. You may find that you are unable to budget $500 a year for gift giving. Just determine what you can afford and STICK WITH IT. Don’t deviate from your budget.

Advance Planning

There are very real benefits to planning your gift-giving in advance. And, with a little creativity, you can bring your overall cost down substantially. Because you’re prepared, you can actually enjoy the holidays. You won’t feel financially strapped since you’ve budgeted for the gifts in advance. Since you’ve anticipated the gift-giving occasion, you will undoubtedly find the gifts on sale. It goes without saying, but the ideas is, NEVER PAY RETAIL - EVER!

Frugal Gift Ideas

Buy gift-wrap and greeting cards on sale, or better yet, make them yourself.

Shop for gifts all year long to get the best price. This may mean you could be buying Christmas cards in January.

Plant an herb garden for a friend. And, while you’re at it, make one for yourself too.

Treat your partner/spouse to a homemade spa. Give him/her a gift certificate announcing a full one-hour body massage and facial. This gift is easily worth over $75!

Organize personal negatives and photographs for a friend or family member. Create a scrapbook, photo books, or even Photo CDs.

Make some creative hand puppets for a child if you have mismatched socks and buttons lying around your home.

Create a care package for a friend who recently got a new job. In a box or basket put some instant coffee, tea bags, aspirin, bandages, travel size toothpaste and toothbrush, along with a coffee cup.

If the friend is a female, add some trial size products such as perfume and hair spray. If you want to increase the value of the gift, give a portable umbrella.

Design a similar package for a recent high-school graduate student who will be entering college. You may want to even provide a $5 phone card instead of an umbrella.

Buy movie tickets… a gift where one size fits all. When movie tickets are purchased in advance from movie theatres, you can usually get them at half price!

Offer to make dinner for your friends if you’re a good cook.

Give a single friend or elderly family member freshly frozen dinners for a week.

Mail out holiday cards for an elderly family member. if you’re computer literate, put their address book into a database so the information can easily be updated.

Make a year’s worth of greeting cards and personalized stationery for someone if you’re a bit crafty.

Make enough birthday cards, anniversary cards, and blank cards for a year’s worth of holidays. The thoughtfulness will go a long way throughout the year.

Help someone else get organized. If the person you need to give a gift to is an entrepreneur or extremely disorganized, make a filing system for the upcoming tax year.

Purchase gift-with-purchase cosmetic/perfume specials and split the gifts. Usually the gift is nicely wrapped, generic, and valuable enough to give away for an upcoming gift in your tickler file.

Getting Organized

In a drawer or closet, place the gift giving manila files, the greeting cards, gift-wrap and purchased gifts in chronological order. This is now your tickler file and shopping list to remind you what holiday is coming up.

Gadgets, innovative products, gift ideas and unique gifts, an array of gadgets aimed at benefiting those that demand convenience, from http://www.cgets.com

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If you have auto response system set up for following up your customers or prospects, you may just use one or two purpose. Here is a list of brainstorming ideas for you to get more out of it.

1. Collect leads with your autoresponder. You will get an e-mail digest of everyone’s e-mail addresses who requests information from your autoresponder.

2. Publish a price list of all the products and services that you offer. You could also include order forms, product descriptions, and other sales material.

3. Publish free reports in autoresponder format. The reports should be related to your business or web site. Giving away free stuff will quickly increase your traffic.

4. Collect vital customer satisfaction information by publishing a survey in autoresponder format. This type of information will help you serve them better.

5. Instead of answering every customer question that’s e-mailed to you, publish ” Frequently Ask Questions” in autoresponder format. This will save time and money.

6. You could publish your testimonials or endorsements in autoresponder format if you don’t have the room in your ad copy. It’s more effective to include all of them.

7. Provide back issues of your e-zine archives in auto- responder format. This will give your subscribers and web site visitors easy access to them.

8. Publish your entire web site in autoresponder format. Sometimes visitors don’t have enough time read your entire site. They could print it out and read it offline.

9. You could offer your ebook in autoresponder format. Your visitors won’t have to download it or have the software to read it right away.

10. You could publish the terms and conditions to any business transactions in autoresponder format. This could include return policies, purchases, refunds etc.

Follow up is essentials for your business no matter you run online businiess or traditional business. It is said that “it takes 7 follow ups to make a sale”. If you do not have auto response system set up yet, you can get a list of service from http://www.best-internet-businesses.com Good luck for your online success.

Julia Tang publishes “Smart Online Business Tips” Newsletter which helps people to start, run and grow Internet businesses. To get tips, tactics, reliable business opportunities and promotional tools, plus over $200 free bonuses, you can visit http://www.best-internet-businesses.com

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In a world of fast change and fierce competition, the ability to find new and innovative solutions is necessary for your survival. Thinking power and creativity are your primary competitive advantages. Unlocking new ideas, and multiple possibilities begins with a “Round Process”.

Research

To produce creative output, you need creative input! Collecting a variety of information, without worrying how it fits, is the foundation of the research phase.

-Explore your environment for new ideas
-Seek inspiration in nature

-Develop abilities and talents, enhance your education

-Analyzing data and historical trends

Squidoo is a Great Starting Point for Research

Originate

The second step is the most fun, because in this phase, everything is possible. Bring together team members and peers for a short, but lively session of Originating. This process works well with a diverse group, people with very different skills, personality styles and experience

-Brainstorm and “what-if.”

-Generate many, many ideas

-Use your imagination, think, ponder, daydream

Unite

As you review the ideas you have generated, you select a few to explore in greater detail. As you embrace these ideas, you unite related concepts, look for connections and ways to build on the ideas of others.

-Borrow ideas from others

-Invent and innovate
-Make decisions

Nurture

In the next phase, you refine and improve your ideas. By identifying and eliminating obstacles you nurture the best ideas, giving them the chance to blossom and grow.

-Objectively evaluate an idea

-Reject what doesn’t work
-Simplify the over-complicated

Do-It

Finally you must commit to a course of action. In the Do-It phase you make the decision to go forward, and never give up.

-Market your idea

-Deal with critics
-Survive success
-And Begin Again!

Bring Creative Thinking to Your Organization

A twenty-year veteran of corporate America, Lorraine Ball has a track record of helping organizations achieve exceptional results in a changing environment.

A trained facilitator, she has taught managers in some of the largest companies in the country how to use creativity, positive energy and collaboration as the foundation of their planning process.

Today, she teaches small business owners how to apply those same techniques to stay one step ahead of the competition!

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