During the holiday season, our thoughts turn gratefully to those who have made our progress possible.
It is in this spirit that I say….Thank you and Best Wishes for the Holiday Season and a Happy New Year.
Apexgiftbasketpros will be back in 2010 with lots of new ideas, tips and industry trends to help make your business grow!
Add comment December 22nd, 2009 at 09:21am Lorie Obernauer
During the busy holiday season, it is especially important that you are talking frequently with employees and communicating, communicating, communicating! Everyone is busy, and it’s critical that you share information effectively. There’s no time for lengthy meetings when you are trying to get out holiday orders! This applies to conversations with an individual employee who may need to be redirected regarding some aspect of his/her work or to a whole group of employees who need to clear about tasks and goals for the upcoming week.
I read something in ManageSmarter.com on-line magazine that provides some good ideas about how to be thorough when having these conversations with employees. Read the full article entitled “Seven Tips for Effective 20 Minute Leadership Conversations”. The suggestions are straight forward and easy to implement.
Take the time to read the article and you’ll be able to communicate with your employees in a way where everyone wins.
1 comment December 15th, 2009 at 12:00pm Lorie Obernauer
Well, the holidays are here. Black Friday and Cyber Monday signaled the official start of the hectic holiday shopping season. By this time, you’ve already developed your holiday designs, created advertising materials, and started to implement your marketing plans.
But there are still some last minute details that you can take care of to make these last few weeks run more smoothly.
1 comment December 5th, 2009 at 07:48am Lorie Obernauer
Mark your calendars for the 2010 National Gift Basket Convention in Canton, Ohio: July 23-25, 2010. This trade show convention will include 13 hours of seminars, 10 hours of trade show, hands-on-workshops, and lots of opportunities for networking with leaders and other business owners in the gift basket industry. You can see the full convention schedule at for the “Building Your Dreams” Convention at Gift Basket Professional.
Register before 12/31/09 and take advantage of the tremendous early bird price of $199 for all the events at the convention. More registration options are available if you’re unable to attend the full convention. Check out all the details at Gift Basket Professional or email Pam Newell for information.
1 comment November 22nd, 2009 at 05:56pm Lorie Obernauer
Although we hear in the news that the recession is ending, many small businesses are still feeling the pinch. Moreover, our employees are feeling the stress. Many business owners have had to ask employees to work longer hours, or take on more responsibilities with no increase in pay. For many employees, they are just “holding on”: doing what they have to do to get by and get through these hard times. And these attitudes of course, affect how they do their jobs. “When fear and uncertainty become staples of daily work and life, they lead to a lack of trust, decreased productivity, poor focus, uninspired teamwork and subpar performance.”
But there is a way to change the tide. An excellent article, “Managing Motivation”, by Jon Gordon, offers an interesting array of ideas that leaders in any business can use to help their employees excel during troubling times. Read the full article, but I especially like the first suggestion: “focus on people, not numbers”.
When business is slow, most small business owners that I know talk about cutting expenses and trimming the fat. But this is only one part of a winning strategy. We have to pay attention to our employees and help them maintain positive attitudes and behaviors by modeling those ourselves.
Consider what author Gordon has to say and think about how you apply this to your business: “Right now, negativity and fear are probably knocking your people off balance. It’s a scientifically proven fact that the nature of our thoughts affects our lives in tangible ways. I firmly believe that if you think your best days are behind you, they are. However, if you think your best days are ahead of you, they are. Therefore, it’s time to regroup, refocus and unite your people to create a winning mindset, culture and positive team environment. Remember, culture drives behavior. You win in the office first. Then you win in the marketplace. With a winning team you create strength on the inside that can withstand the negativity, naysayers and adversity on the outside.”
2 comments November 14th, 2009 at 10:27pm Lorie Obernauer
I recently read an article in Incentive Magazine about corporate holiday parties. “After a brutal year of highly public censure of meetings and events, corporate planners will devise their holiday parties very carefully….the current environment makes 2009’s year-end functions golden opportunities for corporate social responsibility”.
It occurred to me that 2009 could also be the perfect time to incorporate charitable giving into our daily business activities. How about promoting a particular gift basket design by donating a percentage of sales to popular charities in your community? Involve the charity that will benefit by having them announce your promotion in their newsletter.
Or, think about asking your customers to help out with your charitible giving program. When customers place their orders, they might also purchase one or two extra products ( eg: a box of cookies or chocolates; a package of popcorn or nuts) that you will include in basket to be taken to a local nursing home before the holiday. The more products purchased, the more baskets you’ll be able to create, the more nursing home patients and staff will benefit!
Think of ways that your business can provide opportunities to give to others. Your staff will be proud to participate in these giving programs and your customers will support you with their loyalty!
4 comments October 26th, 2009 at 08:54pm Lorie Obernauer
Have you ever had a customer who was unhappy with your products and/or services, yet didn’t let you know? Have you ever considered that this customer may have told all their friends and family about their dissatisfaction? Have you ever thought that customer complaints were really a good thing?
If customers let us know that they are dissatisfied, we have the opportunity to do something positive and hopefully, retain that customer’s business. But for many of us, it not easy to handle complaints. Let’s face it: no one likes to be yelled at!
In an article in The Gourmet Retailer, author Maggie Bayless describes five steps for handling customer complaints:
I suggest that you read the full article to get the full benefit. An important thing that I was reminded is that dealing to customer complaints is not a matter of finding out “who’s right and who’s wrong”. Rather, it’s a recognition that for some reason, our customer is dissatisfied and as business owners, it’s our job to turn this “dissatisfaction” into “satisfaction”. If we can focus on this “service” aspect of doing business, I believe that success will automatically follow!
2 comments October 12th, 2009 at 06:56pm Lorie Obernauer
I just read an article in Gourmet News, September, 2009, about Recovery Act monies that have been earmarked for small businesses. ARC loans (America’s Recovery Capital) are available for “small businesses with an immediate financial hardship”. Loans up to $35,000 can be obtained by small businesses that were “in the black for 2 or 3 years before the recession” and are in need of financial aid to “pay their principal and interest payments on existing and qualifying business debts”. Go to the Small Business Administration web site to get the facts about this loan program and to find out if you qualify.
If you’re interested in obtaining a loan for your business, you may also want to check out these resources:
Add comment September 27th, 2009 at 08:55pm Lorie Obernauer
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We used to call it a suggestion box. But now, Starbucks has taken the idea “high-tech” and is “getting ideas from customers via the Internet. The coffee shop chain launched the social web site “MyStarbucks-Idea.com” in March 2008. So far, it has received more than 80,000 suggestions through the site” - and actually implemented a few of these ideas in its stores. Full story.
Many companies are now using social networking sites to interact with their customers. No longer is this a “one-way” line of communication with the company promoting products and services. Now, companies are looking for suggestions from customers in an attempt to get some ideas regarding what will bring customers in and keep them coming back.
This doesn’t have to be complicated. If you have a web site, you might simply think about adding a link to your personal email address so that customers can communicate their ideas. Although many web sites have a “contact us” link, I usually think that those emails go to an empty room…does anyone really read those? Check out the Apex Gift Foods home page to see what I’m proposing. Then send me a message with your suggestions!
1 comment September 20th, 2009 at 09:19pm Lorie Obernauer
Although you may be the owner of your gift basket business, and you sign the paychecks each week, you just can’t “make” your employees do a good job. Ultimately, we have no control of how others behave. Sure, we can ask employees to perform certain tasks, but their investment in doing those tasks to the best of their ability rests entirely with them.
So what can we do to “encourage” employees to do the best that they can? First, we can treat them as adults: with respect and honesty. We can recognize that they come to our businesses with a certain set of skills and experiences and we can honor them by asking for their opinions and considering their suggestions.
We can also remember that they may come to work with problems from home. While they need to put these issues aside while at work, we need to remember that their “bad moods” or “anxieties” are theirs to control. Depending on our own comfort levels, we can listen, but not offer advice. Sometimes by sharing our own similar experiences and how we dealt with them is enough to let the other person know that we understand….and sometimes that just enough.
2 comments September 15th, 2009 at 07:44pm Lorie Obernauer
