The Valentine’s Day buying frenzy is on; each year we go on the hunt to find the perfect token to show the great (or current) love of our life how much we care. But what about our favorite clients? You know, the ones who continue to hire us, support our innovative ideas, and make us feel like a real part of the team?
This day of amore offers the perfect opportunity to extend our appreciation to those special business relationships (especially if you didn’t get around to it during the Christmas holiday).
To get those gift-giving juices flowing, here are a couple of ideas:
Restaurant Gift Certificate
Your gift of a great night out will be remembered, especially with special February tasting menus featuring a slough of delicious options. Try a restaurant like Chef Art Smith's Table 52. With options like petite lobster rolls, lamb shoulder with pistachio, southern friend catfish, red velvet bunt cake with white chocolate granache, you can't go wrong!
Handy Luggage
This gift is perfect for your frequent flier clients. Try something like this Briggs and Riley carry-on, which is perfect for those clients who don’t like checking bags. This polycarbonate luggage features a lockable front compartment for a tablet or small laptop and comes in a bold red or blue for those who love a touch of style.
Box Wine Dispenser
Box wine has moved from not to hot; for the wine lovers, try this Boxxle stainless steel dispenser. It allows your wine drinking clients to dispense with style and store opened wine up to six weeks.
For the full experience, partner it with a wine aerator, a device that injects “microbubbles” into a glass allowing the wine to breathe, hence unlocking the full flavor. You can snag one of these from Aermate (and, bonus, they are a Chicago company).
Custom Glass
Think gorgeous wine or spirits glasses featuring the Chicago skyline, the client’s name, or a favorite quote. Try these from Chicago-based Crystal Cave.
Tablet Carrier
For clients that are the immediate response, tablet-using types, your gift of a tablet carrier that is leather messenger bag-meets-mobile desk, will make their life way easier. They can use both hands to type on their device from the TSA security line, in the limo, or while checking in at the hotel. Try this Strotter Platforma carrier, which even has extra pockets for other small essentials like a wallet, keys, smart phone, magazine, and lipgloss.
Jetta Bates-Vasilatos is founder of Twist Communications and a life stylist with 10+ years of award-winning consumer engagement/strategic planning experience for luxury and global brands like BMW and Coca-Cola. She also serves as an on-air correspondent and writer with a focus on luxury and experiential tourism, lifestyle, sustainability, and personal finance (how to be chic yet savvy). Jetta has appeared on stations such as WCIU-TV, KBS-TV(Korea), ABC-7, CLTV and KBC-TV (Kenya), writes for national print publications such as Essence, Recommend, Ebony and HomeStyle Design and is the host of the Jettasetting segment on WVON radio.
Visit her website jettasetting.com, find realtime tips on her Facebook page, or follow her on Twitter: @jettaset.
