As a retired manager in a multi-country company, I have found that buying the right corporate gift for employee reward programs, customers or for corporate celebrations in general, can become a challenging task. Giving it is worse since you have the intention to gain business ties, connect with clients, and send your message of giving thanks. Although there are no definitive rules, knowing the following corporate gift buying basics will increase your chances of attaining your goals.
Ask this: “What particular office item does he or she lack?” Any person would appreciate when he or she receives something that sparks his or her interest. For example, your boss or your business partner loves cigars. Think of something that he or she can use together with his or her cigar. It can be a cigar lighter, leather cigar case, or a box of cigar from the best brand you can find. For someone who likes to collect watches, you can consider a leather watch case or another watch to add his or her collection.
Avoid gender discrimination. Obviously, you will choose your gift according to gender but make sure that you treat each of them equally. Do not buy a $50-gift for men and a $10 gift for women. Keep it equal. Better yet, choose an item that will suit both men and women and give it to all.
Corporate gift packaging is important. This can make it or break it when it comes to the first impression to the receiver. An appropriate packaging will send a message to the recipient that she or he is important to you. A gift with poor packaging on the other hand will tell the recipient that the item inside is not that important, or worse, the recipient may think that she or he is not important. So regardless of the price of the gift inside, it is inevitable that a corporate gift should be packed appropriately.
Make sure you check company policies on corporate gifts to employees and clients or customers. Some companies prohibit gift giving at all; some have dollar limits on the gift item; while other don’t have limits at all. By checking your company’s policies on this matter you will know how much you have to spend on a particular gift item to avoid your gift being sent back to you. If the gift if for a client, it pays to find out their policy as well. It will be a short call that saves you a lot of potential hassle.
If you are giving gifts to selected few, be discreet. If in case you only plan to give gifts to a chosen few like your assistant, few clerks, and the receptionists, do not tell everyone about your plan. Keep it silent and hand your gifts when no one else who can see; it may be out of the office. You can be charged with favoritism if you are not careful enough.
Buying a corporate gift can sometimes become a daunting task, but with experience, common sense and by following corporate gift buying essentials will increase your chances of a successful and rewarding experience for all parties.
Ray Torres is a retired manager of a Fortune 500 company. For more tips and resources on , visit our Squidoo lens and for more on this a other related subjects, visit Ezine Articles Planet.com.
Burbank California is the leader in the entertainment industry with residents such as Warner Brothers Studios. CF Dominicana cigars has provided cigars and along with cigar servers on the WB lot for over three years while hosting events for A list celebrities. These events are great fun and always exciting. All of these events are professionally coordinated with cigar rollers that are personal friends of the president of the cigar company. Awards dinners, radio personalities, TV celebrities from Fox’s 24 to AMC’s Madmen.
This same care goes into the planning of consumer events throughout Los Angeles, Anaheim and San Diego with cigar rollers and staff being supplied for weddings, golf outings, anniversaries are nice get-together in the backyard. CF Dominicana enjoys a very affluent clientele and there will events Department reflects this with well coordinated planning and accountability to the brand. The cigars are brought together with your guests to bring a visual experience that’s uniquely yours and a memory that will impress your guests.
Cigar rollers are just one piece of the company’s Cigar Catering® service. Full graphics for initialized custom bands along with cigar servers that will serve cigars to your guests, provide the most classic way to enhance your event.
The cigars will be appreciated by all of the aficionados experiencing them as CF Dominicana is pure, premium Dominican cigars. Wrapped in only the finest, grade 1 Connecticut shade leaf, the mild flavor will also be received wonderfully by those who are new to the cigar culture. Enjoy.
Jeff has been writing professional aricles from last 15 years. For more of his articles on cigar rollers please visit
Experienced cigar enthusiasts know well the pleasures of a well-aged cigar. The subtle flavors and complex constitution of a well-aged cigar is indescribably and unforgettable. Like wine, many cigar aficionados swear by the process of aging. A great cigar, the argument goes, is an aged one. How can you attain a well-aged cigar that provides the mellow, complex flavors you crave? You can always fork over a good deal of your money and purchase a box of expensive vintage cigars. If you would rather save the money and experiment with aging on your own, here are a few tips to help you get started.
First, know that you will have to be patient if you want a properly aged cigar. You will have to age your cigars for about a year in order to achieve the flavors and complex subtleties of a well-aged cigar. Also, know that in order to achieve the rewards of a well-aged cigar; you must begin the process with a high quality cigar. If you try to age a lower quality cigar, chances are any amount of aging won’t improve their flavor significantly. Many high quality cigars that you find too strong or odorous are perfect candidates for aging. In fact, almost all high quality cigars can be improved through the process of aging.
To age your cigars, purchase a good quality humidor. Cigars must be stored in a constant and stable environment. Follow the 70-70 rules. That means the humidity must be at a constant humidity of 70%, and at a temperature of 70 degrees Fahrenheit.
Of course, the environment in which they are stored is crucial. Follow the usual 70-70 rules for temperature and humidity. Any more and your cigars will get moldy; any less and the aging process begins to be stunted. Maintaining a stable environment for your cigars is key – a constantly fluctuation environment can be disastrous. Swings in temperature and humidity cause cigars to expand and contract, cracking their wrappers and it may disrupt the aging process. Ideally, the space in the humidor should be about twice the volume of cigars. The lining should be cedar – cedar wood is highly aromatic wood, full of its own oils. With the passage of time, the interaction of the tobacco oils amongst themselves, and with the cedar oil of the wood it leads to a mellowing and blending of flavors resulting in that subtle complexity you can only get from proper aging.
Walking through Paris in search of new tips and hot-spots for readers of paris-eiffel-tower-news.com, I realized Iâ??d neglected one its most classic locations, despite the fact that I often take time to skulk around the â??bouquinistesâ? (second-hand booksellers) of the banks of the river Seine.
Stretching out for over a mile in the center of Paris with the Cathedral of Notre Dame as a backdrop, and with the famous narrow streets and restaurants of the Quartier Latin a stoneâ??s throw away, this has to rank amongst the top of any list of classic Parisian experiences.
Relics of a Bygone Age
To me, nothing embodies Parisâ??s essence more than the Seineâ??s bouquinistes, who have been â??part of the furnitureâ? for hundreds of years now. They are completely unique to Paris: I know of no other city in the world which can boast such an array of book traders.
The first bouquinistes appeared as early as the mid-16th Century, when they would trade their goods from carts, more often than not surreptitiously, as they would sell illegal Protestant pamphlets during the Crusades.
It was after the French Revolution, however, that the bouquinistes of the Seine really began to prosper: they had access to entire libraries confiscated from the rich, although it was not until the end of the 19th Century that they were granted the right to permanently bolt their stall boxes on the stone wall of the river banks.
After 1952, the size of the boxes and even their color became officially regulated.
From Current Publications to Priceless Antiques
Today youâ??ll find the bouquinistesâ?? stalls stretching out for over a mile along both sides of the Seine around the Ile de la Cite, from the Pont Marie to the Quai du Louvre on the right, and from the Quai de la Tournelle to the Quai Malaquais on the left.
In this idyllic setting and with Notre Dame as the backdrop, you can dig up all sorts: antique prints and engravings, old issues of Paris Match (a major national news magazine), maps, old books, very old books, rare books, comic books, posters, postcards, souvenirs and other odds and ends.
The stalls themselves essentially consist of boxes bolted to the stone wall of the river bank, which are locked up at night. Although some of their goods nowadays are strictly for tourists, there are still plenty of rare and priceless items for the serious connoisseur.
You never know what youâ??ll come across whilst rifling through the bouquinistesâ?? collections, and if they donâ??t have what you want, some even say theyâ??ll find it for you; it is their trade that keeps treasures in circulation that might otherwise perish.
There is even a well-know anecdote told in Alexander Wollcottâ??s While Rome Burns, recounting the time when novelist Anne Parrish found a copy of Jack Frost And Other Stories at a bouquiniste. It was her favorite childhood book back in her days at a Colorado Springs nursery, but she’d not managed to see a copy of it until then. The tale goes that, whenshe showed her finding to her husband, he opened it to find inscribed on the flyleaf, “Anne Parrish, 209 N. Weber Street, Colorado Springs”.
Today the bouquinistes of the Seine number around 250, and their trade is well regulated: they must be open for business a minimum of four days a week no matter the weather or foot traffic, and no more than one box out of four is permitted to contain “souvenirs” – the rest must be literary material.
Interview with a bouquiniste
Some of the bouquinistes are chatty, others less so, but I always manage to land on one who likes chin-wagging as much as I do. I was lucky to strike up a conversation with 64-year old Allain Ferlich, a veteran of 30 years on the Quais.
Smoking a Dominican mini cigar and leafing through an old copy of La Gazette (the first weekly magazine ever printed in France, back in the 1600s) as if it was this week’s Paris Match, he seems to know every other person walking past his stall. â??There are no set hours,â? he tells me, â??and I’m not afraid of the heat or the cold. I love to read, I’m talkative and I’m curious. So this is perfect for me.â?
Chez Ferlich, the definition of “old” seems a little different than at the average booksellerâ??s. I see him flip through a book printed in 1943 which doesnâ??t even make the cut. Most of his books are works of art in themselves: beautiful, gold-lettered, leather-bound volumes written by authors such as Gustave Flaubert and Emile Zola.
Sadly, Ferlich is on the point of retiring. Once he is gone, it will be up to the City to decide who gets his spot. “They have a waiting list of one or two hundred people waiting to do this,” he tells me.
An Endangered Species?
Just like the Panda, bouquinistes are a race in threat of extinction. For one thing, the underground tour bus park under the Carousel, next to the Louvre, has reduced foot traffic along the Quais quite considerably.
Then there is the internet, the biggest bookstore with which none can compete, encroaching on their revenue. This has forced some of the booksellers to turn to the more remunerative sale of tourist souvenirs, miniatures and trinkets.
But for those with a passion for books and who value the hunt as well as the bookâ??s â??pedigreeâ?, the bouquinistes will always be irreplaceable â?? so donâ??t forget to drop by and keep one of Parisâ??s oldest pieces of heritage alive (and free from tacky tourist trinkets).
Phil Chavanne goes on searching the streets of Paris to keep his readers up-to-date on the City’s gems, best hotels, and smart little secrets. To have the best of times in France’s capital, read the reviews about and dig into Phil’s for some great tips and advices to the city.
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In today’s modern, enlightened, health conscious world where cigarette smoking is deemed socially unacceptable, cigar smoking is accepted…even encouraged! Â
People all over the world smoke cigars and, of course, just like everything else myths begin to circulate when a lot of people are doing anything. Cigars and the smoking of have cigars have produced a few myths that are very interestingâ?¦.wrongâ?¦but still interesting.
For example one cigar myth that is prevalent and still circulating even in today’s modern and well-informed world is that cigars are better if they are warmed before they are smoked. According to this myth, warming a cigar from end to end before smoking it provides a smoother smoking experience and a better flavor.
People sometimes spend a long time warming up their cigars before they light them. I’ve seen some hold a cigar in one hand and run a lighted match along the length. Then they turn the cigar and repeat the process until ever little bit of the exterior has been exposed to heat.
The problem isâ?¦it doesn’t work. Warming the cigar has no positive influence on smoothness, taste or aroma and it’s more likely that the flame of the match will get too close to the cigar and scorch the outer leaf. This will ruin the taste of the cigar completely.
Another cigar smoking myth is that the finest cigars are rolled on the thighs of sultry mulatto women. There is another variation on this theme; the best cigars are rolled between the thighs of virgins.
Either version is laughable. First of all most of those who roll cigars by hand are men because rolling cigars requires a lot of arm strength and most women aren’t strong enough. Secondly, cigars must be rolled on a hard, smooth surface. Thighs of sultry mulatto women or virgins do not qualify as smooth, hard surfaces adequate for rolling a cigar.
Please! Cigar smoking isn’t any “cooler” than cigarette smoking! Quit smoking tobacco in any form!
Get your “You Can Stop Smoking in a Week” by Grace Bridges To learn more about kicking the smoking habit visit
Cigars have long been associated with the rich and powerful, with relaxation and rich flavor. Cigar aficionados have created a culture around the art of smoking, assembling various theories and accessories to debate and facilitate smoking. Much like wine tasting, cigar smoking has been seen as a diversion of the upper echelons of society.
It is believed that cigars were probably first produced in Spain, and then quickly caught on in other European countries. Although many different countries manufacture cigars, Cuban cigars have long been highly regarded as one of the most flavorful and rich of all cigars. This is due to regional microclimates that are said to produce the highest quality tobacco, as well as the skill of the country’s cigar makers. Other countries that produce significant amounts of tobacco and cigars include Brazil, Mexico, Honduras, Ecuador, Cameroon, Dominican Republic, Indonesia, and the United States. Why have cigars long caught the attention of so many? Many speculate that the cigar’s main attraction is in the way it is manufactured. High quality cigars are always wrapped by hand. Unlike cigarettes, cigars undergo a lengthy process of fermentation and aging (much like wine), resulting in subtle flavors and textures. They are highly individual and the best cigars will provide no smoky aftertaste at all.
The taste of cigars is much more complex than cigarettes. The majority of all cigars are created by wrapping three different layers of tobacco leaves together. High quality cigars usually contain long leaves of nicotine as the filler, although they may also contain a combination of scraps. This results in subtle variations, different textures, and complex flavors. Cigarettes, on the other hand, are mass-produced and generally only contain one type of tobacco. Cigars also come in an incredible variety of flavors. The dedicated cigar aficionado can find chocolate, vanilla, apple, and even coffee-flavored cigars!
Although cigars have long been lauded for their smooth and complex flavors, they can also pose a great health risk. All tobacco contains nicotine. We’ve all heard about the negative health risks of nicotine, but what does it do exactly? Nicotine is a stimulant that produces a sense of euphoria. Even the casual smoker cannot escape the fact that nicotine is highly addictive and contains various toxins, carcinogens, and irritants. Although most connoisseurs of cigars will avoid inhaling the smoke, they are still at risk of developing various types of oral and larynx cancers.
Is there a cigar aficionado on your gift list? Wondering how to choose a decent cigar for a friend or loved one? Even if you know nothing about cigars or choosing a good cigar, just learning a few basics can help you sniff out (sometimes literally) a good cigar to give to a friend.
Fortunately, cigars have now entered the mainstream. Once the symbol of the rich and powerful, it’s easier than ever for just about anyone to purchase a good cigar. Of course, you probably won’t be able to buy your friend a box of top-tier Cuban cigars, but you can definitely buy them a good quality cigar that will put a smile on their face.
First, visit your local tobacconist or specialty smoke shop for the best quality and widest selection. Avoid ‘drugstore’ cigars. Although they may be inexpensive and convenient to purchase, drugstore cigars are usually filled with preservatives and generally of poorer quality. They may contain, at minimum, saltpeter, paper, glycerin, and other preservatives and irritants. You should make sure that the cigars you purchase are made of 100% tobacco. If you have any questions regarding the cigars ingredients, ask the salesperson. An experienced and knowledgeable sales clerk will be able to tell you extensive information about the ingredients.
Your local tobacco shop is a good place to shop because you will generally be allowed to smell and touch the cigars. Squeeze the cigar gently. A good quality cigar will give a little when squeezed. The cigar should be firm, with no excessively soft or hard spots. Never buy a lumpy cigar. Look at the wrapper. If you notice any drying or discoloration, best not to buy it. Ideally, the wrapper should be tight and smooth. Inspect the color of the tobacco to make sure it is even. Do this by inspecting the end of the cigar. Some color variation is normal, but if the color changes abruptly, chances are the cigar was not rolled properly. A cigar that is not rolled properly may result in an uneven burning and unpleasant odors.
If you’re not sure how much your friend smokes, choose a longer cigar. Longer cigars tend to have a ‘cooler’ taste—an excellent choice for beginners. If you know your friend is an experienced and regular smoker, choose a cigar that is greater in diameter. These cigars tend to have a richer flavor that experienced smokers will appreciate.
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