We’ve been talking about our holiday game plan. It’s not too late to get your holiday cards together. Your clients have already made their holiday appointments and soon we’ll be so busy we can’t take a lunch break. We only have a few short weeks to prepare, so get started NOW! For those of you who don’t want to put holiday cards together but still want to do something nice for your clients, here is another idea — a holiday gift bag. You can either give this to your client instead of giving them a card or you can give it to them in addition to their holiday card.

I give my clients a holiday gift bag filled with candies, a special offer, and a retail item. The gift bags I prefer to use are candy bags. They are usually small clear or frosted bags sized 4” x 6” or 5” x7”. Some have designs on them for the holidays; they can have snowmen, candy canes, poinsettias, or snowflakes, etc. A great place to find these bags is at the dollar store, party supply stores, or on eBay. You can find them on eBay under cello, favor, or treat bags. They’re relatively inexpensive. I bought 100 for around $3. They can also be found in or near the kids’ party supplies as a favor bag for birthday parties. It’s inexpensive to tie these bags closed with curling ribbon or a decorative bow. Use the Michaels coupon for 40% off any item coupon in your weekend paper or print them out online to keep your ribbon costs down. You’re going to make a lot of these, so be thrifty.

I fill the bags with a few mini candy canes and holiday wrapped chocolates. You can usually purchase bags of candy on sale this time of year. I also place a business card saying, "Thanks for your business and loyalty in 2010." It also has an offer for "$10 off any upgraded service. Valid January and February 2011." Having this card valid during January and February is a great way to keep your clients coming back after the busy season. It helps your books during the slow time of year. Also by providing an expiration date, this is your call to action. If they want to use the card they have two months to do so. If you don’t put an expiration date on it, there is no urgency to came back in. They will drag it out, hang onto the card for months, never use it, or lose it. Remember the purpose is to give your client something and to keep your books busy.

I put the savings on an upgraded service because it will allow my clients to try an upgraded service. It also helps me out financially too. My Shellac Manicure is a $15 upgrade with a manicure. By offering $10 off an Shellac Manicure I still come out ahead $5 over the price of my Classic Manicure.

Another great item to place inside the bag is a small retail product sample. Many companies have smaller-sized products available for stocking stuffers. Great items off the top of my head are small purse-sized holiday printed nail files. The full-sized holiday printed ones are great too. CND has small Solar Oil, Scentsations lotions, and holiday scented lotions etc. OPI has small AvoJuice lotions, holiday scented lotions, mini polishes, and toe separators, etc. There are many items available, you can fill these bags with whatever you want. You can put a small product in the bag if you wish — usually during the holidays these items are readily available. Adding a product will help boost your retail sales and get your clients to try something new. I caution you to keep these bags simple and only put one retail product in them. These bags can get very expensive and add up quickly when you’re making lots of them. Have fun giving these cute bags to your clients during the holiday season!

Treating your clients for the holidays — one more way to make you stand out above the rest and become the BEST!

— Jill