The city of Ann Arbor, Mich. made the next move soon after San Francisco, barring city vendors from selling commercial bottled water at city events. Most recently in late January, Madison, Wis., a city partly known for its eco-friendliness is also considering a proposal to ban both bottled water and plastic grocery bags. City governments are not the only entities jumping on the no bottled water band wagon. Restaurateur and Iron Chef Mario Batali also put an end to bottled water at his Del Posto Ristorante in New York.

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Seomoz.org says folks who receive such coveted links on .edu sites have four things in common:

1) they are generous with their time,
2) generous with their talent,
3) generous with their money, or
4) know a lot about an academic subject and are very good at writing about it.

Helping an organization with its Web site, writing professional articles that professors can recommend to their students, making donations in your business’s name or volunteering at charitable events are just some ways in which a business can earn a link. Earning a link on a .gov domain may or may not be more difficult, but try getting more involved with your city and state government through civic events. You never know when an opportunity can arise. The core tactic to earning links is to create a mutually beneficial relationship.

The holiday season is an extremely difficult time for anyone. According to therapist Joe Kort, “After the holiday season is over, many people suffer from depression. The fast pace to get presents, visit with family, send out cards and get school and work business done keeps the depression at bay. However, returning to work and school, dealing with the family issues which surfaced over the holidays and facing the winter blues can be very depressing.”

When the after-holiday doldrums set in, what is a manager to do? How can you motivate your employees to keep up the good work that they did all year long? Here are a few great ideas for your company to keep productivity up and the post-holiday doldrums down:

1. Candy gifts
After the holidays, everyone begins to miss the treats they received just a few days ago. Candy gifts are a great motivator and comfort to a worker who needs a little pick-me-up in the middle of the day. It is a small token of your company’s appreciation and can convince the employee that you care, even after the holidays.

2. Hand sanitizers and soaps
The period during and directly after the holidays is prime cold and flu territory. Keep your employees healthy by giving them hand sanitizers and soaps. Your employees will appreciate the gesture and the disease prevention.

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Click here to listen to the interview

We’ve provided some ways to market your business and position yourself as an expert in your industry by using LinkedIn. Feel free to download the pdf below and distribute to friends. As always, comments are welcomed!

Are you LinkedIn?

Also, Seth Godin has a quick list on things you need to have a successful small business.

Corporate gifts given as employee incentives are worthless unless the giver consciously thinks about the person they want to reward. Ensuring that your company creates the appropriate employee incentives through the use of corporate gifts may seem trivial, but its trivialities such as these that make employees want to work overtime on a pending project.

There are three keys to identifying what employee incentives will work for your company and employees.

• Employee incentives must be tailored to the person receiving the recognition.

Employee incentives in the form of a corporate gift or a promotional product should make an employee take notice. In the article “The Effective Employee Incentive Program” in Innovative Leader, G.A. Andy Marken said that employee incentives do not need to be expensive to be meaningful. They should think to themselves, “Wow. This wine gift basket is for me. My boss must really appreciate the work I do.”

• Employee incentives should be earned and not given out haphazardly.

Giving corporate gifts to employees without reason defeats the purpose of an employee incentive program. This does not mean that bosses should not give employees things without reason, but it does mean they should save the meaningful corporate gifts for the employee incentive program.

• Employee incentives must have a purpose and inspire employees to actually help and want to aid in the process of making your company a better provider to your customers.

In the article “Bad Bait- Employee incentive programs” in Entrepreneur, Jacquelyn Lynn said, “If you’re considering a new incentive program, ask employees what motivates them.” Know if your employees would rather get golf balls or a USB drive; details such as these means a more effective employee incentive program.

Following these simple rules will help ensure that your employee incentive program will succeed and that everyone at the company will be happy.

Representatives who answer the phones for your business, however, may be more important in the public’s viewpoint than anyone else in the company. When customers call a promotional products and corporate gifts company, they should be treated in a respectful manner.

Problems come in various shapes and sizes. Customers can be disappointed that the spacing on the 100 cups they ordered is not wide enough or that the seat cushions they purchased are not the correct hue of red. Each of these issues, no matter how small or trivial they seem, are important.

Every issue a customer service department deals with should be done so with care and honesty, that-as cheesy as it sounds-comes from the heart or at least the heart of the company. In the article “Communicating with Credibility” on EmergingLeader.com, Christine W. Zust said, “When a message is communicated from the heart, it is more believable.” Zust said that leadership that deals with and accepts full responsibility for their words and actions from the beginning are the most successful.

Another definite way to lose a customer is if your company customer service representatives have an air of indifference. In the article How to Enhance Customer Service in the e-magazine Customer Service Professionals, Bill Gessert, president of TeleSolutions Consultants LLC, said, “68% of customers who stop doing business with you do so because of a perception of indifference. If customer service is not your passion, it will be for your competition.” Indifference or a lack of enthusiasm is something to avoid; don’t let it bring down your company.

The last thing that should be maintained by customer services and a company concerns employees who think of the ideas a company presents. This does not directly pertain to those answering the phone, but it does concern those who write the company’s newsletters, emails, blog, and those who come up with and design the products the company sells. A monthly newsletter that goes out to customers and gives them new market trends, product ideas and special company discounts can help a customer feel like they are in touch with a company. In the article “The Keys to Delivering World-Class Service” in the e-magazine Customer Service Professionals, Jay Lipe said, “In a recent study by Jupiter Research, 33 percent of all Internet companies surveyed took three days or longer to get back to customers that had e-mailed for help.”

Customer service is a department at a company that should not be ignored. Merely hiring someone who has the ability to pick up a phone is not enough to maintain and build a customer base. Hiring people who have the ability to maintain an honest message, having employees who care and who are able to interact and assist customers with specific products and interact with a customer will.

First, one should recollect what particular industry they are working for. No, I am not insulting your intelligence by asking you to remember what building you go to from 9 to 5 Monday through Friday; I am asking you, however, to really focus and think about who the people you serve and work for are. Do they sell products from a phone or travel around a community? Do they provide a service or a product? Do they teach or are they taught? These simple details can help you provide the appropriate gifts for these people.

Second, make your gift something memorable. Give a nice wine set or food basket to the president of a company or present office workers with a bag of office supplies, a stress ball and a bag tag. Make sure the promotional items or gifts are things the gift receivers will actually use. Unique gifts and products are something that everyone at the very least can appreciate.

Last, remember you are trying to make an impact with the items you are giving. Something that you just randomly pick out from a Web site will not go over well. Talking over ideas with a company’s client service department can help you pick and create the perfect item for your employees or clients.

These three simple steps should help at least get you started in the promotional products and gift giving game. So go out there, look around, and call us if you need any help!