A while ago I made a post It Ain’t Over ‘Til It’s Over and the last thing I expected was that the particular project that inspired me for writing that post will turn it to be a major screw up. Well, almost, lucky me. But well, it ain’t over yet, so I better wait with the standing ovations for myself.

So what has happened ? Well, this time, surprise surprise, the mess up did not come from our supplier but from our customer’s client.

Imagine this:

• You spend several months developing a product

• You receive sort of conditional approval and go ahead

• You reject that conditional approval and ask for either a firm approval

• Client asks you how more time and money would further development cost

• You provide the figures

• Client decides to go ahead with the products as it is and gives you the firm approval and signs the contract

• You go ahead

• When first (big) lot is ready to load into containers and ready to ship you send a batch of samples to client for their promotions preparation work

• And then bang … Client say stop everything, we do not want this “rubbish”, no matter that that “rubbish” is exactly what they have approved and the best the money they are willing to spend can buy

The problem as we found out was that the bosses of the person who gave the approval did not like what they saw. Unfortunately, they only saw the product for the first time after big part of the production was already completed or semi ready …

Very scary situation. Luckily a solution workable to both parties has been found and the project has been re-started without major wounds. Thanks to all the parties involved willing to work it out and go the extra mile.

It ain’t over yet, but at least I can sleep better now.

Today was a pretty good day. For past few months we worked hard to win a project that, to describe it mildly, is huge. I mean huge huge. And today was the day we learned we have won it. Sounds like a reason for celebration, time to get out and down several cold ones. So what the hell am I doing here, writing this post ?

Well, one thing I have learned is, that it simply ain’t over ’til it’s over. The moment client gives you the order is where everything begins, not where everything ends. Trying to win the order is a game. It is serious game but still only a game. You do not win it, you loose nothing, except maybe your pride. But once you win the order you are in trouble ! And if the order is big, you are in trouble for next several months. The more you are aware of this, the better for you.

So when it will be over? I always tell my staff, that we can only consider any project to be successfully over when all the goods are in customers’ hands on time, in good condition, money is in our account and after that another 4 months have passed and we have no claims for any refunds. Then it is over and we may be right to mentally move on.

If all goes wrong you loose much more than what you would gain if all goes right. That is a simple math. Maximum you can make (in financial terms) is the profit margin you work with. But there is no maximum to what you can loose …

It is important that all parties involved in the project understand this. One of the reasons we ran into troubles in the past was, that our suppliers considered things done the moment they received the order from us …

How I know this ? Well, I was on the loosing end several times. Luckily the crisis management every time managed to limit the damages to bearable levels and more importantly, I was lucky to be dealing with customers who were part of the solution and not part of the problem. But that may not always be the case.

So, today the troubles began

P.S. I am not the only one who says It Ain’t Over ‘Til It’s Over, here is the other fella, Lenny Kravitz. But he has totally different reason (video inside the article)

The end and the beginning of the year is always a bit messy for me. End of the year most of the world is in the holiday mood and not much is happening. Then the new year kicks off with industry trade shows taking me to PSI in Europe and this year also to PPAI in the United States. The shows and the meetings at them result in lots of follow up work, unfortunately that has to wait. Why ? Because another holiday season starts right after – Chinese New Year … This year all got a bit more complicated by the severe weather in China but now it is time for the things to get back to normal again.

So what a person like me has to do once the festive season is over ?

• Recalculation of prices of all the products our clients buy regularly, a real headache of a job

• Finalizing development and sampling and testing of new products

• Follow up of all the stuff that came up during the January trade shows and meetings

• Visits to suppliers to facilitate the above

• Getting ready for the April trade shows in Asia – travel and hotel arrangements for customers, booth and showcase arrangements for us

• And in between getting rid of the mountains of correspondence that piled up during the weeks I was more away from than in the office

I love the holidays, but I hate what comes after them

Alvin at Gather Success blog is getting ready for a major giveaway contest. His list of prizes is not yet final but already very impressive. And when someone talks about giveaway contest, some giveaways should be among the prizes.

This very BizGiftGuru joined in and sponsors one of the prizes. To let one of the winners to sample the power of BizGifts, BizGiftGuru is throwing in 100 pieces custom branded pens. There will be 8 styles and several colours to choose from.

As I have written in one of my previous posts, when you are not sure what to do, start with a pen. One lucky winner can soon do just that .

Thanks to everybody who joined the mini contest here at BizGiftGuru. I used the Random.org to draw the winner. Haven’t tried that before and I hope I did it right …

Here is the result:

Congratulations to FC ! I will be contacting you for delivery arrangements.

All the others who took part in this contest will gain an extra entry in the next conest here, that will be coming soon !

When people ask me what I do, I usually tell them:

“I am in premiums, promotional products (and business gifts, simple giveaways, advertising specialties, three dimensional advertising media).”

As nobody seems to have come up with a single world description of all the above I decided to create one myself. Promotional products is probably the most widely used English term that describes the kind of stuff this blog is about. But it is a bit clumsy and difficult to abbreviate. So I took the “business gifts” term out of all the not so suitable options available and turned it into BizGifts . Short and easy to use.

Now back to question what are these things that I call here BizGifts. People ask me this quite often when I tell them what I do and I tend to provide a simple answer:

“Anything that you can brand.”

Well, that is my lazy definition that normally does the trick but it is not exactly accurate one. You do not really have to brand things to turn them into BizGifts. You can also brand some product and instead of decent BizGift create piece of crap … But yes, in general when I am talking about BizGifts I am talking about products that carry a message – logo, brand, event, company name – and are used as a part of the marketing campaigns by individuals, small companies or large corporations.

Here at BizGiftGuru you will find examples of how simple products can be turned in exciting BizGifts. I will also bring my opinions on successful and unsuccessful adverting campaigns that used BizGifts as one its medias. You will also find here information about new exciting products from the world of BizGifts, ideas that you may consider when you work on your own promotional campaigns no matter whether your budget is tiny or huge.

I will also bring information from different BizGift industry related trade shows, interviews with BizGift industry professionals, case studies, dos and donts and more. And last but not least, soon you will also be able to get your BizGifts here at BizGiftGuru.

Stay tuned to BizGiftGuru

I have never planned for business gifts, premiums, corporate gifts, marketing and advertising merchandise to become my full time career. But somehow it did happen. It has all begun 13 years ago when I moved from Europe to Hong Kong without really knowing why and what for. Series of coincidences lead to me starting a business that was all about what I at this blog will call BizGifts.

Over the years I had with my partners some seriously successful projects. I however also suffered some third degree burns that took a while to recover from. Now I feel it is about the right time to start sharing my experiences with the world out there.

Why ? Because no matter how hard I look, I do not see any casual open platform for people to discuss the workings of this industry. I hope BizGiftGuru will over the time become such platform.