Corporate gifts have become an effective and popular method of appreciating the loyalty of clients in present day corporate scenario. Presenting gifts from time to time to demonstrate how grateful the organization is to the customer helps a great deal in building strong relations between the customer and the company. Given its significance, when choosing a gift for a client you have to keep a few important factors in mind.

The primary consideration should be what the gift is trying to achieve – is it for showing gratitude to the client for his loyalty, or to celebrate the end of successful venture, or for other reasons. If luring the customer is the main objective, then you must give promotional gifts, which have a distinct promotional aspect associated with them. For this purpose, mugs, pens, notepads etc with the company’s logo can leave a good impression on the client.

On the other hand, if a customer has been availing the services of the company for many years, then a different strategy must be taken. These customers require more attention to detail, which means that their preferences need to be considered when choosing a gift. Another alternative is to gift a plaque, which is seen as a gesture of gratitude almost everywhere in the world.

You need to ensure that you do not offer the same gift more than once. This is because a gift completely loses its value if it is repeated. For instance, if a calendar has already been given to a client, the next time opt for something different like a pen stand. But always ensure that the gift needs to be both functional and classy.

A substandard gift reflects poorly on the company, so you must never overlook this important factor. However, you should also keep your expenditure in mind. Your budget should not be exceeded simply because you ended up buying an expensive gift. This generates high anticipations and may hamper future relations with the customer.

Regulation D, Under Sections 4(2) and 3(b) of the Securities Act of 1933, the SEC adopted Regulation D to coordinate the various limited offering exemptions and to streamline the existing requirements applicable to private offers and sales of securities. The Regulation establishes three exemptions from registration in Rules 504, 505, and 506.

Rule 504, which provides an exemption for non-reporting companies unless they are “blank check” issuers or certain “shells”, stipulates that: The sale of up to $1,000,000 of securities in a 12-month period is permitted provided that there is no general solicitation, the securities sold are restricted securities and cannot be resold except pursuant to a registration statement or exemption, and a notice must be filed with the SEC within 15 days after the first sale. Rule 504 does not provide an exemption under any state laws. In certain limited circumstances where an offering is conducted under state accredited investor exemptions, securities offered under Rule 504 may be freely transferrable. Unlike Rules 505 and 506, Rule 504 does not mandate that specified disclosure be provided to purchasers. Nonetheless, the business person should take care that sufficient information is provided to meet the full disclosure obligations which exist under the antifraud provisions of the securities laws.

Rule 505 was adopted by the SEC to provide small businesses more flexibility in raising capital than under Rule 504 – but without the uncertainty of determining the quality of the purchasers that generally is involved in using Rule 506. Rule 505 provides issuers a limited offering exemption for sales of securities totaling up to $5 million in any 12-month period.

Rule 505 contains certain restrictions regarding “accredited investors” and non-accredited persons. The-term “accredited investor” includes:

Banks, insurance companies, registered investment companies, business development companies, or small business investment companies; Certain employee benefit plans for which investment decisions are made by a bank, insurance company, or registered investment adviser; Any employee benefit plan (Within the meaning of Title I of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act) with total assets in excess of $5 million; Charitable organizations, corporations or partnerships with assets in excess of $5 million; Directors, executive officers, and general partners of the issuer; Any entity in which all the equity owners are accredited investors; Natural persons with a net worth of at least $1 million; Any natural person with an income in excess of $200,000 in each of the two most recent years or joint income with a spouse in excess of $300,000 for those years and a reasonable expectation of the same income level in the current year; and Trusts with assets of at least $5 million, not formed to acquire the securities offered, and whose purchases are directed by a sophisticated person.

If the issuer sells any securities to non-accredited investors, it must furnish to all investors the same type of information as required by Regulation A. It must also furnish audited financial statements.

If an issuer other than a limited partnership cannot obtain audited financial statements without unreasonable effort or expense, only the issuer’s balance sheet (to be dated within 120 days of the start of the offering) must be audited.

Limited partnerships unable to obtain required financial statements without unreasonable effort or expense may furnish financial statements prepared on the basis of federal income tax requirements and examined and reported on by an independent public or certified accountant in accordance with generally accepted auditing standards; and The issuer must also be available to answer questions by prospective purchasers about the issuer or the offering.

Further restrictions under Rule 505 include:

The total offering price of each issue of securities may not exceed $5 million. The offering may not be made by means of general solicitation or general advertising. The issuer may sell the securities to an unlimited number of “accredited investors” and to 35 non-accredited persons. There are no requirements of “sophistication” or “wealth” for persons to whom the securities are sold. A company must take any necessary steps to ensure that the purchasers are acquiring securities for investment only, not for resale. The securities are thus “restricted” and investors must be informed that they may not be able to sell except pursuant to a registration statement or exemption from registration. The issuer is not required to file any offering materials with the Commission. Fifteen days after the first sale in the offering, the issuer must file a notice of sales on Form D. The notice also contains an undertaking under this Rule for the issuer to furnish the Commission, upon its staff s request, any information given to non-accredited purchasers in connection with the offering. Rule 505 does not provide an exemption from state securities laws.

SEC Rule 506 offers and sales of securities by an issuer that satisfy the conditions stated below are deemed transactions not involving any public offering within the meaning of Section 4(2) of the Securities Act. For an offering to be considered exempt from the registration requirements, Rule 506 stipulates: There is no ceiling on the amount of money which may be raised. No general solicitation or general advertising is permitted. The issuer may sell its securities to an unlimited number of accredited investors and 35 non accredited purchasers. Unlike Rule 505, all non-accredited purchasers (either alone or with a purchaser representative) must be sophisticated – that is, have sufficient knowledge and experience in financial and business matters to render them capable of evaluating the merits and risks of the prospective investment. The term “accredited investor” is defined under Rule 505.

If the issuer sells any securities to non-accredited investors, it must furnish to all investors the same type of information as required by Regulation A. It must also furnish the same financial information as would be required by registration on Form S-1.

If the issuer cannot obtain audited financial statements without unreasonable effort or expense, then financial statements may be provided in accordance with the special treatment described under Rule 505.

The securities sold are “restricted” under the same stipulations in Rule 505.

A company is required to file a notice of the offering on Form D at SEC headquarters within 15 days after the first sale in the offering. All states except New York provide an exemption from state securities laws for offerings under Rule 506 but the company must file a copy of the Form D and pay a filing fee in each state. New York has a distinctive law which makes a Rule 506 offering within that state impractical.

Accredited Investor Exemption

The Small Business Investment Incentive Act of 1980 created a new statutory exemption from registration under the Securities Act for transactions involving offers and sales of securities by any issuer solely to one or more “accredited investors.” Under Section 4(6):

The total offering price of each issue of securities under the exemption may not exceed the limit on small offerings set by Section 3(b) the Securities Act, which currently is $5 million per issue. The offering may not be made by means of any form of advertising or public solicitation.

The term “accredited investor” is defined to include the same individuals and entities as included for purposes of Rules 505 and 506. The issuer is required to file a notice of sales on Form D with the Commission 15 days after the initial sale is made in reliance on the exemption.

While individual gift-giving to those close to you is an age old practice, few people are aware of the practice of giving corporate gifts. Corporate gifts, unlike gifts to friends and family, are given to clients or employees to show thankfulness for their patronage or service.

Corporate gifts are usually costly things and they do not feature any business symbol or brand name, as they are not meant for marketing or advertising. On the other hand, various gift items are often given away for promotional purposes, for example, stationery objects, storage devices, or books. In such cases, the gifts are often marked with the company\’s symbol before they are distributed to employees or potential customers.

As in the case of any other gifts, the choice of a corporate gift also depends on the person to whom the item is to be presented. For a client, exotic and costly objects are the norm, while standard items should be given to employees belonging to the same team or unit.

In order to strengthen and promote a healthy association with a customer or a member of the staff, it is essential to remember that the apparent worth of the corporate gift is critical. Consulting internal lawyers of your company before giving corporate gifts is a good idea, because in some countries the law might prohibit it.

Planning for corporate gifts involves figuring out the expense, arriving at the number of gifts, and looking for offers available in the market for a mass purchase. In terms of gifts to clients, planning may not be as important, but for gifts to be given to staff it is necessary. It is important to ensure that there are sufficient gifts to express your appreciation to every deserving employee.

To conclude, presenting corporate gifts is a smart business practice, which helps you develop a stronger and healthier association with both your employees and your clients. But don\’t forget to keep the law and expense related aspects in mind.

We get calls all day, every day from companies that talk about ‘wanting’ real corporate publicity that will transform their company but few have the stomach for what it really takes and even fewer have the financial dedication it takes to obliterate their competition and take their rightful place at the top of the food chain.

Of course it’s important to cater to the traditional media (TV, radio, newspaper, industry journals, etc) but the genre of publicity that wins every time is viral publicity consisting of video, social and news bookmarks, article submissions, press release submissions and photo/logo sharing sites. The reality is online publicity is where you’re going to completely annihilate your competitors and claim your rightful position.

When you take into consideration the ultra powerful medium and stealth of viral publicity, all other promotional genres cower in comparison. Online your pre public or post public company will claim instant viewers and a cult-like following that TV and radio can’t even remotely compare. Billions of searches take place every day and it is the viral publicists job to do what SEO and traditional publicists can’t do and that is get solid search engine ranking while simultaneously bringing in powerful results that are targeted and strategically placed.

Forget pay per click, it’s a waste of your time. crush everything in your path with viral publicity that claims power positions on the natural search results on all search engines. You must have a solid combination of mediums at use to take control of targeted keywords and industry genres.

So the next time you tell your self-proclaimed publicist or seo agent that you need publicity that will claim your position and deliver virtually instantaneous results for your company, you’ll understand why there is silence on the other end of the line…because they have no clue as to what it takes to get serious results that will rip and shred everything in your path. The powerful combination of viral publicity and massive exposure will force-feed your concept to the willing masses who are pleading with a company in your industry to step up and spoon-feed the very info that your company is offering.

Stop wasting time and money with so called ’solutions’ that don’t work. You need a publicist, investor relations specialist and SEO demigod that will take you by the hand and pave a way for your company to succeed.

One of the many ways you can make money as a photographer is to specialise on events. Christenings, weddings, and lots of other events where people create memories can be well paid business. The great thing is that all you need is a great camera, lots of memory, and a stack of business cards.

What to do

Cover only events where it is hard for people to take the pics themselves and where they will want to keep their memories frozen in film.

One idea is to go to kids sports events. Get permission from the coach to click pics for the parents watching and then start clicking away. If you turn up with a great big telephoto lens like the ones used for pro coverage of events, you will be taken seriously. Make sure you get all the children doing great action shots and then hand out flyers to all the parents watching with your web address. If you can write down the parents email address so you can email them the URL of you site then upload the pics to your web site that day and email everyone. If you have a simple shopping cart set up you can make money in a few hours as people pop in to see the pics and buy them for $20 or more a pop.

You can do a similar thing with weddings. Take all the normal shots as part of the wedding coverage but then get your URL printed on the wedding invites and all the other wedding materials and also get an email list of all the wedding guests, offer the couple a nice 20% discount for doing this and then take lots of extra pics at the wedding of the guests doing all the things they do. Upload all the pics to your site and send the emails. You will then make a lot more money than the 20% discount it cost you because then 30 or 40 people will be also purchasing your pics at $20 or more a shot straight from your site. You can also charge a higher price for high resolution pics.

The trick is to find a corner in the market place where you can excel by being the best photographer in the room, and offering an easy way for people to buy your photos.

Dog shows, fashion shows, horse shows, car shows, livestock competitions, rock shows, – the list goes on. Keep your eye out in the events section of your local paper to see what is happening. Always ask for permission to shoot pics and if you need to offer the people 10% of the income if feel you need to so you can get easy access.