Sunday, February 22, 2009

Your Business, Your Health, Your Responsibility

Personalized Toasting Glass Stemware Set of 2Building your online business is not for the faint of heart, that is if you are honest with yourself. There is a big difference between selling a product online and owning your online business. You have the hours upon hours of coding your site, performing Search Engine Optimization, making sure that your pictures are optimized, back links relate to your business, customer service, packing your product, marketing your product, and keeping yourself healthy. That's interesting that health was listed last, yet without it nothing else that was listed here matters.

The American Heart Association recommends that you exercise a minimum of thirty minutes a day to keep your heart healthy. Thirty minutes seems like such a long period of time when you have so much to do to keep ahead of your competition. Exercise is nothing to put off , yet we all do because we justify our reasons by saying that it can't happen to me. I feel great, nothing is wrong. Why exercise when I look good, I'm not over weight, I don't smoke, and I eat right.
The reasons I know that people are using these excuses is because I did as well. My world almost came to an end on December 23, 2006. I was feeling good, eating right, nothing was wrong. I was relaxing watching some television and all of a sudden I got this pain in my chest, a pain that felt like I needed to crack my breast bone. I thought really nothing of it until it went straight through me to my middle back. Then my shoulder blades felt the same way, that I needed to crack them, like I did my neck every once in a while. This raised my eye brows a bit, actually it felt like I had a severe back pain coming on. I started to wonder if this could be what I thought it was, a heart attack, noooo, can't be, I'm to young, I feel good, it can't happen to me. I was convinced that it was happening when from no where, the cold sweats began. This is where I made the only mistake of the evening. I had my wife drive me to the emergency room, we are about eight blocks from the hospital and I came to the quick conclusion that we could get there faster than the ambulance could get to me, and then me to the hospital. The reason that was a mistake was that if I had gone into full cardiac arrest, we didn't have the necessary equipment in our vehicle to shock my heart.

We made it to the emergency room, at the admitting desk I collapsed and went to the ground. I figured that I was safe and it was time for all the great folks at Holland Hospital to take over. Do you have any idea what it is like to make eighteen new friends in a matter of minutes? I suggest that you find a different way to achieve that goal.

The team of professionals at Holland Hospital put on a show that was remarkable. Each step of the process was a well choreographed dance. Nurses would move forward and perform a procedure, then back out of the room, then an E.K.G. was administered, the attendant performing that backed out and the doctor came in to read it. The doctor told me it was the real deal. I'll never forget those words as long as I live because as soon as I heard those words I said these words; "No it can't be , I'm to young, I felt great, I ate well.

I came home on Christmas day, a somber day, and all I could think about is what do I do next, I feel broken I said to myself. Here is the answer: Cardiac Rehabilitation. Holland Hospital has a great Cardiac Rehabilitation program. For thirty five minutes every other day I spin, use a treadmill, and other various pieces of equipment to maintain my healthy heart. I said healthy heart, yes because I got lucky there is no heart damage.

Running your business involves making many very important business decisions. Don't take your health for granted. It's the most important business decision a business owner can make!

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Personalized Gifts- What Does That Mean?- Kaboodle Gifts

Too Sexy for My Diaper Children's CreeperThe economy today is weak in most sectors and at best marginal in others. We believe that consumers are purchasing products but under very strict parameters. You are seeing more and more offers of Layaway plans for consumers. No interest until 2010 is another popular method of enticing the consumer to purchase. With the credit market drying up, and credit card companies changing the rules of their terms so that they can maintain profitability on their accounts, the consumer is changing the way that business is done in today's times.

The consumer is becoming more personalized with their purchases, no longer does the customer make impulse buying a trendy thing to do. They are researching their purchases more, taking their time in making that purchase, and looking for the rock bottom price for that particular item.

As business owners we can not accept that we have to not make a profit on our products just to make a sale. That is bad business and will put you out of business in a heart beat. What we can do is make sure that we offer a practical line of products that are competitive in price that also show perceived value to the customer.

We believe we have accomplished those goals with our line of gifts at Kaboodle Gifts. Not only do we offer personalized gifts that last long after the intended event has taken place. We offer memories! How many mothers have saved a special gift that their child has received only to look at it years later and remembered the exact moment that that gift was given and what it was given for? How many times have you looked at the personalized candle that has your wedding date on it and remembered what you were saying to one another as the minister was performing your wedding?

A personalized gift by Kaboodle Gifts doesn't have to mean that you receive a gift with a name or a date on it. It can mean so much more as we have briefly described above. It might be a ring for a special gal, it might be a wedding favor given to all of your close friends that had the honor of attending your wedding, it might mean a baby bibor creeper that made you laugh when your child was small enough to fit into. You might even take something like that and bring it out to embarrass your child when they get married!

Just as the consumer will no longer make an impulse buy, we at Kaboodle Gifts will no longer define our personalized gifts as having to have a name or a date on them.

Scott Nash
Kaboodle Gifts, LLC

*Note*: You may use the content of this blog for your own purpose as long as all articles stay fully intact and there is credit given to Kaboodle Gifts.

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Kaboodle Gifts Latest Press Releases- Kaboodle Gifts

Personalized Cowgirl Ceramic Beer Stein 16oz.

There are several ways to bring attention to your business via the internet.




  • Viral marketing - Giving something away for free in hopes that your business name will get deep exposure in return.

Search Engine Optimazation- Utilizing keywords in your titles and descriptions to gain high ranking placement on search engines like Google, Yahoo, and MSN.


Press Releases- Announcing to the world that you have created a new gadget, product, or service, or opened a new business. Done correctly you can get exposure from main stream news organizations, papers, and even your local news agencies.



Kaboodle Gifts, LLC uses press releases in a way that informs our new potential customers of what we are doing. We have chosen to use PRlog.org as our press release agent. We currently have two press release's that have given us great exposure to new customers.



Our first press release simply announced that we were adding a new line of personalized gifts. Listed below are both of or press releases that can be viewed in their entirety.

Kaboodle Gifts, LLC Announces New Line Of Personalized Products

Kaboodle Gifts, LLC Adds Personalized Kids Room Signs To Their Online Catalog



You can and will get an added amount of exposure by using press release distribution. In addition to letting the world know who you are you can also write articles for distribution.

Bookmark our Press Room and keep up with all the information that is going on with Kaboodle Gifts!



Scott Nash

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

What Is Multi Channel Marketing- Kaboodle Gifts

Kids Personalized Dinosaur Childrens Room SignIn the 90's the Internet exploded making several individuals very wealthy. Wealthy to the point of excess. Much like the current situation that this country is involved with currently. A few people made millions of dollars while alot of individuals just got by.It seemed like everyone was getting on the bandwagon to have an online presence of some kind.Multi channel marketing became neccessary after the fall of the internet businesses. In order for an online business to survive the future they could no longer accept the business model o just selling on the internet. Looking back through these times it just makes good business sense to not have all you eggs in one basket.

So what is Multi Channel Marketing?
It's very simple; Selling you product or service over a wide range of different channels such as a website, catalog, brick and mortar store, via direct mail or infomercials. Take a look at your business plan. How many different markets are you selling your product or service in? If you answered just one, then look at your total sales and ask yourself how that model is going. An useful and popular analogy says the following. What would you rather have 100 percent of one person's effort or one percent of 100 people's effort? Multi Channel marketing answers the call to that question.

What can you do to increase your sales through multiple channels?

The first thing you need to do is get a trade magazine called Multi Channel Merchant. Or checkout their site at http://multichannelmerchant.com/. Listed below are the articles that are in this months edition.

  • Merchandising the Web way
  • Cross- selling strategies - Give site visitors a why-to-buy
  • Marketing - Six actionable metrics and numbers
  • Lists & Data strategies
  • Operations & Fullfillment- Keeping contact center cost in line
  • Catalog- coping with tough times
  • Managing your brand's color
  • Same sad song for paper prices

You might not be to the level in your business that you think that you need such a resource. don't sell yourself short and not allow yourself to look at these topics and learn from professionals that work in each of these industries. The more information that you allow yourself to learn the bigger edge you are going to have against your competition.

The second thing that you can do is start looking for area shows to show your product to folks that may not know who you are or what you offer. Expose yourself to your potential market. Word of mouth is a wondeful marketing tool. If you sell personalized gifts get your products out in the market place and let people, potential customers touch and feel what you offer. do you not think that you wont get sales, or better yet having someone tell someone who told someone about your product. You can't buy that kind of exposure, well you can but it will blow your advertising budget in a hurry.

The third thing that you can do is maintain a customer database of customers. You can create a newsletter from this list. Most often your current customers will read what you have to say as long as you keep it interesting and offer them something for their time. Most reader's will send your news letter onto someone that they know. This is call targeting your customers. Knowing what your customers want is painfully important. Once you define that you will see your customer base grow exponentially.

These are just three things that you can do to help you grow your business through multi channel marketing. Now that I've got you thinking along these lines, what else can you think of ?






Scott Nash

website: Kaboodle Gifts

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Does Kaboodle Gifts Offer a Physical Catalog

Personalized Billiards Poker Chip SetThis is a question that we receive frequently in email. In order to answer that I've decided to take a look at why Kaboodle Gifts doesn't bring a physical catalog into your living room.

When you go to your mailbox to get your mail you often receive several catalogs from different places that you have ordered from such as Sears, Woman Within,Roamans, and many more. While the catalog houses are taking advantage of multi-channel marketing it is costing them a large amount of money, resources, and time to bring that catalog to your doorstep in hopes that you will fill out the order form and return it to them with an order.

What you might not know is that there are several versions of a catalog from the big catalog houses. Why is that you are asking yourself? Well let me answer that for you. There are several versions of a catalog because there are several types of buyers for that catalog brand. There are those that rarely buy from a catalog, those that moderately purchase from a catalog, and there are those that frequently buy from a catalog. With that being said there are also different prices for the same item in those catalogs depending on what category of buyer you are.

An example of that might be Sally, your next door neighbor might purchase from the same catalog house as you. Both of you buy the same items, let's say you both bought the Kids Personalized Children's Noahs Ark Room Sign. She makes her purchases very rarely and buys only what she needs. You on the other hand might be a frequent purchaser and buy on impulse, you flip through the catalog circle what you like and fill out the order form mail it off and sit and wait in anticipation of your arrival usually two- to four weeks later. While Sally's item that she purchased cost her $19.95 because she makes few purchases, that very same item that you purchased cost you $16.95. Because you bring more volume to the catalog house your cost will be cheaper for the same thing that Sally just bought from the same catalog house.

Which brings me back to why Kaboodle Gifts doesn't offer a physical catalog. The costs of maintaining several versions of a catalog are very high.We like to treat each of our customers equal. We offer the same discount to all of our customers whether you purchase a single item or multiple items. We don't have the overhead of maintaining a customer list, and by that I mean we don't pay the United States Post Office any money to purchase you name from their databases, or in fact any other list supplier.

One last thing is that we don't have the waste that many catalog houses have. Let me explain, How many times have you received a catalog and just files it in the waste basket? Lined you litter box with its pages?, or used the pages to start a fire in the fireplace? Kaboodle Gifts doesn't have that waste factor to think about. So there are the reasons that Kaboodle Gifts doesn't offer a physical catalog, it is just to costly for our customers. When we are paying upwards of $3.50 to $4.00 for a gallon of gasoline, we feel that we, at Kaboodle Gifts, are doing what is right for our customer base.

Scott Nash
Kaboodle Gifts, LLC

Monday, September 15, 2008

October Trade Show Dates- Kaboodle Gifts

Personalized Carriage Children's Girl's or Boy's Room Sign
Right now is when you should be looking at trade shows as an additional source for your products. Trade shows are great for making new business contacts, finding new and unique products for your business, and seeing first hand what new trends are coming around the corner.

Below is a listing of trade shows for the month of October;


Date: October 3-5

Annual Pet Industry Trade Show

Donald E. Stephens Convention Center, Rosemont/Chicago IL.

Telephone: 312-663-4040



Date: October 3-5

Gem, Jewelry & Lapidary Trade Show

Embassy Suites, Detroit, MI.

Telephone: 601-879-8832



Date: October 3-5

Great American Gem Show

Denver Merchandise Mart, Denver, CO.

Telephone: 301-294-1640



October 3-5

International Vision Expo West,

The Sand Expo & Convention Center, Las Vegas, NV.

Telephone: 800-840-5628, 203-840-5628



October 3-6

Kansas City Gift Show

Kansas City Gift Mart

Overland Park, KS

Telephone: 913-491-6688



October 4-6

International Esthetics Cosmetics & Spa Conference

Orange County Convention center, Orlando, FL.

Telephone: 800-624-3248, 805-995-2989



October 4-7

National Bridal Market

Chicago Apparel Center- Merchandise mart, 2nd Floor

Chicago, IL.

Telephone: 800-677-6278, 312-527-4141



October 5-7

L.A. Market Week

California Market Center

Los Angeles, CA.

Telephone: 800-225-6278, 213-630-3737



October 5-7

Minneapolis Mart Home & Gift Show

Minneapolis Mart

Minneapolis, MN.

Telephone: 800-626-1298



October 5-7

western food Industry Expo

Mandalay bay Resort & Casino

Las Vegas, NV.

Telephone: 916-448-3545



October 6-8

Great American Gem Show- Intergem

Pontchartrain Center

New Orleans, LA.

Telephone: 301-294-1640



October 10-13

Denver Apparel and Accessory Market

Denver Merchandise Mart Complex

Denver, CO.

Telephone: 303-293-6278 ext. 5225



October 11-14

Atlanta Women & Children's Market

Atlanta Apparel Mart

Atlanta, GA

Tepephone: 404-588-9490



October 13-15

Great American Gem Show- Intergem

Connecticut Expo Center

Hartford, CT.

Telephone: 301-294-1640



As with all trade shows you will have to provide your business information to obtain your credentials to get into the shows. Be prepaired to fax, show or email any of the following pieces of information; business card, sales tax license, Federal Employer Identification Number (F.E.I.N). Be prepaired to buy as all of the reps will be prepaired to write orders.


Have a great time at the trade shows, and if you think about it post back to let us know how successful you were at the shows.
Scott Nash



Tuesday, September 9, 2008

What is Product Merchandising? - Kaboodle Gifts

Personalized Children's Space Room SignProduct merchandising is a segment of marketing and sales that drives interest to an additional product that a company is selling. that company might be fast food chain restaurants,campgrounds, movie companies just to name a few. Let's break these examples that I have mentioned down a bit to further see the relationship between the product merchandise and the product that it supports.

Fast Food Chain Restaurants :

The biggest of the fast food chain restaurants is McDonalds. They are the Mac Daddy! ( Who said I can't be witty?!) McDonalds is in the business of selling burgers, fries, salads etc. That is what they sell now but it wasn't always that way in the earlier years. The specific time persiod I'm talking about is the 1970's. Remember those early Happy Meals? Yeah you know what I'm talking about, the burger, fries and a drink all in a box. Along with all the fun food to eat you also got a prize in the package. Usually it was a little play toy in the form of one of the mascots like the Hamburglar, Ronald McDonald, or Mayor Mc Cheese. These characters represented McDonald's brand and is what made their name recognizable. When little Timmy saw a commercial with these characters he related them to McDonald's, then in turn, got him hungry and lastly ended up making a trip with mom to McDonalds to get a happy meal and a prize in the package. Was this a successfull campain? Well... Ray Crock's widow was receiving 37 million dollars per month in residual income before her death....you tell me.

Campgrounds:

Campgrounds, specifically private membership campgrounds use product merchandising to bring you to thier campground and take a tour of it, hoping that you will buy into their campground and become a paying member. Some examples of this use of product merchandising might be eighteen holes of golf, free weekend use of a water front condo, a pair of binoculars, or a booklet of coupons to eat at five star restaurants. What happens is that your name is purchased from a targeted mailing list. Then you are invited usually via a post card in the mail to take a tour of the campground and all of its amenities, and for doing that you are offered a free gift for taking the time from your schedule to take their tour. You never get the gift without taking the tour, that's usually in the small print. Once you have completed your required tour the game begins, the sales person is a seasoned veteran and goes hard for the sale. Not taking a "no" for an answer the sales person usually wins out.

Movie Companies:

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. Star Wars, you guessed right. Then again if you had to guess then you need to rent the whole set of movies all six of them. Star Wars is the brain child of George Lucas. He started out as an independant film producer that didn't like dealing with the big movie companies, he didn't like having the control over his movie taken away by a suit somewhere in an office. That's the short version. All of those little figurines of Princess Leah, Hans Solo, and Luke Skywalker sold millions of dollars after the movie came out. The movie did so well that it held the record for gross ticket sales for decades until the movie Titanic came out and beat it. George Lucas couldn't afford to pay his actors a wage so he offered them a percentage of the merchandising rights to the movie instead. Do you think he made a good decision? Better yet, do you think the three actors made the right decision? Well... the product merchandise sold so well that it made each of the three actors millionairs basically overnight.

These three examples of product merchandising have described how you use one product ot promote another. In essance you could also call it upselling.

Scott Nash

Our Personalized Children's Room Signs