Spend $25 to $50 a head and put their name on it rather than your logo. Pick something that gets used up, so it does not become clutter they feel guilty throwing out. And start as early as you can — the good handmade things are not sitting in a warehouse, so message me once you have a count.
There is a drawer in almost every office in this country, and it is full of branded mugs. Pens that stopped working. A stress ball with somebody's logo on it. Nobody threw them out, because that felt rude. Nobody used them either.
If you are buying for clients this year — whether that is eleven people or a hundred and ten — the question is not what looks generous. It is what they will actually keep.
How much should you spend on a client gift?
For most businesses, $25 to $50 a person is the range that works. Under $20 and it starts to read as an afterthought. Over $100 and some people get uncomfortable — in regulated professions it can even cause a problem for them.
The more useful rule is this one: spend less and personalise more. A $25 gift with someone's name on it lands harder than a $150 gift without it. I have watched this at four years of markets, and it is not close.
- Make it consumable. Something that gets used up never becomes clutter. That is the whole reason candles, coffee and food do so well here.
- Keep your branding small. One discreet label is plenty. A logo across the front turns a present into a flyer.
- One tier for everyone. Clients talk. If three people get the good one and twelve get the small one, somebody finds out.
Are client gifts tax deductible in Canada?
Generally yes, with conditions — and there is one trap worth knowing about.
Gifts to genuine business contacts are usually deductible when there is a real business purpose and the value is reasonable for the relationship. But Montreal accountant Ronika Khanna writes that gifts which count as meals and entertainment — a restaurant gift certificate, tickets to a sporting event — are only 50% deductible and should be recorded that way in your books.
A physical object is not meals and entertainment. It is normally recorded under marketing or promotion instead. Which means the restaurant card you were considering may cost you twice what you think it does.
What realtors give at closing
A closing gift has a strange job. It arrives at the end of a stressful few months, into a house full of boxes, for someone who is exhausted.
The ones that work are small, warm and immediate. Something for the first evening, when the kitchen is not unpacked and nobody wants to look at another cardboard box. Not a cutting board with your face on it.
It also has to survive a long tail. You want them to think of you in four years when they sell. A candle on a shelf does that quietly; a branded tote bag does not.
What salons, clinics and studios give
This is a different problem. A realtor gives eleven gifts a year. A salon might want to thank two hundred regulars, and the budget per person is much smaller.
What works there is small and repeatable. Something at the front desk through December for anyone booking. A thank-you for a referral. A little thing for the first appointment of the year.
If that is your budget, my Office & Secret Santa collection is built for exactly it — twenty-four candles in there right now, and not one of them is over $28.
The same logic holds for dental and physio clinics, photographers, accountants, trades and anyone with a list of regulars. The gift does not have to be big. It has to be nice enough that they mention it to somebody.
When should you order client gifts?
Anything genuinely handmade takes time, because there is no warehouse behind it — there is me, a pot of wax and a kitchen table. So the earlier you tell me, the more I can do.
Message me with your date and your count and I will tell you straight away whether it works. If it does not, I will say so rather than take the order and hope.
From my kitchen table
I pour every one of these myself in Kitchener, between shifts at the hospital. That is also why I will not promise you a date I cannot keep.
For a client list, most people choose the pressed flower keepsake. It is $25 on its own, and ten or more is priced differently — message me with your count and I will quote it. Your ribbon colour, your label, and a different name on every box if you want one, so each person finds their own.
Any candle in my shop can carry your label instead, if you would rather the gift be the thing and the branding be quiet.
What I would send a client list
Pressed Flower Keepsake Candle
9 oz, arrives boxed and tied. The one most client lists end up choosing.
$25
Dried Flower Bowl Candle
15 oz, built for a warmer. For the closing gift, or the client who matters most.
$39.99
Your label, your list
Ten pieces or more. Tell me your date and your count and I will quote it.
GET A QUOTE
Four things help me quote quickly: your date, roughly how many, what goes on them, and a photo of anything you like the look of. The form is on the custom and bulk orders page, and I come back with a price and a photograph of something similar I have already made.
Free hand delivery in Kitchener–Waterloo. Anywhere else in Canada I quote the courier at cost, on its own line, so you can see exactly what it is.
Everything I make
All hand-poured by me in Kitchener, Ontario.
Free hand delivery in Kitchener–Waterloo · Free shipping across Canada on orders over $125
