As Christmas swings around once more, people across the country are once again scrabbling to secure their Christmas gifts before the rush and inevitable ‘sold out’ signs on high streets and websites alike. It can be easy to fall behind on the preparations, and Secret Santas are no different – sharing events which creep up out of the blue, and can leave you rushing around looking for the perfect gift below the spending limit with hours to go. What are the best gift ideas for a last-minute Secret Santa shop? Here are just a few tips:

Houseplants

What better gift than the gift of life? Houseplants have become a cultural phenomenon in recent years, as Gen X, millennials and Gen Z alike adorn their homes with flora for a bright touch and a sense of light responsibility. Of course, not everyone is suited to the houseplant life, and some are harder to look after than others. Succulents and cacti are beautiful and very difficult to kill, making them a brilliant Secret Santa gift for even the most disorganised of friends and colleagues.

Board Games

Board games are an excellent, inexpensive choice for a Secret Santa gift. Everyone loves a good board game, and gifting one gives your group the opportunity to play it together once all the gifts have been unwrapped. There are more board games available now than ever before, in a range of niches and difficulties. You can’t go wrong with a good game of Travel Scrabble, but if your Secret Santa giftee is a little nerdier, small independent board games are easy to find and will get you endless kudos.

Chocolates

Chocolates are the perennial Christmas gift, especially for last-minute shoppers: ever-giving, near-universally loved and diverse enough to meet specific tastes for a thoughtful touch. For those with a penchant for luxury, gift them a box of chocolate truffles; for those with an even sweeter tooth, raid a traditional sweet shop for a jar of bon-bons or even a pick-n-mix selection. And for those with a more refined taste, lean into artisanal dark chocolates, and gift a bar or two of 80% cocoa. And for those with a more refined taste, why not indulge them with an exquisite chocolate and wine hamper? With a carefully curated assortment of artisanal dark chocolates and a selection of fine wines, this hamper is sure to delight their sophisticated palate and create a truly indulgent Christmas experience.

DIY Gifts

You cannot get much more heartfelt than a gift you have made with your own two hands, and putting something together from scratch can also be light on your wallet. If you and your Secret Santa recipient go back a while, you can draw upon years of good memories and experiences to put something personal together, such as a photo album populated with pictures from your last year together, or a scrapbook of memories including pictures, ticket stubs and written entries. The DIY approach can work even with recipients you’re less familiar with; put a mini kit together like a mug with some tea sachets or hot chocolate inside, or make an ornamental light out of a mason jar and battery-powered fairy-lights. Creativity is key!

Comedy Gifts

If all else fails, comedy is a sure-fire thing to fall back on when approaching Secret Santa with a tight budget. Whether your Secret Santa is with work colleagues or old friends, you will have years of in-jokes and humour between you – something you can leverage to buy something truly unique for your given Secret Santa. If a specific in-joke doesn’t jump out at you, or you don’t know the recipient too well, a safe bet can be found in the novelty section of most stationers and toy shops, from humorous printed mugs to workplace classics like the expanding foam “grow-your-own” series.

Saving money on telecoms services for your business is always worth considering. While most business owners review costs such as rent, insurance, staffing, and more on an annual basis, telecoms cost often gets disregarded as they’re easy to forget about.

In the UK, small businesses spend on average £2,052 a year on telecom services and there is a significant amount of money to be saved here. Looking deeper, we are going to show you how your business save money by looking what is happening in the telecoms market impacting the price and the steps you can take to reduce your telecoms costs.

Merge Your Services

One of the best ways of saving money on costs when it comes to telecoms, is if all your essential services are from the same provider; you will be able to request they issue you with a single bill merging all the services into one. This will make working out finances much simpler, plus you will get the opportunity to discuss better rates if they are getting your business for multiple services.

Customer Services

Understandably, you will be focusing on the money saving of the services, it is still important to consider the care received from the company. In the long run, bad customer service will make reporting faults more time-consuming than a company with excellent customer service, sometimes you must pay for better service.

Number Of Lines

If your company has downsized or restructured, you may haveforgotten to reduce the lines you are paying for, this is essential if you are on an ISDN phone system. Why pay for more lines than are being used?

You may not be able to make changes if you are still in contract, however if you are past your minimum term, there is a chance you can make the changes necessary to hopefully save you money. You will just need to remember to do it as changes occur in your business with staffing numbers.

Call Patterns

Dependant on the length of calls you make, whether they are shorter calls or lengthier, you need to decide the tariff which will suit your call patterns. Fixed-line tariffs are most common for businesses, they are generally cost per call, or cost per time-based. If you are making lots of calls and currently paying per call, it is worth considering making the switch to cost per minute tariff.

Keep An Eye On Your Contract

As with most contracts, they have an initial term where you will pay a discounted amount on offer. After this, the cost is likely to increase for the worse, so it is recommended to review the additional cost prior to the contract’s initial term end. Doing this early enough is essential to give the telecoms supplier enough notice as it is not unheard of for companies to try to tie you in for the long term by adding longer notice periods.

Consider Switching To VoIP

Switching to VoIP is the future as ISDN-based services are aiming to be stopped by 2025, so in order to save money now, make the switch. VoIP will benefit by lowering call costs and allows you to freely change the number of lines required which is good for growing businesses, as well as if you are downsizing.

Or IP Based Phone Systems

The major difference with IP based phone systems is that they are providing huge flexibility, through being able to utilise it on premises or in the cloud. This gives your employees the opportunity to work from home or on the road, as well as in the office if required. The benefit being that your employees benefit from remote working, while your customers are not impacted by staff not being on premises. Make customer engagement simple with Gamma’s horizon – it benefits your employees by being a cloud-based service allowing employees to log into any device and work anytime, anywhere.

Save Through Productivity

The majority of what has been discussed is how to bring your telecoms costs down, however it is worth considering productivity costs at the same time. You may think about saving money on internet by having a slower connection installed. And while this may save you a small amount each month, it will lose you money on productivity as your employees won’t be able to work as effectively as they would with a decent connection. So cheaper does not always mean better, as it can prove negative on the company.

If like many businesses, it has been some time since you reviewed your telecoms cost, it is time you looked into it and used these tips to save your business money. The longer it has been since you have reviewed your telecoms costs, the more likely you have the opportunity to save as they are everchanging and you are likely paying more than you need, especially if you have had dramatic changes in staffing numbers.

Webinars are a useful way to promote your business and potentially generate leads. It’s also easier to host a webinar than an in-person event, which is why webinars have become particularly popular over recent months.

The Coronavirus pandemic changed the webinar industry for the better and has helped it to grow the industry and make it more accessible.

The rise in popularity of webinars, combined with the increased accessibility of technology, has meant that marketers and business leaders now have many options when hosting a webinar.

One of the most significant things you’ll need to think about when planning a webinar is the itinerary, and that means working out who’ll be speaking.

As the host, you should do a lot of the speaking, but it would also help if you have other guests to break up the event and entice additional viewers.

Asking guests to speak at your webinar can feel a little scary, but it doesn’t have to be that way. Here are some practical tips to help you invite guests to contribute to your webinar and make it an amazing online resource for attendees.

Use A Guest Speaker Agency

If you want to hire celebrities or renowned industry names to give your event gravitas, then consider using a specialist webinar guest speaker agency. When you’re looking for speakers for your webinar, your first port of call should be Speakers Corner. They offer a wide range of speakers on different topics, ranging from household names to industry experts, so you can find the perfect person to speak at your event.

Make The Most Of Your Network

As a business leader, you’ll have built up many contacts in your industry and specific niche over the years. Use these to your advantage when trying to get speakers to contribute to your webinar. Professional networking sites such as LinkedIn can help you to see who you know and who is connected to whom. From there, you can work out who might be a good potential webinar guest speaker and then invite them to collaborate with you. When you’re asking potential guest speakers, you should always make it clear what’s in it for them- for example, you could offer them valuable promotion on your site in exchange for their help with your webinar.

Highlight The Success Of Past Webinars

Once you’ve got a few webinars under your belt, or even just one, you can highlight their success and use them to entice new guests to speak at future online events. Sharing footage of your webinar is a key part of the activities you need to do after your webinar is over. Consider promoting the link to the webinar footage on your social media pages to entice new viewers, potentially generate new leads for your business and get prospective speakers interested in your upcoming event. You could also use the link to the footage to reach out to potential guest speakers directly.

Asking guest speakers to contribute to your webinar is a great way to enhance your event. Use these tips to make the process easier.

After spending over a year in and out of lockdowns and facing travel restrictions, the countries on the UK’s red list have been removed and Brits are finally able to take that long-overdue trip abroad. The rules on quarantining after travel have also lifted, and even unvaccinated people can travel in and out of the country provided they abide by the new self-isolation rule.

With these long-anticipated changes being made, now’s the perfect time to plan that trip to Peru you’ve been wanting to make or even swap the dreary British weather for tropical sun and sand in the Dominican Republic.

Now, before you pack that suitcase there are still some points to be mindful of. Here, we explore the new UK travel restrictions and allowances and what they mean for you.

The end of the red list

It’s official, the last countries on the UK’s red list have been approved for travel. Before this restriction lifting, anyone travelling from countries listed as red was only allowed to enter the country if they were a UK or Irish national or a UK resident. Those who were allowed to enter the UK were expected to quarantine for 10 days in a hotel approved by the government, with no financial support to cover accommodation costs.

The countries that until this month were on the red list wereColombia, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Haiti, Panama, Peru and Venezuela. Officials have stated the red list systemwill remain in place and countries may be added back onto it if circumstances change.

Fully vaccinated travellers

The rules have also changed regarding fully vaccinated travellers. Those travelling to the UK will no longer require a Covid test before departure. However, they will have to take a lateral flow test two days after arriving in the UK. This allowance applies to people vaccinated in the UK, the US and the EU, as well as several other countries.

Travellers are expected to prove their vaccination status before their departure. This new guidance has also been applied to residents of any of the recognised countries who are under 18, regardless of their vaccination status.

Unvaccinated travellers

People who are not vaccinated against Covid are still able to enter the UK, however they must self-isolate at home for 10 days after arriving. Before travelling they must take a PCR or lateral flow test in the three days before their journey and take a further two tests (on day two and day eight) following their return.

Keep in mind that PCR and lateral flow tests are not available for free, so it’s important to factor this into your budget when making plans for your travel.