If you don't consider yourself a very good speaker, not to worry. Pre-record your presentation. With all of fancy audio-visual equipment there is out there, today anyone can come off sounding like a world-class orator. You may also want to consider hiring a professional to voice your presentation. My company was hired at one time to put together a presentation for a company promoting an affordable housing project. I hired a local television personality to do voice over. Once his distinctive voice was recognized, it gave instant credibility to our presentation. My name and name of my company were listed on program during introduction, and I handled question and answer period at end. Other than that I didn't have too much to do, beyond showing up, setting up and turning on audio-visual equipment.

Make sure you include some sort of hand out to go along with whatever kind of presentation you do, even if it's just some sort of imprinted premium like a pen or a keychain. These sort items, as opposed to business cards, are less likely to find trash can before receiver leaves building. Other speaking opportunities you should look into include your local college. Most of them have some sort of adult classes. I had a number of programs I did in our local community college. I made class presentations of 1-2 hour duration and in one case did a 2-week how-to presentation every semester. These were all adult classes and provided tremendous exposure to exact market I was aiming to reach.

Your local chamber of commerce may also offer any number of speaking opportunities. They may sponsor business conferences or trade shows. I didn't like setting up standard booths at these sorts of events myself, but rather preferred to be a presenter or do a demonstration of some sort. You might even consider leading discussion in a breakout group. This will get your name in most, if not all, of pre-event promotional materials and offers a higher level of exposure and credibility.

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3. Always think quality rather than quantity. A single $25 classic pen is much better than a cheap $25 stationary set with a cheap diary, poor quality paper, pencil, eraser, and poorly printed folder and a pen if pen never works and paper is so cheap person would be embarassed to use it.

Gift baskets are great, but once again remember that food is gone in a week...you want to gift gifts that keep on giving for months or even years. There are a few places such as Lasting Impressions 2 that provide custom gift baskets that include non perishable products selected especially for recipent. For instance if you have a client that loves golf, has 3 kids, drinks Starbuck's coffee, and wears glasses a custom basket might include golf balls, a gift certificate for a family portrait from a local photo studio, a starbucks commuter cup, and a trendy glasses case. That kind of gift will be remembered for years to come. Instead of $150.00 of chocolates and coffee you have given a very special gift that says you are an important client. Customize your gift giving but maintain a standard cost for gifting. For instance, maybe employee birthdays should be limited to $10-$20 dollars and client gifts 5% of their annual value in sales. Only you can decide dollar limits...every business is different. If you own a 99 cent store you will not be giving your stock boys trips to Bahamas. By same token, if you are a sucessful doctor in Beverly Hills a $5.00 birthday gift for your nurse might seem inappropriate and downright rude!

If all of this seems a little overwhelming remember that once plan is laid out and you have a vendor for your gifts, year after year you can use same plan or fine tune it depending on how your business is doing. But one thing is for cetain people will see you in a positive light and marketing power of good gift giving will traslate into low turn over, and client loyalty and referrals.