Choosing the perfect gift for entrepreneurs in your life is easy. Great gift ideas for business owners require a bit of thought, and you can create or find the perfect gift by considering their needs. Practical gifts and the gifts of time are ideas for new business owners and seasoned pros which are incredibly helpful. The best gifts also often relieve anxiety caused by financial needs and being over-scheduled which don’t often leave them with precious time.
Selecting gifts for entrepreneurs is not complicated.
The purpose of this article is to get your creative juices flowing. It’s all common sense. Consider us as simply having a conversation and walking through ideas with you. We’re another ear. Another opinion.
3 greatest self-reported entrepreneur issues:
- Money. No more needs to be said, right?
- Time. The struggle to balance personal and work-related needs.
- Anxiety. The unhealthy result when worry and stress combine.
Don’t just go buy something.
Take a few minutes to consider them and what is actually helpful. Consider an option that will help them relieve pressure from concerns relating to money, time, or anxiety.
Great ideas come from considering these factors.
Determine their working situation, what phase is their business in, and what will actually help them.
? Are they in a startup phase? Startups are especially time consuming and stressful.
? Are they in an investment phase and require an additional income where they run their business while maintaining another full-time job?
? Do they work from home and want to be outside in fresh air?
? Do they work outside the home and wish to come in?
? Do they have a long commute and miss walking?
? What do they miss? Who do they miss? What used to be fun?
Help out.
Gift giving rules of thumb apply – always!
Use your common sense!
Your unique gift should not be overdone – or something they’ll never use.
Do not give something that creates unnecessary clutter.
It should not make you or your favorite entrepreneur feel obligated or uncomfortable.
In other words, don’t add a large, useless tchotchke to a small space or give a coffee maker to someone who never enjoyed coffee!
The best gifts for entrepreneurs are often something helpful.
The best gift for an entrepreneur will help them in some way. I don’t mean paying for their business. It might be free. The best gift will relieve their pressure for time and allow them to have time in, time out, time away. It may be actually something to do, the ability to go do that something or merely a distraction from daily stressors.
Business owners may miss time with family/friends.
Local What can they do together?
- Create a game night that is most fitting for them.
- Do they have space for a game? Create it outside or elsewhere.
- Give a game in a combo pack.
- Deck of cards.
- Do they love chess? Give them a magnetic board for the wall.
- Find trivia relating to their shared interest to read out loud.
- Get them out on their patio or a patio and away from the office space.
Long distance? Connect them. What’s in common?
- Give or suggest a shared app to test out a fun solution.
- If they’re a gamer, give them the multiplayer version of a fav or offer to play.
- Start a chess match game or match over the phone.
- Give them or the person connecting what they need for video capability.
A gift for an entrepreneur may be a practical gift.
It may help resolve their desire for time alone in their house.
It could be a home office gift, an office gift, a holiday gift, something specific to being a male or female entrepreneur. The list is endless! Be creative.
Most importantly – SOLVE THEIR PROBLEM!
To do what? Decompress watching tv? Cleaning? Organizing files?
Yes, it could be a mug! It could be business cards. A charger. A backpack. Something personal to their small business. Something to start a business.
Maybe they need something to survive their early mornings or late nights.
Maybe it’s to recharge their own battery life.
Don’t laugh. It’s different for all of us. Maybe the most stressful thing to them is unfolded laundry on the floor or flooring that needs to be scrubbed and it’s a nagging continual reminder of not having enough time or energy.
If they need to simply stop, give them a reason to sit.
- Give them something to make such as a concrete steppingstone.
- Bring a cookie mix for a snack to go with a good book.
- Deliver salad mix-ins and vinegar, to avoid an errand.
- Cocoa, drink mix, soup mix.
- Drop off a box of pasta and a jar of sauce for a night in.
- A puzzle. A book of puzzles. An online puzzle.
- Give their outside chair or blanket added bug-free appeal with a citronella candle, incense, or bug spray.
- Be creative, giving them the tools to create an experience and tell them what it’s for.
- Give them a Kindle or let them borrow yours.
- Buy them a book to listen to online.
- Get them a library membership and a Google map to remind them where it is.
- Buy a book. Let them borrow a book. Find locations with free books to share.
- Give them a membership to Amazon Prime.
Make it simple and brief, or detailed and purposely time consuming.
If they need to accomplish something specific, give them the gift of time.
- Take their children for the day.
- Walk their dog.
- Meal prep for them.
- Create their weekly snack prep.
- Tell them to take a walk while you sweep their porch and spray their weeds.
- Walk them to a coffee shop, buy their coffee and leave them there.
Entrepreneurs in 2023 may wish for time alone outside of the house or simple fresh air.
People who get experiential gifts use them. It forces them to create time for themselves and actually do something outside of general work duties or cleaning!
- Give them event tickets. Could be admission or a reservation to a local seasonal event.
- A gift certificate to breakfast or lunch.
- Buy a park pass.
- Buy your own park pass and add them as your secondary owner.
- Create a special trip.
- Research a special trip or day trips that match their hobbies.
- Gift them an Uber gift card so they don’t have to park in the city.
- Give them an umbrella to walk in the rain.
- Let them borrow yours.
- Drop off spray paint and a basket. They can find and spray a basket full of pinecones with paint or a scent for an upcoming holiday.
- Give them a basket with a gift card to buy their own spray paint.
Gifts for entrepreneurs might include support for their business.
- Give them a coaching or brainstorming session with you.
- Create their next marketing campaign.
- Give them a gift set of home office materials.
- Provide a small notebook and capless pen to capture ideas while walking or in the car.
- Provide an introduction to a helpful person.
- Provide the introduction over coffee.
- Give them a gift card for coffee with that person’s 3 available dates and times.
- Remind them to put these dates/times on their calendar with reminders set.
- Create a shared calendar with the dates and reminders already set for them.
- Offer to work for them for a day.
Talk to them. Ask what’s working well. Ask what needs a boost or about their next step.
If you cannot ask, them start brainstorming ideas!
While you’re sitting at a desk yourself, what comes to mind as a fun gift for a new business?
Literally look at a gift guide or ideas for a gift box and then personalize it.
Who do you know that’s always on the go? What works for them?
Do you know a busy entrepreneur? Maybe one who also launched or is launching a business? What’s on their list of the best gifts they every received?
Helpful gifts for new business owners relieve anxiety.
It helps to know more about what’s specifically going on or what they miss having time for. However, anxiety is unfortunately common, so if you don’t know, you can simply offer general support without saying, “you look stressed,” and making them feel worse.
Consider something to relieve their schedule or something food or health related. It doesn’t need to be expensive. If they are over-scheduled, they may not have time to look into helpful tools, for example. Or maybe they’d love to review helpful apps themselves, but just need 15 extra minutes.
- Create their Monday night meal.
- Meal prepping containers.
- Offer to pick up and drop off their grocery needs for the next two Tuesday’s.
- Research food tracking apps and give them a cheat sheet of possibilities.
- Research anxiety relieving apps and give them a few useful free options.
- If they have a new excited puppy, give them a pet store gift card.
- Offer to take their dog to the park every Saturday morning for a month.
- Offer to take their dog for a walk the first Saturday of every month for 6 months.
- If their dirty bathroom drives them nuts, buy them a helpful tool or supplies.
- Offer to clean their bath or kitchen next Saturday while they take their dog to the park for a specific hour.
- Give a 1 hour donation of your time so they can go out and walk, run, or do whatever they want.
What’s on your own list of top gifts? What kind of gift makes you happy? Does it relate to them?
What makes your life easier?
Our suggestions can crossover between and amongst the categories. Again, this is common sense, but I’m just confirming. Consider books – or any reading material in writing, in picture format or in braille as items that are always appropriate and cross every category.
Books for entrepreneurs are often great personalized gifts.
For example, awesome gift ideas for entrepreneurs involve reading. A book can make a great gift for new business owner or owner in any stage of business. This item can fall into nearly any category. It may free their mind and/or help them self-develop. Reading can keep them in, get them out, connect them with like-minded friends or book club members. If they have little ones around, reading together is perfect.
Reading material fits every category of gift giving.
Choosing the right material comes from considering those personal factors.
Other unique gifts and practical gifts for entrepreneurs
- ASK.
- Gift cards except an obscure fav of yours or to an inconvenient restaurant.
- Reconsider the classic 4 gift giving categories and expand upon them. Want. Need, Wear, Read. What else fits their need?
- Give them a letter from you with our without something very simple. A simple handwritten note on a piece of paper, or typed but signed, explaining why you bought this magnet, framed this quote, selected this card, or included this picture in the envelope.
- If they are going away or dreaming of a favorite place give them a small magnet or picture of that place – maybe one taken by a friend, or gum for the plane.
The thought behind giving a thoughtful gift is not to overthink it! Also though, don’t move to the opposite end of the spectrum where you give it no thought at all! Meet in the middle.
Don’t give something large for person living in a tight space. Don’t give candy to person on a diet.
If you love plants and fish but they travel a lot, do not give them a plant that requires tending or a fish.
I disagree with people who say the thought doesn’t matter. I disagree with those who expect expensive gifts for any reason. It’s the acknowledgement. The greatest gifts are often free. The greatest gifts may be your time, attention and recognition of their creativity and efforts. You got this.
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