Services as gifts
Services as gifts
When Mickey Blake asked me last year what I wanted for my birthday, I was stumped for a while. Most of the things I want I can readily buy, unless it's something so expensive that it wouldn't be appropriate for a birthday present anyway. I have closets and drawers full of clothing that I only use half of. I haven't read the majority of books we have.
I thought it over for a while, and finally realised that what I would very most love to get was not a thing at all. Mickey is really good at organising, and I have a garage workshop that's a horrid mess. Would she be willing to spend the time to get it nice and systematic? Yes, she would (come summer)!
The more I think about this, the more I like the idea of "services as gifts". Are you particularly good at something? Offer your friends and family gifts in the form of doing that thing for them. Good color sense? Help them pick paints. Big and strong? Help them move or build something. Computer geek? Help them secure their computer or make a web page. Whatever they need done that you can spend some time helping them get done, do that.
Not only does this do away with the whole shopping frustrating and the end result of having a lot of semi-useless stuff, it also makes your present a very personal experience. And it show that you're willing to give them what may be the most valuable thing you have: Your time.
Can't do this because your friends and family are too far away, you say? No problem: Google Hangouts and other video conferencing systems allows cooperating on a task from anywhere -- it's even commercialised as Google Helpouts.
When Mickey Blake asked me last year what I wanted for my birthday, I was stumped for a while. Most of the things I want I can readily buy, unless it's something so expensive that it wouldn't be appropriate for a birthday present anyway. I have closets and drawers full of clothing that I only use half of. I haven't read the majority of books we have.
I thought it over for a while, and finally realised that what I would very most love to get was not a thing at all. Mickey is really good at organising, and I have a garage workshop that's a horrid mess. Would she be willing to spend the time to get it nice and systematic? Yes, she would (come summer)!
The more I think about this, the more I like the idea of "services as gifts". Are you particularly good at something? Offer your friends and family gifts in the form of doing that thing for them. Good color sense? Help them pick paints. Big and strong? Help them move or build something. Computer geek? Help them secure their computer or make a web page. Whatever they need done that you can spend some time helping them get done, do that.
Not only does this do away with the whole shopping frustrating and the end result of having a lot of semi-useless stuff, it also makes your present a very personal experience. And it show that you're willing to give them what may be the most valuable thing you have: Your time.
Can't do this because your friends and family are too far away, you say? No problem: Google Hangouts and other video conferencing systems allows cooperating on a task from anywhere -- it's even commercialised as Google Helpouts.
And if you're giving them as gifts, you can make a personalized gift card to give them, saying "Good for **"!
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