Their friends and families have a virtual travelogue of their vacations simply from the collection of postcards. People are happy to receive cards, even in this day and age of the electronic media. It has a tangible feeling of genuine and personal warmth to it. This is why, business holiday cards continue to be a popular item among the large brands. How many of you have received a card from American Express or from the Prada boutique or from your Ford dealer; does it not at least make you smile that you are important enough for them to bother sending you a card?

Just like receiving a card from a friend or a loved one who has gone on a vacation tells you that you are in their hearts and their minds while holidaying, receiving a business Christmas card tells you that some one actually cares about their customer – you!

For many small business owners, this can be challenging. It is time consuming and sometimes expensive to engage designers, copywriters and printers to make business holiday cards. Fortunately, this can be easily done online. If you know that Halloween is coming, and in your rush to take care of your own business, all you have to do is go online and find a site that has a ready selection of  Halloween cards that you can choose, customize and order. Saves you a lot of time and usually, can be done very quickly.

To get your business holiday cards done, you first have to think about what message you want to send. It could be as simple as a “Happy Easter” or as specific as messages for Mother’s Day cards targeted at specific clients. In fact, there is a huge range of different occasions that you can find business holiday cards for. Even something as unique as Hanukkah cards can be found online.

Once you know your message, and you have found a design that you like, simply get it printed immediately.

So, the next time you go on a vacation, or you have a big holiday coming up, don’t forget that it just might be an excellent opportunity for you to send out some business holiday cards.

Just came across this really interesting article over at Bing where a photo journalist shares his view of the places you should NOT go for your vacation. Quite an interesting read. Check it out for yourself:

Don’t Go There For Vacation

For example, he shares about Lagos, Nigeria and how the place is so terribly overcrowded. Then there are the nuclear sites, which would really make it a hot vacation for you.

While we only want to think happy thoughts when going for a holiday, the reality is that sometimes, we need to be aware of the duds too!

Happy holidays!

There is a ‘Do Not Travel’ category. This classification can affect your travel insurance because insurers will examine the coverage issues in travel to these countries.

The current list includes several countries in the midst of wars, and others with major internal issues and conflicts. They are considered dangerous because some of these countries comprises world insurgents, militants and terrorists that target foreigners, especially those from the western countries like USA and Europe.

• Afghanistan
• Burundi
• Central African Republic
• Chad
• Guinea
• Iraq
• Niger
• Somalia
• Sudan

This  ‘Do Not Travel’ list is compiled based on the government’s assessment of risk, known dangers, and professional threat assessments by security and intelligence agencies. Naturally the countries being listed aren’t too happy and have lodged complains against it.   In many cases the ‘Do Not Travel’ advisory has been proven to be accurate. You don’t have to be a military expert or a politician to know, the media will tell you with spreads of news articles and photographs.

Additional Reading: Travel Tips Australia

Until then, I’m back home busying working to earn my keep and holiday money.

However, come summer, I’m going down to Singapore for a 3-day business trip and then I’m taking the weekend to check out Eran Katz’s The Super Memory Power Seminar and The Nobel Prize Brain Workshop If you don’t know this dude, well, he is the Guinness Book of Record for Best Memory Stunt. He recited 500 numbers front to back and back to front and that earned him the a placing in the Israeli Guinness Book of Record.

I travel a lot for work. Before I make a trip, I have tons of homework to do and digest. I got to remember procedures, processes, formula and names and faces. Gee, I hate that last bit. Either I remember faces and forgotten names or the other way. So when I heard that he is visiting Singapore at the same time, I’m signing up. I rather pay Singapore dollar, it’s so much cheaper than doing here or Japan or Europe. I heard that the Japaneses really like this dude. Well, let’s see if he really can teach moi something!