Gearing up for the Holidays

Greetings, colleagues! Halloween is the official start (to me, anyway) of the holidays. Apparently at least one customer agrees – I sold my first Christmas gift certificate of the season Halloween morning.

If you’ve been in business through more than one Christmas, you know how that goes.  In looking back at Christmases past, I see my gift certificate sales have steadily increased every year, and that reminds me to get ready for the next season—Redemption. Try to remember that money from gift certificate sales is money that you have received that you are going to have to give someone something in exchange for later on, and don’t go crazy spending it all on your holiday shopping.  During the month of January there’s no cash coming through the door, just a bunch of smiling people coming in to redeem their massage, and meanwhile your expenses go right on.

In recent years the federal government and a number of states have enacted new laws governing gift certificates and their expiration dates.  Just to mention a few of these, in California, Connecticut, Montana and New Hampshire, no expiration date is allowed at all unless the certificate is for more than 100.00.  In Rhode Island, Washington, and Florida, certificates cannot expire unless they have been donated to a charity.  In Illinois, the expiration date must be five years from the date of sale. Some states actually have laws requiring you to turn money over to the state for your unredeemed certificates after a certain period of time.  It seems to me like it’s just one more way for big government to squeeze the small business owner! The laws vary widely from state to state.  Here’s a website with the details.

Be sure your gift certificate policies comply with the laws in your state, and Happy Selling!