Gift Ideas for the Entrepreneur

The best gift you can give any entrepreneur is one that will help them further their business ideas – whether that’s by keeping things organized, automating small tasks to free up time, or something that will keep them on track to meet their goals. However, if you don’t currently run your own business, then picking out a gift may seem like an impossible task!

Here are several gift ideas for the entrepreneur that are definitely worth considering:

  1. Credits for Copyscape Premium. If the entrepreneur you know runs a website, then content plays a huge part of their business strategy – which is exactly why a lot of webmasters choose to purchase articles instead of manually writing them all by hand. Unfortunately, not all service providers are honest, so it’s very important to check for duplicate and scraped content before posting anything online. As of right now, Copyscape is the industry leader to check for plagiarism, and each article run through the Premium account costs money.
  2. Office supplies to make life easier and more comfortable. There is no greater gift for the entrepreneur that spends the majority of their time behind a computer than something that will make the day more comfortable. For instance, a good office chair to help them maintain proper posture while sitting so they don’t damage their back during all those long work hours will always be appreciated!
  3. Financial tracking software. Everyone needs help staying on top of their finances, especially an entrepreneur running their own startup. In addition to tax software and scripts to help automate payroll, you may want to look into programs that can help them track their advertising budget, as well. Of course, this is one of those gift ideas for the entrepreneur that should probably be approved by them first before making a purchase.
  4. Coffee, enough said. Staying up for long periods of time trying to manage a hectic work schedule isn’t easy, and everyone needs a little boost of energy sometimes. If you really want to win them over, make a gift basket out of a few really nice gourmet coffees – something that most entrepreneurs probably won’t splurge on if they’re starting up on a shoe-string budget.
  5. Tools for building and maintaining a website. Although there are a lot of tools out there now to make building a website easier, there’s still quite a bit involved. If you happen to be web-savvy as well, then you may consider picking up their favorite WordPress theme, a premium plug-in they’ve been dying to get, or a program to help automate link building.
  6. A year’s subscription to their favorite business forum or magazine. Almost any entrepreneur would agree that the best way to learn how to make money with your own business is to analyze what’s already working for other business owners.  Then again, a subscription may end up backfiring as a gift, too – it may prove to be too much of a distraction!
  7. Offer to help cover some of the legal fees that go into building a business. In addition to incorporating a business, or setting up a DBA (Doing Business As), there are a lot of fees that go into keeping things legal. For instance, for an entrepreneur who is running an online home-based business, there are legal forms that should ideally be tailored their specific products and website.

However, before you buy anything, it’s important to remember that entrepreneurs come in many different forms, so there aren’t any one-size-fits-all gifts. For example, there’s very little reason to give an eBook writer craft supplies because it wouldn’t further their business; in fact, it would probably just distract them! Yet, a person who has built up a small crafting business would greatly benefit from a gift like that.

If you’re still at a complete loss after reading through the above gift ideas for the entrepreneur, then there’s no harm in picking up a gift card so they can purchase the supplies that they need. Additionally, if you can’t think of anything useful that a gift card could buy, then you may want to consider sending them a payment through PayPal instead. This would work similar to the way a gift card would; however, they would be able to choose where to spend the money.

23 Comments

  1. Great list Marissa! I use Mint for my personal finances and just started using Wave a couple months ago for the blogging side of things. So farI like Wave but will have to see how it works with taxes and year-end.

  2. I think a lot of entrepreneurs would appreciate these kinds of gifts. Some though likely prefer something unrelated to business that they might not normally splurge on themselves. Experience gifts are always good – like a gift card for a nice restaurant or tickets to some kind of adventurous activity. Things like that give a nice break from their business. It all depends on the person though and what stage they are at with their business. Some may need more help financing their business expenses.

  6. What a cool niche idea. I don’t think many people ever consider that Entrepreneurs need help too, and any of these ideas would work! Especially No. 4 🙂

  7. Nothing beats a comfy chair, especially when sitting in it for 8-10 hours per day. I would also suggest a good pen. I used to always use the bic 10 for 1.00 pens, which would constantly stop writing or leak. I bought a $20 pen and will never go back.

  8. Definitely all great gifts. A book on entrepreneurship would also make a great gift. Also recommending their services through your social network goes a long away.

  10. Great ideas!
    A tool for managing their mailing list can be a great practical gift (like Aweber or others).

    I’m using SBI for building my site – it’s a wonderful package that has all the tools I need. All that’s left for me to do is build my business… I think it’s a gift that every entrepreneur will really appreciate!

  12. I’d think lunch or a call or a message from a business mentor would be really cool. It might be a long shot but you never know – maybe they’ll agree to leave a message on your voicemail to play for them – or set up a skype call -(can you record them?) for a quick video hello and words of encouragement.

    Imagine how special it would be if you could make it happen?

    Great… now I want to do this… I’ll let you know if I try and succeed.

  14. Great list, Marissa!

    Being a new entrepreneur, any one of these ideas would be perfect for where I am right now (especially the coffee!). I find that the legal part is the area that I was least prepared for and the most expensive. Having help covering some of those costs would be perfect. Right now, I am working on a fun and easy app called iWishfor, that allows people to save and share gift ideas with family and friends. You should check us out at http://iwishforapp.com!

    Ian
    Founder – iWishfor
    http://iwishforapp.com

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