money talks

Friends,

2025 is a fascinating year to be in business. Between tariffs, bloated shipping rates, and the current state of the market, I’m sensing ripples of anxiety throughout our entire client base. If you’re extra stressed…know that you’re not alone.

• Afraid your budget won’t stretch as far as it used to?
• Is your favorite swag item now out of your price range?
• Is the C-Suite rolling out budget cuts + increased growth goals?

suffering in imagination

Don’t get me wrong – these are very real stressors. So why am I still leaning into love?

One of my favorite lines from Seneca happens to be, “We suffer more in imagination than in reality.”

The antidote to that imaginary suffering? Let’s use our words and talk it out. Humans are uncannily resilient; especially when we stick together. In a culture that prefers faceless transactions, these tight squeezes are a beautiful opportunity to build deeper relationships. Maybe the situation isn’t as dire as you first thought.

can i tell you a tale of two clients?

The first gave in to fear.

A new client came to us with a big project. Unbeknownst to us, the “higher ups” were dishing up heaping spoonfuls of budget pressure. Instead of trusting us to find gifts with high perceived value on a budget, our client chose a lonelier path via good ol’ Google – searching for cheaper options in the same categories. Spoiler: When the cheaper items arrived, they proved to be exactly that. Cheaper quality. Cheaper imprinting style. Chaos and disappointment ensued.

The second leaned into love.

We manage an ongoing custom gifting program for one of our clients. This year, nearly all of the items in their kit went up in cost. Plus, FedEx ground rates increased at the same time…moving the entire program out of budget (by quite a bit). Instead of striking out on their own, this client leaned on the boompromo team. Together, we restructured the program, made slight changes to the swag items, and switched the drop shipments to USPS instead of FedEx. Viola! Back within budget. Not so scary.

Have the money talk. Trust your humans. We’ll get through this together.

In your corner since 2007,

Zack