Scary or what? That wonderful website Springwise (daily fixes of entrepreneurial ideas) reports the US business that provides you with a fake child.

Why? So that you can get the same perks as parents i.e having to leave work early on certain occasions. Neat idea but can it also, in the spirit of the fairness it seeks, deliver sleepless nights and the occasional stress of a real child? I doubt it. Read more at springwise.com

1. I am currently out at a job interview and will reply to you if I fail to get the position. Be prepared for my mood.

2. You are receiving this automatic notification because I am out of the office. If I was in, chances are you wouldn’t have received anything at all.

3. Sorry to have missed you, but I am at the doctor’s having my brain removed so I can be promoted to our management team.

4. I will be unable to delete all the unread, worthless emails you send me until I return from holiday on 18 April. Please be patient, and your mail will be deleted in the order it was received.

5. Thank you for your email. Your credit card has been charged £4.99 for the first 10 words and £0.99 for each additional word in your message.

6. The email server is unable to verify your server connection and is unable to deliver this message. Please restart your computer and try sending again. (The beauty of this is that when you return, you can see how many in-duh-viduals did this over and over.)

7. Thank you for your message, which has been added to a queuing system. You are currently in 352nd place, and can expect to receive a reply in approximately 19 weeks.

8. Hi, I’m thinking about what you’ve just sent me. Please wait by your PC for my response.

9. I’ve run away to join a different circus.

10. I will be out of the office for the next 2 weeks for medical reasons. When I return, please refer to me as ‘Loretta’ instead of ‘Scott’.

Please feel free to use the comment facility and tell me your favourite or to add your own ideas.

Are you focused on flogging stuff or building relationships? The difference is substantial but often misunderstood. 

Doug Levy has written an interesting article titled 5 principles of breakthrough success in the “Relationship Era”. Levy talks about the history and evolution of business through the following phases:

Product Era: The focus is solely on transactions.
Consumer Era: The focus is still on transactions, but the idea of trust enters the dialogue as a way to persuade people to transact more.
Relationship Era: Trust between a brand and consumer is mutual. Trust and transactions are seen as distinct, and both are important. 

I especially like his succinct principles for a relationship: 

Principle 1: Clarify purpose
Principle 2: Commit to sustainable relationships
Principle 3: Connect with authenticity
Principle 4: Treat customers as partners
Principle 5: Engage 

My thanks to Sarah Derry #sarahderry for telling me about this article. Read the complete article.

Driving up Whitehall today I spotted a Manns Travel coach with a sign in the front window, “Girls Grammer”. Do you think the girls get on the coach every day and ignore the spelling mistake? Do you think they know the word grammar is spelt incorrectly?

This led me to wonder if there is any evidence that spelling mistakes had a negative effect on a brand’s image.

There is a lot of anecdotal comments and opinion on the web; Larry Chase says, spelling errors affect response rates. And there are humorous references relating to brands a poor spelling. I particularly like this Maserati advert spelling mistake. But I’ve failed to find any quantifiable research/data on the subject. Are you aware of any?

It’s incredible to think where we’ve come from. Seventy years ago the first voucher appeared on the high street in the form of a book token. Who could have predicted how the voucher and card industry would change and develop, becoming a currency for both everyday and business life, and who amongst us can predict what the future will look like for these ever-changing incentives?

Even in the past couple of years we’ve seen rapid development; the introduction of gift card centres, shops and stores; the beginning of e-vouchers and mobile phone technology, plus we’ve seen non-retailers (restaurants, experience companies) for the first time, emerge strongly into the marketplace alongside the traditional high-street retail vouchers and gift cards. Where to next – will paper totally disappear? Will new technology take over when traditional products have lost their way?

So, where is the market going? And, what will it look like in five or even 10 years time? Unfortunately none of us know all the answers to these questions and we can only begin to speculate. What I do know is that it is essential that the recipients of vouchers, e-vouchers, gift cards etc – whether they be consumers, customers or employees – get a product that they want, a product that excites, motivates and inspires them and one that is easy-to-use and flexible.

As voucher and card suppliers we need to keep this front of mind in everything we do. Ultimately, our aim is to keep the excitement and enjoyment alive and make the voucher and gift card industry buoyant for another 70 years – in whatever format that may be.

The book “Scroogenomics: Why You Shouldn’t Buy Presents For The Holidays” was published just in time for the Christmas gift market. It is written by Joel Waldfogel who outlines why we should turn our backs on the Christmas gift market. It’s all a big waste, he believes.

Waldfogel’s surveys have asked people how much they would have paid for gifts had they not received the items. The average the recipient would have paid comes out at nearly 20% less than was actually paid. This results in a global loss of value of some £15bn, yes billion, pounds.

An interesting theory and you can read a little more about it in this BBC article. When I heard this item on BBC Radio 4 it seemed to ignore the value gained by the giver of the presents.

What are your thoughts on this subject? There are some wonderful examples of bad gifts in the comments section of the BBC article.

To support the opinion that you can get vouchers for anything…it appears you can now get a divorce voucher. Lloyd Platt & Company, a London law firm, are offering gift vouchers so that you can ‘gift divorce’ to a friend.

The firm’s founder, Vanessa Lloyd Platt, said she had been amazed at the response (just over 60 sales so far) to the vouchers. “They seem to appeal to an enormously widespread spectrum of people looking for that ‘must have’ gift for Christmas,” she said.

In essence of course this is little more than a sales promotion. One half hour at £125 will hardly address the needs of most prospective divorcees. A good effort by Lloyd Platt & Company as they do have people talking about them.

Read more about this on MSNBC.msn.com.