Listawood's Business in a Box initiative makes it possible for companies such as printers, copy shops, engravers and signmakers become distributors of branded merchandise without having to invest anything more than a little of their time.

From product giveaways to business gifts and premiums, promotional merchandise is widely used in external marketing campaigns to thank customers, introduce new products and services, generate sales leads for existing products and boost direct mail response rates to name but a few applications while, internally, it is often used in employee motivation schemes.

When a business owner is analysing the sales performance of the past year and looking at the growth plan for the year ahead, one item that should always be highlighted is potential new markets. More often than not, this area is ignored because of the amount of work that needs to be put into a new product category for the business. However, due to the challenging times we face in 2009 and maybe even into 2010, any activity that can capture new business must be investigated and considered.