Bosses likely to be more giving this holiday

Business owners may be a little more generous with their gifts this holiday season.

Owners who send clients or customers gifts say they’ll spend slightly more this month, with the average gift budget inching up 2 percent to $966, according to a semiannual survey of small businesses by American Express.

Cards and calendars continue to dominate the category, with fruit sent by 9 percent of the firms. Gift certificate popularity is soaring, doubling to 8 percent from last year.

The bigger the firm, the more generous owners may be.

Sixty percent of firms with revenue above $200,000 are likely to award bonuses, compared with 26 percent of smaller firms. More than half of the bigger firms had a holiday party planned, compared to about a third of smaller ones. They’re also more likely to give holiday gifts (40 percent versus 28 percent) and offer pay raises (27 percent versus 10 percent).

The 11-day telephone survey was based on a nationally representative sample of 787 small business owners/managers of companies with fewer than 100 employees.

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