Regardless of the occasion, men usually find it hard to know what to buy the women in their lives during Christmas, Valentine’s Day, anniversaries and birthdays; men always struggle on the idea of gift-giving, especially for their significant others. But on the contrary, women are typically easy to please and easy to buy for. Here are a few of the best presents and gift ideas for women that can never go wrong.

Cashmere is Always Nice

Giving anything cashmere is like walking on safe ground. Although it can be a little expensive to buy her a cashmere sweater, there are smaller articles from cashmere that are less expensive but are just as luxurious. Small things such as a cashmere scarf, gloves, shawl, a wrap, socks or slippers will be very much appreciated. But be careful that you get 100 percent cashmere and not a fake, wool blend.

Bath and Body Stuff

Majority of women adore both and body products that make them feel or smell good. If you have no idea about such products, the best presents almost always sound or like something you would like to put in your mouth – gingerbread, candy, vanilla, and chocolate. All you need to do is to read the labels.

A Watch

Giving a woman a watch is always a good gesture. Even if she already has one, keep in mind that all women need more than one, in almost anything. If the watch that she is currently using is a bit sporty or is really intended for a day to day, rugged use, you can buy her a dressy watch to wear for special occasions and for formal dates. If she already has a fancy watch, go for something more “fun”.

Cosmetics and Fragrance

One of the best presents that you can give a woman is something that will make her feel and look beautiful. There are a lot of cosmetic and fragrance gift sets available and women love getting these. Even if they do not wear that much make up, there is always that one product that they fancy – a moisturizer or a bottle of perfume, perhaps.

Jewelry or Pearl

Another member of the best presents that you can give a woman is a set of elegant pearls. Pearls, such as earrings, necklaces or bracelets are a timeless gift that would make any woman happy to receive. But be careful in giving away jewelry and pearls, they should be of good quality. Pearls should be cultured, and not just a cheap imitation and preferably a graded AA quality, at the least. Any piece of jewelry or pearls is a classic gift that all women can wear in a formal function.

PowerPoint presentations may be the curse of our age, while it can be an effective tool for backing up your talk all too often it becomes an ugly distraction from what you are going to say. The best presenters always remember their audience is there to listen to them and not watch a slideshow. Here are three simple tips for making sure your audience is with you and not flinching at your visuals.

Keep the Slides to a Minimum

The first key is to make sure you aren’t overdoing the visual information, if your audience has to keep up with an endless procession of slides they simply cannot concentrate on what you are saying. You should have no more than one slide for every 5 minutes you speak, excluding the cover page and the thank you/goodbye page. More than that and you won’t be the focus of attention and your message will be lost.

Keep Content to a Minimum

Let’s be blunt about this, your visuals should be visual. That means get rid of any unnecessary wording, and at most if you want to include words you should have no more than seven bullet points on a slide and no more than seven words per bullet point. The objective is to highlight key content, not to replicate your speech, if you really feel you need to churn out the whole content of your talk – then create handouts and don’t give them to people until you’ve finished speaking. The more you write down, the more your audience will be reading and not listening.

Wherever possible make sure your visuals are pictorial instead, use graphs, pie charts, pictures, flow diagrams, to enhance your points and reveal key data and trends. Audiences can then relate to your speech, which should explain what they see and add to it.

Lose the Effects

Yes, you can do amazing things with PowerPoint – graphics can swoop onto the screen, slide onto it, bounce, etc. and yet none of this adds any value to your talk at all. If you really must use effects, then be consistent, only use one and use it all the way through. It’s always better not to use them at all though, they are distracting and in the long run a huge source (of unintended) mirth for the audience.

Making a presentation can be nerve wracking enough without spending forever developing an all encompassing PowerPoint display which only detracts from your talk, keep it simple by following these three rules and you’ll always be better received.