Entrepreneur's Day on 20 November: thanking your customers on a shoestring budget
- , by Verpakkingdeals.nl
- 6 min reading time
Entrepreneur's Day in 2026 falls on Friday, November 20. A setup you can complete in an afternoon: choose one gesture, calculate the cost per client, and order on time.
The third Friday of November is Entrepreneur's Day — in 2026, it falls on Friday, November 20th. It's an initiative by MKB-Nederland (the Dutch organization for small and medium-sized businesses), and the day essentially revolves around entrepreneurs themselves being celebrated: by customers, by municipalities, by their own staff. See the official Entrepreneur's Day website for what will be organized that year.
More and more small shops and webshops are turning the tables and using the day as an opportunity to give back to their customers. This is an excellent time: it falls before the rush of Black Friday and December, and you won't be competing with ten other discount emails that day. Below is a plan you can have ready in an afternoon, complete with costs.
Choose one gesture, not five
The most common mistake is a discount AND a card AND a giveaway AND a prize draw. That costs a lot and doesn't stand out at any point. Choose one thing and do it well. Roughly, there are three directions:
- Something in the box with every order that day. Works for webshops, costs little per package.
- Something at the counter for those who stop by. Works for physical stores and pick-up points.
- Something personal for your loyal customers or business clients: a handwritten card, not an email.
For most small business owners, option one is the cheapest and option three is the most effective. They are not mutually exclusive: you can put something small in the box and also write twenty cards to your best customers.
What a handwritten card costs
A handwritten card is still the gesture with the highest return per euro spent, precisely because almost no one does it. You don't need to have printed cards made; a blank card with an envelope is enough.
The greeting card envelopes of 156 x 220 mm in a box of 500 cost €2.95. For regular mail, use white envelopes 156 x 220 mm, 500 pieces (€3.00), and for a smaller size, the C6 white envelope 114 x 162 mm in 50 pieces (€4.00).
Don't write more than three sentences: what you're thankful for, something specific about that customer, and your name at the bottom. A card with "Thank you for your trust" and nothing else is as generic as an email — in that case, you might as well send an email.
Something in the box: calculate per package
Everything you include costs you three things: the purchase price, the time to put it in, and possibly extra weight or volume. The latter is the hidden cost — if your package falls into a higher shipping category due to the extra item, you'll end up spending more than you thought.
| Option | Price | Where it fits |
|---|---|---|
| Keychains display 10 pieces | €2.00 | Flat and light, fits in almost any letterbox delivery |
| Multitool keychain 10-in-1 | €4.95 | For business relations or loyal customers; weighs more |
| Keychains with whistle, 5 pieces | €7.95 | Small batch, for example for the first fifty orders |
| Freeze-dried apple rings | €5.99 | Edible extra; pay attention to shelf life and allergen information on the packaging |
Calculate your total budget in advance: number of expected orders that day × price per item. If you go over what you're willing to spend, reduce the group instead of the gift. Giving something good to fifty customers works better than giving something meaningless to five hundred customers.