Klaff's bagEvery woman I know recognizes the impact of receiving a turquoise box with a white satin ribbon around it tied in a bow. The message is that someone has gone to the very best jewelry store in the world and selected a gift for you. It almost doesn’t matter what’s in it, because the presentation supersedes the contents. At least, that’s what Tiffany has worked since 1837 to create.

So when my handyman gave me the bill for repairing my kitchen faucet yesterday, I did a double-take at the cost of the replacement cylinder- $85. But then I had to laugh when I saw that it had come packaged in the Klaff’s equivalent of the Tiffany packaging (shown here in the photo next to my printer so you can see how tiny it is). Somehow it softened the blow.

I’m curious what my entrepreneurial colleagues are doing to soften the blow? What’s your Tiffany bag these days, or always?