Promotional T-shirts are still an effective way to draw attention to your brand

by Kim Vermaak 09 February 2014 Today there is so much competition to get noticed. Plus so much information out there. In the promotional clothing and promotional gift industry, I have seen a lot of gifts and t-shirts, but three weeks ago, I noticed a t-shirt’s slogan made me ask a total stranger to turn around and show me the front of his t-shirt. His t-shirt said “Getting bosses and their secretaries out of trouble since 1997”. Now when he turned around the actual company that the shirt was advertising was both a particularly exciting type of products, but definitely necessary and it certainly got my attention with the catchy slogan on the back of the t-shirt. In today’s fast paced and highly competitive business world, standing out is the key. The good news is that there are more ways to reach people than ever before in history, and if you’re willing to think outside of the box and pay attention to your clientele, you can strike the right chord. Choose Great Graphic design Once of the best ways for attracting customers to small businesses these days, particularly when the clientele are under 35, is through graphic design. Graphic design might seem a bit unusual, but today’s generation is all about being unusual and standing out. This allows building a brand that is both highly recognizable, a path for future success. Custom t-shirts The reason why you don’t need to spend money and why spending money won’t give you the results you’re looking for is because people in today’s younger generations aren’t driven by the old school ad campaigns that used to work. There are so many younger generations making purchasing decisions. So make sure that your custom t-shirts have a great appeal for a younger market. Since start-ups generally don’t have deep pockets, you really need to plan ahead. That means you should start by trying to be creative from the very beginning. One of the tactics you can try is to use t-shirts that are inexpensive and custom made. You can’t do much better than a good run of t-shirts if you’re trying to get the public wise to your business, what you do, and why people should come to you. T-shirts Work Lots of businesses, with small businesses in particular, tend to look toward t-shirts as a marketing tool of choice because it gives them the results they are looking for at a budget they can afford. A t-shirt is like a billboard that walks everywhere and interacts with future customers on your behalf. In some ways, it’s even better than a billboard because of that element of personal interaction. If you want success, you should figure out a way to get people to do your marketing for you through t-shirts. In a recent study, Brand exposure on Corporate Gifts clearly leaves a compelling impression on recipients when compared to other forms of advertising. 56% of recipients of corporate gifts said their opinion of the brand or company was more favourable. Tips to keep in mind Use graphics, use colour, use size a large size print on your t-shirts, Take advantage of any avenues of distribution you can think of. If you have employees, for example, all of them should be wearing your t-shirts everywhere they go. Ask friend who want you to succeed to wear your t-shirts. Think simple. Your design should be easy to figure out visually, but at the same time, you should make it stand out so it sticks in the mind. And finally, you want your t-shirts to be packaged with your products so people are likely to pick them up when they pick up your products. There are a number of reasons to look toward promotional t-shirts when it comes to small business marketing. T-shirts are cheap and effective billboards that reach people personally. Just keep things creative and you’ll start racking up customers before you know it. If you need to find out more about promotional t-shirts contact Belle Regalo info@belleregalo.co.za or call us on (011) 593 2450 or 082 948 7461.

Best Branding for Corporate Clothing

Corporate clothing is a wonderful promotional tool. But bad branding is like getting a tattoo on your face. You had better be sure before you take the plunge. Many companies use corporate clothing to help enhance their corporate image and also use corporate clothing as uniforms. Companies have large spends on corporate identity, but sometimes get unstuck when it comes to applying their branding to their corporate clothing. Here are some check points when branding your corporate clothing. 1. Know Your Company Logo A logo is made up of the design, but also the pantone colours. Some designs are made with print in mind, but cannot be easily embroidered. We have a client who entered into a joint venture and had lounge shirts done for the project. The designer added text to the bottom of the logo. When we converted the logo into an embroidery format we saw that the letters would have merged into each other making the letting illegible. So we had to recommend to the client that they alter their logo to allow for bigger lettering. When you have a logo designed asked the designer, what pantone colours match the logo. Pantone is an international numbering system for inks. When you know your pantone, you can ensure that you corporate clothing always has the correct colour. Embroidery threads do not match pantone colours, but using a pantone reference books embroiderer’s get the closes thread match for you. When you send through your logo, make sure that you have a high resolution good quality logo. The better the quality of the logo, the better the quality of the branding. 2. Know the difference between different kinds of branding Embroidery on corporate clothing Embroidery is when the logo is made of masses of tiny stitches. Almost like colouring in the logo with a needle and thread onto your corporate clothing. Embroidery adds a quality and expensive look to corporate clothing. Embroidery can be cost effective if your logo is small. But don’t scrimp on stich count. If your embroidery quote looks very low as why. Some embroiderers’ compete only on price and use few stitches, so that they will appear to be cheaper, but that is all that it is, cheap and cheap does not enhance a brand. There must be sufficient stitches to cover the area and not have bit of fabric peeking through your logo. You would use embroidery of jackets, lounge shirts, fleece, caps and jerseys. In the motoring industry embroidery is often used on pit shirts. Heat Transfer on corporate clothing Heat transfer printing is a method of printing fibres with disperses dyes. The dyes are designed and are then transferred from pre-printed paper onto a fabric by contact heat and then the dyes are absorbed by the fabric. Heat transfer is great for producing clear and very well defined images. It works almost like an iron on label, but on a much bigger scale. Heat transfers are commonly used when you need to put a photo onto a garment. It is generally more costly than silk screening. However if there is a lot of definition, then heat transfers can be cheaper than silk -screening. Silk-screening on corporate clothing Screen printing is a printing technique that uses a woven mesh to support an ink-blocking stencil to receive a desired image. The attached stencil forms open areas of mesh that transfer ink or other printable materials which can be pressed through the mesh as a sharp-edged image onto a substrate. A fill blade or squeegee is moved across the screen stencil, forcing or pumping ink into the mesh openings for transfer by capillary action during the squeegee stroke. Basically, it is the process of using a stencil to apply ink onto a substrate, whether it is t-shirts, posters, stickers, vinyl, wood, or other material. The vast majority of t-shirts are branded using silk screening. Although you can silk screen a number of corporate clothing items, it is not as durable as embroidery, so it is more likely to be used on low cost corporate clothing items such as conti-suits and t-shirts. 3. Know how costing works for branding on corporate clothing Whatever branding you are using for corporate clothing, there is always a set up cost. This is the cost to set up the machine to work on your job. A machine or silk screener can only work on one job at a time. For embroidery your logo has to be programmed into the machines. For silk-screening, the screens have to be placed onto the frames. The process where the machine operator or silk-screening sets up the work station is called the set up and you are charged for this. Some companies will build this cost into the cost of their garments, so it is not visible, but this cost always exists. As the set up cost is done at the start of each job, you can divide this cost by the total number of corporate clothing items that you are branding. For embroidery your costs are calculated by working out many stitches it takes to colour in your logo. This means that the bigger your logo on your corporate clothing, the more stitches will be used and the higher the cost of your logo on your corporate clothing. For silk screening the costs are calculated by how many colours you need to print. New screens are made for every colour. If you have a colour printer at your office, you may be tempted to think that your t-shirt or other corporate clothing will come out nice and quickly like it does on your printer. For silk-screening of corporate clothing, the silk screener will put up the first screen with the first colour and then print that colour. Then he or she will remove the screen, set up a new screen and then print the second colour. So the more colours you have the more times this has to be repeated. That is why you pay per colour of your t-shirt or other corporate clothing. 4. Getting Artwork Approvals A good quality high resolution logo will produce the best quality branding on your corporate clothing. You can think of it as the foundation of your branding on your corporate clothing. Once you have sent through your artwork, then the branding department will produce a layout approval. This will show where the logo will be positioned on the item and will also indicate what the pantone colours are. If you have not supplied your pantone colours, then the branding department will do an estimate of what the colour should be. The responsibility always lies with the client to make sure that the colour is correct. Once you have signed the approval, you are accepting it the way that it is and you cannot have it changed once the job is underway. The layout approval is like a branding contract that you enter into. Some clients prefer to have a pre-production sample. This is a matter of personal preference. Thousands of logos are embroidered or silk screened every day without a pre-production sample. But if this is your first time using a supplier or if you have a manger who micro manages, or if you have very strict corporate identity rules then you will get a lot of reassurance getting a pre-production sample. Many companies will charge you a separate set up fee for this service, as they have to set up the machines for only one item. Even a small company can get the benefits of having corporate clothing. Going through these simple branding tools can help you to get the best results for your corporate clothing branding budget. For more information about corporate clothing contact Belle Regalo on info@belleregalo.co.za or 0829487461 or visit our site www.belleregalo.co.za

Best Branding for Corporate Clothing

Corporate clothing is a wonderful promotional tool. But bad branding is like getting a tattoo on your face. You had better be sure before you take the plunge. Many companies use corporate clothing to help enhance their corporate image and also use corporate clothing as uniforms. Companies have large spends on corporate identity, but sometimes get unstuck when it comes to applying their branding to their corporate clothing. Here are some check points when branding your corporate clothing. 1. Know Your Company Logo A logo is made up of the design, but also the pantone colours. Some designs are made with print in mind, but cannot be easily embroidered. We have a client who entered into a joint venture and had lounge shirts done for the project. The designer added text to the bottom of the logo. When we converted the logo into an embroidery format we saw that the letters would have merged into each other making the letting illegible. So we had to recommend to the client that they alter their logo to allow for bigger lettering. When you have a logo designed asked the designer, what pantone colours match the logo. Pantone is an international numbering system for inks. When you know your pantone, you can ensure that you corporate clothing always has the correct colour. Embroidery threads do not match pantone colours, but using a pantone reference books embroiderer’s get the closes thread match for you. When you send through your logo, make sure that you have a high resolution good quality logo. The better the quality of the logo, the better the quality of the branding. 2. Know the difference between different kinds of branding Embroidery on corporate clothing Embroidery is when the logo is made of masses of tiny stitches. Almost like colouring in the logo with a needle and thread onto your corporate clothing. Embroidery adds a quality and expensive look to corporate clothing. Embroidery can be cost effective if your logo is small. But don’t scrimp on stich count. If your embroidery quote looks very low as why. Some embroiderers’ compete only on price and use few stitches, so that they will appear to be cheaper, but that is all that it is, cheap and cheap does not enhance a brand. There must be sufficient stitches to cover the area and not have bit of fabric peeking through your logo. You would use embroidery of jackets, lounge shirts, fleece, caps and jerseys. In the motoring industry embroidery is often used on pit shirts. Heat Transfer on corporate clothing Heat transfer printing is a method of printing fibres with disperses dyes. The dyes are designed and are then transferred from pre-printed paper onto a fabric by contact heat and then the dyes are absorbed by the fabric. Heat transfer is great for producing clear and very well defined images. It works almost like an iron on label, but on a much bigger scale. Heat transfers are commonly used when you need to put a photo onto a garment. It is generally more costly than silk screening. However if there is a lot of definition, then heat transfers can be cheaper than silk -screening. Silk-screening on corporate clothing Screen printing is a printing technique that uses a woven mesh to support an ink-blocking stencil to receive a desired image. The attached stencil forms open areas of mesh that transfer ink or other printable materials which can be pressed through the mesh as a sharp-edged image onto a substrate. A fill blade or squeegee is moved across the screen stencil, forcing or pumping ink into the mesh openings for transfer by capillary action during the squeegee stroke. Basically, it is the process of using a stencil to apply ink onto a substrate, whether it is t-shirts, posters, stickers, vinyl, wood, or other material. The vast majority of t-shirts are branded using silk screening. Although you can silk screen a number of corporate clothing items, it is not as durable as embroidery, so it is more likely to be used on low cost corporate clothing items such as conti-suits and t-shirts. 3. Know how costing works for branding on corporate clothing Whatever branding you are using for corporate clothing, there is always a set up cost. This is the cost to set up the machine to work on your job. A machine or silk screener can only work on one job at a time. For embroidery your logo has to be programmed into the machines. For silk-screening, the screens have to be placed onto the frames. The process where the machine operator or silk-screening sets up the work station is called the set up and you are charged for this. Some companies will build this cost into the cost of their garments, so it is not visible, but this cost always exists. As the set up cost is done at the start of each job, you can divide this cost by the total number of corporate clothing items that you are branding. For embroidery your costs are calculated by working out many stitches it takes to colour in your logo. This means that the bigger your logo on your corporate clothing, the more stitches will be used and the higher the cost of your logo on your corporate clothing. For silk screening the costs are calculated by how many colours you need to print. New screens are made for every colour. If you have a colour printer at your office, you may be tempted to think that your t-shirt or other corporate clothing will come out nice and quickly like it does on your printer. For silk-screening of corporate clothing, the silk screener will put up the first screen with the first colour and then print that colour. Then he or she will remove the screen, set up a new screen and then print the second colour. So the more colours you have the more times this has to be repeated. That is why you pay per colour of your t-shirt or other corporate clothing. 4. Getting Artwork Approvals A good quality high resolution logo will produce the best quality branding on your corporate clothing. You can think of it as the foundation of your branding on your corporate clothing. Once you have sent through your artwork, then the branding department will produce a layout approval. This will show where the logo will be positioned on the item and will also indicate what the pantone colours are. If you have not supplied your pantone colours, then the branding department will do an estimate of what the colour should be. The responsibility always lies with the client to make sure that the colour is correct. Once you have signed the approval, you are accepting it the way that it is and you cannot have it changed once the job is underway. The layout approval is like a branding contract that you enter into. Some clients prefer to have a pre-production sample. This is a matter of personal preference. Thousands of logos are embroidered or silk screened every day without a pre-production sample. But if this is your first time using a supplier or if you have a manger who micro manages, or if you have very strict corporate identity rules then you will get a lot of reassurance getting a pre-production sample. Many companies will charge you a separate set up fee for this service, as they have to set up the machines for only one item. Even a small company can get the benefits of having corporate clothing. Going through these simple branding tools can help you to get the best results for your corporate clothing branding budget. For more information about corporate clothing contact Belle Regalo on info@belleregalo.co.za or 0829487461 or visit our site www.belleregalo.co.za

Golf shirts are not just for golf days

Golf shirts are not just for golf days. They are one of those corporate clothing items that can be used for casual days as corporate clothing or even for promotional evens as corporate clothing. These days there are so many golf shirt options. From low cost Lacoste shirt golf shirts to the upmarket double mercesrised golf shirts. Today’s golf shit designs also incorporate many matching ladies and gents golf shirts. Golf shirts come in a wide variety of colours. Generally we would recommend embroidery on a golf shirt. On t-shirts companies mostly silkscreen as this is a low cost cost corporate clothing items. But as golf shirts are a more expensive corporate clothing item, you would embroider a golf shirt instead of silk-screening this corporate clothing item. For more golf shirt options contact us on info@belleregalo.co.za or visit us on http://www.belleregalo.co.za/

My favourite Off the Shelf Corporate Uniform Items

I have a confession, before I came across this great new range , I was not a big fan of off the shelf uniforms, as I often find the kinds of wash and wear fabrics available to have a bit of a plastic feel to them. So while they look nice on the catalogues pages, the actual fabric does not make me feel feminine. But recently I have come across a wonderful corporate uniform range that is manufactured from a blend of polyester, viscose and spandex. Polyester is synonymous with corporate clothing as it is easily dyed and is crease resistant, but is the fabric that is responsible for that plastic look and feel. However the addition of the viscose and spandex is what makes this a wonderful fabric blend for corporate uniforms. The viscose adds a definite softness to the fabric that has often been missing from corporate uniforms and the spandex adds flexibility to the fabric. Budget Custom manufactured items are often expensive and if your firm has staff turnover it is good to know that there are affordable alternative to custom manufactured corporate uniforms. Off the shelf items are often more cost effective dues to the mass manufacturing of corporate uniforms. It does mean that the garment is not cut to specifically fit the employee. However you can consider sending the garment to a tailor to tweak it a bit. For many years I did that when I bought items from retain stores and just a small investment makes the item look like it was made for you at a fraction of custom manufacturing. Lead time My bank opened up a new branch last year and now in May of this year they are still waiting for their custom manufactured uniforms. While that is an extreme situation, custom manufacturing does take a long time whereas off the shelf corporate clothing, means that you can respond quickly to changing staff needs. My personal Favourites I believe that you should walk the talk, so I invested in a few items for myself and our staff so that I could a first-hand feels of the garments. Here are a few of my personal favourites from our off the shelf range. Ariel Shirt Dress This dress is my all-time favourite dress from our corporate clothing range. I love the sleeveless look, because in summer I can wear it just the way that it is and in winter I add a polar-neck to it for warmth and versatility. The self-fabric tie around give an extra feminine detail that separates it from standard shirt dresses and the back slit allows for extra mobility. It makes refreshing corporate uniform range. Before my staff even knew that I had chosen a dress from the off the shelf corporate uniform range I got compliments on this dress. Even my husband who used to train ramp models likes it, so this is a definite winner for me. Candice Pencil Skirt I love this pencil skirt because of the front slit. The reason that I love this design is so often I have to pick up something off the floor and pick up my baby daughter and the slit allows for extra mobility. While the standard pencil skirt in the range is very attractive and works extremely well for careers where you are seated through most of the day, the Candice pencil skirt is well suited when you have to be mobile. The skirt comes in a classical black and navy option, which will compliment any lady’s wardrobe and is a wonderful corporate clothing item. Cosmo Pants This flattering trouser comes with a belt loop and a fashionable mock front pocket detail on the waistband. I like the belt loops as it make the garment look more fashionable and less like a corporate clothing option. These feminine trousers come in a choice of black, mocha and marine, which are great classical basic colours to match any lady’s closet. Fiona Waistcoat This funky little waistcoat is a flattering yet cheeky addition to the range. I loved the tailored construction and the front mock pockets. It complements the skirt and trouser ranges in our corporate clothing range. Jeans For companies who have a casual day the jeans is a great addition to a corporate clothing range. I have a pair of the black and the blue jeans. While some people may think that maybe everyone should just wear their own jeans, I find that getting corporate jeans has many advantages. I sometimes visit companies on a Friday and see a very wide range of jeans, someone them so casual or worn that the staff look like they are on holiday and not at work at all. Research has shown that being overly casual does have an impact on productivity and also on levels of respect shown to bosses and fellow employees. I have added this corporate clothing item to our staff’s clothing items. Belt No look is truly complete without the right accessories. My favourite off the shelf corporate uniform accessory is ladies corporate belt. Made of PU in a nice flattering think design, it has a buckle that very fashionable. I just love the finish that it gives to a corporate uniform. So if you want a good balance of corporate, fashionability, budget and lead time have a look at our off the shelf corporate uniforms. Regards KIM VERMAAK

Corporate Clothing Pays for Itself.

Corporate clothing remains an excellent way to build your brand. With some many corporate clothing options available it is becoming easier and easier to put together a corporate clothing look for even the smallest of teams. We have found that a number of the employees from our corporate clothing customers re also willing to pay for their own corporate clothing. While this sounds strange to some corporates who pay the full cost of corporate clothing for their employees, for other team where budget is limited employees are happy to pay for corporate clothing as they over all ten to spend less on their personal clothing budget as they have uniform that they wear every day. It also eliminates the daily stress that many people have of “what to wear today”. For teams where there is a lots of comparisons having a uniform eliminates some of the “look what she is wearing today”. In addition where professionalism is an important factor then having corporate clothing ensures that everyone is dressed according to professional standards that are accepted by the company. This is useful where you have a large variety of ages, work experience and tastes that have different interpretations of what is professional wear. Corporate clothing definitely eliminates many of these stresses.

Best Buy Jacket for Winter

With winter literally yanking at our door, I thought that I would share what is my best buy from our corporate jacket range for this season. My all-time favourite winter jacket is definitely the Executive Ladies Jacket. It is fully lined, so it gives great warmth, yet light weight enough to be very comfortable. It is manufactured from stylish mock suede. I love the belted look, as it can be pulled in to make a more flattering view of your waist. I also love the length of the jacket, as it covers your bottom and the dimpled sins of all those carb cravings that come with winter. But more importantly it covers that lower back section between your lower spine and mid back, which I find tends to get cold when those shorter jackets sneak up when you sit down. As there are so many hipster styled pants these days, this little portion of a lady’s body tends to take a hit during the winter chills, so it is comforting to know that you can still wear hipsters and keep your back warm. It is not a formal jacket; however it is far more fashionable and stylish than a conventional promotional jacket. I personally have two colours, one black, which I wear with a black pencil skirt and corporate shirt on cool days and the stone which I wear with jeans and knee length high heel brown boots. This winter jacket actually comes in three colours, black, stone and navy. I think that I should rush to get a navy one to wear with blue jeans and crisp white shirt or polar neck. This look is ideal for casual day. The jacket also comes in a matching gent’s style, but without the belted waist. But don’t run out and tell them about it, they just may want one too. For other jacket options have a look at www.belleregalo.co.za Or call us on 082 948 7461 or e-mail us on info@belleregalo.co.za Be kind to your self this winter. Kim Vermaak  

Time for Winter Promotional Jackets

At this time of the year I struggle to get up as my body is telling me that it is still night time when the arm goes off. Although the days are warmer, chilly morning and evening mean that I have to haul out the winter promotional jackets. Promotional jackets are a terrific item to purchase at the beginning of autumn. They will definitely be a very well received promotional clothing item. The preferred branding for promotional jackets is embroidery. Embroidery of winter jackets or promotional jackets is usually on the left chest of the promotional jacket or winter jacket, however a lot of companies also consider making their logo colour on colour. This is a very subtle form of branding. But if you want to have strong corporate identity of your promotional jackets, then choose your corporate colours for branding. For sporting events you may want to embroidery your promotional jacket with a large logo on the back for the best visibility on your winter jacket. Whatever type of branding you choose for your winter promotional jackets, please do consider your client. Staff are often happy to have a large logo on their promotional jacket, but client may choose a more subtle form of branding.

Corporate Clothing

Corporate clothing is still an excellent corporate gift. Corporate clothing is great way to create a positive impression of your company. Supplying your staff with corporate clothing ensures that they are neatly dressed and easily identifiable by customers. When choosing branding for your corporate clothing, promotional clothing can have big silkscreened logos, but generally corporate clothing for staff will have embroidered logos which look smarter. Generally customers buy corporate clothing for their staff once a year. This is because depending on the number of shirts that you give to your staff for corporate clothing the high frequency of wear and sometimes rough washing can make some of the garments wear faster than others. So rather that checking up on each staff member, getting new shirts each year will ensure that the average appearance of the corporate clothing of staff members remains good. If the dress code of your staff is casual then a golf shirt is a good however if your dress code is smart then you would be wize to purchase lounge shirts and blouses. These days many corporate clothing options come in matching ladies and gents styles making your corporate clothing choices a lot more varied.

Corporate Clothing

Corporate clothing is a wonderful option branding options. Corporate clothing can be both a subtle form of branding or create a strong message. If you choose colour on colour branding for your corporate clothing, that means that the corporate clothing will be embroidered in the same colour thread as the thread that the garment has been manufactured from. For more dramatic corporate clothing branding statements you can embroider or silk-screen in more dramatic colours. You can also brand the back of the corporate clothing with larger format silk-screening or embroidery. We recommend that for large format you use silk-screening or heat press as embroidery can be very expensive for large area branding on corporate clothing. Popular corporate clothing for May to July are jerseys, long sleeve shirts, fleece garments and winter jackets.

Winter Jackets

This is perfect time to start ordering your winter

jackets. There is now a really vast range of winter jackets. Some of our winter jacket ranges include 3-in-1 jackets, 4 in 1 jackets, All weather jackets, Concealed jackets, Fishing jackets, Safety jackets, Utility jackets Please visit us on www.belleregalo.co.za or http://belleregalo.bcgshop.co.za/Products/Jacket.aspx

Some Tips for Organizing a Golf Day

It was over ten years ago that I organized my first golf day. Luckily my boss was a scratch golfer and had a lot of patience. He helped me through the first event and after that my only difficulty was juggling the four balls. We used to replace players who could not make it with reserves, but each year people who have previously been invited wanted to be invited again and as our preferred course had a limit on the number of players allowed, we had to do a serious juggling act. Here are some hints to help you out of your golf day. Choose the right golf course Consider the number of guests that you have. Make sure that the course you choose is not too busy. Some courses are better equipped to handle large groups. You need to gage what the overall handicap of your clients is like. If the majority of your players are merely social golfers, they will be frustrated by a very difficult course. However if the majority of your golfers have very of handicaps they will be equally frustrated a course that is too easy. Time the day carefully Golf days are usually completed during office hours. If you have very busy executives then, they may not be able to take off the entire day. Choose if it is better to start at breakfast and go through to mid afternoon or to start in the afternoon and go through to the evening. Consider the format Some golf day organisers advice using Stableford scoring rather than a medal round, this will speed up the day. The format you select also affects the running of your golf day. Stableford is a scoring system used in the sport of golf. Rather than counting the total number of strokes taken, as in stroke, it involves scoring points based on the number of strokes taken at each hole. Unlike traditional scoring methods, where the aim is to have the lowest score, under Stableford rules, the objective is to have the highest score. "Medal play" is simply another term for "stroke play." That is, a round of golf in which the score is kept by counting strokes and totaling them. Hope you have an enjoyable golf day

Corporate Image Update

Some Tips for the Image My mother used to have this saying “There goes mutton dressed up as lamb”. She was referring to mature women who were dressing as if they were in their twenties. Instead of looking younger they looked foolish. We all want to look younger and we all want to look our best. But there just seem to be some women who make it seem all so simple. Enter the image consultant’s jobs. They take the guess work out of what seems to be land mine of fashion mistakes. I was recently blessed to attend one such talk and thought that I would share a few ideas that stood out for me. You can apply them when working with your corporate clothing. Contrasting Colours White there are fashion trends currently that work with solid tones, such as wearing a tan top and tan trousers, research shows that people who wear contrasting colours get noticed. However there are a few rules. If you wear high contrasting colours such as black and white, black and red etc, then you may be too intimidating for the person that you are having an appointment with. Safe contrasting colours would be medium contrast for example a navy and light blue or a black and pastel pink. Choosing a white While for many the idea of a crisp white shirt may appeal there are some rules in choosing a white that compliments you. A general rule of thumb is to look at the whites of your eyes. If the white of your eyes and a crisp white, then a crisp white will suit you. However if you have a slight yellowing tinge to the whites of your eyes and I am not talking about jaundice here, then an off white may be more flattering to you. Do Real Men Wear Pink? While socializing with pink may work well for a professional look; men should still avoid pink or purple for appointments. Look at corporate clothing options that work within these fashion rules. Make Up I see a lot of ladies who just by pass the whole make up thing. They prefer to go natural or could just not be bothered. But research does show that women who do wear make up tend to get promoted more frequently. While for some that may see very sexist, a bigger salary may allow you to achieve more of your dreams, so you decide what is ultimately more important to you. When to put out your cigarette Most companies have a no smoking rule, so if you are a smoker you may be tempted to smoke in your car on the way to an appointment. The general rule is to smoke your last cigarette twenty minutes before your next appointment. That gives enough time to minimize the smoky aura that you have. Also remember to carry mints with you and use them before the appointment If you are looking for corporate clothing, give Belle Regalo a call or e-mail us on info@belleregalo.co.za

How to Choose Corporate Clothing

First impressions are lasting impressions. To create a good impression in front of client or boss, corporate clothes are one of the important factors. Therefore, in the corporate world, corporate clothing must choose very carefully. Thus, many large corporate firms give more priority to corporate clothes. Hence, to fulfil the demands, many corporate clothing suppliers have emerged.

Following are some tips which can be helpful in choosing corporate clothes from a corporate clothing supplier:

1) Choose a brand.
Selecting a good brand can become a plus point for the company. The Barron brand is terrific bard for corporate clothing where variety and stock availability are important. To ensure that the staff should look like a team, then provide them with corporate clothes, which will make them look professional and help them to work as a team. There are many brands in the market that are professional corporate clothing supplier and are experienced in supplying corporate clothes.

2) Brand it
Time for personalizing the corporate clothes occurs, when you are done with selecting the brand. Choose good and appropriate corporate colours, so that it can reflect on the company uniforms. This is important because good corporate colours will help a business owner in making business logo on the uniform. This will make the staff to look as a team and a professional worker.

Embroidery is generally a more durable and prestigious type of branding. For promotional items you can silkscreen, but for uniforms rather choose embroidery.

3) Offer variety
To change the mood of the team, offer some exciting events, couple of times in a year. Also provide or allow wearing casual corporate work wear that are attractive in colours and styles. Embroidering the company's logo on the corporate work wear will enhance the spirit of the team in work days as well as in fun days.
If the budget of the company is quiet good enough to order some more accessories after ordering corporate clothes, then it's better to order some gloves, jackets or some Friday casual clothes etc. for the employees of the company.

5) Preserve the pride
Make the staff proud by making them wear corporate clothes. There are many corporate clothing suppliers who provide a good varieties and help in the selection of company's uniforms. The suppliers also design the logos of the company with a good combination and mixture of corporate colours.

I Love the Winter Jacket

I can not claim to be a winter person. But sadly as my business is not yet a multi-national, I have to keep regular seasonal patterns along with my collegues, freinds and family.

So while I am trapped in winter, I have to find things to be thankful for and one of thise is definately the winter jacket. Thankfully there are a lot more fashionable items in the corporate clothing and promotional clothing ranges of of winter jackets. Even ladies have now been recognised when it comes to corporate clothing with more and more ranges including both a ladies and gents version of the winter jacket.

Lately I have been eyeing out ladies belted jacket. The one that I have in mind (see image above), has lovely top stitching detail and is a fully padded jacket. Oh what a joy to be snug, warm and stylish as well.

Winter jackets are very well received as corporate gifts. The trick is to start planning in advance and to keep a database of the sizes of your best clients. That way you can reuse it for golf days, soccer viewing get-togethers, and other corporate events. Keep in contact with your client's PA who can discreetly tell you if too much winter comfort food has been on the boss's desk and that they may have to upsize.

Always order and few additional sizes so that if your client does not fit their winter jacket, that you can easily swap the jacket out with your winter jacket stock without too much fuss or embassment.

If you are using winter jackets as a branding tool, then put your logo on big and bold. But if you are relationship building, then you may want to keep your logo on your winter jackets small and discreet.