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

Corporate Gifts That You Want to Keep

Every few years if you are sensible you will go through your house and discard the things that you no longer use to freshen up your home and make space for new things. Some of the items that may end up in the trash or to be given away are corporate gifts. So I spent some time thinking about the corporate gifts that I have that I have kept. I have to say that one of my firm favourites was the maglite. I love this corporate gift because we still get the odd load shedding or power failures. So a torch is always handy to have around. What I have also found very useful about the maglite is that when you unscrew the top, it turns into a candle. If you have young children in the house you will know that often the lights going out suddenly means creates a lot of stress of them, so for them, to have a torch handy really makes a power failure a lot more manageable. There is not thing quite as stressful as having to scrounge around for candles and having a distressed child crying or calling "mommy!" in the background. Speaking about children, every year we try to get to carols by candle light session and so one of the corporate gifts that I have that I always keep is the battery operated candle. We just change batteries and do not have to worry about melting candle wax and little burnt fingers. Our family also all have petzl headlights. Petzl is a really terrific brand and some of our clients only want Petzl and nothing else. As we love the outdoors, if we go camping and we have to go to the bathroom at night the headlamps are a great way to show the way when your hands are full of toiletry, towels etc. My husband does a lot a customer visits, so for him the thermal coffee mugs are the best corporate gifts. He tends to work late at night and then rush off in the morning to clients and that cup of coffee in the car helps to rev up the brain cells. For our anniversary a few years ago the restaurant where we celebrated gave us a free shooter in a light flashing shot glass. The lights are activated only when the glass is full and then go off when the liquid is gone. We still keep it as a momentum and of course it has the restaurant’s number on it, so it is a great business card for them. Another favorite corporate gift is a small tool kit. Tool kits may seem like boring corporate gifts, but they are so very useful. My nine year old daughter loves it because it is compact and easy to use and she once even decided to fix the door handle of the bathroom door. One of the screws had come out and she wanted to replace it. For minor things, nothing beats a small tool kit. A few years ago I took a weekend break with a few couples and while the guys were playing golf, then ladies spent the morning leisurely getting ready for a lunch out. Alas we found that no one had brought a two prong plug and so there was no place to plug in the hair dryer. Luckily I had a small tool kit, so I took a standard three prong plug off one of the lamps and did a temporary swap for the hairdryer. There are a few quite a few more corporate gifts that that I would definitely keep, but those would probably spring to mind at the next spring clean. But it seems that from this latest spring clean that light orientated corporate gifts seem to be a firm favorite. They are never wasted because it is great to have them available in each room for guests. Like insurance, a good torch as a corporate gift only presents its true value when you really need it.

Planning, Stress and Productivity - How to get the best outof your gifting supplier?

Planning is not just about your core business, but also other aspects that affect operations. It is statistically well known that when the human brain is under stress that intelligence levels drop. That is why often after an argument people often think of the things that they “should have” said when they had the chance. So how does this translate into planning for your corporate gifts? Well, if you leave your gifts until the last minute then you add a whole bunch of pressure to the gifting company and the staff who are working on your job. You may love the idea that your corporate gifting company has responded well to pressurised deadlines. But the more often you fall back on this strategy the higher the chance is that the supplier will crack under the pressure. We often get clients who say that they have moved to our corporate gifting service because the previous supplier let them down. But all relationships are two sided, so when planning gifting ask yourself 1. Is your corporate gifting deadline is realistic. 2. Is your corporate gifting budget realistic? 3. If there is a delay between getting the quotation and ordering, check on stock availability. People order everyday and your gifting company will not reserve stock for you until it has been paid for? 4. Have you communicated your brief clearly? We once received a brief where the client wanted a print that was larger than the actual gift. 5. Are you supplying your corporate gifting company with the tools to assist them in helping you? 6. Are you coordinating with your other departments involved, like finance or Human Resources, so that they know the requirements and deadline of the job? Planning properly can go a long way in making sure you get the best service from your corporate gifting company and will greatly minimise your stress as well. If you are looking for corporate gifts, visit our website www.belleregalo.co.za or e-mail us on info@belleregalo.co.za

What are my Favorite End of the Year Corporate Gifts

If I consider the gifts that I have received before there are some corporate gifts which are a firm favorite for me.

I never tire of cooler bags as corporate gifts. They tend to reach an expiry date within a few years, so we have all sorts. When we go to our Weekend seminars I pack a small cooler lunch bag for each of our delegates. So I love to have them in different colours so that no one accidently takes my biltong or chocolate.

When driving to my parents in Port Elizabeth I used to pack one big cooler bag with snacks etc. But then reaching back between sleeping kids does not work, so now there is one for my husband and I and one for the kids. There is less digging for things and the children have more control of their own cooler bag.
But this year I saw the car travel cooler/warmer and I am in love. Less stopping for cool drinks, everything stays at the temperature. I really like that idea for end of the year corporate gifts.

Last year one of our clients ordered beaded wine glasses. I added a few of them for myself. They are a nice fun idea and perfect for the summer braais around the house with friends.

Outdoor chairs may seem like a cliché. But outdoor chairs do not last forever. We had a some great study ones, but with repeated use we needed to get new ones. If someone were to give a picnic set it would need to have a minimum of 4 place settings. I am not in the mood to carry a number of picnic sets because there are not enough plates etc for my family. Currently our holidays are for four. My husband and I ammend the two children. Now we are going to have to upgrade as there will be five of us.

Of course for me personally spa gifts are always a great idea. I like ones with pretty neutral colours so that they can fit into any bathroom.

Bath towels never go to waste, but if they must be branded then choose a colour on colour logo, so that they are more likely to be used. Knee blankets are also a really great idea. Particularly if you have a number of friends round for a Braai and the evening starts to take on a chill and no one else wants to go inside then the guests feeling the cold will welcome something to take the edge of the chill. This is a great corporate gift.

If you are going to do coffee mugs, add a bit of festivity and add some chocolate or nougat to them. If it is nougat, don’t expect to last long in our family, so you would have to send a bumper pack with mine.

Those are just some of my favorite gifts, but there are so many more that you can choose from, so visit our site www.belleregalo.co.za to view some more ideas.

How to Choose an End of the Year Gift

Around this time of the year, people start looking at end of the year gifts.
What are some of the things that you have to bear in mind for the end of the year gifts?

1. Who are you clients?If you client is a CEO who is office bound most of the days you may want to give an end of the year gift that has a relaxing element to it. Great end of the year gifts, may include a stainless steel Braai set, books,
If your client is a secretary, you may want to consider a more personal end of the year gifts, like a pamper set, teas set

2. Affordability of the end of the year gift.
Consider what you can afford for end of the year gifts. It is better to short list your client list so that you can spend a bit more on top level clients than do a blanket gift for all clients regardless of their spend.
You could for top end clients buy a mini fridge cooler/warmer and for your lower level clients and personalised coffee mug as an end of the year gift.

3. Look at the life long value of the client.
For clients who have or are capable of spending a lot with you consider how much that clients will be worth to your company between 1 to 5 years from now. Don’t give out a cheap pen as an end of the year corporate gift when they are actually worth a waterman pen end of the year corporate gift.

4. How appropriate is the end of the year gift?For conferences it is normal to give our pens, folders etc, but for a year end gift if you are going to do a folder, make it a genuine leather folder or a leather luggage item. If your client is into waste management or any other environmental service consider giving them eco friendly gifts as corporate gifts.
If your client is in advertising or design or even Public relations, well then you had better do your homework before you send out an end of the year gift.

5. Are there religious implications for the end of the year gift.
If your client’s religion prohibits alcohol, don’t give them custom wine as you may end up offending your client. Also if you do give out drinking glasses, make sure that you know if there are religious preferences before giving out wine glasses as end of the year corporate gifts.

Choose Umbrellas for the Cold and Wet Months

Umbrellas make an elegant corporate gift, be it door gift for a party, or likewise. Silk Screen printing can also be incorporated together to promote your companies image.

Advertising umbrellas are seen everywhere in the world: trade shows, events of charity in the open air, on the golf course and each main street. Promo umbrellas are by no means a new idea, but have you ever wondered where they came from? You consider perhaps with these top promotional gifts for your company or your organization.

A great idea is to have umbrellas at your receptions and have a security guard escort your clients to their car on rainy days.