Charity golf tournaments and corporate golf outings are popular this time of year. Are you planning any for your business? If yes, make sure you have golf promotional items that will help promote your company long after the event is over.
Here are some of our favorites at Amsterdam Printing:
1. Golf Tournament Pack. Your company will be remembered every step along the way, thanks to this sharp pack that comes with two golf balls of your choice.
Earlier this week, we talked about how to plan special events and the 10 questions you should ask yourself to get started. Now, let’s talk about 10 pitfalls to avoid.
1. Not being realistic about how much an event costs. Unless you’ve recently planned an event, it’s easy to experience sticker shock. While we recommend having a budget in mind before you start any planning, this may be difficult to do if you have no idea what things cost. We recommend talking to two to three potential venues to find out a typical cost per person for food and beverage, which is one of the largest expenses, as well as entertainment, décor, and venue rental. From there, you’ll be able define your budget.
2. Not having focus. You need to have an established purpose for the event (e.g. charity event vs. networking event), reasonable expectations, and the ability to measure outcomes. Are you raising awareness, raising money, building your brand, thanking employees, appreciating customers, or something else? Don’t have an event “just because.” Have a specific goal/purpose and organize the event around this purpose.
3. Not being aware of “minimums” in the fine print. Many large venues have minimums for food and beverage, which does not include tax, gratuity, and fees. So even though you think you can get by with a small menu, it might not be possible at that venue. If you plan to do a cash bar, you should confirm with the venue that the proceeds of the cash bar can work against your minimum. Continue reading
You’re busy running your business, so when it comes to planning special events, like charity golf tournaments, holiday parties, or award ceremonies, you’d really like a checklist to keep you on the right track.
Your wish is our command! Here are 10 questions to ask yourself as you plan your special event. (A special thanks to event planner Jennessa Durrani from Celebrate for her insights.)
1. What’s your budget? You can’t start anywhere until you have your threshold for how much you can spend. Once you have that, you can back into the event and determine the totals for each category (e.g. food, entertainment, etc). Be sure to include everything, from location and catering, down to the smallest detail, such as promotional products for your goodie bags.
2. Where will you be holding the event? Ah, location, location, location! Similar to wedding planning, the location for a special event is something you need to determine right after you settle on a budget. You can determine everything else after that, including the date. Keep in mind that larger and/or popular venues, such as hotels, are often booked months (and sometimes years) in advance.
3. What’s your vision for the décor? The location you choose will influence the answers to some of these questions, such as does the space need decorations, centerpieces, special lighting, etc. You should also ask the manager of the venue what restrictions, if any, the location has when it comes to decorating for the event. Continue reading
Vector graphics, hex values, camera-ready-art, oh my! You hear these types of phrases all the time when you have to deal with anything involving design and printing. But what the heck do they all mean? Fear not, dear readers. In this blog post, we’ll define some of the more common terms our customers ask us about.
What is camera-ready art? “Camera-ready” refers to art and copy that is ready to be imprinted onto a product without being retouched, reworked, or otherwise “cleaned up” by the art department. Learn more about Amsterdam Printing’s requirements for camera-ready artwork.
What are hex values and RGB? In print design, colors are defined by red, green, and blue color values (RGB). In HTML, a hexadecimal (i.e. “six”) notation is used to identify the red, green, and blue color values. For example, the RGB for black is “rgb (0, 0, 0)” and the hex value is “#000000.” Don’t worry – it sounds complicated, but it’s not. A tool that’s great for the lay person is Color Cop. It’s free. Just download it to your computer, and you can get the hex value or RGB used in an existing graphic, such as your company logo. Continue reading
What is it about springtime that gets us in the mood to rejuvenate and refresh? You 
probably started out the year with the best intentions, armed with all sorts of HR forms to make things run more smoothly, like custom attendance forms, employee history folders, and performance review forms.
But maybe those good intentions have fallen by the wayside. (Sound familiar?) Not to worry! It’s the perfect time of year to get back on track.
All that said, we understand settings goals with employees and reviewing their performance can be just as stressful for YOU as it is for them.
Here are six tips to make sure it’s a productive and stress-free session.
1. Lead with the good. You’ve likely heard this tip before, but it’s worth repeating: start with the positive. People need to hear what they’re doing well. It will help build their confidence, put them at ease, and show them the things they should continue doing.
2. Be consistent. When we say consistency, we mean from top to bottom: be consistent in how often you have performance reviews and goal-making sessions. Be consistent in the amount of time you give to each employee. Be consistent in the manner in which you perform reviews (e.g. open with the positive), and be consistent in your treatment of employees. As for how often you meet, it will depend on the type of company you have, but it certainly can’t hurt to sit down with each employee every quarter.
3. Be organized. These sessions can be stressful enough (for all involved!). Don’t make them even more stressful by pausing or stopping the session because you can’t find the right human resource forms or you’ve grabbed the wrong set of paperwork. Invest in tools that will keep everything organized, such as these comprehensive employee history folders and these promotional padfolios, like the one pictured to the right.
4. Be reasonable. The goals you and your employees set together should be ones they can reasonably achieve in the time period you’ve identified. Sure, it’s good to throw in a “reach” goal — one that they may or may not achieve due to time constraints and other issues. But the majority of the goals should be ones they can accomplish. If you discover during your next sit-down session that your goal-making was too aggressive, then scale back and/or adjust expectations. Don’t set up your employees to fail — help them succeed! Continue reading
If you’re looking for a sophisticated and functional promotional product, then think laser engraved pens. They’re eye-catching, and they’re perfect to hand out to prospects, customers, vendors, and networking people alike. One of the best features? The super-sized imprint area on select pens, like the example featured below.
Check out the video below to learn more about our laser engraving process at Amsterdam Printing.
Sometimes the easiest way to boost employee morale is to show genuine interest in the causes they care about. When your company embraces a specific charity or movement, it shows the “human” side of your business, it supports a worthwhile cause, and it helps employees feel good about the company they’re working for – all great things.
Of course, reaching out to — and successfully working with — programs in the community will take some effort and organization. Here are some tips that can guide you and your company.
You could approach this in a few ways. Here are some ideas:
