If you’ve had the pedal to the medal, pushing hard to make sales quotas, budget projections and production schedules, we urge you to take a break for a bit of nonsense and about laughter. If you need another excuse, do it for your mother.

But we must point out that while fun and games can boost all of the above, it can be just like a sugar high, ready for a crash.

The foundation of good morale and productivity is hiring the right people. Yes – don’t hire grumps. And the people must have clear roles, responsibilities, expectations and goals. And they must receive training and coaching which includes feedback, direction, support and recognition from a trusted manager or coach.

If these aren’t in place, go ahead and use some of these ideas if you’d like and then get started right away with some of the other resources on this site that will help you get your roles and goals clear and get everyone headed in the right direction.

In some cases, you may feel like a fool. Your teammates may roll their eyes. But they will laugh too. And that will lighten the load, break the tension and maybe even bring people closer together. Not just today – but down the road as they think about or talk about the day that ___________ (fill in the blank).

Here are ten just-for-June opportunities for doing this.

1. June 4 is Cheese Day. Say cheese with a platter of unusual cheeses and ask your staff to guess each type. Add a fruit tray and some crackers.
2. June 6 is National Doughnut Day. Celebrate by bringing duh – doughnuts to work! Make sure to have the coffee pot handy, too.
   
3. June 7 is Chocolate Ice Cream Day. Have an Everything-Chocolate-Ice-Cream-Sundae Social…chocolate ice cream, chocolate syrup, chocolate candy bars for toppings, even chocolate whip cream in a can!
   
4. June 10 is Ball Point Pen Day.Pass out goofy pens from the dollar store. Attach a simple, but personal note with each pen. Great morale booster.
   
5. June 12 is Magic Day.Got any big messes in the office? Offer to buy lunch for anyone who will help you magically make the mess disappear.
6. June 16 is Smile Power Day. Share one or both of the quotes with your team. Click to download.
            
   

As a bonus: Pass out smiley buttons. Then ask each employee what one thing makes them smile? It’s a great team building conversation.

7. June 18 is Go Fishing Day. Take your staff out to the lake and bring some fishing poles and some worms.
8. June 18 is also Splurge Day. Splurge on a catered lunch while at the lake.
9. June 21 is the 1st day of summer and the longest day of the year. How about giving everyone a short day at work?

10. And the entire month of June is:

• Great Outdoors Month – Plan group jogs, nature walks or biking adventures on Saturday mornings.
• Drive Safe Month – Talk about cell phone safety and driving while on the job.
• Adopt-A-Cat Month – Put a jar in the office and ask for donations all month long for your local animal shelter. Get staff to bring in photos of their cats to put by the jar.
• Dairy Month – Sounds like another good reason to have an ice cream social.
• Iced Tea Month (June 10 is Iced Tea Day)
• Candy Month – In a staff meeting try to guess your employees’ favorite candy bars. Then set up a Candy “Bar” at the next meeting. Put out all their favorites and let everyone belly up and get their sugar rush on.
• Fruit & Vegetable Month – nice way to offset the one above!
• Turkey Lovers Month – In honor of the gobbler…ask employees to share recipes where turkey can be substituted for red meat. Better yet, have them bring in the dish to sample. Vote to see whose recipe is the best. The winner receives…you got it…a turkey!
  

Warning – Before you begin, re-read paragraphs 1 and 2.

Related Articles

• Quote of the Week: Think it’s foolish?
• Spur-of-the-Moment Nonsense
• Movie of the Week – Patch Adams

Just-for-June Marketing Ideas

In addition to Father’s Day (June 16) and the first day of summer (June 21):

and the entire month of June is:

How can you use these occasions to boost business?

If you sell any of these or related products:

If you don’t sell any of these or related products, you can still be involved by doing things like:

1. On Magic Day walk around your store with a bowl full of coupons. Ask customers to draw one for a discount to magically appear on their purchase.
2. Give branded promotional products to your customers. For example – give a pen with your business name and number in celebration of Ball Point Pen Day, or pass out water bottles with your logo on it to promote Great Outdoors Month.
3. Offer to donate a percentage of sales on a particular day to your local animal shelter in honor of Adopt-A-Cat month.
4. Have a plate of donuts out in your store and tell your customers you’re honoring Donut Day. A glass of ice cold milk will make the occasion even better since June is Dairy month….or offer coffee for those who need their wake up call.
5. In celebration of the 1st Day of Summer, stay open later to celebrate the longest day of the year.
6. Advertise that you’ll give a percentage off of a single item if a customer comes in and gives you a big smile on Smile Power Day.

If you sell advertising…be sure to contact your clients with ideas on how to celebrate these June occasions. They may not accept all your ideas but they will appreciate your creativity and commitment to bringing them results. You’ll be delivering added value and setting yourself apart from the competition.  For an example this type of creativity in action, go to: Mick Mixon’s Homer at Texaco.

There you have it! A month of HOT marketing opportunities! Make it fun and see some serious results.

If you put any of these ideas to work this month, share your story and photos with Business Class Inc. We’ll post them for everyone to see just how your business boosted morale, productivity and maybe even the bottom line!

Note: These are fun things to celebrate with your staff as well. Also see 10 Morale & Productivity Boosting Ideas for June

Link to other months of the year

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