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).

May-Only Boosts for Morale & Productivity

1. May 5 – Celebrate Cinco del Mayo – Make this celebration real easy by bringing chips and salsa to work. And/or having the staff meet at a local Mexican restaurant for lunch or Happy Hour.
2. May 6 – Have a Kentucky Derby Party
3. May 7 – Celebrate the Great American Grump Out
4. May 14 – Celebrate National Dance Like A Chicken Day – If you choose to celebrate this one, be sure to send us pictures.
5. May 15 – Celebrate National Chocolate Chip Day – This one is real easy. Just bring a bag of cookies to work. And some milk. Pass them around at the staff meeting if you happen to have a staff meeting that day.
6. May 17 – Bike-to-Work Day – May is National Bicycle Month and various communities are organizing Bike-to-Work Day.
7. May 28 – Celebrate National Hamburger Day – Reserve a shelter at the park, buy burgers and buns and ask everyone else to bring their families, side dishes, desserts and beverages.
8. May 30 – Celebrate My Bucket’s Got A Hole In It Day.  Hmmm…
9. Celebrate BBQ Month – There are all sorts of ways to do this. Bring BBQ to the office one day. Take everyone out for BBQ one day. Bring grills to work and ask everyone to bring something.

 May-Only Marketing Ideas

In addition to May Day and Mother’s Day, there are many May-only opportunities to creatively and inexpensively market and promote our businesses to current and prospective customers.  A potential side benefit internally…a boost to morale and productivity.    All good for bottom line performance.

1. BBQ month
2. Physical Fitness and Sports Month
3. Get Caught Reading Month
4. Hamburger Month
5. Women’s Healthcare Month
6. Hoagie Day is May 5
7. Chocolate Chip Day is May 15
8. Lucky Penny Day is May 23
9. Scavenger Hunt Day is May 24

If you sell any of these or related products, don’t miss the opportunity to celebrate these occasions.

How?

1. Display simple point of purchase posters that say it’s National: Get Caught Reading Month or Physical Fitness Month or BBQ Month or whatever.
2. On these ads or posters, offer a special deal if you can.  Like buy one BBQ plate dinner and get one free.  Or feature an item like buy one pair of socks,  get a pair for a penny.
3. If you have any advertising money, run ads inviting people in to celebrate with you.
4. Tweet about your in-store celebration and special offer if there is one.
5. Put it on your Facebook page.
6. Announce it to your e-mail subscriber list.

If you don’t sell any of these or related products, you can be involved with a little creativity.

A few ideas:

1. Display a jar of pennies and have a contest to guess how many pennies are in the jar in honor of lucky penny day. The lucky winner receives a gift certificate to your store…maybe you say it’s worth  2500 pennies ($25)
2. Give branded promotional products to your customers.  For example – give a pedometer to customers in celebration of National Fitness or National Women’s Healthcare Month,  or give a bookmark and tell them to Get Caught Reading this month.
3. Offer hoagie sandwich slices to your customers.  Be sure to tell them why. You don’t even have to be a sandwich shop. Shoppers who come in around lunch or dinner will love the free food samples while they shop.
4. Have a plate of chocolate chip cookies out in your store and tell your customers you’re honoring Chocolate Chip Day. A glass of ice cold milk will make the occasion even sweeter.
5. Run a Scavenger Hunt promotion in your store…hunt for the red dot deals.

If you sell advertising…

be sure to contact your clients about ideas for May celebrations.    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  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!

 

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