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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 January-only opportunities for doing this.

• January 4 – Trivia Day. Have a trivia contest.  Make up questions or ask each person to suggest one…a question about themselves or about company history or procedure.  Make it an individual or team competition.
• January 10 – Cut Your Energy Cost Day. Gather some stats from your company’s gas and electric bills.  Share these with your team.  Ask your team for suggestions for ways to reduce energy use for your office.  And for home.  Post reminders.  Share results when next bills come.  Make this a monthly staff meeting agenda item.
• January 13 – National Clean Off Your Desk Day. Offer a prize for cleanest desk, most improved and…  Prizes don’t have to be big.  A candy bar is good.  Or a notepad.  Or…
• January 15 – National Hat Day.  Invite everyone to wear one.  Give a prize for most unusual.
• January 16 – Appreciate a Dragon Day. Or perhaps you could recognize someone who recently slayed a dragon.  There is an adorable Beanie Baby (TM) dragon.  Award this to someone and let it pass to a new person each month.  By the way – you don’t have to be the one in charge of selection.  Let the winner this month be the one to select and pass it on next month.
• January 19 – National Popcorn Day. Fun and easy. Just bring in a big can or bag.  Or if you have easy access, bring in a machine.
• January 21 – Squirrel Appreciation Day. Squirrels have been getting a lot of attention here lately.  Lots of lessons to learn from them.  Get a week’s worth of ideas at:  Theme for Week:  Squirrel Awareness
• January 27 – Chocolate Cake Day. Serve it at your staff meeting.  Or deliver to each person’s desk.  Yum!

23 – national pie day

24 – national compliments day

28 – national kazoo day

 January Only Marketing Ideas

Here they are… quick and easy ways to stir up some sales. A potential side benefit is a boost to morale and productivity. All good for bottom line performance.

January is:

• Clean Up Your Computer Month
• Crimestoppers Month
• Get Organized Month
• National Soup Month
• National Stay Healthy Month
• National Thank You Month
• Skating Month

 

 

And here is a list of celebrations by date in January:

4 – Trivia Day

5 – Bird Day

6 – Bean Day

8 – Bubble Bath Day

10 – Cut Your Energy Costs Day

13 – Rubber Duckie’s Birthday

15 – National Hat Day

19 – National Popcorn Day

20 – Penguin Awareness Day

22 – National Polka Dot Day

23 – National Pie Day

27 – Chocolate Cake Day

28 – National Kazoo Day

How can you use these occasions to boost business?

If you sell any of these or related products:

• If you sell computer clean up tools or services, crime stopping items, organizational tools, soup, health related items, thank you cards, or ice skating…or if you sell trivia games, bird seed, beans, bubble bath, energy saving products, rubber ducks, hats, popcorn, penguins, polka dotted items, pies, chocolate cake or kazoos…set up a table at the front of your store or business with these products and signs that say Happy _____ Day (or month). Offer samples and/or special pricing if possible.
• Whatever special occasions you choose to highlight, and whatever associated discounts, be sure to announce them on your Facebook page.
• And in your tweets.
• And to your e-mail subscriber list.

If you don’t sell any of these or related products, you can build and nurture your community by doing things like:

• offering treats to customers – bags of popcorn, slivers of chocolate cake, hats or even kazoos with your name imprinted on them.
• offering each customer to answer a trivia question (about your store, your town, your school system, whatever) and if he/she gets it right, he/she gets a 10% discount
• give out packets of bird seed – good time of year to help the birds out
• decorate your store with polka dotted items

If you sell advertising…be sure to contact your clients with ideas on how to celebrate these December 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…critical during the holiday selling season.

There you have it! A month of marketing opportunities that will make your customers say “Thanks”!

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.

 Link to other months

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