How to Throw a Company Golf Outing

 How to Throw A Company Golf Outing

With our world opening up more each day, companies are looking for ways to bring their employees together again. Team building activities are always a great way to strengthen bonds within an organization and there is no better way to bond this spring than on the golf course.  

When planning a company golf outing there are a number of things to keep in mind like budget, location, and swag. We love swag around here and we've got some great ideas for you! 

Budgeting for Your Golf Event

There is a lot to consider when planning your company golf outing. How many people? How long will you play? Which golf course? Will you provide food and drinks? What kind of prizes will you award? What type of gear will you give your team? Below are some things to consider:

• Location - Contact several courses near your office and ask about group rates. Green fees range from $25 to $250 depending on where you go and the day of the week you choose. Most cities have a public course and their fees are usually pretty reasonable.

• Golf Carts - Most courses charge extra for carts. If you plan to provide carts for your outing, make sure you reserve enough carts to accommodate all of your players.

• Equipment Rentals - While some of your employees may have their own set of clubs, it's likely that most do not. If you plan to provide equipment, you will need to set up the rentals through the pro shop before the event. 

• Food and Drinks - It is customary to provide some kind of food and drinks throughout the game. Some courses allow you to bring in your own beverages and snacks while others have strict policies against bringing items in from the outside. Check with your venue about the rules and then determine what you would like to provide. 

• Gratuities - If you are providing caddies, using the services of a pro, or plan on purchasing drinks from the beverage carts, then include a line item for gratuities in your budget.

• Entertainment - If you would like to continue to the party off the golf course you can hire a DJ. Many golf courses have conference rooms or private rooms connected to a restaurant that can accommodate your group and entertainment.

• Golf Gear/Supplies - There are lots of options when it comes to golf gear. Your budget will determine what you are able to provide. Before the event consider sending each player a box filled with everything they need for the day including shirts and balls. 

• Games & Prizes - There are an infinite number of games that can be played on the golf course! For example, Longest Drive, Hole in One, Dunk Tank Hole, Closest to the Pin, Beat the Pro, Speed Hole, and Guess Your Distance are just a few suggestions. Make a list of games you would like to play so you know how many prizes you will need. Great prizes include gift baskets, company engraved wine bottles, earbuds, happy hour kits, and functional awards like Bluetooth speakers featuring your company logo.

• Marketing Materials - If you plan to put up banners or create signs you will need to obtain a few quotes so you can factor this into your budget. Other marketing materials could include decorations, posters, flyers, certificates, programs, brochures, raffle tickets, and t-shirts.

Golf Course Selection

One of the things to consider when finding a location to host your team building golf outing is proximity. It's best not to choose a site too far from the office. Aside from price, the difficulty of the course is important to be mindful of as well especially if most of the players are inexperienced. Choose a course that matches the skill level of the majority of your team.

Invite Your Employees to Play Golf

Once you have determined your budget, picked a date, and secured a location, you're ready to invite your employees for a fun day of golf. You can send an email, evite, or create one like the sample below.

Get Your Employees Ready to Par-Tee

Several weeks before the event you can surprise your employees with a kit full of everything they need for the outing. A redemption site allows you to hand pick items that are customized with your company logo. Our most popular golf outing swag boxes include a polo shirt, golf balls, matchbox of tees, water bottle, and a towel. Other popular additions are ball markers, gloves, sunscreen, visor, and a divot tool.

The best thing about a redemption site is that you don't have to have the recipient's shirt size or even their address. A code is emailed to your employee which they use to redeem their gift. Before checking out they are asked their shirt size and their shipping address. Think about how much time you will save by not having to search for all of these items individually. Everything is kitted for you and you don't have to store a single thing. 

May the Course be With You

Now you're ready to throw an un-fore-gettable company golf outing. The most important thing to remember is to have fun. If you use social media share pictures of the event throughout the day. Your followers and customers will enjoy seeing you all having fun and may be inspired to host their own team building golf outing!

Create a "Run of Show"

Creating a timeline of events for the day will help you stay on track and on budget. Use our handy Golf Outing Timeline & Task Checklist...just right click, save to your desktop, and print!

We would love to schedule a demo and create a virtual catalog for you so you can see how your logo will look on these products. Contact us at sales@buybluesky.com.

What You Need to Go From Work at Home to Office

Your Hybrid Remote Office 

Our world is ever changing and the rules seem to change from one day to another. Little by little our daily routines seem to be inching towards our old normal and that means more people going back into the office. 

The hybrid working model is what many companies are moving towards. For some that means a couple days in the office, for others it might be stopping in from time to time or splitting the day between work and home. Whatever the workweek looks like, changes will need to be made to balance this new home and work life. 

Work Checklist

One big question many have is how to take home offices on the road to make them work in the office. Desktop computers may no longer work with new work arrangements which means taking a laptop or tablet back and forth. Easy enough right? Don't forget to pack your cable. You're going to need your phone charger too. Make sure you have a phone stand, cable organizer, notebook, earphones, and maybe a laptop video light for conference calls. There's so much to think about! 

Don't worry friend, we've got you covered. We created a checklist of all the things you need to make your new hybrid work schedule work for you. 

Right click the image below, save it to your desktop, and print.

What You Need to go Back and Forth From Home to Work 

We have been helping a lot of companies get their workforce ready for their new hybrid work plans. Our clients want to make the transition as easy as possible on their employees and we have come up with the best solutions. Our Back & Forth Kits are filled with supplies that can be easily transported back and forth from home to office while remaining safe and socially distanced.

Our two top sellers both include a laptop bag or backpack, cable organizer, wireless keyboard and mouse, charging pad, mousepad, journal, water bottle, lunch bag, and bento box with utensils.

Our kits are completely customizable and can be branded with your own company logo. Head over to our Hybrid Remote Work Office Shop for further information about each product. 

Shipped Directly to Your Employees

Worried how you're going to get these in the hands of your employees? Our Redemption Stores solve all of your shipping needs. We will create a store for you, gather the shipping addresses, and get their kits delivered right to their door. You don't need to worry about a thing! Sounds great, right? We think so too!

Your Logo on Work Kits

We would love to schedule a demo and create a virtual catalog for you so you can see how your logo will look on these products. Contact us at sales@buybluesky.com.

5 Ways to Celebrate Earth Day in the Office

 

How to Celebrate Earth Day in the Office

2021 marks the 51st anniversary of the first Earth Day celebration created by Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin. Senator Nelson was a staunch environmentalist who was passionate about increasing ecological awareness. Millions of Americans, including college and university students, participated in rallies, marches, and educational programs across the country. This increase in awareness ultimately led to the creation of the Environmental Protection Act. For several years after, other programs we were adopted as well: National Environment Education Act, Occupational Safety and Health Act, Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, and the Endangered Species Act.

Earth Day is now recognized as the largest secular observance in the world. More than a billion people every year honor what Senator Nelson began on April 22, 1970. Companies are realizing more and more the importance of creating internal programs and policies to affect change in their own environments. 

There are a few simple things your office can do to contribute the health and wellness of our world.

1. Go Green

Make your workspace, whether at home or in the office, a greener, healthier environment by placing an office plant or two on your desk. 

Research has proven that people are happier, healthier, and more productive in a room enriched with live plants. Not only do plants help clean the air of harmful toxins like nitrogen dioxide, ammonia, and benzene but they are a living reminder of your commitment to protect the environment. Small table top plants are attractive, easy to manage, and don't take up much space on your desk.

2. Organize Outdoor Cleanup

One of the best ways to honor Earth Day at your office is to host a Earth Day celebration. We aren't talking about the kind that involves a cake, paper plates, or party favors. We mean the kind were you encourage your staff to go outside and clean up around the building or take a walk, enjoy the fresh air and pick up some trash along the way with a recycled tote bag. 

Create an event this April 22nd to share your company's goals to go green and perhaps introduce new initiatives on recycling or energy efficient measures. Use Earth Day as an opportunity to designate a Green Team Captain who will help the company stay on track and will assist in implementing new environmentally conscience policies.

3. Reusable Water Bottles

Want to encourage your staff to ditch the plastic water bottles? Give them all reusable ones! 

Reusable bottles come in a variety of colors, sizes, shapes, and types and can be decorated with your own company logo. They even make ones that look like stickers (made to match your company branding) which is very "on trend". 

4. Conserve Power

We are probably all guilty of leaving our computers, screens, printers, and coffee pots plugged in at the end of the workday, but it's really important to unplug them at the end of the day. Companies across the U.S. are wasting billions of dollars and emitting 20 million tons of carbon dioxide to power equipment not being used. 

Take a few extra minutes before signing off for the day and shutdown or unplug the appliances and equipment in your office. This goes for your home office as well. You will find that physically switching off your office will also be good for your mental health as it is a clear signal that your day is done and you will not feel tempted to read emails and respond outside of office hours. Give yourself, the electronics, and the environment a break! If you do find yourself thinking about work resist the urge to power up. Keep a notepad to write down those things you want to tackle when your workday begins.

5. Plant a Tree

Did you know that in less than a minute you can put the wheels in motion to plant a tree half way across the world? It's true! Treecycler Cards are a fun and simple way to let employees, for instance, donate a tree in one of many reforestation projects around the world. Users visit the website and enter their unique code and then choose where in the world they would like to plant a tree from the choices on the map. 

Reward codes can be printed on anything including seeded or recycled paper. Codes can also be emailed. This is a great program that directly helps the environment, the organizations that fulfill them, and makes the employee feel great about giving back with the support of their company.

Contact us at sales@buybluesky.com to place your Earth Day order today!

How to Use Bake It With Mel Cake Kit

 

How to Use a Bake It With Mel Cake Kit

Looking for a unique gift for your employees or clients? Send them a custom Bake It With Mel Chocolate Cake Kit! Each kit comes in a heavy duty vinyl drawstring bag and includes sugar, flour, cocoa powder, powdered sugar, chocolate chips, sprinkles, offset spatula, piping bag, paper baking molds, and a cake board.

This would be a great party or team building activity and one everyone could do together via Zoom. We used our kit to celebrate Blue Sky Marketing's 24th birthday this year and want to show you how easy and fun it is to use.

Supplies

Before you get started you will need to grab a few items from your pantry:

• 1/4 cup milk (we suggest buttermilk)
• 6 large eggs
• 2 sticks butter, room temperature 

After whipping the eggs add half of the bag of sugar (#1). 

Beat until eggs and sugar mixture have doubled in size then add the rest of the sugar from bag #1.

Next, alternate folding in the milk and cocoa flour mix from bag #2. 

Looking pretty delicious at this point!

Prepare Cake for Baking

Pour batter into three paper baking molds. You want to make sure they each have the same amount so your layers are equal. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. 

Every oven bakes a little differently but a great way to tell if your cake is thoroughly cooked, take a toothpick and insert it in the middle of the cake. If it comes out clean it's ready. If it still looks a bit wet, place back in the oven for 2 minutes and check again. Continue baking in 2 minute increments until done.

Let cakes cool completely.

Once your cakes are cool, use a small jar or bottle to create a circle in the middle of the cake. You don't want it too big but just big enough to fill with sprinkles.

Cut out circles with a sharp knife and set aside. Watch the Bake It With Mel video to see how to properly put the cakes together...it's very helpful!

Make Chocolate Frosting

Make your frosting according to the directions provided and get ready to build your chocolate surprise cake!

Decorate Your Bake It With Mel Chocolate Surprise Cake

Snip a little off the top of your piping bag and fill bag with half of the frosting. You can twist the top of the piping bag or wrap a rubber band around the top to secure.

Place a small amount of frosting in the middle of the cake board so your cake does not slip off. Add the first cake layer and pipe around the hole in the middle. 

Place the second layer on the first and pipe around the hole just as you did before.

Finally, add the third cake layer.

Fill the hole with sprinkles.

Now, place one of your cake "plugs" on top. You may need to push it down a bit so it is flush with the rest of the cake.

Crumb coat the entire cake.

A crumb coat is a thin layer of frosting that helps create a smooth barrier over the cake to prevent little crumbs getting mixed into your frosting. Refrigerate for at least 20 minutes.

Once your cake has cooled, frost and decorate! 

Add a cake topper and candles and you're ready to party! 

This is such a fun activity! If you get stuck, you can chat with Mel herself and she'll help you out! She will also create your kit with sprinkles that match your company branding! Notice how the sprinkles match the Blue Sky logo? She can do that for you too! 

Contact us at sales@buybluesky.com to order your very own custom Bake It With Mel Chocolate Surprise Cake!

Happy Birthday, Blue Sky Marketing!

 

New Promotional Products February 2021

Happy February! We are back with 12 more of our favorite new products. These are items our team has chosen with you and your needs in mind. Check out our New Products for February 2021 Shop and let us know what you'd like to see. 

We love sending gifts! Contact us at sales@buybluesky.com so we can arrange to send you a free sample.

1. iHome Zenergy Bluetooth Portable Meditative Light and Sound Therapy

Add a little zen into your life with this Zenergy Bluetooth sound soother. Choose from 15 soothing sound therapy tracks and 5 specially designed LED light therapy modes designed to calm your mind, help you relax, or help you sleep. With a rechargeable battery lasting up to 6 hours of you can take the Zenergy Candle with you when you travel or leave the house. You can also pair it with a Bluetooth capable device to stream your music wirelessly. It’s small, portable, pretty, and functional. 

2. Blueberry Coffee Cake

Add some luxury to breakfast or dessert with our Blueberry Coffee Cake. Baked in small batches, it's bursting with tangy, fresh New England blueberries in a buttery batter with a touch of pure New England maple syrup and bourbon vanilla. This rich and decadent coffee cake is a flavor experience just waiting to be shared. This coffee cake is certified Kosher and has a two-week shelf life at room temperature or one year in the freezer.

If you attended our Customer Appreciation Event in 2020 you might remember Corey eating an entire coffee cake during that party. Well, this is the new 2021 version of that delicious cake. Once you taste it you'll know why Corey just couldn't help himself!

3. Selfie Light

Look flawless on Zoom! Selfie lights give soft illumination without harsh light. Designed to clip on to your phone, laptop, or monitor without scratching your design. Three settings allow you to choose brightness that works best for you. A must have in any home office toolkit. Easily rechargeable and lightweight.

4. Work From Home Essential Kit

This kit includes the essential tools your employees need to work from home. Earbuds, wireless mouse, and insulated tumbler fit conveniently in the computer day backpack. Perfect for onboarding or employees who need more flexibility in their work from home options.

5. Fuzzy Custom Socks

Leave a lasting impression of your company with custom branded fuzzy socks! These socks will not only keep your feet warm, they are also comfortable and so soft. 

6. Sublimated Lounge Pants

Work or lounge in style and comfort with a pair of your own branded lounge pants! Full color sublimation, made in the USA with lightweight spun poly fabric.

7. Wireless Meat Thermometer

Never be afraid to step away from the grill again when using our wireless meat thermometer. The first truly wireless thermometer gives you the freedom to grill the perfect steak from your phone. Use the free MEATER app to monitor the temperature of your hamburgers, chicken, fish, or hot dogs.

8. UV Sanitizer Copper Vacuum Bottle

This UV Sanitizer self-cleaning water bottle keeps your water pure and odorless. Portable purification system is built into your water bottle. The UV bulb sanitizes 99.9% of the bottle and water to effectively neutralize microbiological contaminants. LCD screen verifies success. Treats 30 cycles with each charge. Copper insulation allows your drink to stay cold for 48 hours and hot for at least 12 hours.

9. Deluxe On the Go Set

This deluxe box cooler kit has everything you need to enjoy a meal or that afternoon snack at work or on the go. Includes a bento box, cutlery set, and stainless steel bottle. The best thing about this kit is that it provides a wipeable eating area. Unzip the cooler to use the built in mat. The bamboo lid on the bento box can also double as a cutting board...perfect for a mini charcuterie platter.

10. Oversized Incrediblanket Picnic with Ground Stakes

The world's best outdoor blanket! Incrediblanket, a fan favorite on Kickstarter, is a patented, oversized, weather resistant blanket that uses a proprietary system of removable ground stakes to anchor the blanket in place. One of the best things about this blanket is that it stays dry due to the waterproof base layer. Considered the ultimate outdoor blanket and a must have for sports and  outdoor activities. 

11. Scratch Off Coaster

Reveal a hidden message or a special discount code with our new scratch off coasters. These can be added to any standard or custom shaped coaster in any thickness. 

12. Mask Dispenser

Promote respiratory hygiene with a disposable mask dispenser. Help keep your employees, patients, or patrons safe by offering free masks. Perfect for any type of business including doctor's offices, hospitals, office buildings, retail, and food service. 

What's your favorite? Contact us today and let us know!