The work event you should start planning from January and why

The Christmas festivities are over, and we are now in the final quarter of the financial year.  After organising the work Christmas party, you were probably hoping now you could sit back and relax for a while.  But planning events takes a lot of time and attention.  There’s so much to consider and organise.  Your next big event is likely to be your end of year function.  Leaving the planning of this to the last-minute will not only cause you stress, but you could also lose out on booking your preferred venues and suppliers.  Here are four reasons why you should start planning your end of year function now.

Limited options

A lot of organisations book their events months, or even years in advance.  Leaving your event until the last-minute limits the options available for venues and suppliers.  If you want to secure a particular venue, you may find they’re already booked up or perhaps don’t have the size or times available that you need. 

The same goes for suppliers.  If you want to book a specific speaker, entertainer, event planner or decorator, they could also be booked out by the organisations that have already planned and booked their events. 

Book early to avoid disappointment!

Low attendance

If you’ve left the planning until the last-minute, the chances are you’ve also not advised your attendees of the date and may find they already have plans or personal commitments, such as childcare to consider.  This can lead to a poor turnout.  You’ll probably also be tied in on numbers at this point too so will have to pay for the delegates even if they can’t make it. 

The results – an unsuccessful event and poor return on investment.

Everything becomes more expensive

With a lot of companies and venues being booked up, it limits your options, but you’ll also find that a lot of things become more expensive nearer to the date when booking last-minute.  Suppliers tend to spread their bookings throughout the year.  They may be able to accommodate a last-minute request, however, to pull everything together at the last-minute adds extra hours and strain on them, so they will charge you for it!  This can lead to overspending of your budget or having to cut things out of your plans to accommodate the unexpected increases in costs. 

You won’t have time to think of everything

Time is a big aspect of why you shouldn’t organise an event last-minute.  If you’re rushing around, trying to pull an event together at the last-minute, it adds additional stress and strain to the organisation.  However, it can also mean that things get forgotten or missed.  You can find yourself thinking of the bigger things but then overlook the finer details.  The more time you have, the better to properly organise and plan every tiny detail of your event.

So, what do you need to be thinking about now for your year end function or next event?

When? 

Picking the date is one of the first things you should organise.  Will you hold it straight after the financial year?  Are there any other big commitments or meetings?  Does it clash with school holidays when some employees will be off?  What day of the week would work best?  During the week or weekend?  Will it be during the day or an evening?

Consider all the options before deciding on a date and it’s always a good idea to have a couple of potential dates if you can if you have a specific venue in mind.

How much?

Setting a budget is another very important aspect to planning your event.  Depending on the size of your budget, depends on the type of event you can hold, where and how many people can attend.  Speak to your finance department to gain an idea of budget or if it’s your first event, you could speak to an event organiser to ask for an approximate cost of how much should be budgeted per head.

What?

Will it be a formal cocktail celebration or a simple sit-down dinner and dance?  Would you have any team building exercises?  Are there any other meetings that need to happen around the event?

Who?

Is the event open to all employees or limited to certain departments?  Is there a rota of who attends each year?  Do you have remote or field-based staff?  How many employees will be invited?

Where?

Once you’ve decided who is going to come, it can then dictate where the event will be held.  If all employees are local and reasonably central to the offices, then picking somewhere fairly local is a good idea.  However, if you have employees who commute in from different areas or if you have field-based employees, it’s important to consider the logistics of how they would get to the event and home again after.  Would they need any overnight accommodate if travelling far?

If you’re looking for support in organising and running your next event but don’t want the stress or hassle then get in touch with VASS.  We have a team of experienced event managers who can take care of all the details, leaving you the chance to sit back, relax and enjoy!  Call us now on 020 3370 4075 to find out more.

How to prepare for time off

How to prepare for time off

The festive season is approaching, and we all want to take some well-deserved time off to enjoy the festivities. But, before we can go off and relax, we need to ensure our business is also prepared for our absence and the logistics around taking this time off.

To help you, we’ve pulled together some of our top tips on how to prepare for time off this Christmas.

Decide when you’re planning to take time off

The first thing to think about is when you’re planning to take time off. Decide when you want to be off from, how long for and when you will be back working. If you’re a business owner, you also need to consider whether the business will be on complete shutdown or if you need a skeleton team in place.

Once that’s done, it’s time to communicate it! To customers, clients and the team.

Plan for your time off

As with anything, the key is in the planning! If you haven’t got one already, it’s time to create a plan now.

Complete shutdown What work needs to normally be completed during this period? Do you need to adjust deadlines? What will happen to any enquiries or messages? Will you set an out of office or an automated message? Are you likely to dip in to ‘check’ things in between? If you have an online store, do you need to update delivery times? What about stock levels before, during and after?

Semi shutdown Who is going to be working and when? What are the priorities for workload during the festive period? Is there a backup plan for cover, but also workload if it’s really quiet and the team end up with nothing to do? Also consider if they need any support. Is there a senior member of the team available on call for emergencies?

Prepare for the new year

As well as planning for the time you’re going to be taking off, don’t forget to consider your return. Realistically are you going to be back in and out of meetings, travelling here, there and everywhere on your first day back? This will result in an increased backlog to deal with and not a great start to the year.

Give yourself at least half a day, or a full day to work through emails, messages and enquiries. Take time to review your plan for the next quarter. What are your priorities? Review your to do list. What do you need to be tackling first?

Just giving yourself this extra little bit of time will help you get organised ready for the last quarter of the year.

Manage customer expectations

It doesn’t matter whether you sell products or services, you need to manage customer expectations. Informing them of the dates when things will be closed or on semi-shutdown. When is the last delivery date? What’s the last date your services are available? It’s important to manage their expectations to avoid dissatisfaction and maintain relationships.

Plan your marketing and promotions

Just because you’re not working, it doesn’t mean you should stop marketing or your visibility. Set aside time to look at your marketing plans for the period. In this digital age more people are visiting social media during their downtime. This can lead to an optimal time for businesses to reach out to potential customers and clients.

Identify what channels and going to be worthwhile posting to. What content is relevant to this time of year for your ideal client. Will you send season’s greetings to customers and clients?

Schedule and automate

If you can, are there things that you can schedule in advance or maybe set up some automations? Whether it’s scheduling in your social media, setting up an automated bot or automated email sequence to respond to general enquiries. If you’re not already using schedules or automations, now is the time to try. It will take some of the pressure off, allowing you to enjoy time off while things are running behind the scenes.

Enjoy your time off!

It doesn’t matter whether you’re planning to take a day or a couple of weeks off, remember to relax and enjoy yourself! Taking time off allows us to clear our minds, to reset everything going on in our head, adjust our focus and recharge our batteries. Leaving us feeling ready and raring to go in the new year!

If you’re looking for support before, during or after the Christmas season, why not get in touch to find out how the VASS team could help you enjoy your time off this Christmas. Call us now on 020 3370 4075 to find out more.