When it comes to competing in the marketplace, every small business owner knows their team needs to be in playoff mode, and not in a spring training mindset. Those who compete the hardest and smartest win. Baseball is still thought of as America’s greatest pastime – it offers a sense of place, feelings of nostalgia and the thrill of competition. Business owners can take advantage of this to build teamwork skills, be featured on public promotional items and draw new clients into the company.
One great way to introduce baseball around the office is to break workers up into teams and draft a fantasy baseball league around the office. This is a great exercise in team building because it involves analysis of statistics and predictions of trends and asks that members of the team work out disagreements so they can stand as solid units. To build deeper bonds, find a company that specializes in business promotional products to print t-shirts with the company logo on different color shirts to represent the different teams. Plan out special casual Friday events focusing on rewarding the team that has the highest winning percentage over an established span of time. Consider a company picnic later in the summer focused around a softball game.
Baseball is likely to be wrapped up in hometown pride. Business owners can take advantage of this by incorporating team colors or fonts into seasonal logo designs on personalized mugs, pens or beach bags. Be careful to vary it enough so it is a completely new design, but is still reminiscent of the local nine. Fans will pay attention, especially if you add an image of a baseball. Associating your business with an iconic sports team can only spell extra base hits when it comes to promotional gains.
Finally, businesses can work with major league clubs directly to book an executive box or a seating block for the highest priority clients. Planning ahead allows best access to ticketing supply, which in larger metro areas can mean better access to highly desirable games, particularly those between division rivals. Consider building a package of corporate gifts for your clients to take away after the game. Talking business over the game can be a great way to strengthen client ties and set new business deals in motion.