They tasked us here at SMEketing to come up with some creative, fun ideas. And that’s exactly what we did! The final choice was an orienteering event at a local country park. The company was split into four teams, and were sent off in different routes. Once they arrived at their target, they called base camp (a SMEketer) for a general knowledge question, and another question of which the answer was the number of the post they needed to head to next. Ten posts later (and four miles!) there was a final race back to base camp. Winners were awarded prizes, and there was a trophy for the best dressed (I forgot to mention that they were all dressed as woodland animals!).

It was a great day, and although the teams were all very competitive, everyone had fun! And luckily the sunshine held out for us too.

So here are our tips on organising a small business event on a tight budget:

• Ensure you manage your time effectively
• Make a thorough plan, and constantly update and review it
• Shop around for the best value – you can often find items much cheaper online, and even online the price can vary massively!
• Make sure you maintain great communication between all those involved
• Keep an eye on the budget at all times
• Find cheap ways of catering for your delegates/staff. We negotiated with a local pizza place to provide pizza’s for all, and supplemented this with salad and side dishes bought that morning from a supermarket
• Keep any themes simple. We had a woodland animal theme – supported with basic fancy dress props for staff
• Create a list of any lessons learnt that can be used for next time
• On the day, make sure everyone knows exactly what they are doing and where they need to be

Planning events can be stressful and very time consuming. But ensuring that you plan effectively and monitor your budget, you can still hold fantastic events on a shoestring budget.

For more information on this event, or any other event that you’d like SMEketing to manage, please read our Event Management page or just send us a quick email: info@SMEketing.com.