Create an image of professionalism for your medical or dental office with these Medical & Dental Letterheads.
February 28, 2011
Letterheads for Medical and Dental Offices
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February 25, 2011
Making Sure You Have All the Necessary Wedding Reception Supplies
When it comes to wedding receptions, one way to save a lot of money is to plan it out and put it together yourself. Having friends and family help with the decorating and cooking needs saves you from having to pay others to do it. Just like with every other aspect of the wedding, for the reception to be perfect you have to have a lot of planning to ensure you’ve got all the necessary wedding reception supplies.
Here is a list of just a few wedding reception supplies you are going to need to have a great reception.
- Table cloths
- Napkins
- Knives, forks and spoons
- Plates
- Cups
- Decorations
- Balloons
- Banners
- Table Tents and Place Cards
- Streamers
- Confetti
- Flowers
- Food and beverages
- Serving dishes, chafing dishes, sterno (to keep hot stuff hot. Use stainless steel serving trays)
- Serving spoons, forks and ladles
- Trash bags, can opener and a lighter (for the sterno and candles if you have any)
This is just a quick and dirty list of wedding reception supplies you’ll definitely want to have. Of course, this list is working on the assumption you’ve rented a hall where all you’ll have are kitchen facilities for prep and cooking and a room with tables for the reception to take place.
Of course, if you’re going to be handling the reception yourself, the key thing you’ll need is time. Time to set the room up by putting down the table cloths and place settings, time to cook what needs to be cooked (pre-cooking a lot of stuff in the days leading up to the wedding will help with this aspect), time to set up the serving table, and last of all, time to clean up, pack up and go home.
Another key is having enough help to get everything done. Having friends and family to help with prep work, set up and cleanup will enable you to set up the reception room and have all the cooking and serving set up in just a couple of hours, and with enough help, clean up can be accomplished in as little as an hour.
Doing the wedding reception yourself may be a hassle, but it will certainly save you hundreds, maybe even thousands of dollars over having it planned, catered and cleaned up. Plus you get something doing it yourself that you don’t get when you let others handle it, the satisfaction that you did it. You gave the bride and groom something that they’ll remember forever.
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February 23, 2011
Making Extraordinary Graduation Certificates
Once you graduate high school and college, you may not think that getting a graduation certificate for anything would be a real stretch. However, there are lots of reasons you may receive, or need to make graduation certificates. Completion of extra curricular classes and courses, especially those held within a company can be a good reason for graduation certificates. Regardless of the reason for a certificate, making a great certificate that the recipient will be proud to keep and even hang on their wall is a snap.
There are all kinds of graduation certificate stock paper. From the rather plain to the 
extremely detailed and fancy, the variety available is amazing. Once you decide on a style that suits the company or event, all that’s left is to fill in the information. That’s all it takes to make extraordinary graduation certificates.
Using a script type font adds another layer of official attitude to the document. Having the company or school logo on it also adds to that level of being an official graduation type of document. Once those are in place in your layout, go back and fill in the recipient name and the reasons for the certificate. There are templates for most of the certificate stock available for popular word processing programs that make layout and design of your graduation certificate a simple process.
After the certificates are complete, have them signed by corporate officials or by supervisors of the event or class. This certifies that they verify the certificate as being valid, and gives the recipient that extra level of appreciation of their accomplishment. Recipients of these awards have put forth a lot of effort to complete the class or event, and giving them a signed certificate of graduation certainly validates their efforts.
The great thing about making extraordinary graduation certificates is the fact that they’re not expensive. Even if you go to the added expense of a frame, you can still put together an impressive certificate for presentation for less than $10 each. Without a frame, a great certificate can be one of the least expensive awards you can give out, and the recipients are still deeply appreciative of the fact their efforts are acknowledged.
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February 21, 2011
How to Write a Cover Letter
The first impression you get to make when applying for a job is more than likely going to be your cover letter on your resume. While a solid, well executed resume is going to be essential to getting that job, that first impression your cover letter delivers will be key. HR personnel are geared to filter through resumes in any way possible, so making sure you write a cover letter well keeps yours from getting kicked out right off the bat.
To write an effective cover letter is a balance of appreciation, hope and promise. You’ll want to express appreciation for the opportunity to apply for the job. In today’s job market, you want to let people know that you do appreciate opportunities.
Next, you’ll want to express the hope you’ll be interviewed and hired. Not only that, but you want to express the hope that you’ll have a positive impact on the company. Being a team player and up-building the company before you’re even hired is going to leave the reader with a positive impression and impact them with your desire to be a part of the company.
Last, when you write a cover letter you want to express how your skill set would be a benefit to the company. You want to leave them with the impression that your skills are exactly what they’re looking for and then some.
This will leave them with the impression you’ve got a lot of promise to help boost the company’s bottom line.
To close, recap with a couple of sentences reinforcing the hope and promise statements, then close with one last statement of appreciation. This leaves the reader with an overall positive impression of you. You’ll have set up your resume and your desire to work for the company. HR personnel are used to seeing a bunch of bland cover letters, so having one positively impact them will be a big help to your job search.
Letterhead paper shown above
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February 17, 2011
Unique Place Cards Add Personality to Event Table Planning
When hosting a large dinner party, especially a formal one, organization is everything. Invitations get sent with RSVP cards so the planner will know exactly who is going to be there. The meal courses have been selected and planned with care. Entertainment has been selected to compliment the party. And when it comes to details, every single one is attended to. This includes the seating arrangement for the evening. Instead of allowing for Hobson’s choice when it comes time to be seated, every single person is placed and can find where they’re supposed to sit with a unique place card.
Place cards can be as simple as a small white card with the person’s name on it, but those add nothing to the party. However, having fancy place cards made can be expensive and a hassle. Not only do you have to go pick the card style off of a standard list, but you have to give the printer a list of names. This in and of itself can be a troublesome thing because it’s a slight invasion of privacy to let anyone know what your guest list is going to be. After that, the names have to be laid out and proofed for accuracy and then the place cards can be printed.
One way to reduce expenses, to control the guest list information and to have the place cards reflects the theme of the evening is to print your own. Getting blank or pre-designed place card stock is as simple as going online and looking around a little. Templates can be downloaded for them that work great with your favorite word processor or design program so setup is a snap. Simply put the names into the template and any other design cues you want, whether it’s a logo or a shape or even balloons for a birthday party, and hit the print button. In just a very few minutes, you’ll have generated all the place cards for the party. And printing your own means if there are any last minute additions, you can print those pretty much on the fly, even right up to the moment when everyone sits down.
Using place cards during the planning process means groupings can be planned as carefully as the menu. Sometimes groups need to be together because of commonalities, sometimes the planner is supposed to play “matchmaker” and sometimes politics and networking is involved. By having the place cards as an integral part of the party means that quite a few of them will go home with the guest instead of becoming part of the cleanup process. And if the “matchmaker” is lucky, some of those place cards may have a phone number on them at the end of the evening.
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February 9, 2011
Office Humor Signs Are an Easy Way to Boost Morale
If you walk around virtually every office in the world, you’re going to see a lot of common denominators. You’ll find the usual computers, pens and pencils, family pictures on the desks and walls and even some plants. But somewhere, either in an office or in a public area, you’ll find something that will make you laugh out loud, or at least give you a chuckle. Most of the time the culprit is an office humor sign hanging on a wall.
Some are simple drawings with a funny caption below it that is designed to garner a 
laugh. Some are like the motivational pictures, but the heading is something totally hilarious. Regardless of which type it is, these signs not only bring a funny moment to whoever sees it, but they do a great job of boosting morale in the workplace.
When employees work a job for a while, especially doing production work, the tasks can become tedious. This tedium can cause an employee to be a little less attentive to detail and can even slow production. By having signs in break rooms and in public areas that are funny, the employee sees it and the humor breaks that tedium. An employee that’s thinking about the sign they just saw is an employee that’s plugged back in to their job.
One way to really take advantage of office humor signs is to change them out on a regular basis. Signs that have been hanging for a while have been seen by everyone and have lost their appeal. But swapping them out for new ones keeps the humor level high and employees will look for new signs all the time. This keeps a level of anticipation in the office and that also works to boost morale.
Humorous signs in the office definitely builds morale and used properly can work on multiple levels to do so. And the best part about is the fact that these signs are very inexpensive. Even the large ones aren’t very expensive and the humor level can be increased with the size of the sign. Regardless of what kind of sign it is, or even the content of the humor, these signs give everyone in the office something to look forward to.
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February 7, 2011
How to Write a Great Business Letter
While paper correspondence seems to be falling by the wayside in our fast paced business world, following style, form and function is still a necessity. Regardless of whether you’re sending a letter in an email or via snail-mail, there are rules that still need to be followed. Great business letters, regardless of the method of delivery, are designed as formal communication. This means taking a few things into account when it comes to the style and content.
First, keep in mind who your intended audience is. If it’s an individual, you’ll want to handle it in a somewhat more personal manner than if you would a group. Also, keep in mind the purpose of the letter versus who will be reading it. Don’t get too technical with someone who won’t understand the references, but don’t underestimate or undervalue the points you’re trying to impress upon the recipient.
One aspect to keep in mind if using regular mail is the stationery used. Having your 
business letters on good quality stationery with the company logo embossed on it will always add a huge level of professionalism to any correspondence. Even negative business letters have a better reception when delivered on high quality stationery.
Writing a great business letter doesn’t mean it has to be stuffy and impersonal. Bringing a level of informality and personable attitude to the letter ensures the person reading it comes away with a sense of satisfaction that they’re working with someone friendly and reasonable. However, don’t be too informal and jokey as that could come across as too flighty and inconsequential. That would actually defeat the purpose of the letter.
Generally, a great business letter will start off with a paragraph introducing the overall scenario. The 
second paragraph gives an outline or agenda for the rest of the letter. Subsequent paragraphs will define each section of the outlined areas, and a final paragraph will tie up any loose ends with an encouragement to work towards a successful completion of the purpose of the letter.
Even letters that are simply sent as a thank you will need to follow a similar style. But, after all is said and done, business letters are the backbone of corporate correspondence, and should be handled as such. Nothing of any importance can be started or handled without a great business letter.
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