Hitting a revenue target can be a fun company milestone. Unfortunately, many companies don't take the time to properly celebrate hitting a milestone (or let their employees in on the fun.) Taking the time to enjoy the milestones you hit is important, especially for smaller companies trying to create momentum in their business.
We've discussed celebrating work anniversaries and employee birthdays, but hitting a revenue milestone is different. So, how exactly do you celebrate hitting a revenue milestone? Today, we will discuss 25 ways to celebrate your business success and share some top tips for adding more fun and structure to this process.
First, let's dive into the strategies you are looking for. Celebrating hitting a revenue target can feel daunting at first. Planning something that feels grand enough without breaking the bank is critical. You don't want to spend all the money you've just made, after all. We'll cover some relatively cheap options as well as some more expensive options in this article.
A thank you note is one obvious way to celebrate a revenue milestone. You can design a special thank you note and sign it or handwrite each one. This is the perfect place to get your managers involved if you want to personalize the thank you note experience.
This note will let your team know how much they mean to you and the company. Each team member contributes something extraordinary that allowed you to accomplish this stellar milestone. Celebrate the uniqueness of each team member through your note.
Social media has become a great place to share your wins and connect with your team. You can share your team’s success on any social media profile and use a combination of company and personal pages. But a shoutout on your personal LinkedIn page could be a great way to shout out your team. LinkedIn personal pages get a lot of reach, especially when your employees comment, react, and share your shoutout.
Again, you can get managers and company leaders involved in this process. They can share your message or create posts about their teams on the same day. This coordinated effort will ensure employees feel the love from different angles of your company.
Videos can be a great way to celebrate hitting a revenue milestone. Tools like Tribute let you grab clips from various leaders and employees. Getting leaders involved to discuss what hitting the revenue milestone means and how proud they are of the team is a great way to show your employees that you care.
Once your video is filmed and edited, you can premiere it during a group meeting or send it out via your team's communication channel. Heartfelt thanks and appreciation will be felt, heard, and seen due to the video component.
Your company website is the hub for your brand. It's a great place to announce your revenue milestones, especially if you go beyond "We hit $5 million in revenue, celebrate us!"
So how do you communicate your milestone, your appreciation for your team, and what you plan to do next? It takes a bit of nuance to do that. But ultimately, it comes down to putting in the work to put your people first. Talk about the people who made an impact. Go behind the scenes and share the strategies that made the most significant difference.
Conversely, you can share some of the mistakes you've learned along the way. Blogs like, "5 Mistakes We Made As We Scaled To $X," could make for great content and allow you to share the fantastic team who helped you get where you are.
Trophies are a fun way to celebrate hitting your revenue milestone. Depending on the type of trophy/plaque you get, you could make it fun and interactive.
For example, you could get a bigger trophy with lots of space on the base. Every time you hit a milestone, you could add a new nameplate. The nameplate could list the revenue milestone and the date you hit it. You could make adding the nameplate a way to celebrate your team and get them involved. Which employee will add the nameplate this time?
As you hit more milestones, more of the trophy will be filled up, and hitting new milestones will feel exciting.
As many companies have continued to embrace remote work, sites like Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams have become the primary meeting space for various teams. Hitting revenue milestones should be a part of those virtual meetings.
Many companies have realized that not every employee is comfortable sharing their real homes virtually. Creating branded Zoom backgrounds has helped many employees show up effectively without worrying about their space. When you hit a revenue milestone, creating a background that celebrates that special moment can be fun for all your employees attending a meeting during that time.
Some companies seem to have the best swag for their businesses. Company swag can be a great branding strategy for your organization. Having employees who aren't afraid to represent your brand is incredible. Swag is much easier to get these days. You don't have to have to manufacture your merchandise. Many companies handle this for you, and they don't cost an arm and a leg, either.
At Nectar, we have a few company swag partners built into our software to make it easy for employees to purchase branded merchandise with their Nectar points. Both of our partners can put your branded designs on a variety of items.
Here are some examples of commemorative swag you could get for your team members when celebrating your milestone:
Who doesn't love receiving an unplanned package in the mail? There are so many care package websites out there that can deliver a fun treat to your employees to celebrate hitting your latest revenue target.
If you have more time, you could also build your care package. It could include things like:
Whether you make your own care package or get a company to create one for you, your team will love the surprise mail.
Remembering where you were a year ago can be such a reflective feeling. Unfortunately, we often don't get a chance to look that far back when it comes to our work. A time capsule could be an excellent way to mark two significant revenue targets in your business.
Ask each team member to contribute something small to the time capsule and attach their name to the item. Alternatively, you can do a letter-only time capsule and have every team member write a letter to themselves that you open when you pass the next big revenue target.
Think about it. How might your business change drastically from one million in revenue to five million in revenue? What about 10 million in revenue to 100 million?
Seeing someone you admire do something out of the ordinary is always fun. For example, you could say, "When we hit our next revenue goal, I'll let an employee pie me in the face with a whipped cream pie." Who wouldn't want to see their company leader do something fun and down-to-earth?
Is there anything else you can think of that might be out of the ordinary but also work-friendly? Maybe you'll:
Whatever would make your employees smile and get excited about hitting the next milestone in your business would be great to promise here.
Companies that win together need to celebrate together. If most of your employees are in a central location, consider going on a group outing to celebrate your latest accomplishment. Here are a few examples to get you started:
Free food is the best, especially if you don't usually cater. For example, most organizations typically cater company-wide meetings, but you might not cater the smaller meetings that many teams have throughout the week. Make each team in your business feel special by connecting with the leader of that group to cater an upcoming meeting.
You could also cater your company-wide meetings if you don't typically, or go for a fancier restaurant than you typically do. Free food is a great motivator and a way to say thanks.
Who doesn't love a day off to spend with family and friends or just relaxing? After you've put in a lot of work to reach a lofty goal, you need some time to rest before returning to work. A great way to celebrate hitting your revenue targets could be creating a company-wide day off or providing a limited holiday team members could take off within a specific timeframe.
If you have many customers who need support and guidance, creating a limited holiday is probably better for your bottom line. With a limited holiday, set a time for employees to take advantage of the day. For example, you could limit usage to within three months of hitting the revenue target.
If you use a system like Nectar, you can give away points in your company's recognition platform. We allow you to give out points to everyone, and giving your team a bump in their points can make them feel special. When employees receive points in Nectar, they can use them on various gift cards, Amazon items, custom rewards, and even swag.
If you're looking for a more cost-effective way to celebrate hitting a revenue milestone, it's time to create space to reflect on your past and think about the future. Company-wide town hall meetings can be a wonderful place to celebrate your team, answer questions, and share details about your company's next phase. Of course, you can make this event nicer by passing out awards or catering the event. Town halls are a great way to celebrate your wins because you can make them virtual or hybrid if you have remote team members.
Challenges are a great way to move your company forward. Hitting goals when you are close to a milestone is important, but sometimes employees can get burnt out or lose steam. So for the last push of motivation, start a challenge employees can redeem once you hit your milestone.
Each department can play a vital role in taking your company to the next level. Here are a few department-based ideas to get you started:
If you want to create challenges, Nectar has a great tool built into our software. You have a lot of control over how those challenges work, and you can set them by department and office location to create something specific for your team.
One of the best parts of growing your business is the ability to give back to others. Most people live in a town with various charities and deserving organizations. So why not celebrate hitting a milestone by helping someone in your backyard?
Giving back to the local community can take many forms. For example, you could give everyone a volunteer day off to support a local charity, or you can make a financial donation to causes in your area. Getting involved physically can have a massive impact on your team, but getting everyone involved is not always possible.
Outside of your local community, your employees might have national and international charities that they enjoy contributing to. Finding ways to give back across the board can be a great strategy. For example, you could give every team member $50 to spend giving back to a charity of their choice. Even $50 can go a long way in the nonprofit world.
As your company makes more money, you should pass some of that on to the people who made it happen. You obviously don't want to spend all the money you just earned, but a slight pay increase can go a long way. If a continued raise doesn't make sense, consider offering employees a one-time bonus.
Another fun way to celebrate your team’s hard work is through a picnic. Especially during warmer months, getting outside and eating good food can be a great way to bond and show your team you care.
If possible, cater this picnic or have your company's leadership team in charge of bringing the food. This should be a celebration for your team, not an additional cost.
Similar to our time capsule idea, you could also assemble a memory book that tells the story of how you got to a particular milestone. Companies like Shutterfly make it easy to create a fun memory book to share with your company. In addition, companies like this often allow for bulk ordering so that you can get a discount for your bigger orders.
When putting together your memory book, think of all the fun memories you or your team have collected on the way to the milestone. Ask employees to submit their favorite pictures and memories from work. Then, compile all that in a multi-page book that employees can cherish.
Your employees aren't hitting milestones in a vacuum. For every milestone you hit, there is a family that supports the growth of your team. Your employees' parents, siblings, spouses/significant others, and children all play a vital role in the company's success. Getting family members involved in your celebration can be wonderful if you can afford it.
Think of something family-friendly to do, like:
A big part of continued success is learning and development. Companies like Udemy, LinkedIn Learning, and Coursera provide interested parties with quick, educational videos/courses. As a company, you could gift your employees money to spend on a class or work with a course platform to get your team access.
As a follow-up, you can take things further by incentivizing employees to learn using your employee recognition platform. For example, you could create a learning and development Nectar challenge. Once people take a relevant course, they can redeem the challenge for more rewards.
We often don't take much time to spoil our employees and thank them for their work. When you hit a huge milestone, you could make the celebration unique and do something significant for your team. Some examples include:
Remember, this kind of indulgence isn't for a tiny revenue target. Things like this can add up quickly, so you want to make sure celebrating in this way makes financial sense for the company.
What better way to celebrate a new milestone than to launch a fun new initiative? For example, you could work with our team at Nectar to establish a peer-to-peer recognition program once your team hits a particular milestone.
Other new benefits you could launch:
Whatever you launch, ensure it aligns with your employees and what they need. You can also use this as an opportunity to reward loyalty and help your workers realize that this revenue milestone is only the beginning.
Before we wrap up, let's talk about celebrating revenue milestones correctly. There's a lot of planning that goes into celebrating your success. You don't want to celebrate every bump in revenue, but you want to ensure that your team is sufficiently celebrated for all their hard work. Here are some tips you can use when celebrating:
Before you have any celebrations, think about which milestones you want to hit over time. This could be a mix of celebrating numbers hit, orders/customers, or another path you think deserves fanfare. For example, maybe you want to celebrate getting to $1,000,000 in revenue, or you could recognize getting your first 1,000 customers.
Whatever method you choose, define those points, and let your team know what you're trying to accomplish. When everyone's on the same page, you can achieve a lot, and it gives your team something to work for.
Celebrations shouldn’t bankrupt you or spend all the money you just worked to earn.
For example, some companies give a pay bump after the company hits certain milestones. You could also stagger those based on when an employee joins a company. For example, some workers might get a pay bump after the company reaches $5 million in revenue, but if the employee gets hired later, their increase might come at $7.5 million in revenue.
This staggered approach ensures you’re not giving away all the money you just earned, and it keeps you in a financially safe position.
Everyone who works for your company has a different personality. Some people like to keep to themselves, while others want to shout things from the rooftop. Know what kind of person you are dealing with before celebrating with the company or the public.
If you think someone would react negatively to the celebration, let them know your plans beforehand. Most often, it's the surprise that gets someone, not the act itself. Have an open conversation about your plan and allow them to opt-out.
For example, if you plan to go to a theme park to celebrate, but some people don't like roller coasters, give them some options. They can go and enjoy the food/easy rides, or they can skip it and get something else to commemorate the milestone. Flexibility and care for your employees will ensure that every worker can celebrate in a way that makes them comfortable.
Your organization is doing great things. It only makes sense that you want to celebrate the workers that made that possible. Today we shared 25 ways to celebrate, and these ideas ranged from low-cost to expensive. Some milestones require more pomp and circumstance, while others just need to be acknowledged. It's up to your leadership and finance team to decide how to reward your team without breaking the bank. Whether you are celebrating your first dollar or $100 million in revenue, we hope this gives you some ideas on what to do for your team.
Are you ready to see how Nectar can help you celebrate your people and the milestones in your business? Request a demo, and our sales team will give you a look at how stellar employee recognition software.
