Corporate Days Out – Financially Do They Stack Up?

By Angus Allan, Corporate Finance Partner at Clive Owen & Co LLP

Do you wonder whether spending valuable marketing resources on corporate entertainment is worth the investment?

As a firm of Chartered Accountants, we value our relationships with other local, respected professional services firms. Maintaining close working relationships is key to our business development and also aids us in achieving smooth service delivery on one-off projects and ongoing work with mutual clients.

Investing time and resources into corporate entertainment such as race days or dinners is a fundamental element in helping us achieve our business development goals. By inviting trusted contacts to events, such as bankers or solicitors, we are able to build lasting relationships and provide an informal forum for discussing mutual business opportunities.

Referrals form the majority of our new work and although applying a cost benefit analysis on any marketing activities can be difficult to quantify, it is especially so with corporate entertainment as we cannot put a price on a relationship. However, we are confident that developing relationships via corporate entertainment does help us to achieve longevity in our business.

While corporate entertainment is normal practice for professional services firms, it is becoming more and more common amongst all areas of business. The popularity of networking organisations supports this view, where building relationships with other members can be a powerful source of new work. Corporate entertainment is an extension of this as it provides a more controlled method of guaranteeing quality time to speak to those whose time you value most.

Spending quality time with professional contacts gives us a better understanding of their personalities and their drivers in business, which all contributes to a more rewarding and lucrative working relationship.

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