Businesses obtain several benefits from using calendars monthly. Using a monthly calendar helps people in your organization foresee events and special dates for an entire month at one time. Calendars help keep employees organized, and you can also use calendars to advertise events and relay special dates to customers.

One sees a variety of calendars available. Some calendar manufactures preprint them with the month and day number in each block. Others create a blank monthly calendar and leave month, day, and year blank so one can use the calendar at any time. When thinking about how using a monthly calendar in your business is beneficial, consider the following:

1. Who will gain the most benefit from a monthly calendar?

2. Which type of calendar will you need?

3. Will you display or distribute your monthly calendar?

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Use a monthly calendar to display special events

Some companies choose to create a large calendar in a populated area of the business. The calendar displays all special events or news for the month. If displaying the calendar for employees, note items such as payday, birthdays, holidays, special work hours, and quotas. If displaying the calendars for customers, list things such as special hours, closings, and sales. If you do not have a central location to display a large calendar, make a printable monthly calendar and give copies to employees and customers. Consider emailing a free monthly calendar to customers.

I recommend: View the free printable monthly calendar from Print Free. Learn to use the monthly calendar templates from the Microsoft website.

Consider a monthly calendar for appointment setting

While some now use electronic devices for appointment setting, calendars are still an all-time favorite for many. Substitute teachers often keep a small calendar with them to record and check days for teachers. Beauticians typically have a calendar handy near the phone to record appointments for customers. Mechanics and other small business owners also use calendars to record appointments for customers.

I recommend: Learn more about using monthly calendars from Asensoft. Get tips about appointments setting and calendars from Life Hack.

Display menu options using a monthly calendar

Monthly calendars are a wonderful way to display menu and food options in cafeterias. Use a printed monthly calendar to schedule your meals. Hospitals often use them in their cafeterias and patient rooms. Daycares and schools display menu calendars monthly so parents are aware of what their children are eating. Restaurants that serve plate lunches use calendar menus to advertise.

I recommend: View an example of monthly menus from various schools at PKWY. Discover benefits of monthly menu planning from Monthly Menu Planner.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  When thinking about using monthly calendars in your business, pay attention to the fonts and graphics that you use. You want your calendar to be easy to read and usable to others.

Planning, time management, and keeping track of deadlines are among the top challenges professionals face in the workplace. A printed monthly calendar can be a simple, often free solution to these problems.

You can print out free monthly calendar pages at many different websites online.

Use them to:

1. Prioritize - There are probably several items on your to-do list (or scattered on various sticky notes around your desk) that need finishing sooner rather than later. Other projects may not need attention as urgently. Using a blank monthly calendar can help you be decisive about what needs to be tackled first.

2. Organize Your Tasks - There may be tasks to complete but only after the finishing of others. Laying out a plan on monthly calendar templates is a quick way to get organized.

3. Keep Track of What You Have Done - A printable monthly calendar will be a comprehensive tool for keeping track of the tasks you have already completed. Calendars, monthly or daily, customized to your needs will give you an easy tool to see all your completed and ongoing tasks at a glance.

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Free monthly calendars

A printed monthly calendar is an excellent tool for staying organized and managing upcoming tasks and projects.

I recommend: A helpful free printable monthly calendar is available through Vertex42. This website offers the choice of more generic monthly calendars that you can use for any year or free monthly calendar templates for Microsoft Excel that you can customize for a particular month of the year. You can print attractive free calendars at the My Calendar Maker website and then format them to be weekly, monthly, yearly, or even daily, and then printed using Adobe Acrobat.

Make your monthly calendars uniquely yours

You can customize many of the free monthly calendars available online with graphics, photos, and inspirational messages of your choosing.

I recommend: At DLTK's, a myriad of options is available to print free monthly calendar pages. Available in seven different languages, these calendars turn custom-made with a variety of different themes, including animals, holidays, and various cartoon characters. With more customizing options, ePrintable.com even allows you to add images and motivational or religious quotes, for an attractive and custom made monthly calendar. For some additional options, the printable monthly calendars available at Free Printable Calendar allow you to customize the country/culture you want the calendar to appear in, as well as adding pictures and graphics. Upload graphics from your own hard drive, or include a website address for images available online. In addition, blank monthly calendars are available at this website.

Printable online calendars for a nominal fee

In addition to the many free calendars available, there are also services that offer printable monthly calendars for a small fee.

I recommend: Astronomical Gardening Guide offers monthly or yearly calendars either for a one-time fee or through an annual subscription. Each month's calendar comes with commentary, coupons, and gardening and cooking tips. Enchanted Learning.com features printable calendars you can choose to print with activities for every day of the year. The calendars are available through a yearly subscription.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  A blank monthly calendar can be a great tool to provide to employees to help them with time management and planning. You can use one of the websites to print monthly calendar pages that already include deadlines, meetings, or events you want to keep on your staff's radar, and your staff can use the monthly calendars with the pre-printed reminders to add to and further customize.
• •  In addition to creating and printing hard copies of printable monthly calendars, there are group-sharing websites available that allow for creating, storing, and sharing of calendars online to be securely used with work colleagues or family.
• •  To keep your monthly calendars accessible, try printing them on magnetic paper and then hanging them on a file cabinet or refrigerator

Calendars can serve both a functional as well as a decorative purpose and there are many types and styles from which to choose. You can have your business logo printed on calendars as giveaway items for customers and clients, or create calendars from photographs of family members or vacations to decorate your desk.

There are also blank and erasable calendars that are ideal for busy offices. Save money without sacrificing style or design by using printable online calendars. Here are some additional things to consider about calendars: monthly types and styles:

1. Desk and wall monthly calendars are both functional and decorative.

2. Printable monthly calendars come in a variety of types and styles.

3. Customize blank calendars with fonts, colors and different design styles.

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Use a monthly calendar to decorate your office or promote your business to customers and clients

There are many styles of monthly calendars, from desk and wall calendars to those decorated with photographs of art, flowers or animals that can be displayed in your office. For business people who want to promote their business, there are companies which will take your logo and create a promotional printed monthly calendar that you can give away to customers and clients.

I recommend: Go to Calendars.com to find a wide selection of monthly calendars including photographs of animals, models and landscapes. Visit VistaPrint to learn how they can create a customizable print monthly calendar of family photographs or your business logo in various designs from desk calendars and pocket calendars you can hang on your wall.

Find the printable monthly calendar in the style and design you want for your business

There are many online printable monthly calendar designs available online that you can create and customize to meet the needs of your business. From classic styles which are suitable for offices to those that have pictures and photographs of various subjects which you can change from month to month, there is a something available to suit any style and function requirement. There are sites which offer these monthly calendar templates for free or for a membership fee that you pay each year.

I recommend: Create your own print free monthly calendar from one of the many designs featured at CalendarsQuick. Select from the many free printable online monthly calendar designs including dinosaurs, Bible quotations and flowers from DLTK's Growing Together. Sign up for a membership at CalendarsThatWork.com to use any of their various printable monthly calendar templates.

Use any one of the many blank monthly calendar designs to create monthly calendars

For those who prefer to use blank monthly calendars, there are many sites which offer free printable monthly calendars in blank styles and designs including those which have no monthly names and only print the days of the week to those that come in different shapes or card sizes. There are also erasable calendars which are reusable and great for business meetings and creating monthly schedules.

I recommend: Find free monthly calendars that are blank and come in various designs at Vertex42. Look through the selection of erasable blank monthly calendars available from OfficeDepot.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Free printable monthly calendar options are great for an individual office. To give away as promotional items, invest in creative, bold designs that offer a good representation of your business to current and potential customers.

There are many merits to having monthly calendars for your business and for your personal life. They help you look at the big picture and make long term plans while giving you the chance to check out to-dos in your immediate future.

The goals of monthly calendars for business are somewhat different than for the one you hang on the kitchen wall. In the corporate world, they serve these three important purposes:

1. Pre-printed and printable monthly calendars let you organize your tasks on paper;

2. Electronic calendars let you share tasks and schedule meetings with others over the Web;

3. Promotional calendars help you get your business name into clients' offices and homes.

Action Steps
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Consider a preprinted or printable monthly calendar

Going with a printed monthly calendar is probably your best bet if you like to quickly jot things down without having to worry about booting up your computer. One drawback of this option is that, if your plans change, you will have to cross them out, which will take up space you wouldn't have to budget for with an electronic version. Or you will have to invest in some quality correction tape.

I recommend: PrintFree has a good selection of monthly calendar templates. You can choose from horizontal or vertical layouts, plus color calendars and even ones with extra bold typefaces. You can't do much better than Calendars if you wish to buy a calendar. It has literally hundreds of calendars from more than 30 publishers.

Look into electronic monthly calendars

An electronic calendar may be for you if you'd rather have monthly calendars that are accessible with a mouse click. You can use these calendars in conjunction with the Internet or your company's Intranet service. This can help you schedule meetings or compare schedules with other employees or clients in seconds.

I recommend: If you don't have it preinstalled, download Microsoft Office Outlook. You can look at the Outlook calendar by month and color code appointments that are for different people or purposes. Note that Outlook is different from the free monthly calendar that comes with Outlook Express. It has more advanced functionality. Another calendar that's similar to Outlook is Sage's Act Contact Manager. It lets you map out a calendar and communicate with clients via email.

Consider blank monthly calendars that would be suitable promotions

When looking at calendars: monthly basics, don't forget about calendars you can use to gain or retain customers. A blank monthly calendar is the gift that keep on giving. You distribute the calendars one time and the recipients hang on to them all year. Want to make sure your custom calendar doesn't get thrown in the trash? Go for one that is interesting or has a good perceived value.

I recommend: Check out the pop-up globe promotional calendar from ePromos Promotional Products. You can mail it flat or distribute it in an envelope. A rubber band makes the calendar bounce into shape as soon as the recipient opens it. Your logo goes prominently on top. Another way to go is 4PromoProducts' executive calendars. Each is spiral bound and sure to last all year, plus they have the rich photography of those you'd see on the shelf at the local bookstore. Your imprint goes inside each calendar page.