Most pubs have a clothing rule about what staff can wear, often this comprises formal black trousers, black shoes and a long-sleeved white shirt with the company’s embroidered logo on the breast pocket.  In more prestigious settings this can include a waistcoat and in more casual ones it’s usual to wear an apron over the white shirt.

For very relaxed pub outlets the white shirt can often be swapped for a printed T-shirt with the pub’s name and logo on the front – often with promotional sales rates or event details on the back. These are sometimes even accompanied by shorts rather than trousers to give a really laid back ‘fun’ feel to the venue.

It’s usual for the employee to pay for their own trousers/skirts and shoes but for the employer to provide the branded part of the uniform, including monogrammed shirts or T-shirts. Some large chains also give permanent staff an allowance to cover laundering clothing and others provide hats, hairnets and other items of hygiene wear.

Unifying clothing is vital to make serving staff easily visible to customers, and aprons are a good idea because they allow all members of staff to be involved in food preparation and serving.

Retro clothing choices, such as frilly aprons and starched caps for cocktail waitresses or bowler hats being seen with striped butchers’ aprons in some seafood and champagne bars, can be a fantastic way to build brand recognition.

When you choose a logo, consider using a monogram. This is classically a design composed of one or more letters and it was often used as part of a signet (or signing) ring to seal documents with wax.

Today there are very famous monograms such as Yves St Laurent and Luis Vuitton which have become brand identifiers – perhaps the same is possible for you?

A good monogram says something about the business it represents – it both identifies the company and encapsulates it. In addition, a monogram has to be swiftly identifiable, clever, easy to reproduce in a variety of ways, and not too expensive to replicate.

A gold logo, for example, looks fantastic on buildings, but could be prohibitively expensive to reproduce on polo-shirts. In this case changing the gold to yellow could reduce costs while keeping the same ‘feel’ to the overall design.

Many logos are three dimensional, a design feature which can be achieved with embroidery as well as ink or transfer, and which looks particularly good on a cap or knitted hat as well as making a good emblem design for coveralls and high visibility clothing.

Simple white stitched monograms look particularly good on formal work shirts, towels and aprons, where they give an impression of cleanliness and classic styling.

A failing Norwich comprehensive school is being turned into an academy and as part of the drive for excellence, the pupils will wear Savile Row-tailored school uniforms. Designed by Thomas Mahon, who has dressed the Prince of Wales, the new uniform with a traditional logo: a school crest; a jacket and formal trousers is set to create a smarter attitude according to the new academy’s head. She says ‘The Savile Row uniform shows we want the best for the school and students. It shows we hold the students in high esteem that we have got them the best possible uniform’.

But in Huddersfield bus drivers are overheating about their workplace clothing. They want to be allowed to wear tailored shorts as part of their uniform, but recent new clothing rules outlaw shorts, although passengers are wearing the bare minimum on the hot, city-centre buses. One driver said, ‘we have asked the managers if we can change the uniform, but they had said it is not company policy.’

What role does uniform have?

Both these cases seem to suggest that a minimum standard is set by clothing, and that those wearing the clothing are encouraged in some way to reach for a certain level of behaviour and attainment through wearing the clothing.

On the other hand, clothing that is overly restrictive and uncomfortable may contribute to lack of attention to tasks and to frustration and even rebellion on the part of those being forced to wear it.

We tend to assume that logos are a modern invention but they date back to the so called ‘dark ages’ when the world was starting to industrialise and people were no longer totally self-sufficient. They needed to buy bread, beer, shoes and other daily items, but they couldn’t read, so when they got to town they would visit a market. Once markets began to give way to shops, the business would hang a symbol outside to show what was on sale inside. We use the same system today: a roof and walls means a building firm, while a glass with a foaming top is clearly indicating a place that sells alcohol.

How to decide what to include

A good designer will focus on your business but use some fresh ideas to give your logo a distinctive look. There are thousands of companies that incorporate a computer, keyboard or mouse in their designs to show they are related to the internet, but more imaginative uses are also possible – a computer repair company has a monitor on a stretcher as its logo and this picture is embroidered on polo-shirts worn by their technicians.

Colour choice is vital – dark colours show seriousness and business-like behaviour, bright ones suggest fun and excitement. Red is for danger, blue is masculine, pink feminine and grey and navy blue are ‘classic’. Picking the right colour is vital, especially for your workplace uniform.

Think about colours that wear well, are easy to wash and don’t blend into the background when displayed on printed clothing – a navy logo isn’t much good on a navy T-shirt! Unless you have a huge budget, stick to simple colours. Choosing just two, with black counting as one colour, will keep your costs down.

We’re all familiar with a few of the classic ways of using promotional clothing: chuggers in the street in branded T-shirts with charity logos; staff in shops with smart embroidered logos on their uniform polo-shirts and so on.

But there are many more ways to make promotional clothing work for your business:

•    Cheerleaders for local teams – sponsoring a cheerleading team can be a great way to get your name in front of the public, and it doesn’t have to be a bunch of athletic girls who wear your printed clothing – there’s a rugby team in Wales that has a male voice choir as its cheerleading section, and in the Home Counties, one furnishing store is sponsoring the local clog-dancing team to entertain the fans between overs at cricket. You can use this approach imaginatively – what about town criers in branded clothing, or sponsoring a dancing dragon for Chinese New Year celebrations in your town?

•    Useful items – a sandwich bar has overprinted plastic rain hats with its telephone number and has a member of staff giving them away outside the local station on rainy days. Women grab the hats and turn up later to buy sandwiches! Overprinted promotional bags are an ideal useful item to give customers.

•    Celebratory gifts – World Cup T-shirts are selling fast … need we say more?

Research conducted by Duke University in the USA reveals that how you look really does determine some of your success in the workplace.
They paired up pictures of CEOs of both large and small companies with photos of men who had similar facial features, hairstyles and clothing, so if one of the pair was wearing a T-shirt, the other would also be wearing a T-shirt or at least a similar kind of relaxed clothing – and found that people judged the CEOs to be more competent looking. They also found that the more competent looking they were judged to be, the higher the salary the CEO in question actually earned! Overall, the CEOs were rated as more competent-looking and more attractive than the non-CEO with whom they were paired photographically, but rated lower for trust and likeability.

So beauty, or at least competence, really counts in business. In a similar development a blog has just been launched at ExecutiveChic.com that features the secrets of business wear for women. An online forum allows female executives to talk about what fashion trends to wear and which to ignore, what casual clothing really means for women in the workplace, and how to choose colours and shapes that work for you and your business setting. It’s all run by Ms Incognita, the pen name of an anonymous management consultant who works at boardroom level internationally.

Tips so far include starching your polo shirt so it stays crisp when you’re working over the weekend!

It’s great to have your employees in uniform, because it gives a snappy professional impression of your business, but it can also be an expense that drains you, without seeming to contribute anything to your profits.

Used properly, a uniform builds team stability, boosts productivity and gives your people a feeling of confidence.

One way to work your uniform as far as you can, is to take a good look at how your staff are actually wearing it. Simply walk round the building, taking a digital photo of everybody and then look at them all, one after another, in quick succession. What you see may surprise you.

Are your staff rolling up the sleeves of their company branded sweatshirts? Is there a tendency to wear cardigans or fleeces over their polo-shirts, or colour coordinated T-shirts under them?

The way uniform is worn can indicate gaps in your uniform wardrobe or ways to revise your uniform options cost-effectively. You can stick with your current uniform offering and add in a simple sleeveless fleece over the top to deal with the issue of people who aren’t warm enough in a polo-shirt alone. Alternatively, offer a T-shirt in addition to the sweatshirt or allow staff to customise their sleeves by actually cutting them off, if you’re a casual kind of place and it doesn’t interfere with Health and Safety issues.

Adding a stylish cap can revitalise an existing uniform – embroidering it with your logo and perhaps offering a contrasting colourway is a great way to give a whole new feel to the clothing your team already wear.

There are two ways that wearing a uniform makes a difference: to the customer and to the employee.

First, customers respond positively to uniform clothing, which is why some of the world’s largest employees use uniforms like T-shirts or over-printed polo-shirts to offer a professional image and a strong brand message that encourages customers to buy from, or invest in, your business. More than 50% of businesses who took part in a recent poll, said that they preferred to use service providers whose employees wore uniforms. Interestingly, there doesn’t seem to be a link between the type of uniform worn and their response – businesses were equally happy with simple printed T-shirts bearing the company name and logo or with complete uniforms that combined a range of elements such as monogrammed names on shirts, embroidered caps, overprinted jackets and fleeces and branded bags or toolboxes.

The employee benefits because they have a uniform that means they don’t have to damage or risk their own clothing and because they have a strong sense of unity and team spirit that arises from wearing corporate clothing. In addition, uniform clothing is specially designed to be more comfortable and more durable than other forms of clothing and may have specific elements of health and safety – such as reflective band, knee protectors, fire retardant qualities, protection from sun etc, built in.

Getting into uniform is a big step for a small business – it requires financial investment for one thing. You may have done a lot of thinking about branding and logos but selecting a uniform requires a different way of looking at the issue of image.

Uniform is both a statement about your company and a way of investing in safe and efficient working – this means choosing garments that give your workforce confidence in their appearance as well as expressing a strong message about your business.

You might decide to start with T-shirts and there are good reasons for this:

•    Cost – investing in an order of printed T-shirts can be the cheapest way to establish a business image, not only because the T-shirts themselves are relatively inexpensive, even if you have full colour printing, but also because it’s much easier to fit all your staff into a T-shirt than to get them business jackets or fitted shirts.
•    Ease of design – getting a logo that works right across your business can be quite a complex process, but it’s easy and cheap to try out a range of ways of presenting your business by having different designs printed on T-shirts over a couple of years and finding out which works best. Think of the way that the Coke logo has evolved and you can see how upgrading a business brand via clothing can be a great way to explore a new image.
•    Maintenance – T-shirts are easy to wash and wear, unlike some other uniform items.

If your business is more specialist, you may go straight into formal clothing such as neat collared polo-shirts or even business shirts, with monograms. These are uniform items that work well with jackets, ties, scarves and other branded accessories, but don’t overdo it, as your staff could easily end up looking like 1970s airline personnel!

The advantages to formal uniform items include:

•    Professionalism – you can select highly influential clothing items such as formal white shirts, that then convey a highly professional image.,
•    Brand – creating a strong brand  is easier if you have a range of clothing items to choose from, and this brand can then be supported by promotional giveaways such as branded bags, printed post-its or keyrings or even through press campaigns.

Investing in promotional clothing or high quality personalised uniforms is a big step for a small business – it means laying out a reasonably large amount of money for what often seems like no sales return. How do you choose which company should get that money and how can you try to turn your investment into immediate sales?

Choosing a uniform provider

Communications with the companies you’re choosing between can be vital – see how they handle your questions about returns and re-orders, alterations to your order or special needs such as unusual sizes. The way that a company deals with your initial order can be a real clue to how they are going to work out in the long term. If they take time to understand your needs, can make suggestions that will save you money, and seem to care about getting things right, that’s good. Above all though, are they prompt in replying to you and do they answer the questions that you ask? If not … be careful.

Make sure your chosen provider has a good range of top clothing brands, so that you can be confident your order will be printed or embroidered on clothing that will look good and last well.

Turn clothing into orders

Use your new uniform to publicise your business – even the smallest firm can write a press release saying that it’s got a new corporate look, take a digital photo of a staff member wearing the new uniform, and email it to the local press and the trade papers. If they don’t use it, it’s cost you nothing but if there’s an empty inch of space, an editor has to fill it with something, and now that most papers and magazines are also online, they have a real need to fill their pages with new information, so you could easily find you get good free publicity.