What’s more of a whirlwind than running a business? Running a business during the holidays.
This month, you owe it to yourself to take the time to put the right systems in place that will allow you and your business to run a little smoother this holiday season. Your time, energy, peace of mind and even your bank account will thank you!
Say It With Me: “Boundaries”
When we think about setting boundaries, we tend to think of what we’re saying “no” to. The reality is that boundaries actually allow us to say “yes” to what really matters. Before you plan out your special offers, decide on shipping, prepare client gifts or say “yes” to a single business event from now until January, put your personal life top of mind. Are you taking any time off during the holidays? Do you have kids home or family visiting? Any travel plans? Get your personal dates on the calendar in advance for yourself and your team. Next, create a marketing and sales plan with clear and concise boundaries in place to keep the work-life balance you deserve. Don’t plan to launch or offer things that will put you outside your scope of work. Who can you delegate or completely outsource specific tasks to in order to help you fulfill business needs while holding firm on your boundaries? What are your order and shipping cut off deadlines?
Know Where You Stand: Inventory
Imagine making those holiday sales you crave and running out of stock. Talk about stress! The last thing you want to do is waste time promoting products or services that you don’t have enough of or the manpower to sustain. To prevent this, start implementing an inventory management system whether it’s automatic or manual. Before the holiday rush begins, you want to make sure you are always aware of how much inventory you have on hand or spots available for your services. You want to avoid selling out of product too early in the season or overselling and having to tell a customer you can’t fulfill an order. Now is also the perfect time to look at your schedule and numbers to see where your capacity lies. What products need to be re-ordered? What resources do you need to secure before sales increase Q4?
Marketing Made Easy-er: Automation
Standing out during the holidays is usually top of the list for most small businesses. If you want to drive holiday sales, start putting an automated marketing campaign in place now to keep things consistent and effective. Start by establishing your sales goals and the offers that are going to get you there. Once you have your key messaging, pricing and promotions in place, it’s time to create your marketing assets. Include every single marketing effort systematically on your calendar from every email campaign and social media post to advertising efforts and more. Create a system that allows you to batch create these pieces of content and then schedule them out to be automatically posted through a third party resource such as Hootsuite, Loomly or your CRM.
There are so many demands as a business, but thinking ahead and having a plan in place with the right systems will save you stress and time this holiday season!
chelsijo.co/2022/09/01/episode-242
Hustle & Heart Challenge
This month, embrace the small strategies you can put into place to help you come out on top in Q4! Pick one area at a time that you want to systemize, and block an hour to begin getting it set up. You’ll be thanking yourself in a few months!
