The Winter holidays are just around the corner, so now is the perfect time to contact your customers and let them know just how grateful you are to know them. The end of the year is not only the time to celebrate the achievements but also an ideal time to prepare your business for the new year. To start the process here are 5 ways you can get ready for the holidays.
Decorate for Holiday Cheer
Create a holiday mood with a little festive cheer around your store or your workspace. Nothing says you’re ready for the holidays like putting up decorations. Create a festive atmosphere using all the senses: sight, touch, sound, smell, and taste! Try using essential oils or music to bring the feeling of the holidays to life. Bonus tip – Engage your clients in the art of making decorations at a small Kiosk. Remember decorations that can be used year after year are both budget and environmentally friendly.
Organize Your Work
Before the holiday rush comes, it’s a good idea to get organized. Are there planned sales that will affect the usual routine? Will store hours be changed? Is there anyone that needs any special holiday updates? Perhaps you need to contact your website developer to help with holiday announcements on your website? Do you have the holiday marketing plan in place already? Keep everyone on the same page to ease any stress or miscommunications, now is the time to plan. Start organizing your paperwork now for when tax season comes. Finally, do you have your inventory organized for the upcoming rush? If you run an E-Commerce site, do you have all of the necessary supplies to make this a smooth holiday season? Start making your list and check it twice.
Host a Special Event or Holiday Sale
Holidays are times of joy, so a cheery way to start off this winter season could be by hosting a special holiday event at your business. This could be as simple as having a special sale or offering refreshments to customers that walk through. Or you can hold a special holiday decoration party for your business. If your business is digital then a holiday newsletter or announcement, thanking customers for their support could be a nice way to start off the holidays. You could even slip in a holiday coupon along with a gift guide to help customers with those tricky gifts.
End of year goals
A year-end tradition is to reflect upon achievements and evaluate goals. What are some of the goals or obligations that you still need to meet in your business before next year? Do you want to start planning for next year’s goals? Make it a priority to check off any outstanding obligations from your list, so you can start the new year fresh.
Remember to take some time to reflect on all that you have achieved this year, and give yourself a pat on the back. With the ups and downs of running your own business, there is so much hard work that goes into each year and it’s important that you take the time to recognize what you have accomplished. Making it through the year is cause enough for celebration!
Give back to Your Community
Finally, an important part of the holidays is coming together with friends, family and community members. If there is a way for your business can give back to the community now is a great time to do that. Whether it’s hosting a holiday gift drive or taking donations for children’s funds or food banks, there is always some way to give back to the wonderful community where you have built your business.
Happy Holidays to all from the West Business Development Center.
Free Business Advising at West Business Development Center
If you are a business of one or a company of 100 employees, at any stage from startup to established, WestBDC offers free business advising — on whatever topic you might be stuck on. If it’s finding the right loan to expand, staffing your business with the right people or even just wading through new minimum wage requirements, we have experts ready to help you right now.
Click here to sign up for free advising. We’ll schedule a free, thirty-minute call and then we’ll assign you the free expert advisor you need.
See how these successful businesses set up, grew and expanded with West Business Development Center Free Advising services:
MendoTechNet, Ukiah and Lakeport
Are you a woman-owned business?
Please join us for our monthly networking events where you can meet other women entrepreneurs and share best practices, knowledge and make friends.
If you are a women-owned business and are interested in hosting Women’s Mendopreneurs Empowerment Night we would love to hear from you! Send us an email at events@westcenter.org
