How to survive the holidays as a business owner

How to survive the holidays as a business owner

by | Blog

How are you feeling about the holidays?

Are you relaxed, peaceful, and well organized? Or…like many of us…. are you walking along with a feeling of overwhelm?


For many businesses, the holidays are their busy season while for others it’s a season of extreme slowness. No matter what kind of business you run or how many customers you have clamoring for your attention, this time of year tends to present a long list of challenges!

Understanding how to take advantage of this holiday season and preventing it from swallowing you whole is extremely beneficial to your business and your personal well-being. This might mean taking extra time for planning, preparation, and education, but it also means checking out these holiday survival tips that will help you enjoy and profit from this holiday season.

Schedule In Time Off For Yourself

Sometimes when running a business, it’s altogether too easy to forget that you aren’t a robot and it’s okay to take some time off once in awhile. Schedule some time off during this holiday season to spend time with your family and friends, to go on a vacation, or to just chill out, eat good food, and binge watch some Netflix. You’ll be surprised at how much better you’re able to work once you get back to work after your time off! In order to maintain your peace of mind and keep your clients up to date, be sure to let your clients know you’ll be out of the office for a little while to celebrate the holidays. You can do this with an auto-reply email, or a special holiday-greeting email.

Be Generous With your Employees

Just like it’s easy to forget that you aren’t a robot, it can also be difficult to remember what your employees need, want, or would like. Offer them time off as much as you can manage it. They’ll appreciate it and be happier to continue working for you!

Bring On Some Temp Employees/Contractors

If this is your busy season, then do yourself and your full-time employees a favor by hiring some extra help for this flustered time. Many people are open to “temp” work in order to score some holiday cash. This will help you give people time off, and it will also help you better manage the floods of customers and orders.

Say “No”!

When you’re faced with a client who’s asking you to fast-track a new project, to work over the holidays, or simply do more work than you currently have time for, feel free to tell them no. It can be incredibly difficult to do this, especially when considering monetary or networking benefits lost, but you’ll be happier you did when Christmas comes around and you’re actually free to spend it with your family and friends. If the project is incredibly important, consider negotiating to have it delivered by a slightly later deadline or at a lesser quantity. Just be sure not to sacrifice the holidays for work.

Don’t Over-Do the “Holiday Cheer.”

It’s perfectly fine to send your clients holiday cards or even Christmas emails, but if you find yourself feeling obligated to hand-write a card to every one of your clients, you might re-think it. Consider selecting a handful of key business contacts/clients who have impacted your business this year and send them a handwritten note. For the rest, you might consider sending a classy, festive holiday email.

Pop Open A Recliner And Enjoy

This time of year only comes around once, so be intentional about enjoying it. While this might be easier said than done, especially with expenses, taxes, sales, and customers all on your mind, it’s time to put that on hold for a few days. Enjoy your favorite drinks, watch your favorite movies, eat some good food, and listen to music filled with memories. The holidays are meant to be enjoyed, so let yourself do just that.

If you’re looking for some extra help and ways to streamline/automate your business, let’s talk!! Because a lot of people are looking for help this time of year, I’ve opened up some additional slots on my calendar just for you!!

YES, I am ready to streamline my business and increase productivity and profitability!

Have a great week!

Robyn Bennett

P.S. Happy Holidays!

7 Ways to Prepare Your Online Business for the Holidays

7 Ways to Prepare Your Online Business for the Holidays

by | Blog

While it can certainly be confusing why some businesses appear to skip Thanksgiving and go straight into Christmas preparations, there seems to be a good reason for this. Preparing your business for the upcoming holidays is a time-intensive task, and since Christmas is one of the biggest holidays out of the entire year, it makes sense to start these preparations as soon as possible and get a lot of your strategies underway. Some would even argue that it’s a little late to begin your holiday prep, but on the other hand, any holiday prep is beneficial and it’s best to start as soon as you can. While starting today might be considered late by some, it’s still plenty of time to do some great work.

7 Ways to Prepare Your Online Business for the Holidays!

Obviously there are many ways you can prepare your online business for the upcoming holidays, so be sure to spend some deliberate time brainstorming and creating strategies specific to your unique niche, brand, and market. You’re sure to come up with some remarkable ideas that could specifically benefit you and your customers. However, if you’re needing inspiration or lacking some creative juices, check out these ideas:

  1. Offer a holiday discount. Specific holiday-themed discounts can help you get your products or services in front of people already looking to spend money. This is also a great way to get current customers talking to friends and family who have been looking for the things you provide. If your business is selling products but you don’t wish to discount your merchandise, then an excellent discount to offer is free-shipping, or even a discounted next-day-delivery price. People love to avoid shipping costs, so seeing a “free shipping” discount is a really great way to get them to buy from your online store.
  2. Write a festive newsletter. This can be used to bring your customers up to date on current offers, products, services, or more during the holiday time period. This is one of the best ways to reach past customers without a huge amount of effort or money. Newsletters can easily be themed for a holiday, and making sure it looks clean and professional is a great way to get customers to purchase from you.
  3. Write a holiday-themed blog post. Not all of us are writers, but even making an attempt at engaging with your customers can help you exponentially. You could write about practically anything during the holidays, such as your current holiday offers, a list of great present ideas (that include your products or services!), what’s going on at your business during the holidays, or anything else that you think your specific customers and audience will find interesting or beneficial. When writing a blog post, however, always keep in mind the promotions you are trying to offer this holiday season and do your best to make sure your posts are SEO friendly to help drive the right traffic.
  4. Use your social media properly. Your business should always have an active and relevant social media presence, but during the holiday season it is crucial to keep your content relevant in order to get the results you want. There are different ways to use social media depending on what platform you have. Twitter, for instance, is an excellent way to keep your customers up-to-date on latest offers or upcoming events. Facebook is great for actually scheduling events, offering information, and making networking connections. Instagram is perfect if you’re looking to showcase seasonal images of your products, brand, or services. Understanding your social media platform of choice is the best way to use it properly throughout the holidays.
  5. If you have the option, offer to gift-wrap before shipping. It’s possible that this idea won’t apply to your specific business, but if there is any way you can include this option during the holiday season then you should do it. Gift wrapping is festive, exciting, and helpful, so not only is it fun for your customers to receive pre-wrapped presents, but it’s possible that they’re terrible at wrapping presents and want someone else to do it for them anyway! This will also interest the people who are far too busy to gift wrap all of their presents themselves and will greatly appreciate some help.
  6. Do a holiday redesign. Update your social media profile and background photos to holiday-themed pictures. Add holiday banners to your website. Utilize a temporary logo-update that includes holiday themes. Not only will this be a fun change for a little while, but the people visiting your site, social media, sales page, and more will be impressed by your organization and likely be encouraged to purchase from you.
  7. Don’t forget about New Year. New Year’s is right around the corner and there will be a lot of resolutions kicking in along with January 1st. Consider how you can make your business better for the year, but also how you can make it more serviceable and beneficial to your current and potential customers

Remember to sign up for my VIP list where you’ll get access to my Black Friday offer one day before everyone else! Click Here now to sign up!

Have a great day!!

Robyn Bennett

6 Tips For Effective Holiday Marketing!

6 Tips For Effective Holiday Marketing!

by | Blog, Branding, Marketing

The Holidays are practically here! While for many that means Christmas shopping, Thanksgiving meals, and delicious hot cocoa, you still have a business to run. That means that this holiday season consists of more than good food and cool decorations. You have to stay ahead of the game this season, not only keeping your business in front of your customers but doing it in a way that’s appropriate to the season.

Don’t worry, even if you’re just now getting around to holiday marketing, there’s still so much you can do to greatly improve your business sales! Check out these 6 Holiday Marketing Tips to maximize your reach, your profits, and your productivity this holiday season.

6 Tips for Effective Holiday Marketing

#1 Start planning your holiday marketing campaigns as early as possible.

While many recommend that you begin your holiday marketing plans in July, right now it’s November so you don’t exactly have the ability to go back in time. But that in no way means you shouldn’t still plan for holiday campaigns! You should get on it as soon as possible, start creating some killer campaigns that you can complete in the time you have, and then follow through.

#2 Don’t just sell your products; sell your brand.

People know when someone is trying to sell them a product. It’s annoying, pushy, and let’s be honest: there are many products similar to that one, so maybe stop putting all of your efforts into making your product sound so life-changing. You can try to also market your brand. What makes it different? What makes it stand out from your competition? Why are you the best choice? Why would someone care about it this holiday season?

#3 Repetition

Repetition might sound annoying to you, but it sells, so market often. This means sending multiple emails, directing mailers or holiday cards announcing your sales, talking to people about your brand, checking up on old leads, and more. There is an old advertising rule that says repetition is the key to success, so be sure that your repetition is valuable and then go market that thing. Who doesn’t want to hear about Christmas sales more than once?

#4 Create Limited-Time, Short-Term Offers

Create some limited-time offers in order to incentivize your customers to buy now and not wait until later. You have to provide something that people want to buy, but you also have to give them a reason to buy it. While a lot of shopping happens out of necessity or convenience, especially during the holidays, you can help increase your sales by creating a sense of urgency. Limited-time offers should be your friend.

#5 Focus On Your Target Market

Define your niche, identify your target market, and then sell to it, even throughout the holidays. Many businesses fail by trying to sell to anyone and everyone when the sad reality is that not everyone wants what you sell. You should concentrate on marketing your niche products specifically to a highly targeted audience rather than to an unknown abyss of everyone. Learn how to segment your audience, learn about your audience, and sell to them how they want to be sold to. This will save you time, effort, disappointment, and probably money.

#6 Host An Event

If you’re trying to get more customers through your door, then host a holiday season event. This could be a tree-lighting ceremony with free hot chocolate and a visit from Santa Clause, or a stocking-stuffing party with candy and crafts, or really anything else that will interest your audience.

Bonus: Budget-Friendly Holiday Marketing Tips

If you’re trying to minimize your holiday budget, try techniques to encourage multiple sales at once:

  • Customer loyalty cards
  • Referral cards for discounts
  • Family-and-friend coupons
  • Add-on product options at checkout

You can also try partnering with businesses in your community to help boost sales since they’re likely to be seeking ways to increase their profits as well! Try things like cross-promoting, referral agreements, product-sharing, or more!

Have a great week!

Robyn Bennett

 

PS: I want to offer you a chance to jump on the VIP waitlist and be among the FIRST to access my Black Friday offer before I launch it. Click here to get on the VIP waitlist today: Being on the VIP list means you will get access to the details on my Black Friday special offer before everyone else!