A common belief is that everything slows down as the year-end approaches. People start leaving work early to catch up on last-minute shopping for Christmas and the New Year, fewer phone calls are attended because employees are either on leave or celebrating early, and new jobs are postponed until the new year starts. All these are indicators of slowing down.
But what you don’t realise is that it’s the people who are slowing down and not the business itself.
Just because it’s the holiday season doesn’t mean you are required to slow down. If you’re not up to slowing down, focus your time and energy on activities that don’t expire or have an end date when you have more time. You will get no other better opportunity to play catch up than the holiday season.
You’ve been working in the business for almost the whole year, so the holiday season is a great time to work on your business.
How to Utilise the Holiday Season to Grow Your Business
There are many ways to work on your business during the holiday season. Production, processing, or manufacturing is not the only work that needs to be done. There are many other activities which if done now will save you a lot of time and tension later.
1. Wrap Up the Loose Ends
There’s tons of paperwork that needs to be completed and filed, licenses to check and acquire, and digital files that need to be updated. All this might seem inconsequential, but the cost for not completing them might be high, such as financial repercussions you might be able to bear and even business reputation.
The holiday season presents the most opportune time to finish all these menial jobs that are essential for smooth business operations. You can even take advantage of the holiday season to draw up contracts for the coming year and review old ones to check for discrepancies.
2. Build Relationships by Reaching Out
We assume that everyone is busy as the holiday season approaches, but being busy does not mean that they are not available for a catch-up. In fact, studies have shown that most lasting relationships are built during the holiday season.
Utilise the holiday season and reach out to your customers. See how they’ve been doing, express gratitude, ask them for feedback, or just wish them happy holidays.
You can also reach out to prospective leads and introduce yourself and your business. As you strengthen your business relationships, the bonds of loyalty grow stronger.
3. Advertise
When most are taking a break, you can take advantage of the lull. Gear up for a 360-degree impact on all senses through advertising. Handle the holiday season advertising with compassion, care, and holiday cheer. Reach out to a wider audience and let your presence be known.
Do you want to put your social media management on auto-pilot? Talk to us!
Towards the end of the year, there are fewer distractions so it’s a great time to leave a lasting impact through strategic advertising. You may have focused on your products and services for the most part of the year, so now is the time to drive focus on your core values. Let your target customers know everything that you care about and why they should support you. Once you find that common thread that connects you with your ideal clients, you will have a goldmine in your hands.
Is your current client base mostly made up of not-so-ideal clients? Listen to Business Built Freedom With Joshua Lewis episode about finding ideal clients with Paul Kennedy.
4. Plan for the Coming Year
Planning is often relegated to the beginning of the following year, but this is a common yet grave mistake. The new year can begin on high note fizzles and shrivels into another yesteryear before gaining momentum. If planning has been done before the year ends, before or during the holiday season, you can start the new year with a bang and gain a considerable advantage over the competition.
When it comes to business, time spent translates to money. The time that you waste by slacking is lost opportunities. Now, during the holiday season, it’s time to forecast and plan.
5. Strategise
Once the planning is done, it’s time to strategise. The best time to build strategies is the holiday season when you have more time and a relaxed mind to work with. With no other pressing requirements, you can work dedicatedly to build effective strategies to reach your business goals. Calling in your top players for brainstorming will give you more to work with.
Study your competition, work out how you can improve your products or services, or pivot your marketing. You can gain an advantage and come out at the top by being an underdog who slaved while the others slacked.
Think about innovations, procedures, and products
Signing up for new deals at the year-end will let you begin fresh when the new year starts. You will be gearing up to start work whereas others will be looking to sign contracts for new work. The holiday season is the best time to work on negotiations be it with new clients, suppliers, freight companies, employees, etc. Regardless of the person, negotiations will give you a chance to extract more value for money. You can get better options and discounts as well.
The holiday season is the best time to review, think, and plan for your business. It is a great time to dream and fly high. You come and work every day but, each day, you rarely get time to think about how your business can become better. Unless you have left for some time alone earlier this year, the holiday season is your opportunity to pick up the strings and tighten your hold to fill in the gaps. In the end, it takes hard work and discipline to finish strong.
Try to get the most out of the holiday season this year so that you are ready to jumpstart the coming year.
Do you need a fresh pair of eyes to look into your business? Book a meeting with a dork who can review your processes and show you where it’s best to optimise or even automate.
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