This article is a reprint of Wise Bread's contribution to OPEN Forum from American Express -- where small business owners can get advice from experts and share tips with each other.
Black Friday. You know it’s coming, and depending on how you look at it, these two words can be a curse or a blessing. This gateway to the holiday shopping season can mean big profits for businesses prepared to handle the rush. Any business—retail or service-based, online or brick-and-mortar— can benefit from the holiday shopping season. The key to success is early preparation.
1. Brainstorm
A meeting of the minds is a great way to start planning for the holiday shopping season. Taking a serious look at what’s working for your business, what’s not, and how to make things better can help you formulate your holiday plan. Meet with the people whose input you value—employees, a business partner, spouse or best friend. Then go over key aspects of your business that can make or break your holiday shopping season.
2. Prepare What You Can
Some tasks and preparations can be taken care of ahead of time, before the mad rush begins. Retailers may want to begin some preparations a month before Black Friday. Service businesses like caterers, event planners and cleaning services may begin taking appointments, and making some preparations, two months or more before the Christmas season.
3. Revisit Customer Service
If you haven’t completely nailed down customer service essentials, or have been thinking about revising your current policies, now is a good time to carve them out. Both retail and service-based businesses should have clearly defined policies in place to help customers through their buying or service experience.
If you have a website or business blog, be sure to update it with your customer service information. This also includes any social media accounts that may display your operational hours or business info, like LinkedIn and Facebook.
4. Where’s Your Help?
While retail businesses may take the hardest hit when the rush starts, any business that expects to see an increase of activity may benefit from an extra hand or two.
If you’re considering hiring help, don’t wait too long. You’ll want ample time to provide training for employees to become acclimated to the job.
If hiring an employee is out of budget, consider rounding up help from family and friends. Ask early and make a schedule of when you’ll most likely need the help and the duties to be done. Be sure to offer training just as you would for an employee so your helpers know exactly what’s expected and needed.
5. Organize Your Budget
Adding a little boost to your business before the holiday rush takes capital and some budget-tweaking may be required. Advertising opportunities, supply and inventory purchases, and hiring employees can make a dent in your operating budget.
Consider how your advertising dollars will be best spent during this season. You’ll likely be presented with many opportunities to participate in paid advertisements; be sure to hone in on the ones best suited to your target market and opportunity for return on your investment. Take a look at where else your money may be spent in preparing for the holidays:
Be sure to leave money in your budget for unexpected overages, like miscalculated shipping costs, product returns or refunds, last-minute purchases, or business emergencies. A little padding for the unexpected is a good thing when you’re up to your elbows in holiday madness!
6. Prepare Yourself
You can’t run your retail or service business with the big dogs during the holidays if you’re not physically and mentally ready. The stress of trying to handle a million things at once can certainly take its toll. Just as you’ll put a plan in place to prepare your business, you should also plan to prepare yourself. All of the things you should really be doing all year long are especially true once Black Friday comes to pass.
As the holidays approach and get into full swing, you’ll be grateful for the time spent preparing for the season. Remember to make notes of what you did this year to prepare, and what worked and what didn’t, for future planning. Hats off to a successful and smoother holiday shopping season!
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