The holiday rush is an anxiety-inducing time for many businesses. But for tiny businesses, in particular, the holiday rush can be a time where it’s sink or swim.
With 82% of businesses failing as a result of cash flow problems, it’s important to make sure your business is booming during this time and bringing in as much money as possible. Make sure to invest your time in planning and readying your business so you’re able to pull out all the stops once it’s go-time. This upcoming season will bring its own fair share of stress regardless of how far you’ve planned ahead.
That being said, when all of the prep is behind you and you need to keep up with the rush of current customers, here are a few ways you can stay sane this holiday season.
- Hire seasonal employees. American retailers hired an additional 570,000 people for the holiday season in 2016. Seasonal employees are a great way to get extra hands to help you during the holiday rush without having to worry about budgeting to keep them throughout the rest of the year.
- Have plenty of packaging materials on hand. If your tiny business runs completely digitally and you sell items online, it’s important to make sure that you have enough packaging materials. Whether you’re selling t-shirts (2 billion t-shirts are sold worldwide every year) or handmade candles, it’s important to know the right packaging to use. The Packaging Company offers a packaging material guide for entrepreneurs and other tiny businesses so you can ship your items properly with care.
- Keep your inventory organized. Different businesses have different places for their inventory. Some use modular construction, which can be permanent or relocatable, and others use pop-up containers. Some, if your business consists only of three people, use a garage. Whichever your inventory storage area of choice, it’s important to make sure everything is organized, labeled, and recorded to make sure the things you need are easy to find, put back, and replace when necessary.
- Keep your marketing fast and feasible. When you’re a small business, it can be difficult to send out a big marketing campaign. And when you’re a tiny business, it can be almost impossible. That said, you can still market your products during the holiday rush without worrying about shelling out money for commercials and ad campaigns. Social media marketing is great for quick marketing when you have items on sale during the holiday rush. You can use different qualities about your products as marketing techniques, too. For instance, 76% of U.S. consumers who eat organic foods say their main reason for buying it is the health benefits. If you sell homemade, gourmet goods and they have health benefits you haven’t thought of labeling, consider putting those benefits on the label of your products. The less energy you need to put into marketing your products at this very busy time of year, the better.
With the holiday season creeping around the corner, it’s important to make sure your business is well-prepared to handle the influx of customers. By following the tips above, you can be sure to better manage your stress and your consumers during the busiest time of the year.