How to Get Your Business Ready for Christmas

Either we are talking about a start-up, or a big business, it needs to be elastic enough in order to accommodate certain modifications during the winter holydays. December is usually the best time of the year for increasing sells, attracting new customers and improving portfolio.

With everybody setting up decorations for Christmas, why not enlist the image of your business for a temporary face-lift. When I say image, I mean the whole package, from website, newsletters, up to business cards and even the waiting tone on your telephone line. Using widely known Christmas themes will help a lot in making your business look friendlier and more human for someone reaching to you for the first time. Imagine you own a law office and someone is about to make a call asking for legal service in a divorce case. The artistic snow fakes on your add might just give you to edge and make you stand out from all the other companies in town. Of course it helps a lot to give your salesman a paid vacation for the entire month of December, as Santa Claus, the best marketer, is back in town.

Getting ready in time for the boost in sale that is common during the holydays period is all about knowing when to start building you momentum. Although decorations are usually put on display at the start of December, preparations begin much earlier, making room for few mistakes. Your business should follow the same pattern and start its cry for attention with the last falling leaves. Of course, finding the sweet spots that puts you in motion you not too early and not too late is often a matter of experience, and it’s worth experimenting with dates. There is no universally best date for starting your Christmas marketing campaign and you should always take in account the particularities of your trade. If your business is based on direct sales, linking Halloween with Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and the winter holydays, in a bigger, more coherent plan, will certainly make this time of the year the most profitable.

Of course if you reside at the high-end of the business spectrum, using Christmas in marketing won’t help. Nevertheless, you can score some major points by allowing the spirit of Christmas to make your rigid organization more permeable to things that people love. Making the entire month of December less formal, and more about building genuine relationships between the different parts composing your business, can be a great idea. Secret Santa and the traditional Christmas Party can bring employers and employees closer, setting new foundations for mutual support, cooperation, and ultimately creating a healthier environment at your workplace.

Christmas can open new doors for a business traditionally linked with the warmer part of the year. A construction company, lacking undergoing outdoors projects due to cold and bad weather, can develop new services and even create a new division. Setting up decorations high above the ground and in difficult positions often requires lifting machinery, as well as some knowledge regarding materials, connections, and overall safety for the public. A private kindergarten can open special classes for teaching carols to both children and adults, or other holyday skills. Every business needs to uncover the thinking hat which brought it success at the beginning, in order to expand in new territories, develop and monetize new services. It’s all about reassessing the new priorities that people establish for themselves during Christmas. It’s all about seeing opportunities and getting there before competition does.

Every business should expect higher competition during the holydays, and therefore should act in multiple directions in order to maintain or extend its portfolio of clients. Improved quality of products or services, as well as discounts, are all ways to keep the buyer’s eyes focused on you in a season with so many temptations and distractions. Extracting the proper conclusions once the period ends will give you guidance in the years to come. Don’t avoid identifying mistakes, things that could have worked better, and pinpointing errors of appreciation. Although the market fluctuates from year to year, a certain gap should certainly indicate that the holydays have put their mark in the expected way.