One of the reasons I wanted to run my own business was so that I could take off as much time as I wanted to during the holidays. Unfortunately, this was a disaster the first couple of years as I felt like I was working more than ever.
There’s always a rush this time of year and naturally, I don’t want to miss out on the fact that people are ready to spend their money. It can be a lucrative time of year for business, so it’s only obvious that business owners don’t want to miss out. This usually meant late nights, lots of emails and product development.
Over time I’ve learned that there are certain holiday preparations for your business that you must undertake in order to actually be able to take some time off while still making money.
Schedule marketing and promotional emails ahead of time.
One of the things you can do to prepare your business for the holidays is to schedule promotional and marketing emails ahead of time.
For example, I had my Black Friday and Cyber Monday emails written and ready to go by the week of Thanksgiving. At that point, all my virtual assistant had to do was load them into our email marketing system and schedule them to send.
I was out enjoying my long weekend while sales for my membership site were coming in because of an email I scheduled out ahead of time.
Schedule social media posts ahead of time.
Similar to scheduling your email marketing ahead of time as a part of holiday preparations for your business, you’ll also want to consider scheduling your social media posts ahead of time as well. Not every one of your followers is on your email list (though you should try to get them on there), so don’t forget to let your social media followers know what’s going on as well.
In my case, Instagram and Twitter are my most effective social media marketing accounts, so I make sure to focus on scheduling great content for those. For example, I had a Black Friday and Cyber Monday post created for Instagram, I scheduled it ahead of time with Later, and I made sure to direct followers to a blog post that listed all the deals going on that weekend.
Directing followers to a blog post does two things. First, I can capture their emails so they are added to my list. Second, it’s a convenient way to have all the promotions listed in one place. From there people can pick what they want.
Let people know you won’t be available.
I won’t be taking any meetings the last two weeks of December. Fortunately, most other people aren’t either so it’s no a difficult feat to accomplish. However, I still send out an email letting coaching clients know that I will be unavailable for sessions until January.
Even though it can be assumed that most people won’t be around during the holidays, you still need to let people know as one of the holiday preparations for your business.
Final Thoughts
By undergoing these holiday preparations for your business, you’ll be able to step away while still making money. The key is to plan for things ahead of time so you aren’t caught off guard.
