The holidays are a time of celebration and cheer. They can also be an important time for your business. Taking the time to prepare for the busy season now can make them less stressful and more enjoyable for you and your employees. Use these tips to make an impact on your holiday and new year business preparations.
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Order supplies and balance stock on hand
You don’t want to be caught unaware. The holiday season is the busy season for many businesses, which can mean stock or supply shortages. Make sure your supplies are ready for an increase in traffic. You should balance stock on hand based on your estimates of buyer optimism. Track your sales velocity to balance stock into the new year.
If you need assistance to fund refill orders or spring product assortments, a Line of Credit, a Purchase order, Inventory loans, or a Hard money loan can help. These loans can free up capital for your purchases, and provide a reasonable interest rate so you can focus on keeping your business prepared through the busy season and into 2019.
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Prepare for holiday calendars
The holidays bring unique requirements for your calendar. There are specific days where traffic will increase and you will need to require all-hands-on-deck, but also days where workers will need time to celebrate. Prepare your calendars early to ensure proper staffing and to give employees a chance to celebrate as well.
Think about what routine tasks you might be able to get out of the way before the holidays. Accounting responsibilities, inventory audits, bookkeeping, or marketing can help relieve some of the additional stress that comes from the added requirements for the season. If you need to hire additional holiday staff hard money loans or accounts receivable loan can help with the additional wages.
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Make sure your website is ready.
An increase in sales can also mean an increase in traffic to your website. Make sure your site is up to date and ready for the traffic. You may need to increase your bandwidth and to review your site to assure it is mobile optimized.
Your website will be one of the main touchpoints between you and your customers. It should look good and be up to date. make sure you’ve updated your phone number, physical address and email address on your website. You’re going to have customers trying to reach you over the holidays. Make sure your information is current and easy to find.
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Remember customer service
Your customers will be dealing with their own stress. Try to make sure your interactions are pleasant and inviting. Customers who are interacting with you for the first time will want to return to you if the interactions are pleasant.
In order to ensure that each interaction is pleasant, encouraging future transactions, ensure your CRM, POS, and other computer systems can handle the extra workload. Keeping your tools and performance up to date is not only beneficial to you during the holiday season, but throughout the year as well. If you need to update your equipment or replace existing infrastructure, an equipment loan can help.
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Decorate
Adding a little festive cheer to your storefront or office can be a great way to celebrate the holiday season. There’s no need to go as big as Macy’s does, but putting up string lights, winter decorations, or some festive material can brighten people’s mood, and keep your business feeling friendly and connected.
The holidays can be a stressful time. Planning ahead can ensure that not only do your clients and customers have a happy holiday, but you do as well.