The 7 Stages

The holiday season is usually the busiest time of the year for many retailers. This is quite natural because the season is making many people buy gifts and things for themselves too, however, there are some businesses that are dead during the holidays and it seems that they are partially guilty for this situation. The good news is that there are certain things business owners and managers can do to avoid the problem and make these holidays profitable like never before.

First of all, business owners should be aware of the fact that the holiday season is making many employees happy, but this happiness makes them less focused on their work. In addition, many employees take sick leave because it’s easy to get cold in the winter. In case you want to protect your business operations and make sure that everything is running smoothly you need to have a backup plan. So, in order to prevent a total collapse, you must find a way to reassign employees to different positions in case someone is missing. You can also look for possible substitutes before you need them.

Next, there is no doubt that the holidays make many of your employees think about the past year and what they have done in their lives. According to some sources, this is the time of the year when many people are looking for a new job too. So, it would be perfect to find a way to boost your employees’ morale. Reduce their working hours during this period of the year, throw parties and give them gifts. This should boost their morale and make them more productive which will eventually make your business more successful.

Many businesses are dead during the holidays because they have to be closed for some time. However, thanks to modern technology this is no longer a problem. Namely, you can keep running your business online. If you have an adequate online presentation (usually in the form of a website) you can keep your business open for customers 24/7, 365 days of the year. In addition to your website, you can also use social media platforms. The only thing business owners should take into account is shipping.

As previously mentioned, the holidays sometimes bring bad winter weather and many businesses are suffering because of the weather. Since we cannot change the weather, we can only prepare ourselves to lower the effects. Cleaning the premises, using a power generator, making sure that the HVAC system is working – these are some of the activities that you can practice in order to keep your business running. You could always contact the likes of the local business Castle Home Comfort Heating & Cooling to come and perform maintenance on your HVAC system to ensure it remains in working order throughout the season. Not being able to heat or cool your business could be a disaster for both your employees and your customers; nobody likes to feel uncomfortably hot or cold, so a working HVAC is imperative to a desirable commercial environment.

Finally, if you didn’t organize any seasonal contests for your business, the holiday season is the best time of the year for an activity like this. Instead of counting the days for when the holiday season will be over, you can activate potential and existing clients to keep buying products and services from you. Just make sure that your contest is shared as much as possible.

As you can see, businesses that are dead during the holidays can take some measures to boost their sales this year.

Carl Gould is a business strategist, and growth expert. He has written 5 books in the area of creating business success, and is the co-host of the weekly radio program, ‘Quit and Get Rich’ (www.gteamradio.com). Carl and his team of experts advise companies and organizations to grow to the next level. What is the next level for you?