How Small Business Owners Can Prepare For The Holidays
This post is sponsored by The UPS Store. For more information, please see the end of this article. The holidays are a busy time for everyone, and if you own a small business, well.. you know that better than anyone. With a bit of preparation, though, you can get a jump on things and head into this holiday season with your business readier than it's ever been.
Here are a few simple ways you can plan ahead:
Schedule Your Social Media
The holidays are the perfect time to get in front of potential customers on social media. You can get ahead of the game by pre-scheduling your social media updates. You'll be amazed at how much time this saves, and how truly effective it can be. If you need some engaging status and content ideas, swipe these and use them as your own. There are even has pictures to pair the updates with. Then, schedule your social media blasts using these free and budget tools. In about 30 minutes you can have several months scheduled to be released on autopilot.
Cue Up Your Marketing Efforts
Marketing efforts exponentially increase with the holidays. The good news is, creating your own holiday-specific marketing materials doesn’t have to be difficult or time consuming. It's easy to put together your own holiday themed marketing materials using the free tools available in The UPS Store's design shop. And, The UPS Store is running a print promotion in November where small business owners can save big on their printing needs. To take advantage of the Holiday Print Promotion and get 25% off all online print products, just use code Joy25 between 11/7 and 12/31/2016.
Stay On Top Of Your Sales And Expenses
The hyperdrive months leading into the holidays can be a particularly frenetic time for both business and personal spending. Tools like Outright (we now use Quickbooks for Small Business) help you collect and categorize all of your business and your personal finances. Not only will this help keep you organized, you'll have less of a risk of forgetting a purchase or an expense, or having something get lost in the shuffle. As a small business owner, there's an undeniable, underlying sense of calm when your books are in order. This year, do yourself the favor of getting things caught up now, before the chaos hits.
Get Help With Packing and Shipping
Getting a package into a customer’s hands quickly and safely is an absolute must. But when orders increase quickly, it can be hard to ensure that everything is wrapped up perfectly and sent out in a timely fashion. Consider outsourcing your packing needs. The UPS Store has Certified Packing Experts to help pack products of all shapes and sizes; everything from baked goods to a surfboard, to make sure they get to their final destination unscathed. They also have a Pack and Ship Guarantee where if an item is somehow lost or damaged the customer will be reimbursed the cost of packaging materials and service, as well as shipping costs. This helps eliminate damages and refunds that can cut into your profits. While you'll likely be shipping plenty of goods out at the holiday time, you'll also probably be receiving plenty of packages of your own. The UPS Store has a mailbox service that allows small businesses to have a real street address. During the holidays, you can rely on them to accept all of your important mail and packages. They'll be held safely until you're able to pick them up. This is a welcome service, in light of all of the packages that were sadly reported stolen from people's porches during the holiday season last year. There's a lot that goes in to preparing your business to be successful during the busy holiday season. What tips do you have to keep things running smoothly? Let us know in the comments. I am blogging on behalf of The UPS Store and received compensation for my time from The UPS Store for sharing my views in this post. The views expressed here are solely mine. With The UPS Store, Print Never Looked Better. Whether your need is business cards, postcards, envelopes, or all of these, The UPS Store has your small business needs covered. Choose from hundreds of exciting designed templates to find a style that sets you and your business apart. Visit our All Products page to see the many possibilities that The UPS Store has created for you. Have your own designs? No problem! Use our website to simply upload your own designs, and create beautiful and unique custom print products that fit your branding needs. Learn more: http://www.upsstoreprint.com.