Today I want to give you an overview of what it looks like to have a successful holiday season starting from July and going all the way to January!
I’m going to look at each of the four stages of a profitable holiday season— planning, prepping, implementing, and wrapping up— and talk to you about what things you need to get done during each stage to make sure that you are ready for your best holiday sales yet.
Let’s dive in.
I want to start by showing you this diagram to help you get a picture in your head of how you should think about organizing your holiday sales.
You can see that the timeframe of each stage is mapped out to ensure that you have completed that stage in time to be ready for the next stage—they build on each other so each stage is necessary for the next to be successful.
And . . . an added bonus is that by staggering all of your “to-do’s” this way you can focus and do a really good job at each stage without feeling overwhelmed!
Planning happens starting as early as you can really, but at the latest starting in July and ending in August. THE LATEST!
Planning is actually the most important part of the work you are going to do . . . and if you don’t want to be all stressed and completely burned out and feeling out of control, not to mention missing out on sales during the holiday rush, you want to be sure you plan—and do it early!
I really mean it when I say that this is the most important task, you want to do this for your own sanity because you will thank yourself a million times over during the holiday rush.
During the planning phase you’re not actually taking any action. You’re just thinking and strategizing and assigning clear dates to each task; essentially making a master plan for yourself that you will just follow step by step for the rest of the year. . .
. . . think of it as stepping into your CEO shoes and working ON your business— just not IN it yet!
So, what does this master plan of yours need to cover?:
Grab this XMAS Sales Success checklist!
This free Checklist will help you create an actionable plan to Sell your handmade products successfully online this holiday season.
Thinking through your product offering strategy up front will be a huge help once you start to plan inventory and promo strategy details.
SEO Tip:
There is one special exception in the planning stage that might require some immediate action: if you are trying to rank new keywords for SEO, making those changes during the planning stage gives your keywords time to build a bit of momentum and achieve search engine ranking in time for the holidays!
Add any changes and upgrades to your list—and add clear dates for those projects as well.
So essentially, this is like a mega project planning stage —and even if you have a super long list it’s OK because you have them all listed and you have dates planned to get them done!
Which means you can just DO and MAKE for the rest of the year because you’ve done all the thinking and planning in stage 1!
The prepping stage is basically following the master plan you created in stage 1 and should happen in August and September.
The goal is to do as much as possible now so you don’t need to do too much later in the mega rush of holiday sales.
Thanks to the AWESOME planning and date-assigning you did in stage 1, you should have a clear to-do list for each week and can start prepping a few important things in advance:
First let’s talk about products, photos, and copy—this will include:
!!Remember, at this stage you’re not changing your photos and copy over just yet, you’re just taking the pictures and writing new copy so that when it comes time to switch over that copy you can just copy and paste it and upload your new photos.
Think how amazing that will be, to be at the start of the holiday season and have your copy ALL READY TO GO!
Now you’re ready to move on to promo graphics and copy, where you’ll . . .
You can also consider these options to give your shop a once-over to be sure it’s all ready for the holiday shopping season.
If you think of possible things that could happen and make a plan of what you would do, then you won’t feel so stressed if it does because you have already planned ahead and know how to handle it.
Do some self care by really thinking through how to make it easier on yourself when you’re in the thick of it—you will be so glad that you did!
Now it’s time to move on to stage 3!
Implementing will take place from September – November. You’re going to be
So basically you will follow your plan from stage 1, use everything you created in stage 2, and put it all into action!
Even though this is the rush, you frontloaded all the work in stage 2 so you should actually feel pretty in control despite all the holiday busyness.
OK you are almost there! Wrapping up happens in December-January when the holidays are finishing up.
You’ll be finishing the final orders, undoing all the shop decoration and changing your holiday product listings back to normal.
If you have holiday products you won’t be selling anymore, plan a sale or other promo so you can get rid of that stock.
As things quiet down, there are 3 main things you’ll want to do:
This is also the time to sit down and look back at your holiday wins and challenges. Create a document and record your notes—you’ll want to cover things like:
You will use this document during your next year’s planning stage to create a plan for an even better holiday season.
You also want to brainstorm and plan how you can turn these holiday sales into forever customers who will make repeat purchases in the future.
And finally, take a well deserved break – you have EARNED it! Focus on the successes you achieved this year and pat yourself on the back.
Right now your head is probably spinning and you’re feeling like “How am I gonna remember to do all of this stuff?”
Don’t worry, there are more resources to help you listed below, so make sure to check them out, including a full workshop to help you prep for holiday success!
If you are a Tizzit HQ member already, make sure to check it out in your member’s course library – and if you’re not a member yet? Whatcha waiting for?
BECOME A TIZZIT HQ MEMBER AND TURN THE HOBBY YOU LOVE INTO INCOME YOU’LL ADORE
Join me and your fellow Tizzit HQ members as we dive into the details of each stage, along with workbooks and checklists, to help you have a profitable holiday season and get your holiday sales ducks all in a row. 😊
Until next time, au revoir!
Other Holiday Planning Articles:
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