5 Ways to Keep Your Business Growing Even During the Holiday Season

By: Kathleen Ries-Jubenville   |    Read time: 3 minutes

Most businesses experience cyclical sales patterns. If you are in retail or accounting services, you are probably very busy near the end of the year. But many coaches and consultants notice a slow-down during the holiday season. Potential clients are focused on family gatherings, holiday parties, church services, gift-giving, and let's not forget...cooking and eating too much! They are more likely to pause services or postpone a major project until the new year.

And that makes the 4th quarter of the year a golden opportunity for you to work on your business and improve or develop new systems that will create momentum and boost growth.

Here are 5 ways to keep your business growing, even during the holiday season!

1. Consistently post in your social media channels. People may be distracted with holiday activities, but they always have time to be distracted by their phones! You could post about your holiday activities. You could share your gratitude during Thanksgiving and your faith practices during Christmas. I don't personally post pictures of my kids to respect their privacy, but I definitely will post pictures of my cats! Show up, share who you are, and send your followers lots of love.

2. Create or update your sales slide deck. Zoom is here to stay. Many people used to share a sales binder when pitching in person. The slide deck is the new printed binder. There is a lot of power in a visual presentation. Don't have the words you are going to say on each slide. Instead, just put images that reflect what you are saying. Let them know what to expect at the beginning. Ask to share your screen. Explain you are going to give them a little background on yourself, then spend most of the time discussing their challenges to determine how you can help them. Let them know you will be offering your services at the end, but they have no obligation to buy. Take the pressure off so they can really hear you and engage in the process. They will remember you because of your slides and you will have established yourself as a high-level professional. You will be running circles around your competition!

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3. Review your accounting system. Is it up to date? Do any entries need to be corrected? If so, either take care of it or hire a bookkeeper to help you out. Get it done quickly and schedule a meeting with your CPA/tax accountant to review your financial reports. If you have an opportunity for a tax break, you need to do it before the end of the year. If you wait until after the new year, you can't adjust your payroll or buy assets or take advantage of many other income tax strategies. Once you are caught up, keep it that way and learn how to read your financial reports. The most successful business owners use them to make informed decisions all year long.

4. Write or record a lead generator. One of the most effective strategies for marketing your business is to capture emails and nurture your audience through newsletters. You don't own your followers in your social media accounts, so they can be taken away from you at any time. You do own your email list and it is full of people who said they would like to hear from you. But email addresses have value, so you must give value to receive it in return. That's why you need a lead generator. It can be an eBook or a webinar or a quiz or a challenge. Create it, connect it to an email capture software, then promote it and give it away for free (for their email address instead of money).

5. Did someone say "challenge"? Yes! Challenges are hot promotions right now! Create a 5-day or 7-day challenge and promote it on social media. Interested people give you their email address. You give them daily videos, worksheets, accountability, and community. Create it now so you are ready to launch it in the new year. That is when everyone is ready to get back to work and have new habits on their minds. Make sure the challenge relates to your services, then call them to action to a discovery call to find out more about how you can help them. Even if they don't buy right now, they are on your email list. You can keep them engaged. You can stay in front of them. They will think of you when they are ready to get help to solve their problem!

These are just 5 ideas to keep your business growing during the holiday season, but I encourage you to be creative. You are an entrepreneur, so creative ideas are your middle name! Just don't slow down. Dig in. Opportunity is around the corner. Be prepared for it!

 

"Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity." - Seneca