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Banking and Finance  » Making More Money During The Holidays

Making More Money During The Holidays

Tis the season! People are in a buying mood. Many retailers make

half their yearly revenue from now until Christmas. People will

be shopping for gifts, decor, food, and more for Christmas,

Hanukkah and Kwanza. How can you increase your sales during the

holiday season? If you run a small or home-based business, make

sure you plan to incorporate some special promotions during this

time. It's tempting to put off business until "after the

holidays" and focus on your own celebrations--there's always so

much to do. That's fine if it's your choice. But if you are

trying to increase business, now is a great opportunity to do

so.

Here are some simple, low-cost ways to increase your revenues

during this busy shopping season:

Revamp your descriptions:

Think about how your product/service would make a nice gift and

tell your prospective customers. "Makes a great gift for the

special guy in your life". Perhaps you could create a gift

suggestions flyer. People need help choosing great presents for

their friends and family. Help them out by telling them what to

buy for their mom, dad, wife, husband, sweetheart, child,

co-worker, aunt, etc. Offer your "gift-buying" guide free on

your website, put it in with all your orders, and distribute it

around town.

If you provide a service, those make great gifts, too--who

doesn't like a massage, or a free housecleaning, or a free tax

planning session? Sell gift certificates for your services. A

key selling point is that people don't think to give services,

but they can be very unique and appreciated gifts. You might

have to come up with ideal recipients--i.e., for the harried

homemaker, the busy executive, the loving mother, and so on.

Tell your customer (the gift-giver) how much the recipient would

love your service instead of a fruitcake

Create Gift Packages:

Perhaps you could bundle several products into a basket. Think

about the "recipients" and create special baskets--for example,

if you sell cosmetics, create a "teen-dream" makeup kit, an

"anti-aging" kit, a "glamour party makeup" kit, and so on.

Almost any business can come up with creative packaging or

bundling for their products and for their services. For

services, you could do a "buy one, get half-off" package. Or a

buy three, get one free package. You can even team up with

partners to create super packages--a spa and a housecleaning

service could combine a massage & a house-cleaning for a

fabulous gift for working moms.

Offer Free Gift Wrapping or Free Shipping:

The word "free" gets attention. Wrapping and shipping are two

things that add to the cost of the gift and if you can include

it, that would increase your sales. To make it worthwhile, set a

spending requirement--free gift wrap on items over $50 or

something similar. Ditto for shipping. You can even run specials

where shipping is only $5 for all orders by a certain date, or

gift wrapping is free on Mondays.

Holiday Give-Aways:

It's nice to do something extra for your customers during the

holidays. If you have a retail store, bring in Christmas cookies

or candy or hot chocolate. If you ship products, buy some

ornaments at the dollar store and toss them in with the orders.

If you visit clients, take a small goodie bag or fruit basket.

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The ideas are endless. For spa-type businesses (products or

services for anything from manicures to bath gel), consider a

sample of a product - a holiday-printed emery board costs

pennies and is a nice thought. For an event planner, send

everyone a "holiday party guide" even if you don't have their

business this year--fill it with great ideas and you'll get more

business! For a wedding planner, a personalized ornament for all

your wedding couples will create much good will.

My Holiday Card Rule:

If you are going to send holiday cards, please, please, please

sign them. Having your company name pre-printed on the card is

so impersonal that you'd do better saving your money.

Hand-addressing your cards is nice, too, but some people have

illegible handwriting, so printing the envelopes is okay. But,

really, an unsigned card is simply going to send the message

that you don't have time to be bothered with things like signing

cards and you never want your customers to think you don't have

time for them. It's the greeting card version of a form letter.

Action Item: Take a few minutes to write down some holiday ideas

you can implement in your own business--just one could be

enough. Don't overload yourself-one idea well executed will be

more fruitful than 20 haphazard ones. Then, put it on your

calendar and spread some holiday happiness to your customers!

About the author:

Deborah Crawford, owner of Smart Marketing Works

provides coaching and consulting services to help small business

owners creatively grow their businesses. She is also an online

columnist at BellaOnline.com.