The holidays are a busy time for businesses, and preparing is essential. If you own a small business, the holidays can seem daunting. Whether you want to take a vacation or the holiday season is approaching, you must prepare to step away from your business and still make money during this period.
I want to invite you to a little more rest, and hopefully, this blog will help you brainstorm ways to make money while you step away from the day-to-day running of your business. So here are a few things you can do to ensure your business is ready for the holiday season.
Put In Work Ahead Of The Holidays
Get organised. From the moment you decide to take a holiday, start organising things so that you can give yourself and your team a fantastic holiday or vacation without losing momentum or sales.
Assess Your Business Processes
Ensure that your SOPs are correct and shared with your team before leaving. Prepare notes explaining every task you and only you know how to carry out so that if the need arises and someone needs to step up to that functionality, they can do so—allowing you to have an uninterrupted and blissful holiday!
In addition, other steps you can take to streamline your processes are:
- Delete anything that isn’t serving your business. Any action that, if skipped, things won’t fall apart.
- Put on hold responsibilities that can be completed when you return from vacation.
- Automate your system. This step is huge for service-based businesses. You can use several apps for this purpose, such as Zapier, Dubsado, or Kartra.
- Delegate tasks and remove yourself from the equation. Delegation involves giving someone the authority to handle tasks. Therefore, ensure that you communicate expectations so that the outcomes align with what’s expected.
Plan Your Marketing Ahead of Your Holiday
Create a holiday marketing plan and schedule your advertising and promotions well in advance. You can increase your earning potential by setting your offers (products and services) on autopilot. Here are a few steps you can take:
Create Evergreen Offers
Evergreen means recording or creating something once but offering and selling it continuously. An evergreen strategy is a great way to make sure you make money while on holiday.
Benefits of Evergreen Content
- Once published, evergreen content can serve continuously.
- Demonstrate you’re an expert (brand authority)
- Google loves it
- Easily repurposed
- Provide months and years of social content
Consider an evergreen approach if you have an online course, a downloadable guide, or a digital product.
Create And Schedule Your Social Media Content
Content creation is essential for business growth. Ignoring social media during the holiday season is a missed opportunity. You can batch your content and schedule it with a social media management tool like Hootsuite. As a result, you can plan and post to multiple social media platforms simultaneously.
Pro Tip: Do you need help with planning, researching, writing, designing, and scheduling your social media? We are here to help.
Schedule Email Content
Schedule your emails to serve your email list while you are away enjoying your holiday. Showing up consistently and serving your audience should be an area you prioritise as a brand.
Scheduling your emails in advance allows you to create content from a place of comfort and service rather than last minutes of stress. Examples of email topics you can send during your holiday or vacation are:
- Share how you and your team are spending your holidays
- Announce the release of a new product or service, such as your book, a podcast episode, or a program launch.
- Share your clients’ testimonials or reviews
Inform Your Clients About Your Holiday
If your business is in regular contact with clients, let them know you’re planning a vacation. This approach gives you time to work together on potential issues and makes your customers and contacts feel valuable and important to your business.
When communicating with clients before going away on vacation, discuss any projects you are working on and any unresolved issues, and address urgent matters before your holiday.
Importantly, ensure that your clients know you have a team member who will attend to their needs while you are away.
Conclusion
Vacation is an essential part of your success as a business owner. Extended periods of work without one will lead to reduced productivity and burnout. Taking a vacation, however, involves a lot of planning and preparation. But it doesn’t have to be overwhelming, and the best way to go is to identify what needs to be put in place and plan well in advance, ensuring that everything will run smoothly in your absence.
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