Work-Life Balance

Tips to keep the Christmas momentum going (while enjoying your holiday)

It’s been a long year and the urge to put up your feet and spend some time with your family and loved ones while enjoying the holiday spirit and Christmas puddings is overwhelming.

But, for most small business owners, the show must go on. In order to be able to ride on the Christmas wave and keep its momentum going into the New Year, it’s vital to plan ahead.

The following suggestions will help you relax while taking advantage of the season:

Stay tuned

It’s the holiday season, but this doesn’t mean everyone is on vacation. In fact, this is one of the times of the year when, as a small business owner, you need to be most engaged. Start by reaching out to customers by saying “thank you” or wishing them “happy holidays.” Send them a holiday card with a note of appreciation. You can use a holiday card tool such as JibJab to send out your greeting via email. If you decide to give them a call, try to use that conversation to find unique selling points or propositions that fit into the holiday spirit: a seasonal price reduction, a deferred payment structure, etc…

Start a holiday-themed marketing push

From a holiday sale on your most popular products and/or services, to a product/service swap among those within your professional network, or even an industry holiday party at which all attendees leave with a stocking full of coupons, business cards, Christmas goodies…You can’t go wrong.

Make new contacts

Whether you throw a glamorous Christmas event or whether you are attending an industry function, arm yourself with business cards and follow up with the contacts you meet, connecting with them on LinkedIn and finding their comments on their own blogs or on Twitter. But if networking is a thing in the past for you, try refreshing your skills with Hotfrog's tips on how to make the most of your networking events.

Automate your daily tasks

Make your business run by itself during the holiday. Try to schedule blog posts and social networks feeds ahead of time. If you are running your blog on WordPress, for instance, you’ll have the ability to prepare all your posts, preview them and schedule them to be posted at a later date. Hootsuite or TweetAdder will let you program you Twitter updates. You can use a tool such as RescueTime, which shows you what activities to prioritise and where you spend your time on the internet so you can become more effective.

Clean up your inbox and your files

No better time than the end of the year clear out your inbox and delete anything that has been sitting there for more than a month. Clear out and classify your documents for the next year, filing them in their corresponding folders for easy access later on. And do the same on your actual desk: File and store away items that you do not need access to immediately. Having a clean office working environment will help you get your business off to a good start in the New Year.

Set up your systems

Don’t forget to change your voicemail and out of office email responses to reflect your plans for the holidays. Use online tools like Tungle.me to block out your holiday schedule and avoid unwanted meetings. Not ideal, but if you need to access your files while on holiday, make sure you save them on your Drop Box.

Get your finances in order

Start planning your finances for next year and get a head start on tax season by clarifying your budgeted and actual revenues and expenses. If you need help, there are some great tools available to you online, like Indinero, which keeps track of your business finances and reminds you of bill payments.

New Year resolutions

Take the time during the holidays to reflect on the past year and set New Year resolutions for the next. Ask yourself, is your business where you predicted it would be a year ago? If your answer is “yes” think how you are going to ensure the momentum is carried into 2012. If your answer is a negative one, think long and hard what do you need to do to set it back on track. Relax and enjoy the holidays!

Your systems are set, your marketing is done and your business should be able to look after itself if you apply some of the above tips. Now it’s time to take a step back and relax, recharge your batteries and de-stress!

The Hotfrog team wishes all our small business owners a very happy, enjoyable and successful 2012!