How to Plan Year-End Activities Now
Aug 01, 2022
Christmas in July anyone? In all seriousness, as July wraps up and we head into back-to-school season, it is the time of year when time seems to go a little bit faster. And question why Target already has a Halloween section. I don't know about you, but once December hits, I want to grab hot chocolate by the fire, nap, and not stress over year-end sales. In today's blog post, I want to share a few tips that you can do now in the summer to help your year-end activities go a lot smoother. The best part? It doesn't take a ton of time and will tremendously help you with the rest of the year.
Tip #1 - Plan and set seasonal goals based on your vision.
Insert *this was a big lesson learned the first year I was in business.* The phase when you feel like you need to do all the things. I remember it so vividly. I had just created my first course which didn't do what I expected it to and was toying with the idea of launching something high ticket. But then black Friday hit and EVERYONE was launching something. *Special here.* *Save here.* *Something brand new here.* I had FOMO and thought that to be successful, I HAD to do something. So I built an entirely new course in less than a month and launched it with the rest of the 100 million brands. And it flopped.
I share this story because for some, Thanksgiving and Black Friday is a make or break time for your business. But for others, it is a question of sanity. Why would you launch something when every single retailer in the world is going 10 X on their marketing? In an already saturated market. As you can see, I still haven't recovered from my black Friday launch experience, but my whole point of this story is to think about what you want. Do you want to be working over the holidays? Do you want to launch something new? Do you want to launch something that is a modification to what you already have? And better yet, what is the end goal for the year? Do you even need to launch something?
Just think how much better November and December will be if you sit down to think about it now.
Tip #2 - Do You Need to Create Something New?
This is a bit of expansion of tip #1 digging into the question of do you need to create something new? I am a big fan of repurposing what you already have. If you do want to launch something this fall or winter, can you use materials that you already have?
Some ideas:
- Add on bonuses that do not mean more content. This could be additional time with you, Voxer (my favorite tool) with you for a period of time, DFY files (Swipe files like copy and paste of a great email sequence or a spreadsheet you use that your client can also use are great bonuses).
- Fun community-based bonuses like referral programs, affiliate bonuses, or even gift guides that feature your favorite products.
- Treat your current customers. Even better, only do a bonus or holiday sale with current customers. We talk about the 80/20 rule all the time, but 80% of your income comes from 20% of your customers. How can you better serve them? What would they like to accomplish at the end of the year and how can you help that happen for them? Maybe it is a year-end planning party or something fun you can offer at the beginning of the year now. Take a deposit for it during the holiday weeks but don't start it until January.
This is a super fun category to brainstorm as the options are limitless.
The goal is to brainstorm about this now, so you aren't creating all the new things last minute.
Tip #3 - Year-end activities are not all business related.
In my corporate life, I used to save my vacation and one day each week for the month of December go shopping or do a fun holiday activity. As you think about the holidays coming up, remember that you most likely will have less time to work. Can you block out that time now? Can you batch things to get ahead so you do have some downtime? Do you want to take the last two weeks of the year off? How would that look for you?
Everything can happen with the right plan in place. The trick is to slow down to determine what you want to happen and how to make it happen.
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Once you work through these three things, even at a high level the holiday season will be much less stressful and hopefully allow you to take a rest and actually hit the goals that you were visualizing at the end of the year.
This time of year it is also important to do a few clean-up things behind the scenes to avoid some of the bumps at the end of the year:
- What technology needs to be updated? Or content needs to be cleaned up?
- How can you embrace the new social trends (anyone else still trying to figure out how to view their Instagram feed? Insert I feel old because I am still not on Tik Tok. Even if you don't embrace them, it is important to be aware of them.
- Update your SEO!!! (Hello, last-minute gift searchers). This can benefit you anytime.
- Think about your customer service. Is it exceptional?
Back to tip #2, what do you want to offer at the beginning of the year? Think about it now.
As Yogi Berra says, "if you don't know where you are going, you will end up someplace else."
Where are you going? And how are you going to get there?
I hope this was helpful in sparking some ideas for the next phase of your business. If you would like some support in launching, we have something special for you to help. including DFY launch plans and checklists. Just text launch to 6148104236.
And remember, the time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining It actually takes more energy to wish than it does to actually make the plan.
Looking for more on this topic and your High-Level Action items? Check out the Strategy Lab in the Crush the Rush Club!
