In the words of the immortal Nick Lowe, “You gotta be cruel to be kind” when it comes to the holidays. By which I mean to say, if you want your holiday season to be a happy one, you need to forego some of the spontaneity that makes it what it is and get to work well ahead of time.
Who hasn’t at some point, bemoaned the sight of a bunch of Christmas decorations appearing on the shelves of their local big-box retailer before the kids have even had a chance to finish off the last of their Halloween candy? That said, as contributing writer Jenna Harding explains in her story on social media marketing in the run-up to the holidays, the reason they do so is because it works.
Same thing with your company’s “holiday shopping,” so to speak. As the industry veterans cited in Nicole Rollender’s story on prepping for what is for many decorators the busiest time of year say, waiting until the last minute to stock up on things like ink, thread, transfer paper and blank apparel can be a recipe for disaster.
And don’t forget staffing. You owe it to yourself and the rest of your team to make sure you’ve got a sufficient number of people in place to handle the rush of orders you’re invariably going to have to contend with. Finding yourself having to work a bunch of unnecessarily crazy hours isn’t fair to you or them.
The good news is prepping for the holidays can also be a lot of fun, especially when it comes to social media. Either way, fun or not, getting yourself into the holiday spirit well in advance of the holidays themselves is critical to ensuring the season will be a happy and prosperous one.
