Something to Do Over the Holidays and Still be Present with Your Family

Is your business basically shut down over the holidays? If so you may be feeling like you need to be doing something, but you know that starting a full-on project will take away from your family time and likely land you in hot water with your spouse.

Here are some things you can do to help increase your sales over the next year.

2012 Review

Make a list of all your accomplishments over the past year. Shoot for 100 if you can. If you cannot get at least to 25 then add to the list things that you have started and not yet accomplished but are your goals for 2013. I think you might find that there are often many accomplishments along the way to completing a goal, not just the goal itself. Sometimes just getting a phone number of an important contact, making a decision to take action, or purchasing a domain name can be an accomplishment that will help to fulfill future goals.

2013 Marketing Plan

Make a list of some of the things you want to do next year, and then decide how you are going to get your target market to purchase from you. Work backwards from the date you want your goal to be accomplished and fill in a schedule of the tasks that need to be completed to make it successful.

For instance, maybe you want to launch a new line of products and you are thinking of hosting an open house to get more people to see your product line and to experience your new product launch. Decide on your product release date, then work backward to decide on the open house date, the invitation timeline, the press release deadlines, the social media copy and posting timeline, etc.

Here are some marketing channels you might use over 2013 from my BLITZ blog.

New Product or Service Ideas

Creating a new product is a great way to re-engage current/past clients and to attract new customers. If you have done any online bootcamps consider making the recordings into a low cost, downloadable product. If you have an expert process that your clients love, create a step-by-step, do-it-yourself document  to help your clients and make it a free offer on your website or a bonus for another product. Offer a one-day, in-house training package to get them started.

There are so many different types of products you can create in a service industry that will allow you to leverage your time after it is made and will provide extra value to your customers. If they want the expert touch then offer them more 1-on-1 time directly with you. Setting up your services this way has higher value and will make you more money.

The nice thing about working on this type of review and planning is you can put it on pause to open gifts and pick it up again after dinner. You will feel like you have not abandoned your business but more importantly you will have spent time with your family. After all that is the reason you got into business for yourself in the first place – isn’t it – to give your family the best lifestyle possible.