Get prepared for the Christmas season!

It is scary to start thinking about it but as craft business owners we need to be prepared and ready for the most busy time of the year.  There are also a number of promotions around that encourage Christmas in July.  I thought I would share with you a couple of ideas of preparations that you can make in order to try and be ready for the Christmas rush.

Stock

The most obvious thing that you could be doing is making stock.  You can try and increase your stock levels of the items that are most popular in order to have more ready to post.  This may not be completely possible if you do a larger number of personalised items.  However you could try to ensure that items are completed up to the personalisation stage if at all possible. 

This is the most basic level of preparation that you could undertake however it will probably work out to be the most beneficial when you are busy.  There is nothing more satisfying that when an order comes through and all you have to do is send that item off rather than making it first.

Materials

Similarly you can ensure that you have the raw materials required to make up orders when they come in.  Do a quick stock take of your raw materials.  Get an idea of how much you already have and how many you may need to get in to keep up with the Christmas rush.  It is also a good time to have a look at your tools.  If blades are becoming blunt or inks are drying out now would be the perfect time to assess all these elements and get them sharpened or topped up ready.  The last thing you want to have to deal with is waiting on tools or equipment being delivered when Christmas orders are in full swing.

Social Media Schedule

When you are in the run up to Christmas you want to make customers aware of who you are and what you offer.  However in the run up to Christmas you can be so busy working on orders that you physically don’t have time to post on social media channels to promote.

I have previously shared with you all how I love apps that schedule all your social media content for you.  Personally I use Buffer www.buffer.com and it really has saved me hours of work.  This app means you can sit down and queue up posts that will automatically post at a pre-set date and time.  This means that in the middle of a lazy summer Sunday in the garden you could be scheduling all your festive seasonal posts.

It is so much easier to find small gaps of time that you can use to chip away at larger tasks.  Therefore you could just spend 15 minutes once a week setting up what content you would like being promoted over the festive period.

Christmas stock promotion

In order to successfully secure Christmas orders it is necessary to do the leg work in the run up to Christmas rather than just showcasing your items in December.  This make take a bit of forethought but can really be valuable later on. 

To give you an example you could advertise your Baby’s 1^st Christmas items all year round.  A baby may be born in April however by December it will be their first Christmas.  By advertising earlier in the year, when the baby is first born a customer may see the item and ear mark it for purchase closer to Christmas.  If you hadn’t advertised this item until December the customer may have already purchased a Baby’s 1^st Christmas product.

In the  same way if the customer has a large family that they like to purchase gifts or festive items for they may like to spread the cost.  This means that customers could potentially be purchasing gifts on a monthly basis to eventually have the full gift list ready in time for Christmas. 

Just try to get out of the mind set that people only buy Christmas gifts and decorations in December.  In my bricks and mortar retail shop I actually start displaying Christmas stock at the beginning of September.  However I can guarantee that customers will start to ask about Christmas decorations before this date.

Packaging

With any luck you will be nice and busy over the festive season sending out lots of items.  Therefore it is a good idea to look at your packaging.  Have you got enough boxes, tissue paper and business cards to be able to send out your orders.  I tend to bulk buy these items to lower the unit price per box for example.  Again it is advisable to ensure you have all these items ready so you are not awaiting delivery before you can dispatch your items.

Have a look at https://www.claireyatfairycrafters.com/price-for-postage-and-packaging/ for some hints and tips on postage and packaging.

Essentially you want to try and decrease your lead times by having as much ready prior to the busy period as possible.  You do not necessarily have to decrease your lead times that are displayed on online shops but it will help you process your items.  You will not be fighting the calendar to receive items to enable you to then complete and dispatch your products.

Let me know if there is any more groundwork that you make in order to be prepared for the festive rush.  I am always after any tips to try and make the whole season run a bit easier.