tote bag cotton canvas:8 Ways to Prepare Your Business for Black Friday
Black Friday is a term that strikes fear and excitement into the heart of small to medium-sized business owners everywhere. It’s the day many retailers “go into the black” for the first time all year and 2014’s is expected to be a doozie. As the economy slowly turns itself around the day after Thanksgiving continues to be a marker for performance for the rest of the holiday season’s sales. The time to get your business ready for this day (and the weeks that follow) is now. Here are eight ways you can get one step ahead of the day-after-Thanksgiving madness.
1. Plan Your Sales This shouldn’t be arbitrary. Figuring out what “special offer” you’ll promote for Black Friday means knowing where your business is currently deficient and which items or products get you the biggest markups. Now is a good time to look at the first three quarters of the year and strategically decide what kind of sale will do the most to get people in and keep them coming back before holiday season is over.
2. Start Advertising It may seem early but the time to advertise your Black Friday specials is sooner rather than later. No one else is advertising this early which means your offer will stand out and stick in people’s minds. Just be sure you’re not advertising something controversial – like opening your store at noon on Thanksgiving Day – so people will retain positive vibes from your marketing. shopping
3. Schedule the Staff Maybe you usually only do schedules two weeks ahead of time, but Thanksgiving and the day after are a special case. Give your employees plenty of time to plan their holiday around their work schedule or, if need be, to trade shifts to accommodate themselves. Expect several employees to quit, get “sick”, or simply not show up and plan for it by hiring temp staff or keeping more people on the floor than you think you’ll need.
4. Order Supplies Getting orders in now for things like custom printed bags, holiday boxes, and even a breakfast spread for your opening employees means you won’t have to settle for leftovers or pay extra for quick-turnaround. If you’re planning to do any promotional marketing around Black Friday (giving out promotional items, offering coupons) be sure you order all the hard supplies you’ll need now.
5. Get a Handle on Inventory The last thing you want is to run out of your most popular item on Black Friday. Especially if you’re advertising a particular product, make sure people can buy it when they come in! Order extra, keep detailed note of inventory, and be aware of what you may run low on and merchandise it accordingly.
6. Go Social If your business is on social media (and it should be) you should start teasing your Black Friday offerings now. Also, set up some posts and ads to go out automatically when your workload gets hectic in a few weeks – that way you won’t have to think about whether or not you’re spreading the message. sale sign
7. Rework the Website How much work you’ll need to do to your site depends on how robust it is. Do you have a full online store? Or just a landing page with your hours and address? Spending money to have a designer make a mobile-optimized page to advertise your sales is smart, as is upping your online shopping cart process if you do offer digital purchasing. Think about logistics of free shipping, too.
8. Have a Holiday Plan Black Friday is just the beginning of your holiday season. Figure out how you’re going to encourage people to come back later to do more Christmas shopping – Giving out coupons? Offering a free tutorial? – and plan for that now so you can train employees and market to that end on the day of and after. Preparation is the key to a successful holiday season. Black Friday can be the best day of your entire year! All it takes is planning, logistics, and a little elbow grease now rather than later and you’ll be well on your way to the best holiday season yet.
