For most maker businesses the Christmas and holiday season is both a blessing and a curse.
The stakes are high because a good Christmas season can help to cushion the quieter times that come in the beginning of the year and keep your bills paid until people are in a buying mood again.
And while it’s great that for one season of the year customers are much more motivated to buy your work, the experience of a massive ramp up in demand brings a lot of logistical problems, not to mention overwhelming stress and potential burnout.
Having been through many Christmas seasons myself, some better than others, I can say that the single best way to make it easier on yourself is to start early. Earlier than you think you need to.
In this post, I’m going to show you why early preparation matters and what you can do earlier to make your holiday experience much more comfortable.
Whether you’re experiencing your first Christmas or your tenth, starting earlier means that you can improve your sales, make your workload more manageable, and avoid burnout at a time of year when you want to spend time with family.
The Challenges of the Holiday Season for Makers
Most retail businesses make the majority of their annual sales in the last few months of the year, when people tend to suddenly need to buy gifts for family members, alongside clothes and food for events.
And when customers get into a buying mood, they tend to spend more on everything.
Managing stock levels during this time can be make or break. Buy the wrong products, or buy too much and you might be stuck with a lot of stock to deal with in January. But buy too little and you might miss out on the opportunity to make the most of the season.
Maker business face these same dilemmas, but with an extra unique set of challenges, that stem from the fact that we are making our products by hand, sometimes to order, and usually in small batches.
– How do we manage the increased demand and workload when it’s just us doing the making?
As orders start to ramp up, many makers find themselves working around the clock to keep up. This can quickly become overwhelming, especially if you’re not prepared. You might find yourself struggling to maintain your usual quality standards while trying to produce at a higher volume.
– How do we balance the demand from our direct customers with our wholesale and sale or return orders?
We all know that direct sales to customers are more profitable than wholesale sales, and when our capacity for making is limited, it can be difficult to know where to direct the limited number of products we can produce in this time. And this can be exacerbated by wholesale customers ordering at the last moment.
– How will we split our time between making and marketing?
The holiday season is a busy time on social media and in inboxes, so it’s more difficult for our audience to see our offers and our advertising costs can increase too. Getting the balance right between making and marketing is difficult and if we get this wrong we can end up with too much stock, or not enough.
And if we don’t promote our work enough, we risk limiting our sales.
– How do we make sure we have enough stock for all of our holiday events?
Christmas shows can be expensive and if we don’t have enough stock to sell at the show then we risk not recovering our costs. Some shows may also be much more successful than others so we also need to consider how much of our available stock to take to each event. It can be difficult to have the confidence to hold back some stock for a show you expect to be more successful but that takes place later in the season.
– Should we make stock in advance? And if so, how much?
One way to avoid the problems of a limit on our making capacity is to make more stock earlier in the year. But how much? And which products?
– How do we take care of ourselves so that we don’t burn out?
Self care is often sacrificed to the need to make more stock and more money during this limited opportunity. But that can lead to illness and exhaustion which can either limit your ability to perform later in the season, or mean that you don’t get to enjoy the holidays with family and friends.
The Benefits of Early Preparation
It’s definitely not revolutionary to say that getting prepared earlier can improve our chances of having a more peaceful and profitable holiday season. But with summer shows and events, school holidays and everything else that we have going on in the summer months, it can be tough to find the time.
As we walk through some of the benefits of getting started early with your Christmas preparation, hopefully you will see that anything you can do during the summer to prepare for the increase in workload in the autumn will be well worth it and that it may be helpful to reduce your summer business commitments so that you can enjoy a family summer and do your prep.
So here are the benefits:
– Reduced stress and anxiety
If you’re prone to waking up with a racing heart in the middle of the night, worrying that there’s something you’ve forgotten (me too) then you probably would like to avoid this happening. And taking the time to get a little more organised before the season starts could be a good idea.
Starting early also gives you the gift of wiggle room, so that if something unexpected happens later on, like you or a family member gets sick, you can still have a good chance of keeping to your plans and goals.
– Better inventory management
It’s always tough to forecast what you will need in terms of supplies, and shortages and delays during the busy period can make it tougher to get hold of what you need.
Taking the time to do some actual research into how much stock you might need will always make it easier that just winging it.
But remember, excess inventory can cause big cashflow problems, leaving you overextended financially with too much money in your stock, and not enough in your bank account.
Always try to be a little bit cautious, especially if you’re in your first few seasons and you don’t have a lot of experience to draw on. It’s better to succeed with a solid 20% increase in sales, than it is to fall short of an overly aggressive target that you don’t have the audience to achieve.
– Better marketing and promotion
Hands up if you are a haphazard or last minute promoter of your work, frequently writing emails or social media content on the fly?
We all do it, but it’s definitely a lot less effective than a well planned out campaign that balances content to build awareness with occasional offers and incentives.
Plus all of the work you do to encourage customers to buy earlier in the season, rather than at the last minute, helps you to manage your making workflows and inventory levels.
Shifting at least some of your sales to earlier in the season is one of the simplest ways to increase your sales overall. Planning and perhaps even writing some of your content in advance means that you can appear in inboxes and feeds more consistently throughout the season and stay top of mind.
– Increased profitability
All of these benefits result in increased profitability.
- You reduce the stress on yourself, meaning you can perform better.
- You base your inventory decisions on calculations, rather than guesses, meaning you don’t overextend yourself, and because you do it earlier you have time to reorder materials if demand outpaces your expectations.
- You are more visible and consistent with your marketing, giving yourself the best opportunity to sell to both those customers who are immediate buyers, and those who need a little more nurturing.
Early preparation isn’t just about avoiding stress – it’s about creating opportunities for your business to thrive during its most critical season. By starting now, you’re investing in the success of your holiday season and the long-term health of your business.
In the next section, we’ll look at the key areas you should focus on as you begin your early holiday preparations.
Key Areas to Focus on for Early Preparation
So you know you need to get started earlier with your Christmas preparations this year. But where should you focus your efforts for the best results?
– Systems and processes
The single most effective way to use your time in the summer period is to audit the way you work and look for opportunities to save time, eliminating unnecessary busy work and time sucks.
This might mean that you revise the way you pack and ship customer orders, the way you respond to customer service emails, your morning and evening routines and the way you store and access the information you need to manage and ship orders.
And the good news is that this work can be done alongside the work you’re already doing. Simply monitor all of the tasks you do every day and look for opportunities to automate them, make templates, or eliminate unnecessary steps.
– Production planning and scheduling
Understanding what your production capacity actually looks like, is also very valuable.It helps you to create a realistic schedule and ensure that you’re not overpromising and then having to work late into the evenings (unless you really want to)
Make sure you consider lead times for ordering materials, your work speed and potential bottlenecks.
Don’t forget that you need to leave space in your schedule for personal commitments, marketing, admin, time out at events and packing and shipping orders, so your actual “making time” may be a lot less than you assume.
If you’ve got a specific amount of inventory you are aiming to make, break your production time down into manageable weekly and daily goals so that you can keep that time protected.– Inventory management
Take stock of your current inventory and supplies. Determine what you’ll need to meet your projected sales, and order materials early to avoid shortages or rush fees. Don’t forget to account for packaging materials as well.
– Marketing and promotion
Develop a comprehensive marketing plan for the season. This might include:
- Creating a content calendar for social media
- Planning email campaigns for your mailing list
- Preparing product photography in advance
- Planning the timing of offers or discounts, and considering whether you want to participate in Black Friday.
Having a plan (and at least some of the content written and scheduled in advance) can allow you to keep up your marketing efforts even when you start to get really busy.
– Customer service preparation
You’re definitely going to have an increase in customer service emails and DMs so being prepared for that, and planning accordingly is a really good use of your time.
Some areas you could work on:
- Creating FAQ documents to quickly address common questions
- Setting up email templates for routine responses
- Establishing clear policies for orders, shipping, and returns
- Setting rules for yourself on how often you will look at your inbox
- Considering hiring temporary help if needed
– Self-care and work-life balance
Don’t forget to plan for your own wellbeing. Schedule in breaks, set boundaries for work hours, and plan some activities that will help you recharge. When you’re exhausted and feeling overwhelmed, you can’t create your best work or provide the best customer service, so make a plan on how you’ll keep your cup filled.
Tips for Implementing Early Preparation
Now that you know what you’re going to be working on, let’s look at how you can go about implementing your early preparation strategy.
– Set your goals and timelines
Start by setting clear goals for your holiday season. How much do you want to increase your sales? How do you want to feel at the end of the season? How many shows do you want to do? How much marketing do you want to do?
Be honest with yourself about what you can realistically accomplish. You’re unlikely to be able to make £10,000 in sales each month, if you’ve never sold more than £1000 in a single month before.
Create a timeline that works backwards from key dates, like shows and last Christmas shipping dates to make sure that you can fit all of the work in and you don’t back end load it all.
– Creating a detailed action plan
Consider all of the ways you might be able to achieve your goal and then break down the goal into specific, actionable steps.
Create a timeline that works backwards from key dates, like shows and last Christmas shipping dates to make sure that you can fit all of the work in and you don’t back end load it all. This can really help you to see when you are trying to pack in more than you can actually do.
– Look for tools and resources to help you.
This is where I’ve got something to help.
Burnout Free Christmas is a complete working system for the holiday period. This set of Trello boards is designed specifically to help you manage tasks and time during the holiday season, reducing stress and improving productivity.
Other useful tools might include:
- Inventory management software
- Social media scheduling tools
- Time tracking apps
– Build in flexibility for unexpected challenges
Don’t forget to leave some space in your plan for the unexpected. From having to make a last minute costume for the school play, to everyone in the house coming down with Covid, unexpected challenges are pretty much guaranteed during the busy season, so leave some buffer time in your plans, just in case.
– Know your boundaries
It’s always a good idea to know (in advance) what you will and will not be prepared to do during this busy season, especially as you might be responding to requests when you’re tired.
Will you say yes to last minute orders from wholesale or website customers? What are your rules about returns? What about people who miss the deadline for a promotion but still want the offer?
Considering what feels right to you and setting out some personal rules for yourself will make it far easier to respond to these requests without guilt.
– Plan for regular check-ins and adjustments
Set aside time each week to review your progress and check in with your goals. In a busy period, it’s easy to get your head down and forget what you were really trying to achieve.
Scheduling a quick check in every now and then can help you to see if you’re still working towards the plan, or if you’ve got off track. You’ll also be able to see if the plan needs to be changed.
– Collaborate and delegate
Remember, you don’t have to do everything yourself and you probably have people in your life who you can call on to help in a pinch. To make sure they can be the most help to you, think about writing or recording the steps involved in any tasks you might ask them to do. That way they can get on without asking for help all the time.
Recap for the TL;DR folks
As we’ve explored throughout this post, early preparation is a great way for handmade business owners to set themselves up for a holiday season that is both financially successful and a lot less stressful.
By starting your planning now, you’re setting yourself up for reduced stress,better inventory management, more effective marketing, and ultimately, increased profitability.
The key benefits of early preparation are:
- It allows you to manage the increased demand without sacrificing quality or your well-being.
- You can better handle time management pressures and avoid burnout.
- It gives you the opportunity to strategically plan your inventory, marketing, and customer service approach.
- You’ll have more time to focus on creating and less on putting out fires.
Remember, the goal isn’t to work more—it’s to work more comfortably, and further away from your absolute limit.
By implementing the strategies here, you can transform the holiday season from a period of stress and overwhelm to one of opportunity and growth for your handmade business.
And remember, you don’t need to do it all. A little bit of time spent on this during the summer months will benefit you when things start to get busier.
So, what’s your next step?
I encourage you to start working in a little time each week for your Christmas and holiday planning. Set aside some time to outline your goals and create a rough timeline.
Consider the key areas of production, inventory, marketing, customer service, and self-care—and start brainstorming how you can prepare for each.
And if you’re looking for additional support in managing your tasks and time effectively this holiday season, check out Burnout Free Christmas for Makers. This set of ready-to-use Trello boards is designed specifically to help creative business owners like you navigate the holiday season with less stress and more success.
Let’s make it your best holiday season ever.