How to Make Holiday Down Time Profitable

Regardless of your business model, chances are your sales take a nosedive in December. For one, most potential clients are giving their attention to personal matters. Second, we all tend to spend on indulgences over practicalities during the Holidays.

How can you turn things around to optimize your Holiday business hours? These are a few tips to help you excel during this season:

Plan your content calendar for 2016

There are a few different strategies you can use to make sure your programs resonate with your audience. For one, giving a survey will keep you on par with what your list wants to learn from you.

Planning your big picture marketing will allow you the time to reflect on what worked and what didn’t in 2015. Be sure to keep classic tactics as well as add in a few new initiatives that are outside of your comfort zone.

Organize your home & office space

I hoard emails. Thousands of them accrue throughout the year. And I can’t seem to delete them because I just know a few might be important. You too?

Use your unscheduled time to create files for client emails. Go through old paperwork or bills and shred anything you don’t need. Treat yourself to fun office supplies that make your desk a clean slate for better creating.

It might seem silly, but an organized office space will clear the way for you to focus more clearly on the start of the New Year. Your external environment will reflect your internal mind.

Connect with colleagues & clients

Personally, my favorite part about down time is connecting with folks I haven’t touched base with in a while. As part of owning a business, you meet a lot of people networking or at conferences.

Most likely, you joined them on social media, too. As part of your network, it’s time to reach out and say howdy to anyone you’d enjoy getting to know a little better. Yes, anyone. Just send them a personal message asking to chat.

Remember that a lot of other coaches are probably in between programs, too. That means you both have an hour to spare to simply connect and chat about business. I can’t think of a better way to get new ideas.

Sit back, relax & practice self-care

As a professional services business, all my giving throughout the year can be extremely draining. To combat burnout, I take time totally off the grid. This means no phones, no emails and no internet.

In fact, it’s one of the only ways I’m capable of recharging. You may not need the extreme I do to put your creative energies back in order, but if your clients aren’t banging down your door, it’s the perfect time for you to focus on yourself.

Do something that brings you absolute joy. Take long walks or go see old friends. Put up an out of office message that sets the expectation when you’ll be back, too. This way, just in case you get a client inquiry, they’ll know when they can expect to hear from you.

Would you like a little more advice? The one thing you cannot do during the Holidays is to use the time of year as a reason to check out completely. Literally, this means that all your marketing cannot stop just because you’re taking a break.

Even if you decide to step away from the office, make sure you pre-program (or automate) your blogs, a few social media posts and email marketing newsletters. This will ensure that the minute you’re ready to jump back in the game, you still have an online presence to come back to.