Twixmas Tricks and Tips to think about
It’s that funny time of year. Not Christmas but not New Year either; an inbetweenie time when the bin collection day is a complete mystery, the mince pie stash is finally dwindling, and you have stopped finding glitter in your underwear.
And even if you are back in the shop, it is nowhere near as manic as it was a couple of weeks ago and the world won’t really come back to full speed until 3rd January and for some not til the 8th! Which means Twixmas is the perfect thinking time, a chance to clear the decks … mentally and physically ... and start thinking how you are going to approach 2024.
Because whilst Christmas may have been better than many feared, and – depending on which newspaper you read - the economic prognosis is looking a tad better, there is absolutely no room for complacency never mind the fact that there may well be ways you could work smarter not harder and still make better profit!!
We’ve gone back through our archives of articles to put together some of our top tips to use over the next few days.
Before you forget, do the paperwork and review your Christmas trading. And make sure you include everything. Christmas sales started way back in November and unless you have a dedicated button on the till/payment system for Christmas/seasonal sales you may forget it.
Really think about what did and didn't work, what did and didn’t make money and how you could streamline. Chances are they are ideas that you can use at Valentine’s and Mother’s Day too. And be confident you know where the sales came from. Phone, walk in or web?
It doesn’t necessarily follow that if web/phone sales are up your shop is redundant (chances are they may have seen it and been more confident to buy online) but you do need to understand what channel is producing what.
Chances are you have put a post on your social media, but have you personally thanked everyone who ordered from you? A direct thank you by email to your customers is far more personal and shows you value them. If you want, you can include a discount voucher to encourage them back- important if they are first time buyers – but best practice is to offer a discount (i.e. 10%) rather than a fixed amount (like a fiver) unless you set a minimum spend and can really afford to give £5/£10 off.
If you can, settle ALL the bills and put the VAT money etc on a separate account. And don’t hold back on chasing any outstanding corporate accounts … you’ve done the work; you are owed the dosh. That way you start the year knowing your true financial position.
But if you are going to find it hard to pay your suppliers/rent/VAT talk to them – don’t just put your head in the sand.
The VAT and PAYE people are actually very helpful, your supplier, assuming you have a previously good track record, will probably be supportive too and landlords are not ALL ogres; chances are they’ll prefer a slow paying tenant than an empty building.
Use the down time to clear the decs and the decks. We’ve been saying this for years but chuck out the grotty mugs, the scratty pens, blunt knives and bits of ribbon/string and anything else you’ve been keeping just in case.
Unless you REALLY know you can repurpose them, dump/donate any containers, baskets and other odds and sods that have been lurking on the shelves to the charity shop or recycling depot. It may be hard, but it can also be cathartic because anything that is cluttering your workspace or brain is a distraction and why clear minds and surfaces work wonders.
An empty inbox is a lovely thing! We try to do it every Friday afternoon but if you’ve let it build up clear out all the old emails and that includes the junk and clutter folders too. The quickest way to clear the in-box is to sort by ‘sent from’ and if you’ve got hundreds from the same company, you can delete a whole tranche of garbage in nano seconds. As for junk whilst it’s tempting just to delete all, do a quick check (again sorting it by sender) to make sure you haven’t missed anything vital. Make it a favourite sender, and then delete the whole bally lot!
Phones and social media accounts are marvellous, but the former can get wet/dropped/stolen, the latter can be hacked and lost.
Neither are reliable ways to store your valuable pictures. Either buy a cloud system package – we use One Drive – or a decent remote hard drive – at least 500gb or more. – and make a copy of everything … your photos aren’t just a memory bank but the basis of your business. When it comes to your business files again use One Drive or similar but personally, we back up every 3 months to a hard drive as well, especially our database.
The other bit of security is to have two step authentication on all your key accounts – both emails and social media accounts – and have another person on each account with full access permissions. If you get hacked it means you have someone else who can get it and reset it.
It’s good to write down your dreams and aspirations for 2024 but please DON’T make any radical decisions - like shutting the shop/giving up - until you have really thought about it and taken professional advice.
For example, if Christmas was less than you’d hope for, and you think shutting the shop is the answer hold fire until you have taken plenty of advice and really thought it through.
Making life changing decisions when you are tired/worried/trackled is not a good thing and it could be that working smarter rather than harder would produce better results – like only operating Wed – Sat, converting the studio/shop to a classroom on the slow days etc etc. As we've learned from talking to many readers closing down/moving out into a studio/back home/giving up comes with its own issues and may not be the best decision.
However gloomy things may feel, or sound there WILL be opportunities in 2024 just like every other year and why you need to spend time and money on you and your business to help you grow.
Spend time looking for courses you can do … design or business … that will freshen your skill base and stretch your business knowledge. It’s better if you can do them in real life – it gets you out and talking to people – but online is not bad.
However, make sure you are with professionals on your same wavelength and stage of career. That’s why paying for something has an added power and value because you’ll be mixing with people like you … the ones prepared to invest in their futures not just looking for free advice.
Whilst Valentines may only be a few weeks away … and in 2024 Mother’s Day comes hard on its heels with just 3 weeks between … don’t fall into the trap of thinking peaks are your salvation. The profit can often be lower than normal trading days simply because they come with extra staffing costs, longer hours and higher COGS.
Peaks should only be viewed as the icing on the cake not the foundations … it’s the business you do the other 48 weeks of the year that really count and the bit you should be concentrating on. Make a list of ALL the other things you could be doing – like all year round workshops – to make sure you are REALLY making the best use of your skills and services. Because florists are for every occasion and reason (including the all-important self-purchase sales) NOT just for Christmas!
