The holiday season can be full of cheer, but if you’re a creator, that might also come with a side of stress. When you think about keeping up with all your social media channels, virtual courses, coaching, and other offerings it can be overwhelming. Not to mention balancing personal holiday plans, prioritizing time to rest, reflect, and plan for the new year. But we’ve got business holiday tips to help you manage the coming weeks.
While we don’t have advice for navigating conversations with your extended family at holiday dinner, we do have tips on how you can keep a smooth flow going with your business. All without feeling like you’re competing in the end-of-year Olympics. This can be done in manageable chunks so that you can give yourself some much-deserved rest and rejuvenation time. Without feeling the pressure to catch up in the new year. Let the countdown begin!
How to keep business strong as you approach the new year
Five weeks until the new year
With Black Friday behind you, this is the perfect time to decide if you want to plan another sale before Christmas and the New Year. And if so, to plan it out ahead of time. The great news is that you don’t need to reinvent the wheel here. Feel free to use similar copy and/or posts to share about flash sales in December to the copy you used earlier this year. Gifting a course or coaching is a low-effort and thoughtful gift, so keep that in mind when marketing.
Keep in mind you may not want to make this sale as juicy as any Black Friday deals you ran. That way people who purchased from you during that time can still know they got the best deal of the year.
Four weeks until the new year
Set aside some extra time to automate anything that can be automated. So that way you can spend the least amount of time doing admin work over the holidays as possible. Zapier is a great tool for automation and can connect different apps to create funnels so that you can seamlessly keep things flowing without having to manually do every little thing. You can even set it up to automatically respond to Instagram and other social media messages. So it’s almost like you have a personal assistant…almost.
Three weeks until the new year
Content batching for posts and your email list may already be a part of your normal schedule, or not. Either way, dedicating some extra time to creating content and scheduling it to be sent out is a must. It means that you’re still visible (and sharing about any flash sales) even if in reality you’re drinking hot chocolate on the couch and watching holiday movies. Use an app like later to easily automate this. If you find it challenging to batch content, keep in mind that this gets to be low stakes. Many people are on social media less during this time of year, so relieve yourself of the pressure of it needing to be ground-breaking content.
Two weeks until the new year
Whether you celebrate Christmas or not, this might be a pretty quiet time in terms of social media engagement, as many people will be busy doing holiday activities, traveling, and spending time with loved ones. This is an ideal time to wrap up any holiday sales by sending final reminders or sharing posts. It’s also a great opportunity to connect with your audience—give them a little sneak peek into what you’re up to for the holidays and share polls to get a gauge of what they’re up to. You can try surveying where they’re spending the holidays or what their favorite food is for this time of year. This is also a fun way to show them that you care and are interested in them.
One week until the new year
Allow yourself to do the minimum of checking in on emails and social media messages, if at all. This may seem counterintuitive, but you’re going to be able to create and show up more fully only after you’ve really given yourself the space and time to relax. This part gets to be an exercise in observation, mindset, and self care. Do you notice any resistance to allowing yourself to rest? Do you feel the obligation to show up on social media, or perhaps like you need to do things for your business?
Sometimes as creators, it can be easy to fall into the trap of thinking that things will fall apart without you, or that you’re falling behind if you’re not actively “doing things” to propel your courses forward. This is a great time to notice if any of this is coming up for you. And a good time to remind yourself that you deserve to rest, even if you didn’t meet your goals this year.
You deserve to just eat yummy food and watch TV (or do whatever else it is that you find relaxing) even if there are still items lingering on your to-do list. You’re actually doing yourself and your audience a disservice if you show up just because you think you “should” because you’re missing out on time to fill up your own cup, which results in you being the brightest version of yourself for your audience.
The new year
For our last business holiday tips: Rest. Reflect. Do what lights you up. Spend time with the people who make you happy, eat the food you enjoy. Do it all, or do nothing—whatever it is, it gets to be guilt free!
Approaching the new year
Planning this out ahead of time can be helpful so that as each week approaches, you have the structure of knowing exactly what you’re focusing on that week without feeling overwhelmed about getting it all done sans timeline. If you do notice yourself feeling stressed out during this time, ask yourself how you can bring a sense of ease to the situation. Maybe that’s making your space more cozy and batching content in your pj’s, or reprioritizing your to-do list. Either way, stay present with what you’re thinking and view these as opportunities for shaping your mindset and strengthening your identity as a creator.
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