This is my most favorite time of the year for a multitude of reasons. I love everything about it. I love a southern California Christmas because it’s still sunny out. Sometimes, we can even wear shorts at Christmas. (And I’ll bet those of you on the East coast are like, “Shorts? We just loaded up our woodshed!”)
A Lot to Celebrate
The other reason I love this time of year is because of all of the holidays. Personally, in my family, all of our birthdays also fall during this time of year. It’s actually kind of crazy. It starts with my daughter’s birthday at the end of September and then for the rest of the year it seems like we have a holiday or birthday just about every week!
What About Your Business?
For a lot of us, the last quarter of the year is filled with celebration. What does that have to do with your business? How do you monetize the last quarter of the year when everybody is celebrating, partying, and in holiday mode?
I’m telling you. It’s easy.
You might know this already, but I LOVE to plan. One major difference with my planning style is that I don’t just plan to plan. I plan to take action on my plans. I take a little bit of extra time every night to plan the next day. I always take extra time to plan my month, plan my quarter, and plan my year. I know that I can’t get from point A to point B without a plan mapped out to tell me how to go, when to go, where to go, why to go. But most importantly, what I’m going for.
This really is the most perfect time of year in so many ways, for planning and for selling.
Consumer Spending
In 2013 US consumers spent more than 46 billion dollars with retailers during the months of November and December. 46 billion dollars in just the final two months of the year! This represented an increase of 4 billion dollars over the previous year. If we’re talking percentages, that’s 9.5% over the previous year. And trends haven’t slowed down in the following seven years!
We all know the high profile sales events like Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and Cyber Monday. These days only generated a staggering 2.2 billion dollars in sales.
The opportunity to sell at the end of the year is absolutely available. Do you have a commodity-based business? Do you offer a product, service, or solution that can be gifted (you might just need a creative spin)? Whatever it is you do, leverage it as you roll into the most wonderful time of the year!
Don’t stop selling at the end of the year. It is the perfect time to be selling. It is simple. All you have to do is get focused and plan. Start right now. Focus. Plan well and plan right.‘