Episode 93: Holiday Hustle: Preparing Your Business for Year-End Success

In this episode of The Pursuit of Badasserie, we are covering a crucial (and slightly un-chronological) topic of preparing your business for the holiday season. While it may only be August, now is the perfect time to strategize and ensure you’re ready to capitalize on the year-end buying frenzy. Discover why planning ahead is essential, how to leverage consumer emotions, and why the second half of the year can make or break your business.

Let’s get after it!

In this episode, we discuss:

• The Importance of Early Planning: Learn why waiting until the last minute to plan your holiday strategy can lead to missed opportunities and lost revenue. Amanda and Lynn discuss how early preparation allows you to seize the holiday buying season’s full potential.
• Understanding the Holiday Buying Season: Explore the dynamics of the holiday shopping period, which kicks off with back-to-school sales and peaks from November to January. Discover why this time is crucial for businesses worldwide, especially in consumer-driven markets like the United States, Europe, and Canada.
• Leveraging Consumer Emotions: Find out why the holiday season is the perfect time to tap into the emotional aspect of consumer behavior. We share insights into how businesses can use this emotional buying period to their advantage while maintaining integrity and building lasting customer relationships.
• Inventory Strategies for Product-Based Businesses: If you have a product-based business, discover the importance of clearing inventory to make way for new stock. Lynn and Amanda discuss how to avoid holding onto stagnant products and the benefits of refreshing your offerings for the holiday season.
• Creative Approaches to Stand Out: Get tips on how to infuse creativity into your holiday marketing efforts. We explain how leveraging the holiday spirit can set your business apart and attract more attention during this competitive time.
• The Second Half of the Year: Business Opportunities: We discuss how the second half of the year is not just about holiday sales but also an opportunity to assess your financial situation and plan for the future. We share our approach to meeting with accountants and strategizing for tax advantages.

Actionable Tips:

• Start planning your holiday promotions and inventory needs now to stay ahead of the competition.
• Consider how you can emotionally connect with your audience and create memorable experiences that drive sales.
• Evaluate your pricing and sales strategies to ensure you’re maximizing profits during this high-demand season.
• Don’t be afraid to lean into the holiday spirit and use creative marketing tactics to capture attention and boost sales.

Connect with Us:

If you need help planning your holiday strategy or want to learn more about boosting your business profits, reach out to us. They’re here to help you make the most of this critical time for your business. Subscribe to The Pursuit of Badasserie and join our community of entrepreneurs ready to thrive in the holiday season!

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Call to Action:

Share this episode with fellow business owners who could use a strategic boost for the holiday season. If you have questions or need personalized advice, slide into our DMs or visit our website to connect with us. We love helping businesses grow and succeed!

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Read the full transcript of this episode below:

Lynn Howard  

Hey, I’m Lynn.

Amanda Furgiuele  

And I’m Amanda. Welcome to The Pursuit of Badasserie: the Podcast. we are talking about the holidays, which I know seems strange in August.

It is August, I fully, we fully acknowledge that. And this is the best time.

Lynn Howard  

if you’re listening to it when it comes out, because you’re our subscribers and our people, by the way, you can be our people to just subscribe button.

Amanda Furgiuele  

But you know, honestly, I feel very strongly, we feel very strongly that strategy comes with a little bit of planning, which means you’re thinking ahead and not leaving everything to the last minute the early bird catches the worm.

And that is no more important than enduring the holiday season. If you are waiting till the end. Until two to a weekend before to plan out your holiday strategy, you are leaving money on the table.

And we are not about that.

Lynn Howard  

Absolutely. And in some aspects, you’re actually taking a couple of steps back. back with your actual business itself. first of all, why, why are we talking about this holiday buying season?

Now, in the US and in some Western kind of countries, it’s during the end of the year. collectively, we’re not all, we’re, I know we’re not all on the same like year, everybody end year is, you know, whatever.

But more or less, the peak buying season for most areas of the world it that are in consumerism is going to be like the, the, the peak peak would be like November to January, but it absolutely starts in September, because the back to school is part of like, it’s part of like that’s rolled into it.

So, and it’s for different reasons, Labor Day and like all of that, but it’s definitely that time. So, it is the peak buying season.

People typically see the majority of their

Amanda Furgiuele  

If they’re doing it right there the majority of their income coming in in those months the second half and it’s billions Billions are the bee boy Billions of dollars are done in the months of september to early january Across multiple industries not just across the retail or anything It is a multi billion dollar time.

if you are not capitalizing if you are not seeing an influx Of money in those months then you need to look at the way you are doing your sales processes I don’t care what business you have what kind of business you have It is extremely important to if you’re not seeing an influx of money between the months of september and january We need to talk like we need to have a one-on-one talk about what’s happening in your your pricing modeling your sales model Because those are the huge by months at least from a united western world scenario from united states europe canada.

Lynn Howard  

That’s Yeah.

Amanda Furgiuele  

Huge, like a disgustingly huge.

Lynn Howard  

Absolutely. You know, there’s a couple of things. So, we’re definitely calling it the holiday, right? importance of that holiday season.

But also, let’s not forget, it’s the second half of the year. And so if we look at it and we take away, that’s why it’s actually, it’s impactful.

I believe in all countries regardless of their consumerism and their beliefs, if there’s any type of small business or entrepreneurial in even like big market, market stores and different things like that, they capitalize on it.

Like they do not. They have their plan for the next year, like in January, right? But it is, it is, the most shopping’s happening during that time, especially the last couple of months of the year.

But even like Amanda said, like Labor Day, Labor Day is going to be that last who were in the US, like for summer and this and that, like back to school, like lots of back to school.

remember all my back to school shopping. was the the only time we got new clothes. Sometimes we didn’t. But that’s a whole other topic.

So with that being said, it’s also people in a business mindset, if we’re not even looking at if looking at more services, people are wanting to check those boxes off before the end of the year.

They want to accomplish their , they realize, Oh my goodness, like it’s a half a year and I haven’t done my thing.

So that’s that’s a bit of the psychology also behind or like budgets people that budgets like they need to spend that money because if they don’t spend it, then they it’s not allocated the next year.

So the second half the year is so important. I feel like we don’t we tend to like shy away from that.

So that’s again, why we’re doing this podcast. it’s not even though we’re going to be talking a lot about the holiday side.

It is absolutely for those who don’t celebrate the holidays as well.

Amanda Furgiuele  

love that you mentioned the second half of the year, not necessarily even from a consumer standpoint, but from a business owner standpoint, the second half of the year can make or break your expenditures because you

You’re trying to create like a, I mean, do you have a surplus for the year? Are you trying to make up that budget?

Like even if you’re in a corporate scenario, knowing that you have to hit a certain budget of expenditures can really change how you budget for the rest of the year.

And as a business owner, as a multiple business owner, I usually meet with my CPA accountants at this time during like Q three and four.

And I say, okay, what do I need to spend? And on what in the next two quarters, to make sure I have the least amount of pay to pay in the new year in taxes.

So what am I spending now in order to put my business in the best place next year, not only from a tax perspective, but just from a depreciation perspective, just from a investment perspective.

So, so it’s not just a consumerism thing. It’s knowing where your money is in your business. This is a really important time.

And we’re talking about holidays as a general, we’re talking about like Christmas, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, you know, small business Saturday.

Labor Day sales, to school sales, Halloween sales, yes, love the Halloween sales. Thanksgiving sale, it all lumps at New Year’s resolution sales, like all these things come in into the lump of what’s called that that holiday season, which is generally Q4, but it feeds into Q3.

And that, and even though it feels like it’s the end of the year blitz, it absolutely has an effect on what your Q1, your beginning of the year is going to look like the rest of your year for the following year.

And when I stay, when I look at holiday promotions, I’m almost always six months in advance. I’m always, always looking six months ahead, like what’s the next holiday?

there’s always, at least in the, I mean, I’m U.S. based or most I have a global audience, but I most of my client, I would say like 70% of my clients are U.S.

based, maybe 60% now. But either way, there are still holidays that come up, no matter where you are in the world, there’s, you know, national dog day, there’s

You know, National Ice Cream Day, it’s International Forgiveness Day, like there’s so many random holidays, everything has a day, National Bourbon Day, like they all have days.

And depending on your business, you can capitalize on that. only if you’re thinking ahead and knowing what your target is, knowing what those big sales days are, how it’s going to affect your business, is everything that comes into play when you’re thinking about those holiday promotions and holiday can be whatever you want in this context.

But we’re mostly talking about Q3 and Q4, but it trickles down. It’s not just about getting a quick buck and a quick influx of cash.

It really does trickle down into more than just a few extra bucks in December.

Lynn Howard  

No, absolutely. I know this is one of your favorite things for those that have that are more product-based. This is the time that you really clear your inventory.

You out with the old and with the new type of thing. So this is a really important strategy during

this time for many reasons. One, you don’t want to be holding on to that for text reasons and depreciation and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Amanda Furgiuele  

Inventory.

Lynn Howard  

Yeah, inventory. But also it allows space for the new to come, right? So you can refresh, you can then you have a whole other like sales game over back in stock, blah, blah, blah, blah.

So there’s all this other stuff. clearing inventory. I know that you’ve used this one a lot more just because of the type of businesses that you have.

Mine have been a bit more service based, but we did do it with like our alarm company and different things like that because we had inventory.

So we would do that. But know you can talk a lot about that.

Amanda Furgiuele  

Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. a product perspective, for anybody who’s ever had to do end of your inventory and report it to your CPA.

It sucks. Yeah, it’s fine. it’s part woo, woo, part business, but There’s something stagnant about having the same t-shirt on the shelf that you had three years ago.

If it didn’t sell three years ago and it hasn’t sold in the last three years, not going to sell.

And if you’re going to get rid of it, like slash and burn, get rid of it because at that point, it’s, it’s, and hopefully you priced it right in the first place so that you’re going to make money off that 50% discount that you’re going to give it for.

People are going buy it because it’s the holidays and they need that discount. But you’re still going to hopefully make money off of it.

But even still, it’s refreshing. It’s giving a new facelift to what you have. If you have products, you want to create that new excitement, new merchandise coming in, a new reason to look through the shelves and to like flick through what you have.

It all trickles down. And this is the perfect time to be looking at. And I would say it’s August.

And people are like, that’s a little bit early to look at our new year inventory and look to look at, no, it’s not.

It’s actually little bit late to be looking at that. Because at this point, if you’re going to order, taking into consideration, shipping and how things change during the holidays.

We want to get that new influx of merchandise earlier because you’d rather have it before you need it, then be late and have some sort of like Christmas merchandise come in on the 26th of December.

You want to have stuff earlier and that’s why you see people even more and more. You’ll see some of the bigger companies doing these like Black Friday sales in September and October because they’re trying to start that idea of buying stuff earlier so that shipping doesn’t become a problem right towards the end of the year.

You will see more and more companies shifting when they start their holiday promotions earlier and earlier. And I mean, the first time I saw Christmas out for sale in Texas, United States was June 9th, June 9th, I actually marked I even the same in the video.

I’m like, actually, I’ve wanted to say back June 11th even like June 11th, fully stocked Flexion in the store Support my kid was like what is happening here?

Like why don’t they understand and my my six-year-old even said like don’t they understand chronological order and I’m like I know I know son I know But that’s what’s happening now.

They’re shifting earlier and earlier to I to Handle the influx of purchasing because they know there’s gonna be more purchasing.

know there’s gonna be more shipping demand There’s no they know that it’s gonna be more scarcity and fear of missing out And so they’re they’re shifting their timelines early and earlier to accommodate for that growing increase of consumerism that’s happening even more and more so Get on that bandwagon.

It’s happening and if you refuse to acknowledge it and you don’t want to be part of it Then fine, but you’re gonna miss on a lot of money.

Yeah I’m just telling you you to do a black Friday sale because everybody’s doing a black Friday sale suck it up uppercut Get on the bandwagon.

Don’t be like me and refuse to Invest in computers because nobody’s gonna get a computer. No, like Jump out.

Lynn Howard  

Yeah, the things that we let slip through our fingers, but that’s a whole other podcast. I know Anyway, um Project Oh, it is Do you imagine but we are where we’re supposed to be because the choices that we made and I would not change this I I would not but I would I would go back and read by that apple stock Oh, man, I would go back to buy that Any new Everything that manager said one other aspect to all of that is the creativity that you can lean into because of the holiday And then you plan people’s emotions and different aspects of that Um, but I I think you know during this time, the second half There are a lot of there are a lot of cards that you can pull out and be really creative with it Especially during the Christmas season to stand out or the that holiday like really intense buying season November

to the beginning of January because remember also there is a and I don’t know in every region but also a lot of rings engagement rings are purchased at the end of the year as well.

Amanda Furgiuele  

It’s one of the most popular times to propose to somebody’s Christmas.

Lynn Howard  

Christmas, New Year’s and then um uh Valentine’s Day. Valentine’s Day is the that so but those three that trifecta is the most proposed to date.

It used to be I don’t know if it still is but it’s really and so that’s why jewelers can get like get like they’re promoting that but you can get really creative and and let that your freak flag fly as we like to say and the creative aspect and to be able to like capitalize and stand out but you’re also riding the wave of others so you’re able to use others coattails if you would but the creativity part is going to help you stand out because there are more on

eyes on you at this point and you you have the ability to stand out on a crowd more versus be a needle and a haystack that somebody kind of stumbles upon because they’re not really looking for it but during this time people are a bit more aware even if they don’t understand that they’re aware so you’re able to leverage that creativity a lot a lot more and that’s why like those stores that are actually putting out their Christmas stuff they want to be first in June but there are also everything that Amanda said but I can tell you those that are selling the most in June and July are those that are leaning into the creativity part or they understand that the target in which they live with they must get to sell really mean but I’m going to say it anyway or they live in an area where there’s bunch of cat ladies who put up their have their decorations up all year round like those type of people like they’re capitalizing on their market and I say that’s some love because I have cat ladies.

I mean, if I had a cat lady with a cat lady, because I live alone.

Amanda Furgiuele  

The point is, they are leaning into that and not shying away from what is happening because ultimately, and I’ll say this from a US Senate, you know, Christmas is coming.

And whether or not I don’t care what your religious beliefs are, you know, this is a big spending time, so lean into it, accept, acknowledge, know that it’s coming.

Prepare for it, lean into that and really accept the amount, people are more willing to spend this time of year on frivolous emotional purchases.

They’re 100 times more willing. That’s, that’s my own percentage. That’s not as simple as sometimes. That’s just my percentage.

They are way more willing to purchase large, emotional, frivolous purchases in October, November, December than any other time. It is so much easier.

And because, and I will say this until I blew it in the face, until I grave, I will say this, people buy with emotion and they justify with logic.

And this is an emotional time of year. And I don’t say I’m not saying we’re trying to prey on people’s emotions, but from a business perspective, you’re leveraging, leveraging this season.

And this season is a bit more emotional and sentimental. It’s the season, nostalgic, it’s it’s your family, it’s love, it’s joy, it’s, I mean, come on now.

If you can’t sell something in the Christmas season, I mean, you should get it together because this is the time, this is the time to push on emotions.

That’s why so many large purchases can happen this time of year because you are feeding on the emotion of how someone’s going to feel in the joy in the season and what it’s going to bring.

So why not be part of that, lean into that? If you are resisting that, you’re going to see a huge loss in the potential of money you could get, lean into that.

at feeling of Christmas spirit and not in a manipulative way, you can just as easily use your powers for good as you can for evil.

And you can help people find the thing, whatever it is you sell product or service, that’s going to light someone’s day when it comes to giving it.

So lean into that emotional sell because this is the time to sell emotionally. By selling emotional services.

Lynn Howard  

Absolutely. And you know, it’s interesting when you’re saying that. And I know we’ve, I’ve used this before in the consulting, but kind of as an example for the service is like, you know, we’re in consulting, right?

do consulting. And yes, we work a lot with entrepreneurs, but we also work with corporations and C-suites and different things like that.

And so we absolutely will will leverage what they’re going through, seeing a lot of money go out, a lot of spending, they’re not having the the income that they want, they’re not

adding the numbers that they want, et cetera, et cetera. So we’re going to be using that in our conversations with them to get them to buy our services, because we know that we can be the solution for that, right?

So it’s not just this holiday season. If you look at it from different angles, the holiday season creates this frenzy.

And so are you utilizing that frenzy? Product service, believe in the Christmas spirit or not, it still facts or facts.

And a lot of people are buying during this time. And if you are in a community that does not celebrate Christmas, you can still use it because it’s end of the year.

There’s all their aspects to it. And are you capitalizing? Because even if you are in a community where they don’t celebrate Christmas, I live in a Buddhist country.

Christmas is not necessarily a Buddhist thing, right? But you walk out, you see Christmas things everywhere. They’re getting people into the holiday spirit, even the majority of the people who live here do not celebrate Christmas.

Traditionally, they might have adapted into their or adopted into their their family household But it’s not I think but they are absolutely capitalizing on that frenzy Absolutely.

So how can you capitalize on it? um that energy that frenzy and be able to move your business and Stop leaving money on the table during holiday season people like stuff it.

Amanda Furgiuele  

I mean in general, but definitely holiday season And the whole time you’re talking I’m thinking of the song shark in the water like baby.

There’s a shock in the water Like this is what this is the holidays. It’s shark in the water. There’s blood in the water Be part of the frenzy or you’re gonna get enough I’d rather be the shark personally Oh, gonna have baby shark about it Thanks a lot a man You’re welcome for everybody.

Lynn Howard  

You know has baby shark very much. Anywho, we’re at time. We want you to capitalize on. And if you don’t have a strategy or you’re not sure where to go, please reach out to us.

DMS, we’re across all the platforms, the pursuit of Audacity with IE.com, share this with somebody in your network or multiple people in your network.

We could definitely use this kind of nudge in this aha moment. Like we want to help you. So let us know your questions.

And if you need help, this is our jam. This is what we do for a outside the holiday season, inside the holiday season.

But this is literally what we do and what we love and what we’re damn good at. So, Dima, into the girl’s team, slide into our dance.

Amanda Furgiuele  

Hit us up. Hit us up.

Lynn Howard  

No pics, please. Uh, sorry.

Amanda Furgiuele  

You had to go there.

Lynn Howard  

You had to go there. I mean, even if it’s practice of services, because we just never know nowadays. But we don’t judge.

We’re still going to help you make some money. Just be respectful. Anyway, subscribe, share this along, let us know what you took away.

We know we know we can be comical and witty at times, maybe sometimes the world. We think of ourselves a little bit more than what we come across, but we love what we do.

Amanda Furgiuele  

We don’t hate, we appreciate, if you have a business, we want to help you sell more in that business.

Anyway, let us know if you have any more questions on this, and please reach out to us because we love helping businesses grow and earn more and make the most of their holiday season because this is the time to make that money, honey.

Lynn Howard  

Yeah, alright, till next time everybody, get after it.