Planning for Holidays and Special Events

Posted by Roberta Budvietas on Dec 23, 2011 in Advertising, Analysis, Behavior, Budgets, Business, Cashflow, Information, Planning, Promotion, Resources, Roles, Strategy | 1 comment

When you establish a business you planning must include how you will cope with seasonality, holidays and special events.

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As I write this, we enter the Christmas season and depending on where you are in the world, different things happen in the business world.

If you live in North America or Europe, it is winter time and holidays are generally only one week or just the statutory days. If you live in the Southern hemisphere, it is summer and that could mean that most staff have at least two weeks holiday.

The weather affects what foods are available. In winter, you need different clothes, footwear and coverings than in summer and that affects clothing sales and gift giving.

For many businesses, the big holidays are the time for major sales. For other businesses, it is a time to pack your bags and go home because no one is interested in talking to you.

And what happens to promotions at this time of year?

The big players hog the advertising space.

The little players try desperately both on-line and off line to get subscribers and followers by giving gifts and promises of all kinds of things.

SALE and SAVE are the two big words everywhere.

Many stores started to do half price sales on Christmas decorations nearly three weeks before Christmas. What will they sell on Boxing Day?

When you think about your business, you need to think of your cashflow.

When will you make your money?
When do you have to produce the goods or buy the goods?
And how will you manage your money between those two times?

It is a balancing act that takes planning.

And then if you have staff there are more issues to be considered.

Staff on holiday get paid even though they are away from work. If you have staff that works over the holidays, many countries legislate special pay rates and conditions for those people.

Many employers use times like Christmas and New Years to gift to staff and major clients. Parties and entertainment add costs and have a number of cautions for employers about the alcohol, abuse, harassment and just plain misconduct that occur at many office functions.

Planning your year MUST include holiday cash flow and staff planning. And think carefully of what you might have to do if what you planned worked too well or failed to work as expected.

In conclusion, I wish my Christian readers the blessings of the season.

I challenge you to think of how the holidays and other special events affect your cashflow. Can you manage better? Or will you lurch from event to event and let abundance and desperation drive your business?

Enjoy your holidays!

Roberta

Simplifier, Presenter, Mentor

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