How to Prep for the Holidays as a Service-Based Business
We tend to think of product-based businesses the most around the holidays, but services-based businesses can easily participate in the season too! You may feel your business isn’t seasonally relevant, or that your offerings aren’t well-suited as gifts.
However, with a bit of creative thinking, you can find a way to position your offerings for the end of the year. Getting creative at this time can help you meet your income goals and experiment with different offers. Here are a couple different ideas to help your service-based business get prepped for the holidays:
End-Of-Year Specials
If your services might be hard to frame as a gift, say something like bookkeeping or social media consulting, think about how you can create an offer or special around the holidays or the new year. This look like an end of year bookkeeping review package, or a holiday sale on social media consulting sessions. Focus on helping your customers reduce holiday stress.
Likely whatever service you provide can be tied into that theme somehow, whether you’re offering more convenience or an expert solution to a problem. Keep in mind what your target market is thinking about during the end of the year. How can you help them solve problems and enjoy the season?
Gift Vouchers
Many business can offer great gift-vouchers for their customers. Consider offering vouchers at a discount for your repeat customers. This an excellent way to attract more clients. When people receive a voucher for your service, it will also come with a glowing recommendation!
Holiday Packages
Services or products can be bundled together to create holiday-themed packages for your clients. Try including a free holiday gift with an extra purchase. You could also consider theming a bundle of different services around the holidays. For example, if you’re a teaching artist, you could bundle together online courses under a holiday sale designed to help people make their own gifts!
This is also a great opportunity to collaborate with other business owners. Perhaps you run a massage studio and you partner with a chiropractor to offer a holiday package that includes a discount on both your services. This is a great way to cross-pollinate your customer bases while also reaping the rewards of holiday season marketing.
Thinking ahead about the holiday season can help you turn plans into action items. This can also be a chance to do one last push toward your annual or quarterly income goals.
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Services or products can be bundled together to create holiday-themed packages for your clients. Try including a free holiday gift with an extra purchase. You could also consider theming a bundle of different services around the holidays. For example, if you’re a teaching artist, you could bundle together online courses under a holiday sale designed to help people make their own gifts!
In our current situation, many people have had to adapt their offerings. Perhaps you’ve had to do this in your business as well. If so, it could be great to conduct this type of review over your financial records of the last several months, since shelter in place began. Ask yourself the questions above, and think about what results you’d like to achieve. Would you like more revenue? More sales of a certain offering? Or perhaps you’re just not clear about what’s working best in your business. Analyzing time cycles can help you figure this out.