Are you ready for Q4?

4th Quarter of the year is an absolute whirlwind. If this is your first year in business, BUCKLE UP!!! 

 

If you play your cards just right and prepare, quarter four can bring more cash in then the previous three quarters combined. You ready to make some money?

 

First things first, I hope you have some capital set aside. It costs money to make money- But no worries. Make the most of what you have.

1.) STOCK UP!!!

Hop on Amazon and stock up on all the items you'll blow through faster than you'll know. I'm talking labels, polymailers plastic bags galore. 

Check out my Amazon cart :) 

(p.s. That selfie ring was totally worth it!) 

And then VIOLA! two days later I am STOCKED and ready for the rush! 

2.) You don't just need to stock up on Shipping supplies, think about production as well! 

You'll notice that cart had some elastic and KAM snaps. We also stocked up on spaghetti straps (we go through about 800 yds a month over here) and fabric. We don't want to be wasting any precious family time OR dedicated work time on unexpected shopping trips or delays in having materials in house. 

3.) Marketing material

Order more business cards OR pull a page from the book of Dorie and add some human touch to this season :) 

Think about it- they can shop on amazon with one click. Make them WANT to shop with you. Here's what I did :) 

 

4.) Plan out your BFCM schedule to the tee! Choose which days you will recognize and what sales will correlate. Will you run one sale for the entire weekend? Switch it up each day? Skip it all together? Or maybe opt for some middle ground like Free shipping or freebies with purchase. 

 

Whatever it is that you decide, decide NOW and be sure to make note of it. You'll want this data to look back on and evaluate future holiday deals. 

BONUS TIPS: 

If you are doing freebies, we HIGHLY suggest networking within your niche to find wholesale freebies. It'll help you gain business friends and exposure your customers to a new brand, further keeping them inside the niche where you need them to be :) 

Also, Super extra bonus tip: 

Plan all your graphics NOW! This will allow more time to fine tune them, and leave more relaxing times for you when the pace picks up! 

5.)

Consider adding on a retargeting service for this quarter. 

If you already use a service, we recommend beefing up your ad spending just a bit in this final quarter. 

Here are two of our favorite apps for Shopify: 

We also LOVE the new google ad feature on Mailchimp :) 

 

 6.) 

Set a reminder on your calendar to pay your quarterly taxes (Sales Tax, but also if you send in an estimated amount for federal) 

7.) 
Schedule out your content. Whether you use our spreadsheet, Airtable, a good old spiral and pen or some other form of planning, DO IT NOW! Don't sit and think about what you'll post. Just throw something up and make it stick. 

We know that The Baby Bird Boutique is extremely slow in December. Because of this, our staff gathers beautiful holiday photos throughout October and schedules them out with cute quotes and sayings every few days in December. This gives them the month off, essentially, and keeps their audience engaged. Now the staff can relax and not panic knowing the content is rolling and their audience isn't going to drop off the face of the earth by 2019! 

8.) 

Beef up that SEO 

Make sure all listings have killer tags, ALT TXT & Metadata! Read more about tips for that here. 

9.) 

Plan Press: 

Whether you are putting together you own gift guide, partnering with multiple businesses, bringing on bloggers/influencers or consulting with a press firm, you want more traffic coming your way. Even if your budget is still dollar menu status, consider asking multiple businesses to create their own image and all agreeing to post a blog/email with a collection/holiday gift guide. 

10.) 

Get help!! 

This last one shouldn't be taken lightly. Running a business is scary. Don't feel bad investing money on having someone hear you out, get you on the right track or whip you into shape! 

 

That's it! We hope these 10 tips have helped and you're rolling in the money & not as tired as her.