Christmas support: catch up on my live call

Yesterday, I hosted a live call to talk about preparing for Christmas and ways in which I can support you over Christmas (especially my new group mentoring programme).

In case you missed it, you can watch it again here (where you’ll be able to see all the chat!) or below:

Spreecast is the social video platform that connects people.

During the call, I talk about forecasting, getting prepared with products and stock, hiring staff, and how you can make the most of the busy Christmas period. I talk about managing ordering enough stock to fulfil orders, while managing your cash flow – not always easy!

If you’re interested in my group mentoring programme, you can read more and sign up here. Alternatively, if you’re interested in a one-off session, help with forecasting, or working with me ongoing, please get in touch.

You might also find Betsy Benn’s guest blog post on preparing for Christmas helpful!

Guest post: Betsy Benn on Christmas preparation

Betsy Benn profileBetsy Benn is the owner and designer at Besty Benn, a successful design studio specialising in personalised prints. When her personalised bus blinds launched on notonthehighstreet.com in 2010, her Christmas season (and business) reached new heady heights. Here, she shares what she’s learned about surviving (and thriving) at Christmas.

 

Christmas is coming!

Well technically, like tomorrow, it’s always coming when you are in retail. Even on Christmas Day, you’ll be thinking about next year’s range (unless you’re John Lewis, in which case you’ve been talking about each Christmas 18 months in advance!).

So why am I writing about it in September?

Because now is key planning time for our logistics so you might want to start thinking about yours too.

This will be Betsy Benn’s sixth Christmas, and in that time we’ve picked up a few key facts:

  1. Christmas happens on the same day every year, so you can plan for that (even if sometimes customers seem to forget that it’s coming)
  2. Life is a lot less stressful if you are not phoning around suppliers, desperately trying to source the most commonly used white envelopes that everyone else also suddenly needs.
  3. Your family will understand “petrol station gifts” once, possibly twice, but not forever. They are more important than your business, as are you, as you’ll both be around if the business isn’t one day. Look after yourselves the most in the high stress times.

So practically what does that mean?

Stock up and keep track

Well for us, it meant doing a big ol’, pretty list of the things we can’t run without. As a print business, of course that meant paper and ink primarily, but also everything we use for dispatch (tubes, bubble wrap, postage labels, etc). We stuck that pretty list on the wall, stock piled as much as we could, and checked levels every day in November and December. It almost became a religion! We print our own postage labels, and simple things like pre-printing 3000 of them meant we didn’t have to do it again in peak trading.

The big ol’, pretty list of the things we can’t run without
The big ol’, pretty list of the things we can’t run without

Then there’s the tech that we couldn’t operate without. Printers were serviced, laptops and computers had the once over from the tech clever hubby. If you don’t have a tech clever hubby, may I suggest you go and get one a bit sharpish. Hang out at Game Zone for a bit, I’m sure it’ll be easy.

Get a good team

But, most importantly, what about the people that you can’t operate without? In a small team, it can take just one person to be taken out of action (it is flu season after all) for you to be, well, screwed. And what if that person happens to be you?

Two years ago, our key admin person, who knew every process and did all the customer contact, was unexpectedly out for a week and then had a few days of random hours after that. This was late November and we were rushed off our feet. I admit I went into panic mode, I felt totally lost, and I had to go and have a bit of a stress cry in the loo for a few minutes! I soon realised, as much fun as it was sitting on a toilet seat in the dark, gently rocking, there were no tea and biccies within reach so I was going to have to leave eventually.

Everyone was waiting for me to decide what to do. I called a temp agency and they very quickly found an admin person that was free to start the next day. She was brilliant and still does a few odd hours for us to this day. Sure there was a lot she couldn’t do, but she picked up the easier tasks quickly meaning I didn’t have to do post when there were trickier things that needed my attention. It was expensive, but it was worth it for the relief, and it was only for a couple of weeks.

After that experience, we made it a priority in the business to not have all the knowledge on any particular thing in one person’s head. We can all do post and book it out, even if only one person does it day to day. We can all print, accept orders, book couriers, use every bit of kit. Things happen, people are fragile, and you need to have a contingency in place for how you cope.

If you rely on external suppliers, or outsource any part of your business, then talk to those people now too. We are currently contracting freelancers for all of November and December and understanding who else has what hours.  We rely on external framers, so we have chats about their capacity and how they will cope with the increased demands and what their last working and shipping dates are.

Plan your own Christmas

Finally, plan some of the best bits of Christmas, the family bits! We have three family birthdays in December too, so that’s an added bit of pressure right there! I know already that Lego will feature quite prominently, so that’s easy to buy now and save. Stocking fillers can also be bought well in advance, and I’m guessing some of our lovely colleagues in other small creative businesses would also love to have our early orders! Just don’t forget where you hide them.

Get Christmas presents planned and bought now!
Get Christmas presents planned and bought now!

Schedule some restorative down time now, when it feels remote. A night out at a comedy gig, a family Christmas event,  pay for it too if you can. You’ll be less likely to cancel it even if you are off your rocks crazy busy. You need it, you do. What are you doing all this for anyway if it’s not to have a better life for you and yours? Christmas is about love, actually, and you deserve not to miss out in the process of making it special for strangers!

Book in some food shopping deliveries now. Yes now. Waitrose are currently taking delivery bookings up to 29 November, so in the next month all the December ones will be ready. Make some delicious meals and freeze them for when life just becomes too hectic, or find some lovely “just cook” type meals that will nourish you in super quick time. Personally I overload on entertaining friends in September and October and they, lovely beings that they are, understand and reciprocate in November. And why not book a goodies delivery to the office, all the essentials, whatever yours are. It will be an amazing gift to yourselves.

However you plan for this festive season, start now. Once you start, you’ll feel more confident that you’ve got this, and that can only be a good feeling!

***

A note from Jenny: If you’re in need of support over Christmas, check out my Group Mentoring package, or get in touch to discuss one-off and one-to-one options. Let’s make this your best Christmas yet!

Here's the thing: a wedding vs a marriage

a weddingI have a client who is a wedding planner. Talented, creative, organised – she’s everything you could want as someone to help plan a very important day.

However, her greatest strength, I believe, is that one of her guiding principles is to value the marriage more than the wedding.

Working with her own clients, she explores what their relationship is like, and what they want their marriage to be like, in order to create a wedding day that is authentic to them, and that starts their journey as a married couple.

This, to me, is refreshing and brilliant.

I’m all about sustainability. I don’t find quick fixes or flashy short-term plans particularly enjoyable or satisfying – I’m much more about finding the long term goals and aims.

That’s not to say I don’t do short term or one-off – because I do, and this work with clients is often very valuable and enjoyable. But it’s because I use quick fixes to re-orientate towards sustainability and long term aims.

This analogy of wedding vs marriage can easily be applied to a small creative business.

Because both are important. The wedding (which could be a launch, re-launch, Christmas period etc.) sets you off on the right path. It declares your intention, celebrates something very important, and gathers people together. It creates something special, something symbolic, that will be looked back on and referred to as a wonderful, special, magical time.

But the wedding isn’t more important than the marriage. The marriage (day to day business life, the ongoing sustainability of your business) is how you live out your intentions. It includes the full range of life experiences – excitement, disappointment, vulnerability, starting afresh. A marriage requires daily attention, a million forgivenesses, and the commitment to learning, trying again, living by the principles you agreed on your wedding day.

Here’s the thing:

Are you living for a wedding or a marriage?

Did you expect your business-wedding (new website launch, new range launch, advertising) to change everything, to change the everyday of your business-marriage?

If you’re planning a re-launch, new product launch, or simply thinking about Christmas, consider what your principles for the long-term marriage are. How will you demonstrate them at your ‘wedding’?

What are your business-marriage principles and values? (Also, what are your actual marriage principles and values? Different, but connected.)

Are you living them every day? Is anything missing? Do you need a vow renewal with your business?

Ah, I do love a metaphor and analogy to get us thinking differently!

Suffice to say: build a business for the long term, with sustainability. Use any short term goals to work towards that.

(And yes, as always, I’m taking my own advice.)

Jx

PS I currently have a spot open for a weekly mentoring client, and space for one-off mentoring sessions, so if you need to edge back towards sustainability, or need help planning a business-wedding, please get in touch.

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Enter The Forge

Life's too damn short to chase someone else's definition of success. I'm here to give you the courage and tools to forge your own path.