Preparing your business for the holidays

Martha Warner Author

Planning to take time off for the holidays? Get your business prepared with these tips!

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It’s that time of year again! The holiday season is just around the corner. Now is the perfect time to start planning ahead and preparing your business for the holiday season.

As a business owner, it can be difficult to step away from work even for a couple days, which makes stepping away during the busy holiday season even more difficult. You don’t want to skip client projects or miss out on potential leads or sales. But there’s a solution! Put together a plan. Follow these tips and check out this checklist and leave the stress behind!

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Identify your time off

Sit down and figure out the days that you plan on stepping away from your work.

🡪 What days will you be taking off for Thanksgiving?

🡪 What about for Christmas?

🡪 Will you take the whole week off between Christmas and New Years?

Ask yourself these questions and plan for the entire holiday season.

Protip: Include your family and friends in this discussion to make sure you’ve covered travel and any visitors in your plan.

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Coordinate time off with your team

Share the dates you plan to be gone with your team members. This way they will be able to communicate any questions or concerns with you before you plan to leave. This helps everyone prepare ahead of time so everyone can enjoy a much needed break.

Don’t forget to ask them what dates they plan on being away from work. Add these dates to your calendar as well. This way everyone knows when each other is going to be gone, and everyone can respect each other’s boundaries.

Protip: Sharing calendars makes it easier to see who is where and to adjust for any changes or updates that happen.

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Plan your content

Work with your team to plan ahead. You have systems and tools at your disposal, so your business can still run without you being present. Plan out your content, finish projects, and wrap up work with your client the few weeks before you plan on being gone.

Schedule your social media posts to go out, write a blog post if need be, and schedule a newsletter or two. Your audience will still want to hear from you during the holidays. 

This is also a great time to thank them for their business this year and wish them a wonderful holiday season.

Protip: Check out my favorite systems and programs here!

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Plan client work

Put together a suggested plan before you talk to your clients.

🡪 Do you have normally scheduled work that is due a certain day of the week?

🡪 Can you plan ahead and have it finished ahead of time and use a scheduling tool?

🡪 Or what if you have a big client project such as a website build?

🡪 Can you free up some time in your schedule so this is a project that is done and off your mind before you take a break?

Give clients advanced notice about your time off and determine a plan of action so that everyone can enjoy some time off.

Protip: Prior to meeting with the client, send them a holiday date request to identify when they will be off. It will help guide your conversation!

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Set up your systems

Set up any systems you use to correspond with clients and any leads to let them know you’re going to be out of the office. Be sure to include when you’ll get back to them.

It is important to not leave your inbox unattended for the long holiday. One way you can do this is to set up an auto-responder with the dates you will be gone, when you will be back in the office, and a note about how you will return all messages when you get back..

Protip: Label these notifications in your calendar, so you can reuse them each year.

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Send out reminders

The week before your time off is planned, send out a friendly reminder to your team and clients about your time off. Some of them may have forgotten and will appreciate the heads up.

Protip: Send this reminder with a virtual greeting card or a video!

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Enjoy your time off

Most importantly, enjoy your time off with family and friends. By following all of these steps and marking them off of your list, you can relax knowing your business and clients are taken care of.

Protip: Try turning off your phone–not silent or vibrate; it makes all the difference.

Getting your business wrapped up for the holidays will be the best gift you can give yourself this holiday season. Simply follow these tips and the checklist to come back feeling refreshed and ready to tackle the new year!

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