Easter

About a week ago I was sitting here at my computer, which has finally been healed, it had a virus. Well, back to my train of thought...it crossed my mind that April was nearing it's end and there was no Easter.

That's right, no Easter. "What the hay! What happened to Easter?" I was puzzled and confused. Did I miss it? Had I slept through it? Has it been cancelled? So I decided to look at my calender and to my surprise found it. No I hadn't missed, it's just a little late this year. I'm use to the good ole days, mid-March to mid-April. What happened this year, can anyone tell me? I think it's time that we make holidays stationary as not to confuse those of us that run on set clock. Some surprises are okay, like birthday parties, but when you're planning sales, holiday dinners and vacations and these people play with the calendar all willy-nilly, it throws some of us off.

Now that I've found myself and the missing Easter Sunday, here's wishing you all a Happy Easter, a successful egg hunt and all the other grand and glorious things that goes along with this day.

Ready For the Holidays - Pt. 5

Getting the Word Out

We’ve covered a lot up to this point and there is always more to know. I’ve made several banners preparing for the upcoming holiday season and a few to represent the upcoming fall season. During the past week I’ve given thought to how to get the word out, ‘It’s that time of year.’

Last year I instituted a lay-a-way plan in my shop for items over a certain dollar amount. Now is the time to announce you’re ready to do custom made items to assure delivery for the holiday. Get out your mailing list and notify your customers you’re ready to accommodate them for the holiday. Let them know if you’ve added a new line. You can do this by sending out a brochure, postcards or use your blog. If you don’t have a blog, start one.

This doesn’t have to be a costly event. You can make each of these items by using your Microsoft Publisher program. I use Microsoft PowerPoint to make my banners, you can also use Paint, but I find it difficult to work with.

Insert your logo or your holiday banner, pictures of your featured items with descriptions, no prices (you want to bring them to your site).

Offer coupons to repeat customers, free shipping on select items for a limited time. Put links to your store in all your social networking profiles. Offer gift wrapping if you don’t already.

Post new items on your blog, people love to see what you’ve done or what you’re working on.

With all this in mind, remember there holidays throughout the year and you can even invent some of your own.

I hope this helps your holiday season a little brighter,a little easier and prosperous for you.

Have fun putting your shop together and keep me posted, I would love to see what you've done.

Above is one of my new holiday banners, made using PowerPoint and clipart from Microsoft.com, it's free.

144 Days to Christmas

For those of us that make and ship items for sale, we have less time to prepare. I would give us about 134 days to Christmas.

Considering the time it takes to ship and the time it takes to make we need to get busy and start thinking ahead for this year and next. Some of the big box stores in other countries have already started their holiday season, toys, gifts and decorations are already at hand.

I realize that some of us are dealing with triple digit heat, but the holidays are right around the corner. Years ago, my mom and I use to start shopping in January, that’s right, January. Of course that was when lay-a-ways were in abundance and stores knew how to turn a buck.

I appreciate a good lay-a-way. Sure it ties up inventory but that inventory will and can sell with a reasonable lay-a-way policy.
What is a reasonable lay-a-way policy, don’t expect a $300 item to be purchased within a 30 day period, if that was the case it wouldn’t have been laid away in the first place.

So far in the first three blogs of ‘Ready for the Holidays’, we covered:

1. Update your product catalog and inventory.

I’ve gone through my products and I see a need for additions and improvements,so
I'm working on it.

2. Make it easy for your customers to shop for gifts.

I’ve made a list of items I feel would be great for gifts and also added categories to the list.

3. Give your site that ‘Holiday’ flair.

I’ve had the same banner for the past three years and I feel a real need for a change, so I’ve been working on a new.

So, what have you been up to? Have you started readying your shop for the holiday? How’s it going?

Next week we’ll talk about some more issues we can pursue in order to ready ourselves for the upcoming holiday season.