If your business is set to close for a couple of weeks over the Christmas period there are number of things you need to do to prepare yourself for this closure.  

Here are some tips to help you prepare for the closure so you can enjoy your break and get ready for the new year. 

Make Sure Your Clients Are Aware of What Day You Will Close and When You Wil Re-Open

Every business will have to take into consideration a number of factors when deciding what day, you will close your business and what day you will re-open. Things such as; your clients, the industry you operate in and the number of staff you have will all play a role in determining when you open and when you will close.

 You might also decide to open for a few days during the period after Christmas Day and before New Year’s Day.

You need to make sure that you have made it clear to your customers what your trading hours will be over the Christmas period. The information about when you will be open and when you will be closed should be clearly communicated via social media and also on your website and at your office.

You should also email your customers who have signed up to your mailing list to inform them when you will be closed. You can also set up an “our office is closed” autoresponder to any emails you receive during this period of time.

You also need to inform your suppliers and your staff of any dates you will be closed for.

The earlier you inform all of these people the less likely you are to receive any missed orders or angry customers.

Schedule Your Social Media Posts and Blog Posts

If you are planning to keep on publishing blog articles on your website and posts on your social media platforms during the Christmas break, it is strongly recommended that you take advantage of scheduling apps which enable this to happen.

Scheduling apps such as; Hootsuite and Buffer can be used to schedule blog posts before they are published.

Chase Up Any Unpaid Invoices

The weeks leading up to Christmas is the perfect time to go after any unpaid invoices that are past their payment terms.

Once your customer is on holidays for Christmas you won’t be able to contact them until the new year.

If you contact them before the Christmas season you won’t have to spend your holiday period stressing about the cashflow of your business.

Write Up a To-Do List of All the Things You Need to Do in The New Year

If you fail to plan than you are planning to fail, if you want 2023 to be a successful year for your business than you need to start setting some goals and preparing for the new year before it begins.

If you wrote up a list of all the things you aspired to complete at the beginning of 2022 you need to have a look at this list and evaluate what worked and what didn’t work.

You need to have a look at what tasks you completed and what tasks you didn’t complete.

You should do some brainstorming and ask yourself if the goals you set for yourself at the start of the year were realistic.

You also need to think about if there were any unforeseen events that happened in your life or within your business that made these goals difficult and impossible to complete.

You also need to figure out if any tasks have been delayed or are incomplete because of the actions of another person.

Writing up a list of things to complete in the new year will give you a sense of direction and it will help you better understand what type of needs to be taken to ensure that your business becomes more successful in the new year.