For many people in the Promotional Products space, December can be a strange time of year in the business. Why? Because while we all have those last-minute gift-giving customers, many of our sales activities for corporate giving have been taken care of. The gifts have already been ordered, and many times, delivered.
And while we all know the New Year is right around the corner, customers are often more interested in focusing on holiday activities than strategic planning for next year.
So what are some good activities to drive your business forward in December?
There are plenty of good things you can do to help your business in December. As a matter of fact, Bill Petrie, Josh Robbins, and I discussed a few on the latest Promo UpFront podcast here. And while we have several great suggestions there, I want to give you two ideas for proactive ways to affect your business in December.
Goal Setting
I am always intrigued when I see articles about goal-setting on January 1st. While that is a great time to announce new goals, I like to start thinking about what those goals might be much earlier than that. I believe in creating my life “on purpose.” And to do that, I believe I need to spend some real time thinking about what I really want.
I find that when I put those goals together in one day, I can be a prisoner to the moment. My goals tend to be shaped a lot by what is going on that day in my life.
So December is a great time to carve out some time to start thinking about your goals and what you want to accomplish next year. I recommend having goals that you can take action on in more than one or two areas of your life. Think about the 5 F’s of Goal-Setting. That idea encourages you to create goals in areas like Finance, Fitness, Family, Faith, and Fun. When you have well-balanced goals, you are more like to have a well-balanced life.
We have a goal-setting course to help get you started here at BetterBusinessU.com.
Consider the Re-Brand
While you are doing some deep, intentional thinking, now is a great time to consider your brand. Is it time to re-brand? Is your current brand still serving you? While you are spending the time to create your business “on purpose,” December is the perfect time to look at that too.
I talk to Jim Heiniger on Delivering Marketing Joy about that topic here.
Jim explains that you might want to simply Refresh your brand…and give it a makeover. Or this might be the time to do a full-scale Re-Brand. If you don’t believe your brand is working for you, now is the time to take the next steps.
So while December might not be your biggest sales month, these are a couple of proactive activities you can do to move your business forward. If you are interested in doing a re-brand, we have a course included in BetterBusinessU.com to help with that. For a list of all of the courses (so far), click here.
