Saturday, October 11, 2008

5 Ways to Organize Your Business for the Holidays

The holidays are quickly approaching--it's already October!! Here are five ways to help organize your business for the holidays. Hopefully you can be prepared so you can take it easy.

1. Purchase plastic shoe containers at Target or Walmart for $0.99 each. These fit great on shelves, and they are see through. If you do a lot of shows you can designate one container for each show and label them as such. These bins are also good for storing supplies, finished product…the possibilities are limited to your imagination.

2. Get a free self-inking address stamp from Vistaprint. These are great to stamp on customs forms and envelopes. It will be a great time saver when you have a lot of orders to package and ship at one time.

3. Make sure you have enough shipping supplies. Plan to have more than you think you need. Do you have enough tape? Bubble envelops and boxes in different sizes? You can get free expedited shipping supplies from the United States Postal Service website. You can even order free customs forms.

4. Create, create, create! The holidays bring a lot of hungry shoppers. Be sure your shop has plenty of stock available in different styles and price ranges. If it is possible, create multiples of the same item so when you sell one you can immediately relist it. Look through all, and I mean all of your supplies to see what you actually have! (I know I have a ton of supplies around that I need to dedicate a day to go through!)

5. Set boundaries. If you accept custom orders set a deadline so you aren't overloaded on custom orders. Designate a weekly schedule to go to the post office...maybe just two or three times a week? You could also make things one day, ship items another day, etc. Whatever will work for you.

I hope this is helpful to you, and I appreciate you taking the time to read. If you have any comments, questions, or requests please feel free to reply to this blog.

Thank you so much for your time,

-
Christina
CM Designs dba 1337 Art
Elite Art for the elite at heart. Featuring jewelry for men and women, art collage, awareness items, bookmarks, cell phone charms, hair accessories, key chains, kilt pin brooches, wine charms, and more.

Custom orders are accepted.

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3 comments:

Hello there! My name is June said...

Wonderful suggestions for holiday preparation! Thank you!

missknits said...

those are all great tips!! thanks for sharing!

Martha Hughes said...

Yes, great suggestions for the holidays. Hopefully, I'll remember to incorporate some of them into my routine. :)

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