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No matter what sort of business you are, Christmas is also an excellent time to review the past year's performance and put some thought into planning for the coming year - and now's the time to do it!

Whatever your type of business, Christmas is the time to:

1. Develop specific Christmas promotions to make it as easy as possible for your customers to buy their Christmas gifts from you.
2. Review your business's performance and compare results from the previous year.
3. Celebrate your successes over the past year, and enjoy a few parties!
4. Prepare your business for the year to come, update business or marketing plans and reset your targets.
5. Thank your customers and all the other people you rely on for their support over the past year.
6. Manage your cash-flow over the holiday season if it is typically a low income, high expenses period
7. Acknowledge and thank your staff for their contributions
8. Catch up on some of the tasks that you have been putting off until things quietened down e.g. a new website, development of processes, upgrade of computers etc.
9. Take some time out to relax and recharge your own and your staff's energy levels and enthusiasm.

If you fall into the 'gift selling' bracket, keep in mind that many companies will be placing a lot of emphasis on the Christmas bubble this year. Now more than ever, it is essential that you clearly identify why customers should buy from you and that you communicate this message to your target markets using the right incentives. Fail to do this and you'll be lost in the noise! Also make sure you identify a means of measuring the results. Any plans you make for Christmas this year are certainly going to be useful for the coming years as well and you need to know if they worked or not.

Christmas is also a time for families and children. When you are planning what your business is doing this Christmas, think about how you can include the children of your customers or your staff so that everyone has fun.

Another option this Christmas is to consider what charities your business can support. Charitable organisations are becoming more sophisticated in raising funds over this period, and it may be easier than you think to contribute towards these by spending some of your Christmas budget with them. It may not be a case of spending more but simply buying your Christmas cards from a charitable organisation for a change.

Do something special…Here are some ideas for some Extra Service’s you can offer your customers

Take a moment to think what it is like for your customers at this time of year and what extra services you can provide to make the pressure of Christmas gift buying easier for them. Are there any extra value services you could offer such as: