How to plan for the holidays as a small business owner
The holiday season can feel like a race for small businesses. Spike Spike, but so are costs – from marketing to last-minute shipping fees. And with the “Christmas creep” pushing big retailers to launch sales early each year, it’s easy to feel like you’re already behind.
The numbers are high: for many small businesses, the holiday season drives nearly a third of their annual revenue, according to a 2024 survey from Intuit.
With so much riding on annual sales, small business owners can’t afford to make ends meet. The only saalviest, experts say, is to be organized in advance – Setting budgets, ensuring jobs and finding creative, low-cost ways to attract buyers. Here are five strategies straight from their playbook.
Build a solid season blueprint
Experts say that intense holiday work often comes down to preparation. That means analyzing last year’s sales data, locking in inventory and staffing plans and getting your calendar map – a schedule of all upcoming promotions and campaigns – before your Black Friday.
Digital marketing expert Joselin Torres recommends organizing planning and marketing in Tandem so you don’t promote things that are already sold. He also advised stressing your pre-fill policy – processing a few trial orders and testing how long it takes to ship them – to catch some weak spots before rushing.
Check Check your customer experience
Don’t wait for an avalanche of orders to find out where your customer experience is breaking down. You can avoid costly hiccups later by stress-testing your systems now – from website performance to migration and recovery.
Martin Ihrig, Defesa and Dean and Clinical professor at Nyu’s school of professional studies, suggests walking through every part of the customer journey – website, Mobile Checkout, packaging and wrong returns. That means clicking on every link, checking every discount code and reviewing every confirmation email to make sure there are no glitches at the receiving end. Even small problems, like a slow page load or unclear return instructions, can send customers elsewhere during the holiday season.
“If you’ve already resolved an argument with gratitude, you’re still coming,” she said.
Spread your output
Don’t blow your entire budget in early December. Spreading promotions — from early teaser deals to mid-season and post-holiday deals — keeps your business visible and your cash flow focused.
Ihrig suggests planning the season in phases: Early teaser offers in November, high season discounts in mid-December and clearance deals in January. If something isn’t right — say, your Instagram Ads aren’t converting or your holiday email campaigns are falling flat — you’ve still got time to unpack your strategy before you rush.
“Don’t throw away your entire marketing campaign in December,” says Hrig. A Vertical Approach “The Need to Be Smooth and Maintain Visibility in a Field Crowded with Holidays.”
Use storytelling to stand out
In an era full of deals, price alone won’t win over customers – but authenticity will.
Ihrig recommends highlighting what makes your business unique, whether it’s your mission, your team or your creativity. Short videos of forms on Tiktok or Instagram are a particularly useful tool to give your product a human touch that big sellers can’t replicate.
You can show behind-the-scenes footage of how your products are made, see a long-term team member or highlight your business’s marketing efforts. Pick one (true!) story and weave it into your campaigns.
Build in an attack room in another room
Effective vacation planning prevents flexibility. Instead of committing to all of your creativity at once, build room for improvement.
Organize delivery orders in stages or lead times so you can ‘scale up or down based on actual demand,’ says Hihrig. If you run a bakery, for example, you might prepare part of your holiday menu in advance, then scale up if previous orders exceed expectations.
Analyzing sales throughout the year can help identify what will move quickly and what can wait.
“Small businesses get old or unfocused because they think instead of using data,” Torres said. “Pull last year’s sales into a week, not a month. This shows where the real gaps are.”
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