Twas the night before Christmas and all though the house, not a creature was stirring, not even your iPhone, Android or Blackberry.
It’s the time of the year when business tends to slow down and you get a well deserved break. Now that you’re attempting to switch off from your business and spend more time with your family and loved ones, you just need to plan ahead to ensure your momentum keeps going into the new year. Below are some tips from The Suitcase Entrepreneur to keep your bail bond business in shape over the holidays.
1. Streamline your activities
You can schedule blog posts and the associated promotional efforts on social networks ahead of time and just let it run its course. WordPress has a built in feature that allows you to prepare all your posts, preview them and then schedule them for a later date to be posted. The same can be done via Hootsuite or TweetAdder for Twitter. You can also sync your blog RSS feed to Hootsuite to be automatically tweeted or use Ping.FM to post it to your main networks.
2. ‘Tis the season for caring and sharing
Get into the holiday spirit and if you haven’t already, send holiday cards to your customers and clients online. Include a note of appreciation, and holiday blessing. You can use a holiday card tool such as JibJab to send out your greeting via email. They do hilarious interactive cards that include you looking silly as a dancing elf (see below for ExpertBail’s video).
3. Make new contacts!
Heading to holiday parties and other festivities? Make sure you bring along your business card. You never know who you will meet along the way. Follow up with your contacts and connect with them on LinkedIn with a personal introduction. Search your next contact on Twitter and comment on their latest blog post. If you’re feeling a bit rusty on your networking skills, check out my tips on how to network and following up effectively.
4. Clean up and prepare for next year
Use the time to clear out your inbox and attend to less important items. Remove anything that is over a month old. Clear out and organize your computer for the next year. File documents in their proper folders for easy access later on. Clean up your physical environment too. File and store away items that you do not need access to immediately. Having a clean office working environment will do wonders for getting your business off to a good start in the new year.
5. Get your financials in order
Go over your budgeted and actual revenues and expenses to help plan your finances for the upcoming year. See where you are over spending and adjust to make sure you’re on track in the new year. Send out all outstanding invoices – extra cash! A great tool for managing and monitoring all your finances is Indinero. It keeps track of your business with a visual graphs as well as updates and reminders of bill payments and whether or not you’re on track. It works with Freshbooks as well. Plus, by going through all your finances, you can get a head start on tax season!
For more tips and the original article, click on the following link, 10 Ways To Keep Your Business In Top Shape Over The Holidays.