If you are a fellow Etsy seller, or own your own product based business. You KNOW the fear/desire for Christmas to come around. It’s our bread and butter here at Krieger Customs and I totally have a love hate relationship with it. Of course I love how customers turn to me to help them give the special gift, but I hate how it consumes my November & December – usually leaving me Christmas shopping myself on the 23rd! 😳 So every year I strive to be a bit better on organizing, educating my clients on my turnaround times and just being overall efficient when it comes to making and shipping my products. So my friend, if you need some help to get ready for this big season, I’m here to help! I’ve walked you through a rough timeline on when I start thinking about Christmas and how I can prepare myself for it.

Here we go Christmas Rush! 

October

  • Start planning my top 5 new Christmas designs. I like to carry over my top 3 Christmas designs from the previous year and think of 5 new ones. That way I have 8 designs that I know I will have to paint through the christmas rush.
  • Look at the rest of 2017 on the calendar. When do I want to be done painting signs for the holidays? Is there any busy weeks on my calendar from now till then when I know I wont be able to paint much? This is where I will roughly pick out the cut off date for taking orders. But when choosing this cut off date, you have to work with the post office :
  • Call Canada Post or your shipping provider. Inquire about when their deadlines are for parcels arriving to their destination in time for Christmas. For example: lets say its December 18th for USA parcels. So I’m going to work backwards from that date to find my cut off time. It takes 2 weeks for me to make a piece, and roughly 5-7 days for a parcel to ship to the states. Therefore from the 18th being the cut off date to ship to the States, I’m going to create my cut off date for Etsy for December 2nd. On paper, it should be the 4th, but ive given myself two buffer days which is important to give as well. To round it off and make things easier for my clients, I’ve advertised for December 1st to be my cut off date for orders. Ill then advertise that ill orders will be shipped out or ready for pick up by December 16th. (2 days before the cut off shipping date just in case!) This also gives myself a deadline for my local orders.
  • Now when I say cut off date I mean for ALL types of orders, custom or non-custom. It’s imporant to communicate all of this to your customers, therefore I usually do an Instagram post, Facebook post, Instagram story and email out to my email list. That way people see the deadline 2 months before its happening, encouraging them to start thinking about you as their shopping destination. I will also put the Cut off date in my Shop announcements section on Etsy, my bio section on Instagram and ill pin the post on Facebook to the top of my page.

  • Beginning of October Instagram layout ^ note my crisp fall feel with dark colours and fall seasonal inspired decor. Note the top right corner. My first post welcoming the thought of Christmas… nothing too crazy, a simple sign that worked in with the current state of decor. But, imporant to get your customers thinking!

Beginning of November

  • I like to call early November: prep week. So what I do here is gather my top 8 designs, and my most popular custom signs and I make an inventory of blank pieces. Now I say I’m going to be really good at this point, but sometimes the Christmas rush comes early and I’m stuck making as I go. But – this Christmas my friend this is happening 😜 So when I say blank pieces – literally about 15 signs of each design (size wise) minimum ready to be stained and painted. This is SO helpful friend!
  • Supplies: Now with my line of work, I do have quite a bit of supplies I need to complete the job. Here’s a quick breakdown of my supply list that ill go over and stock up on in November:
    • Boxes – all the boxes for shipping!
    • Packaging Tape
    • Kraft Paper & Bubble Wrap (or whatever you package with)
    • Paint – really stock up on white, and any other colours that are popular within your work
    • Varathane
    • Stain colours – especially my most popular colour, KC Brown
    • New Brushes – foam brushes for staining and varathaning, 2 new back up brushes for painting
    • White pencils – to sketch my designs out
    • Business cards
    • Custom thank you tags – I use these in my business especially in Christmas season
    • Twine

Stocking up for Christmas! 

  • Okay… I think we are ready to up the social media game. So this is when Ill photograph and start sharing all things Christmas signs. So those new 5 designs ill photograph with Christmas props and share within a week span to get my followers thinking Christmas. Ill will usually add in the Cut Off date as a reminder at the bottom of every post.
  • I will also re photograph last years 3 designs, maybe I wanted to redo one and make the design stronger, so ill advertise that new design as well.
  • It’s imporant to be active on your socials during this time period, because everyone starts their Christmas shopping at different times so it’s important to be front of mind!

  • Now this year on my social I worked hard on getting my Christmas designs out in the forefront. In this frame of the beginning of November, you can count my top 8 designs right off the bat. A couple signs and ornaments that I knew were going to be my top sellers. I wanted to get them out right at the beginning! This help get my feed in the christmas spirit leading into crunch time….

Mid November 

Brace yourself friend…. this is where things get a little nuts! Make sure you have the eggnog handy, some good iTunes playlists on que, because you are about to get buuuusy!

  • Mid November when things start really hitting the fan, ill post once a day reminding people of my new designs, cut off date, and how I’m just there to say hey 🙂
  • Ill use this time period to touch base with my current orders – give them a quick update that their piece is on track to be picked up or shipped by December 16th. It’s important to keep your customers updated.
  • KEEP WORKING HARD! You got this friend!

December

  • Your cut off date is here! Hallelujah! Now friend, this is where you have to have a serious talk with yourself. You have to learn to say no, because ive done the whole cut off thing, and then still have people message me – you will too by the way – and say yes okay ill do it (even if its after the cut off date). Baaaad idea friend. I know it seems crazy to turn business away. But it could almost hurt your business. If you take business after your deadline, you may be setting yourself up for failure. You may not complete it before the cut off date, you may make yourself sick pulling all nighters and not properly taking care of yourself. If youre like me and have an actual full time job, you may jeopardize that job to make your orders. Just trust me, you will also make your business even more legit in the eyes of not only yourself, but your customers. Know that you mean business when you give cut offs, and you have to stick with your guns. You will thank me when its December 17th and you can finally put your feet up and relax 🙂
  • Ideas to keep your clients even though your past your deadline;
    • have another service that acts as passive income for your business, for KC its my digital download prints!
    • Enter in a local craft show that you can direct people to for last minute shopping!
    • See below for a sample of a post politely telling my followers that the deadline has been reached!

Another note I didnt mention, something I like to do when my deadline has been reached, is add another ‘cut off date’ sort of speak for when my customers can contact me again. I set mine for January 1st – so once my deadline has been reached, and December 16th all orders are out the door and Christmas is over – my clients know to give me another week off until January 1st to reach me again. This is crucial to give me time to relax, recharge and get excited to get back into the wood shop!

Orders are done! Now time to relax And enjoy our first Christmas in our new home 🙂 

Well friend, its time to get back into the studio. Hope this has inspired you as a maker to be organized and more prepared for your Christmas rush. Beleive me, every year I want to get better – sometimes its easier said then done! We are in this together friend!

Talk soon, Sam xx