Now that it is November holiday celebrations are right around the corner. You may already be feeling the crunch, especially if you sell products. I’m not planning on taking a lot of time off during the holidays but I want to make sure my business is still working for me and ready for when I am taking a break.

Now is the time to start preparing your biz for the holidays so you have less to work on during them and have the flexibility to take some time off. There are several things that you can do now to ease the burden during the holidays.

Start Creating Content Now

Don’t wait until the holidays to start working on your blog and social media posts. Now is the time to start writing and preparing. I’ve been working on writing one blog post a day and scheduling them out through the holiday time. This way posting is automated and I won’t have to think about it till after the new year.

Draft an auto-responder

Write out a note to all incoming emails to let them know when you will be out of the office and when or if you will be answering emails during the holidays. This auto-responder will keep you from being tied to your email when you want to be doing other things and will let clients know what’s happening and when you will be able to get back to them.

Set Your Schedule

Go ahead and look at your calendar now. Make the decision about when you will be working and when you won’t. This will help keep you accountable during the holidays if you already know when you plan to be off and have prepared for it.

Update Your Contact Page

Put a little note on your contact page to let people who are trying to get in touch with you know when you will be back. It won’t even have crossed most people’s minds that you are celebrating the holidays. Letting them know will cut down on confusion and give them the piece of mind that you will get back to them even if it isn’t right away.

Plan New Projects

Look at your client schedule and turn away or delay project start dates till after the new year. It is ok to turn down a project if the timeline doesn’t fit with your schedule. You started your business to have freedom and taking on every project that doesn’t fit for you will quickly turn your business into a job. Plus you are making space for the right kinds of projects with the right timelines by doing so.

Wrap up Current Projects

Make sure you plan to wrap up all current projects before you take off that way you aren’t trying to wrap them up at your family’s Christmas party. It will take a little planning but is totally do-able.  No one likes having a project hanging out when you just want to have fun and not think about work.

Doing a little work now will help you and your biz make it through the holidays with a little less stress. Let me know below how you like to prepare for the holidays!