How to keep your sanity during a busy Etsy holiday sales season
Welcome to another episode of the Simplify Your Sales podcast! Today with the holidays approaching, I wanted to talk about YOU– specifically, YOUR health during the holidays, and really, any time of year that’s busy for you.
It’s no secret that I am a HUGE advocate for mental health, having struggled with postpartum depression, anxiety, and psychosis with my first child (with some residual effects that I still deal with today) and then having a severe bout of hyperemesis gravidarum with my second (which, while extremely physically challenging, also strung me out quite emotionally).
Basically, in the past 7 years of my life, I’ve had a lot of UPS….AND a lot of DOWNS. Some days I just can’t show up for my business and I’ve learned over time that that’s okay. In fact, I did a whole episode on this (episode 5 if you want to check it out).
And while I’m at the point in my life now that I don’t let those mental health challenges stop me from running a successful online business…
…I still find it EXTREMELY necessary to take the time to check in with myself on a nearly daily basis to see how I’m handling things, and then use those feelings and emotions as a base to adjust the guidelines and parameters that I set for myself + my business– sort of “rules”– that allow me to show up as the best version of myself to my customers, AND the best version of myself for, well, ME!
And coming into the holidays, this is more important than ever– for all of us. I know we’ve all been there before– we’re gung-ho to tackle every last drop of the holiday sales cash flow that we move the “must order by” date forward a bit, or find ourselves making exceptions for that irritable customer that ordered on 12/21 with a “I need this for Christmas, thanks in advance!” And seriously– ask my husband, “thanks in advance” is one of my pet-peeve phrases ESPECIALLY during the holiday season because it’s usually followed by someone asking you to do something more than slightly inconsiderate for you.
And so hopefully in this episode we can help you establish boundaries and guidelines for yourself as a busy owner AND a human with real physical and emotional health needs– that allow you to rake in the holiday sales AND maintain your sanity going into Christmas morning. 😉
ONE QUICK PIECE OF ADVICE BEFORE WE DIVE IN? SET THESE BOUNDARIES BEFORE YOU NEED THEM.
It is going to be much, MUCH easier to implement these boundary-setting ideas in your business if you set them BEFORE you actually need to use them– which means you should probably give them some thought BEFORE your Black Friday weekend sale goes live and sales chaos hits your shop. 😉
Plan out your marketing BEFORE the holiday rush hits
Start by planning out your marketing BEFORE the holiday rush hits. If you plan on posting 3x/week on Instagram, make sure you nail down those November/December posts BEFORE you’re in the thick of it. Have a sales promotion email sequence you’ll be sending out? Get a clear idea of what you’ll include in each email BEFORE the morning you’re planning to send them.
The reason for this is two fold:
By scheduling out your marketing efforts in advance, that’s one less thing you have to worry about between the filling and shipping and all the stress that tends to come when working retail or ecommerce during the holiday season.
When you schedule out your marketing strategy in advance, you get to be a heckuva lot more strategic about what you put out there– because you have the brain capacity and TIME to do so. More strategy = more sales. In fact, that’s one of the reasons why in my quick-win program Profit Promos, we schedule out ALL of your social media and graphics and emails before your sale even goes live. So that you can see the big picture of your strategy AND have the capacity to be present for your customers when they need you most.
To get a handle on this, I recommend setting a date a couple Saturdays (or whatever day you work) out from Black Friday and spend a few hours planning out EVERYTHING, and then another Saturday executing on those plans. (And if you need help with that, DEFINITELY check out my Profit Promos done for you sales promotion-in-a-box that has ALL OF THIS already done for you– the scripts, examples, prompts, ALL THE THINGS– and you’ll just need to plug-and-play it into your own shop. I’ll link to that in the show notes if that sounds like a match made in promotion heaven for you!
Set realistic deadlines for yourself
Marketing aside, next up– making those tough calls and setting those HARD deadlines. Start by identifying your priorities– is it important to you to be spending as much time as possible with your family during this year? If so, then yes, you’ll need to work that consideration into your deadlines so you’re not still sewing purses or molding soap late into the night on December 22.
Need a little down time amidst the craziness? Make sure you account for some “buffer time” in your schedule, too, when making your deadlines. This “buffer time” will allow you some breathing room in between the hustle (preventing holiday burnout) AND give you the extra time you’ll need when the inevitable happens and something goes wrong and takes longer than you expected (I’m looking at you, long postal drop off lines).
So make sure that your deadlines fit INTO your desired holiday lifestyle (I mean, it’s not a Merry Christmas if you’re not feeling so merry!), and then work in a few “breathers” as well throughout to help with the burnout.
Next up? Make work time 100% focused on work– and your other time 100% NOT focused on work
As a mom with two kiddos, I have been oh-so-guilty of trying to “just check my email” while my toddler is saying “peas” in his nicest voice asking for his millionth snack of the day (I mean, the kid can NOT get enough croutons– he lives for those things!) and then over in the other room, my 7-year-old wants me to “Mom, look at this!” as she spins in circles…yet again. ”
I’ve found that 100% of the time I try to parent AND work on my business has been a flat-out disaster. I end up sending half-baked responses to customers, AND I get short and snippy with my kiddos who (even though I don’t need to see my daughter spin in a circle for the hundredth time that day) are just wanting some quality time with their mom.
Especially during the holidays where it’s really important for me to spend extra time with my family, I’ve found it CRUCIAL to set very specific parameters of when I’m “at work” and when I’m “at home.” Your customers WILL BE OKAY if you don’t check your convos every hour– I promise! And then– when you ARE “on the clock” so to speak, you’ll be able to thoughtfully respond to each of them without feeling like you’re at their mercy all day everyday.
And likewise, when you ARE at work– be working! Don’t get distracted by texting a friend or scrolling aimlessly through Instagram accomplishing nothing. Treat this time as almost sacred– it’s time to 100% focus on YOUR SHOP.
And then when you’re “off the clock,” again, so to speak, you’ll be emotionally and mentally present where you need to be– because you’ve taken care of your work to-do list when you said you would.
Which leads right into…
Set “office hours” for your business– and stick to them
I know it’s tempting to check Etsy just “one more time,” before you hit the hay, or respond to that 11:30 pm convo that just pinged on your phone, but it is CRUCIAL to your mental health and sanity that you give yourself SPACE from your shop every. Single. Day.
Believe it or not, that convo will STILL be there to answer in the morning at a more reasonable hour. By waiting until your set “office hours” for business, you’re setting an expectation with your customers that yes, you’re there for them, but you’re not there for them at completely unreasonable times when NO sane person should be working on their business.
Now, this comes with a bit of debate– but surely if you respond ASAP you’ll make more sales, right? Because your customers will instantly get their questions answered and make the purchase. Yes, that can definitely be true.
However. From a mental health perspective, it is a slippery slope. The customer you respond to at 11:30 pm can potentially turn into the customer that sends you 40 more convos before purchasing…and then orders last-minute and wonders why your free shipping option didn’t overnight their package to them. Just like with kiddos, when you set boundaries, your customers (or kiddos, as the case may be because apparently I’m turning this into a parenting lesson) respect you for them. Don’t fall prey to that “available 24/7” mentality and let your customers walk all over you– you’ll burn out faster than the birthday candles at a 6-year-olds birthday party.
And finally…
Remember this is YOUR business and YOU are in charge.
Yes, our shops only exist because of our customers, but remember: you built this puppy from the ground up, and if you’re not enjoying the way you’re handling things, you DON’T have to keep doing it that way!
I know it sounds silly to say out loud, but I’m serious– you don’t have to do anything you DON’T want to do!
Hate being at the beck and call of customers? Set rules to check in only 1x/day– or even have a family member handle it for you!
Loathe shipping out orders in December? Put your shop in vacation mode on December 1 and “skip” the month of December.
So often we think it’s just part of the package to run businesses that we grow to loathe and hate– I mean, I remember just DREADING the holidays because I was stressed beyond reason when I was frantically shipping out packages on December 21 with less than a 5 hour turnaround time.
And then I realized: It was my own dang fault for allowing it to happen. I was taking my customer’s lack of preparation and making it MY problem.
And so the next year? You better believe I set a HARD deadline on December 12 and any orders after that were NOT guaranteed to arrive in time for Christmas. And it worked out BEAUTIFULLY. I had less orders after that December 12th date, but it also meant that I was approximately 1 bajillion times happier during the holiday season– something I hadn’t had TIME to experience last year.
So at the end of the day, remember that YOU set the rules. And just because shop so-and-so is accepting orders up until Christmas Eve with a guaranteed turnaround time (even though you know that isn’t physically possible), it doesn’t mean that you HAVE to. And if you don’t want to? Then don’t! The beauty of being a business owner is just that– YOU own the business and get to call the shots which means you don’t have to show up when you don’t want to 😉
It may take a little prep work to outline this keep-your-sanity “game plan” going into this holiday season, but the rewards are WELL worth the efforts.
And who knows? You might just enjoy this holiday season for the first time. 😉
xoxo,
Morgan