Prep Time: How to Use the Fall Season to Ramp Into Holiday Success

Whether you’re investing in new services or pushing for sales in the slow period, you can build toward a more impactful holiday season

Stuck between the summer sprint and the holiday rush, fall can feel like a slow stretch with nothing to do. That’s not very exciting from a revenue perspective. Good thing it’s not the truth.

Beauty businesses have two options every autumn: invest for the future or push to make up for the slow season. The first involves taking stock of your business and looking for ways to reach new heights. The second uses smart promotions and seasonal charm to boost the health of your cash flow and keep your revenue stable. Execute well, and both can help you capitalize when the holiday rush kicks off.

Gearing up for the holidays

Lock in your logistics

They don’t call it the holiday rush for nothing. When winter rolls around, it’s going to bring a huge volume of business. In fact, American consumers are expected to spend more than $240 billion this holiday season. If you’re going to make the most of it, you need to ensure your business is ready.

Start by taking a thorough inventory, paying attention to both your retail items and your supplies. When you know what you’ve got on hand, you can compare it to historical data collected by your inventory software. Based on your history of sales velocity and usage, what will you need to re-order before the rush? How much of it will you need? Plan carefully to avoid dead stock and stockouts alike.

Next, take a careful look at your equipment and furniture. Make sure everything still functions as intended. If you find anything broken or missing, fall is a great time to replace it.

Finally, call a meeting with your staff. If you’re planning to operate during atypical hours — say, open earlier or close later on key dates — you can use staff input to help fill any holes in the schedule. This also gives staff a chance to put in any holiday time off requests with enough time to plan around them.

Invest and improve

Like any slow season, fall presents an opportunity to expand your beauty business’ capabilities. If your staff have fewer appointments, they have time to learn new skills. What certifications or training are they interested in? When they expand their skill sets, you both benefit. They get to improve as service providers, you get to add items to your menu, and you both can consider charging a little more for ever-better service — all just before the holiday rush.

If you’re looking for somewhere else to invest, consider your physical space. Does it still serve your needs, or are there opportunities to streamline the flow of traffic and improve efficiency? What about your interior design choices? Are they still on-trend and on-brand, or could they do with a facelift? Use the slow fall season to update your aesthetics.

Getting loud during the quiet season

Even if you decide not to invest during the fall, you can still plant seeds for holiday success. After all, every client you bring in during autumn — every membership you sell, every voucher you hand out — becomes a new lead you can nurture and reactivate during the holidays. By capitalizing on seasonal excitement, you can build a business springboard even as you keep your cash flow healthy.

Embrace the season

One way to drum up business during fall is to dive headfirst into the leafpile. Cozy aesthetics are more popular than ever, and your beauty business can use those warm vibes to its advantage. Start with your windows. Who doesn’t love a seasonal display? An eye-catching fall facade can help you generate walk-ins and build word of mouth on social media. Keep the party going by bringing the decorations inside, whether that means pumpkin arrangements or pumpkin spice candles.

You can even look for ways to bring the season onto your menu. If you can integrate it smoothly, it can make your services and products feel current, novel, and exciting to clients. For example, you might consider designing custom spooky or cozy nail art — which, as it happens, is more fodder for social media marketing. Ditto festive hair colors and fall fragrances in your products. Your goal is to get clients to connect the fall season with self-care and then to strike while the cider’s hot.

Get the party started

Consider hosting a special event during fall. Public events can get new potential clients in the door and strengthen your ties to the community. That’s especially true if you partner with other local businesses to provide snacks, custom candles, and other exciting goodies. On the flip side, a members-only bash can encourage more clients to sign up, making them that much more likely to return during the holidays.

Whether you go public or exclusive, make sure to get the word out about the event. Boulevard’s marketing suite can help you stay organized with your campaign — allowing you to target, modify, and track with ease. The traffic you attract can help you fill your bookings in the short term, and incorporating competitions in your events can help sustain momentum. If your guests are all competing to have the best costume (or, even better, the best pet costume), they’ll make excellent content for your social media. Take lots of photos, and be sure to hand out time-bound vouchers and discounts as prizes. That way, you can expect to see some of them return during the holidays.

Whether you focus on the far future or use near-term success to power your holiday sales, make sure you make the most of the fall quiet.