It always sneaks up on us!

First it gets a little cold, and then before you know it you are two weeks away from Thanksgiving, and trying to get Black Friday orders in at the same time as everyone else. Deadlines are short, and lead times extend. The stress comes on strong. You think, “what do we do now!?”

PLAN AHEAD!

I know this one is easier said than done, but honestly, learn from this year and put a recurring calendar reminder in that computer for planning your Holiday orders, and one for scheduling production ahead of schedule. If you throw these in there the Holidays will be less likely to sneak up on you, and you may even be ahead enough to presell and get some more Holiday products in stock that you hadn’t planned on!

COMPROMISE !

So ya blew it. You put that full-color project off and now there just is not enough time to get ahold of the artist and have everything in order. Well, there is still hope. Get creative with single color designs that drastically reduce the number of people that need to be involved and reduce lead times for production. This ensures you don’t lose your audience and will be a kick in the butt to make sure you are ahead of schedule next year. Plus, the cost is usually low enough that you can recoup investments faster.

PREORDER !

Another way to fight time and budgets are pre-orders. You can sell a product with a promise of delivery post-production, and still, have happy customers. Customers will wait for the right product. Just be sure to make it attractive, market it well, and that it can actually be produced well. Nothing will give you more negative feedback than a customer receiving a product of way less quality than the description.