The silly season is approaching and that means making sure your staff and your business are sorted for the holidays.<\/p>\n
While managing your business over the break can be particularly tricky for SMBs, the sooner you get the logistics sorted, the sooner you can start getting into the holiday spirit.<\/p>\n
Here are some of the important items to check off your to-do list.*<\/p>\n
The first decision you\u2019ll need to make is whether to shut down completely over the Christmas and New Year break, or to run on a skeleton crew.<\/p>\n
The holiday season is a slow period for most businesses so it might make sense to shut down completely, both from a cost point of view and to give yourself and your employees some much-needed R&R.<\/p>\n
Whatever works for your business, don\u2019t forget to update your business hours on your Google Business Profile, Yellow Pages Online listing and anywhere else customers could be looking to find out if and when you\u2019re operating over the holidays.<\/p>\n
No matter what your opening hours will be, your employees may want to take time off to spend with family and friends. You can either direct your team to take annual leave or work out an agreement for unpaid leave \u2013 or a combination of the two.<\/p>\n
Before finalising your dates, read up on awards and agreements for your industry. Different industries have different regulations on whether employees can be directed to take annual leave, so check the Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO) website<\/a> for up-to-date information.<\/p>\n Keep in mind that if you need team members to stay on deck during evenings, weekends or public holidays, you may have to pay them a penalty rate<\/a> depending on the award for your industry.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re closing up shop, you have to give your team plenty of notice. Most industry awards require that employers provide employees with at least four weeks’ notice of a shutdown, including if you\u2019re directing employees to take annual leave.<\/p>\n Check your industry\u2019s requirements on the FWO website<\/a> to make sure you\u2019re meeting your legal requirements. The FWO also provides a Christmas shutdown notice template<\/a> you can tailor to your business.<\/p>\n The holiday period is a great time to thank your staff for their hard work and get your team excited for the year ahead. There\u2019s no hard-and-fast rule for how to calculate bonuses for employees, but some common methods include:<\/p>\n Keep in mind bonuses are subject to tax. Check the ATO\u2019s tax table for bonuses<\/a> or speak with your tax adviser or accountant for more information.<\/p>\n SEO-optimised blogs can do a lot to boost your content marketing efforts over the holidays \u2013 but they take time to get results, so the earlier you can post them, the better.<\/p>\n Start by using a free tool such as Ubersuggest<\/a> to get some ideas for holiday-themed keywords and topics that are relevant to your business.<\/p>\n Here are some examples for inspiration:<\/p>\n RELATED: eBook: <\/b>The SMB\u2019s guide to Christmas marketing<\/b><\/a>.<\/b><\/p>\n Google and other search engines want to show their users information that\u2019s relevant to their queries. Having a holiday landing page on your website is not only beneficial for local SEO<\/a> but also for providing a good customer experience. When it comes to creating the page, have a think about the types of information your customers are searching for. This might include:<\/p>\n TIP:<\/b> If you\u2019re running a holiday advertising campaign, you could also link your ads back to this landing page (depending on your goals).<\/p>\n Aim to have your social media posts planned out ahead of time so you can keep up engagement over the holidays. Most social media platforms allow you to create and schedule posts to be automatically published on a date and time of your choosing.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re on multiple social media platforms and want to manage everything in one place, tools like Thryv<\/a> allow you to stay on top of all your activity from a single dashboard. This is especially useful if you\u2019re running a dedicated holiday marketing campaign<\/a>.<\/p>\nSend a Christmas shutdown notice to employees.<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Work out your employee bonuses.<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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Plan some holiday-themed SEO blogs.<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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Create a dedicated holiday landing page for your website.<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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Schedule your social media posts.<\/strong><\/h2>\n