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Hi there.
Speaker:It's Sue.
Speaker:And thanks for joining me for tips and talk day.
Speaker:These are bite-sized topics that I pull from community questions and
Speaker:things that I'm observing in the world of handmade small business.
Speaker:If you'd like to submit a topic,
Speaker:DME, over on Instagram at gift biz unwrapped,
Speaker:you want to go on vacation.
Speaker:What do you do about your online product business?
Speaker:And can you even go on vacation when you're in business
Speaker:for yourself?
Speaker:This was the good thing.
Speaker:When you used to work for somebody else,
Speaker:when you were ready to go on vacation,
Speaker:you just put in your notice for time off you maybe
Speaker:planned a few things so that everything would run smoothly.
Speaker:In your absence.
Speaker:Maybe you train some colleagues on some of the things that
Speaker:need to take place while you're gone.
Speaker:And then you just went off.
Speaker:You could leave without a worry on your mind,
Speaker:but everything changes when you work for yourself and you deserve
Speaker:a vacation,
Speaker:you need a vacation,
Speaker:but how do you manage this?
Speaker:If you run a retail shop,
Speaker:then there are some obvious things that you would need to
Speaker:do. You're either going to close down your shop.
Speaker:If you're the only one or you have your employees take
Speaker:control or someone that you trust,
Speaker:run the shop in your absence.
Speaker:That's not where we're going to talk about today.
Speaker:What we're going to talk about today,
Speaker:our online shops and how do you take a vacation and
Speaker:still keep up the momentum,
Speaker:keep your customers and get sales.
Speaker:When you're not there to manage the day to day,
Speaker:let's start with the reason why you want to be going
Speaker:on vacation.
Speaker:It's important to you and your business that you take time
Speaker:off. And I didn't always do this years ago.
Speaker:Now I'm struggling to even remember how long maybe it's even
Speaker:been 12,
Speaker:15 years ago or so when I had a gift basket
Speaker:business, I don't think I took time off for three or
Speaker:four years running no vacations,
Speaker:no going away for family Thanksgiving,
Speaker:nothing. I would not leave.
Speaker:And that was absolutely totally the wrong thing to do.
Speaker:I felt deprived of time with family.
Speaker:I felt drained to be very honest,
Speaker:a little bit resentful because I felt like I was tied.
Speaker:It was almost,
Speaker:I won't even say it was golden necessarily,
Speaker:but it was like being handcuffed to the business.
Speaker:I loved having my business,
Speaker:but I didn't like feeling so tied to it where I
Speaker:couldn't even take a vacation and relationship started suffering.
Speaker:So learn from my experience.
Speaker:You want to be taking vacations first off.
Speaker:It helps you.
Speaker:Re-energize getting time away,
Speaker:relaxing, reflecting,
Speaker:and enjoying life is good for you for your health and
Speaker:just your wellbeing overall.
Speaker:Plus, I know you've experienced this with other things before,
Speaker:when you're able to walk away from your business for a
Speaker:while. Sometimes it's me just taking walks out side I all
Speaker:of a sudden get the best ideas and come back.
Speaker:I'm rejuvenated and excited about the ideas,
Speaker:but these only happen when I've stepped away for a little
Speaker:while. The other reason that you absolutely need to be taking
Speaker:vacations is for long term endurance.
Speaker:If you're thinking that you've set up a business that you
Speaker:want to have going for the long haul,
Speaker:you can not go year after year after year after year
Speaker:and not take vacations.
Speaker:You are not going to be able to sustain that type
Speaker:of thing even for a year,
Speaker:especially if you have children at home.
Speaker:So talk about the options of what you can do,
Speaker:especially for the online portion of your business and how you
Speaker:can manage that online presence.
Speaker:Things that you can put in place an options so that
Speaker:you can go off and enjoy yourself on your vehicle patients.
Speaker:Okay. So the first thing that you're able to do is
Speaker:put your shop on pause at sea or Facebook shops.
Speaker:You can put those shops on vacation mode.
Speaker:People get the fact that especially if you're a solo preneur,
Speaker:there are going to be times that you're going to want
Speaker:to get away.
Speaker:You could potentially miss business when you do this,
Speaker:of course,
Speaker:but it's different than if you just closed down your shop
Speaker:or make your shop disappear in its entirety.
Speaker:People know that you're still there.
Speaker:You're going to be back.
Speaker:You're just taking a pause.
Speaker:Okay? So that's the first thing that you can do.
Speaker:The second thing that you can do,
Speaker:especially if you have your own website is add an announcement
Speaker:to the top of your website,
Speaker:above the fold saying that you're going to be gone for
Speaker:a short time.
Speaker:You're taking a break you're in much needed family time.
Speaker:However you want to word it.
Speaker:You can word it in a way that's in alignment with
Speaker:your branding and how you normally talk with customers.
Speaker:Letting people know that,
Speaker:yes, you're still there,
Speaker:but you just won't be around for a little while.
Speaker:The reason you might want to do that is there are
Speaker:lots of people who will come and look at your products
Speaker:and decide that they're going to place an order.
Speaker:And it's okay if it takes a week or so for
Speaker:it to be fulfilled,
Speaker:but you don't want to do that without them knowing it.
Speaker:So being able to put something right at the top of
Speaker:your website that just says,
Speaker:offer a short break,
Speaker:all orders that come up until July 17th will be filled,
Speaker:starting July 18th.
Speaker:This way you won't lose sales people.
Speaker:If they can't wait,
Speaker:we'll go elsewhere.
Speaker:And you haven't gotten anybody angry with you because they needed
Speaker:it for a birthday or something,
Speaker:but they can still purchase the product right then and there
Speaker:while they're on your site,
Speaker:if they can wait for a short time.
Speaker:So that's the second option.
Speaker:The third option is to stay fully open online.
Speaker:And you're going to say to me,
Speaker:well, how can I possibly do that?
Speaker:I'm not going to be there to fill orders.
Speaker:And here's how you can do this prep enough product so
Speaker:that you have product available.
Speaker:Let's say you have a whole slew of products on your
Speaker:website. Maybe you hide some of your products and only have
Speaker:sir products up,
Speaker:but have inventory available so that the,
Speaker:that is available to be shipped.
Speaker:If someone orders and then train somebody on how to fulfill
Speaker:your orders,
Speaker:I'm not talking about how to make your product,
Speaker:but show them how to access the orders,
Speaker:how to print the labels,
Speaker:how to pull the products and how to ship.
Speaker:And this could be someone who's a friend,
Speaker:maybe it's high school student as a part-time job for very
Speaker:short time.
Speaker:This is a great stepping if you will,
Speaker:to actually hiring in somebody.
Speaker:And I know that this is a big hurdle that we
Speaker:all have.
Speaker:That was my big barrier forever.
Speaker:Going on vacation.
Speaker:When I was telling you about my gift basket business basket
Speaker:time, I wouldn't leave because nobody could do it as well
Speaker:as I could,
Speaker:which was such a total lie now.
Speaker:Yeah. I might have certain ways to design baskets,
Speaker:so that would take more training.
Speaker:But when I finally figured it out,
Speaker:when I finally realized that there are certain baskets that regularly
Speaker:sells during the season,
Speaker:I'm going to make up several of them.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:whatever your current purchasing behavior is,
Speaker:you kind of have a feel for what are your best
Speaker:sellers and how much you sell during certain periods of time.
Speaker:And if you make those up ahead of time,
Speaker:all you need is for someone to come in and fill
Speaker:any orders that come in.
Speaker:And if you have a specific process that they can follow,
Speaker:it is not that hard to do.
Speaker:This would be a way that you could keep your online
Speaker:shop open,
Speaker:even while you're on video patient.
Speaker:I'm going to give you another idea.
Speaker:That might be a little controversial,
Speaker:but I did it and it worked beautifully.
Speaker:And this was for gift baskets.
Speaker:So I get that.
Speaker:It's not going to work for every single business.
Speaker:My prior example would probably work better for some buses.
Speaker:But what about this partner with a competitor?
Speaker:SU what partner with a competitor.
Speaker:Yeah, that's what I did when I was gone.
Speaker:And in the gift basket industry,
Speaker:the way business usually works is someone calls in and they
Speaker:want it that day or the next day it's for an
Speaker:anniversary or a birthday or a new baby.
Speaker:And some of those gifts can't wait a week.
Speaker:I partnered with somebody who was right in my area about
Speaker:half an hour away and directed all of my sales over
Speaker:to her.
Speaker:And guess what?
Speaker:It worked in reverse when she was out on vacation.
Speaker:And what did that do for us?
Speaker:Did we lose sales to each other?
Speaker:No. If anything,
Speaker:it endeared our customers to us knowing that we had their
Speaker:backs. If they needed something,
Speaker:we had a solution for them.
Speaker:Like I said,
Speaker:it's a little bit of a controversial idea,
Speaker:but based on your product,
Speaker:it can really work as a review.
Speaker:Here are the three actions to keep your online shop open
Speaker:so that you can go on vacation and get the restorative
Speaker:time away that you need one.
Speaker:If you're on something like Facebook or Etsy,
Speaker:you can pause your shop,
Speaker:put your shop in vacation mode.
Speaker:Don't make your shop go away entirely.
Speaker:You want people to know that you're still around.
Speaker:You're just not available to fill orders for short time.
Speaker:Number two,
Speaker:put an announcement on your website.
Speaker:That orders that are placed up until a certain date will
Speaker:be fulfilled,
Speaker:right? When you get back so that people know that they
Speaker:can still place the orders,
Speaker:not to expect the product immediately.
Speaker:And if they do need the product immediately,
Speaker:then they might need to look for a different option.
Speaker:And third is stay open,
Speaker:reduce the visible products,
Speaker:if necessary to just your best sellers,
Speaker:but have things available.
Speaker:If people want to buy,
Speaker:even with delayed delivery and teach somebody how to fill the
Speaker:orders for you,
Speaker:just the shipping part,
Speaker:not the making part.
Speaker:Cause I think that's where we stumble.
Speaker:We think that,
Speaker:oh, someone's gotta be able to do everything.
Speaker:Don't have those extra special scented candle available for the time
Speaker:that you're gone because you don't have any batches made yet
Speaker:just have of what's made,
Speaker:have it available,
Speaker:train somebody to come in,
Speaker:to be able to do the shipping for you.
Speaker:And then your online shop can stay open.
Speaker:Even why,
Speaker:while you're gone,
Speaker:this could be the start to your very first employee.
Speaker:You get the feel for it.
Speaker:You've overcome your concern about having someone else come in and
Speaker:work the business.
Speaker:And I can't tell you how freeing that is is when
Speaker:you finally actually do that.
Speaker:Now, a couple of other things,
Speaker:things, since we're on the vacation topic that I would do
Speaker:besides whichever choice you make in terms of what you're going
Speaker:to do with your online and shop phone messages,
Speaker:make sure somebody is listening to all your phone messages and
Speaker:respond for your automated phone message.
Speaker:I would not say that you're on vacation.
Speaker:That's just a security risk to me.
Speaker:If people by chance know where you live or in some
Speaker:way know that you're going to be out of town.
Speaker:I wouldn't say that one-on-one or whoever's answering and responding to
Speaker:messages for,
Speaker:you can say,
Speaker:oh, you know,
Speaker:she's a few days off right now.
Speaker:She'll be back.
Speaker:Can I help you?
Speaker:In the meantime,
Speaker:second thing is send out an email to all of your
Speaker:regular customers telling them that you're to be away.
Speaker:And if they've been thinking about placing an order to do
Speaker:so before,
Speaker:whatever date it is before you're going to go away,
Speaker:if not feel free to place orders when I'm gone and
Speaker:there'll be fulfilled when I get back or there'll be fulfilled
Speaker:by whoever's going to be doing your fulfillment.
Speaker:As we were talking about earlier,
Speaker:you can also put that as the signature for your emails.
Speaker:Don't forget to take it off.
Speaker:When you get back in third thing,
Speaker:social media,
Speaker:there's absolutely no reason why you have to interrupt your flow
Speaker:of social media while you're on vacation.
Speaker:You can schedule posts everywhere now.
Speaker:So whatever your normal system is of showing up,
Speaker:stick with it,
Speaker:just preplan it.
Speaker:And then when you get back,
Speaker:or if you want to a little bit,
Speaker:while you're on vacation,
Speaker:see who's interacting and respond.
Speaker:Vacations are a responsibility to you personally,
Speaker:because you need that restorative time to your family because of
Speaker:relationships and commitments and being part of the family,
Speaker:but also to your business and your customers.
Speaker:And this is a way that you can balance it all.
Speaker:And so that you don't have to worry when you're gone,
Speaker:that you're losing customers or you're losing business and orders.
Speaker:You've created a plan.
Speaker:When you get back,
Speaker:you can post pictures of being away and you can talk
Speaker:about the new designs that you came up with,
Speaker:the value of taking vacation,
Speaker:getting away,
Speaker:and then how you're able to brainstorm new ideas,
Speaker:because you've had the opportunity to walk away.
Speaker:Maybe it's a new promotion that you'll tease them about and
Speaker:say, I got this idea while I was drinking my,
Speaker:my tie under the cabana.
Speaker:Wait to see what I have planned for an X month.
Speaker:Vacations are a necessity.
Speaker:If you think like how I was thinking years back,
Speaker:that things can't possibly get done.
Speaker:It's a level or the quality that you require your business.
Speaker:Isn't going to last too long.
Speaker:I'm sorry to say.
Speaker:Now is the time for holidays.
Speaker:Our kids are home for the summer.
Speaker:We're going out vacationing,
Speaker:visiting family,
Speaker:enjoying the holiday weekends.
Speaker:You need to get out and celebrate and enjoy,
Speaker:but that doesn't mean that you need to sacrifice your business.
Speaker:At the same time.
Speaker:That's a wrap.
Speaker:I'm a get to the point kind of girl.
Speaker:And this is what you can expect from these quick midweek
Speaker:sessions. Now it's your turn.
Speaker:Go out and fulfill that dream of yours.
Speaker:Share your handmade products with us.
