With the end of the year fast approaching, it's time to prepare your small business for the fourth quarter. For businesses whose fiscal year ends on December 31st, October 1st marks the beginning of the last quarter to meet yearly goals. Because of the holidays, October-December make up the largest sales quarter for the vast majority of retail and consumer products. Keep reading this week's blog for our top three tips on preparing your small business for a successful fourth quarter.
1) Review Your Pipeline
As every small business owner knows, business doesn't just happen. While many factors can attract customers and clients to your brand, you have to determine what's reeling them in and sealing the deal in order to grow sales. And then you need to continually refine that process. The success of your small business's fourth quarter can depend on careful planning and review of your sales funnel pipeline. Start by categorizing the types of sales in your pipeline, prioritizing those that will definitely, then most likely be closed. Also identify which sales are stretch goals for the quarter and which may be placeholders. Take a look at your organized pipeline: If you finalize all sales in the first category, will you meet your yearly quota/goals? Does it look like you'll be relying on stretch sales to do so? Start an action plan before you get caught too far into Q4 to meet your sales goals for the end of the year.
2) Plan and Promote Sales Deals
Every year, holiday sales seem to start earlier and earlier. Why? Well... for the most part, they work! Sales not only bring in new customers, they also help customer retention and contribute towards building a more approachable brand. As businesses compete for the influx of purchases made during the final quarter, sales start sooner, go longer, and include more. For a small business, however, this can be tricky to navigate in such a way to still see an appropriate return/profit. To make discounts successful, they need to be carefully planned and marketed. There are tons of different types of sales and discount offers, and it's worth sitting down and figuring out which will work the best for your brand and target consumer. Some tried-and-true promotions across types of businesses include providing free samples, buy-one-get-one, discounts based on profession (teacher, service member, student, etc), charitable cause promotions, loyalty programs, joint promotions, and social media contests and giveaways.
3) Spend on Business Expenses to Utilize Write Offs
One remaining sales quarter means one remaining quarter to spend on yearly business expenses. Write-offs are any purchases or expenses that go directly towards your business. At the end of the fiscal year, the cost of your write-offs is deducted from that year's taxable income. It's crucial that write-offs are purchased in the same year as your tax filings--otherwise, you can't claim them that year (generally speaking). For most businesses, that means you need to make all of your purchases before December 31st, 2024. Not only will this help lower your tax burden, but it also allows you to take advantage of any holiday or end-of-year sales that other businesses are offering. We suggest making a list of things that your business needs or could benefit from and keeping an eye out for any relevant sales throughout the end of the year. Most importantly, make sure to work with a tax professional to know exactly what qualifies as a business expense and how to get the most of your write-offs. While we can provide much needed marketing and video help to add to your write-off list, we are not accountants. Be sure to check with a certified CPA in your state before making any tax or accounting decisions for your business.
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