What are the "unmissable" holidays or observances for your business?

[tranguyen]

Hey everyone ✨

After taking a break, we are back with our Wednesday Question of the Week 😎. 

It can be overwhelming to plan to all the holidays and observances that occurred throughout the year — especially when there are so many of them.

And not all holidays are as important as others. For some businesses, occassions throughout the year like Valentines Day or Mothers & Father' Day are when they see the most business, while for others, sales are concentrated during the holiday/festive season at the end of the year. 

As such, we'd love to learn:

What are the "unmissable" holidays or celebrations for your business?

What are some of your best tips for preparing or knowing which holidays or observances are right for your business to focus on? Let us know in the replies below 🗒

[schaefferjosh]

There are a few big ones like Veterans Day or Memorial Day but the absolute best that we will prepare heavily for is the 4th of July here in the States. Being a seasoning business, we prepare for everyone wanting to grill out and have fantastic food for the summertime holiday. We use this time to create different grilling bundles to push more sales. We hope to bring out even more to help tailor to different flavor profiles this summer! 

[CareyJo]

I would think Memorial Day and Labor Day would also be big holidays for you as well....

[BofBArtStudio]

For us, it is any Monday Holiday (MLK, Presidents Day, Memorial Day), and all school breaks, Summer being the biggest.

We are most busy when people are off work and school.

We are a creativity space for guests to paint pottery, paint canvas, create with Clay or glass.   

We always need to prepare for these holidays by staffing up and making sure that we have art projects geared toward the holiday.

[CareyJo]

We're a service company, so holidays aren't money makers for us - BUT - we do have a lot of phone calls for service in October and November for people asking to have their services done before December because they will have family coming to visit.  I warn people all the time not to wait until the last minute to schedule service for fall weather or AC service and most don't listen.  Most HVAC companies are booked 6 weeks to 3 months in advance and we're no different.  Last month, I was already booking into April.

[ReneesGreetings]

Well being a Greeting Card business, there a lot of unmissable holidays for me. Christmas to start with, then Valentine's Day and Mother's Day are prominent. I do make cards for most notable holidays, of course. 😁 https://reneesgreetings.com 

[doc_choc]

Christmas and Easter...big ones, followed by Valentines, Halloween, Mothers Day, and sorry dads, last but not least Fathers Day. We are so focused on Christmas but burnt out by January, that we have to plan for Valentines and Easter during the summer, especially when there is an early Easter! We get new products developed, designs, artwork, print, SM and newsletters all planned and in place by the end of the summer.

[CareyJo]

VERY smart plan!  Great that you recognize that you need to do that when you have the energy!

[doc_choc]

Come January I'm dragging along, I look like some kinda wild animal that's been hunter gathering for a nest full of young ones for 6 months🐒. We take a 1 week break (not long enough), and that pushes us too close to Valentines to get things moving!

[BrianaJo]

I struggle with this because every holiday I feel two pressures.

1: Since we're on Main Street I feel a pressure to do something to celebrate it. There are a lot of holidays either celebrated by the city or collectively by a bunch of the businesses on Main Street.

2: I feel the pressure to make some sugary decorated latte. It's what a lot of people around us expect, but that's not the kind of coffee shop, roastery cafe, that we are. 

To help with this, I'm trying to find a chocolatier or confectioner that can take our beans and chocolate coat them for us into different colors, then we'll just push themed chocolate coated espresso beans rather than themed drinks. This will keep the sugar out of the coffee and still be able to complement it albeit in a much more classy way.

January:

New Years Day

February:

Galentine's Day

Valentine's Day

March:

Mardi Gras

International Women's Day

St Patrick's Day

April: 

Garden Party / Spring Is Here

Easter

May:

Cinco de Mayo / Kentucky Derby

Mother's Day

Memorial Day

Carry Nation Days (our city's version of a "downtown days" celebration)

June: 

Father's Day

Summer Solstice

Car Show

July: 

Independence Day

Christmas in July

August:

Back to School

Dog Days of Summer

September:

Labor Day

Fall Fest

October:

Witches Walk

November:

Holiday open house (basically Christmas gets set out early, something we're all trying new this year)

Veteran's Day Parade

Pink Friday

Mayor's Christmas Tree & Light Parade

Thanksgiving

Black Friday

Small Business Saturday

Cyber Monday

December:

Giving Tuesday

Twelve Days of Christmas

Christmas Day

End of year wrap up

I may have missed some in this list, but it's most of them.

We're open every single day except for Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas, in a way those are the only unmissable ones.