Is It Too Early To Plan For Thanksgiving and Christmas?

No.

Start now. Place signs in your shop reminding customers to replace the fogged IG units in time for holiday company. Fix up the downstairs bathroom with a new mirror, or put the new backsplash in the kitchen with back-painted glass.

Contact all of your retailer customers. Do they need new glass in their showcases? Are their doors working correctly? Are the mirrors in the clothing sections of their stores all up to snuff? Would Starphire™ help them sell more jewelry?

Do you sell gift certificates in your store? You should. It is up-front money for you and the work will be done after Christmas, when most glass shops are slow. All you need to do is write a note on your letterhead stating this is a gift certificate in the amount of $_____. No need for plastic cards with magnetic stripes.

How about a new tabletop for the dining room? Do you have a display showing different glass thicknesses, tints and edgework possibilities in your showroom? If not, ask your fabricator to make you one…if they are a good fabricator, this should be a given.

Is it time to re-check your advertising schedule and place some of these ideas in your newspaper ads? When a customer calls on the phone, does your customer service crew make suggestions around the holiday-themed sales?

It’s also time to think about your employees and their schedules. Christmas is on a Wednesday this year, along with New Year’s. What days are you going to be open? Can you give half the crew the choice of Christmas Eve or New Year’s Eve as a day off? Will you give the days off without pay? You need to know this now and set the schedule for your crew so they can make their plans and don’t have to “call in sick.”

Next week we’ll talk about holiday bonuses; it’s time for owners and managers to start thinking through the numbers and the goals of these programs.

Oh, and, by the way, Happy Columbus Day, which is only twenty days away.