Is it ever too early to get a head start?

Everyone likes to get a head start. Any advantage to give you an upper hand.

But when is it too soon? Today is the 29th of December and as you would expect the 2019 holiday adverts have begun on TV.

I certainly wasn’t expecting to see Easter eggs in the supermarket or advertisements for Valentine’s day before the start of the New Year though, but there they are.

Ok, so Valentine’s day is a mere 48 days away but Easter is almost four months away. I thought it was bad enough seeing Christmas chocolates in shops before Halloween but obviously the shops are looking to get ahead.

Two things spring to mind when we see items in shops way ahead of a planned date.

• Is it greed? Are shops getting greedy to sell us as much stuff as possible before the next major holiday or event?
• Is it desperation? Are things so bad that they need to run straight from one holiday into the next?

For the answer, I think you need to look at the size of the store in question.

A larger chain that posted profits of in excess of £1.6bn isn’t struggling financially and isn’t likely to fall into the ‘desperate’ column.

A smaller independent on the other hand – one that is struggling with business rates and less foot traffic – has to do everything it can to break even, let alone be profitable.

It’s not just this time of year

We see a lot of this throughout the year, especially by the smaller businesses. It’s all about standing out, that’s why there are so many discounts all year round, because they’re trying to be different. Selling something for the summer in winter is one way to stand out – but what if you’re a service business?

What can a restaurant, physio, hairdresser or decorator do?

Devaluing what you do isn’t the answer, and that’s what discounting does.

It devalues your business and your service.

Look at it another way

When you start a business, you’re in competition with those around you that do the same thing in the same town. Price and reputation are what sets you apart.

If you do a great thing for your customers, people will want to come back again and again.

If you want to stand out from the crowd try telling customers when you can fit them in. Not just what you do and where you are… that’s what everyone else is doing.

It’s not about discounting, it’s about communication and in the new GDPR world, communication can be… complicated.

The me:now app helps with this. It lets you keep in contact with your existing customers while helping you reach new ones.

If you want to know how much more you can earn, even using the free tier, try our revenue slider.

If you could be earning £300-400 extra a month for free, then you’ll have a bigger question to answer than “how can I get ahead?”

You need to ask “why aren’t I using the me:now app already?”