Taking a week off during the holiday season or just a few days requires planning, but you also have to ensure that your business makes a profit during the period. If you are an entrepreneur or a small business owner you have to ensure that your business is ready to cope with the holiday rush, and employees have sufficient time off to spend with their families. To help you prepare your office the holiday season we’ve outlined a few important tips that we use.

Prepare to Handle the Rush

If your business usually handles more customers during the holiday season, or a few days around Christmas and New Year you need to plan ahead to handle it. If you run a bakery, taking advantage of the demand for Christmas fruit cakes, gingerbread men and mince pies during the holidays allow you to quickly reap a handsome profit. However, you need to plan ahead to ensure you have the right ingredients to make cookies or cakes that are in demand during the holidays. To help you plan refer to the previous year’s sales reports, to find out how much you should prepare to ensure that customers are not disappointed.

Decorate your Business or Office

Creating a holiday themed atmosphere in the office often starts with suitable decorations for Thanksgiving in the United States. In other parts of the world, decorations go up around Christmas and New Year. Decorating your office helps people focus on work and goals that they have to accomplish during the holidays while remaining immersed in the season’s festive spirit. If a holiday display in your storefront will help you business sell more during the season, ensure that it is in place and focuses on products and services that are popular.

Provide Higher Pay during the Holidays

Often employees will need to work overtime to meet high customer demand during the holidays. A good way to ensure employees are happy working overtime is to pay them more per hour during the period. Also outline clearly how much this will be to reduce any chance of dispute later.

Allow Employees to Take Leave

Spend time discussing with your employees when they want to take leave during the holidays. The create a plan so that all employees have time off, but there are enough on hand to ensure your store or business runs smoothly on days when you are working.

Create a Policy for the Holiday Closure Period

Outlining when your small business or bakery will remain closed during the holidays will ensure that customers are not disappointed. It will also ensure that employees can get adequate time off, and have a fun time with their families.

Hire Temporary Staff

Hiring seasonal staff to deal with the extra rush during the holidays is a common practice. Additionally temporary staff has to be trained so that they have the necessary skills for working in a restaurant or bakery.  So set aside a few days for training or create a list of trained people who are available to work over the holidays.

Preparing a business for the holidays often means putting out promotions to attract the additional money that customers spend during the period. With a plan in place for the holiday season, you can ensure that your business reaps a profit and employees have a joyful time.