I have been getting some e-mails on advice about feeling "burned out" or "over whelmed" during the busiest season of the year. To be honest, I haven't learned much about how to properly control the Christmas season sales until this year. I can only imagine that every Christmas becomes more popular and keeping control of it all is very, very important. It also has to stay fun.
Having a "burned out" or "overwhelming" feeling about your business is not something I considered to be good. Not good at all. This could and will affect the quality of your work. Especially mine since everything is made-to-order. Here are some things to do to keep it all interesting and to not feel so bogged down with orders:
Stay creative.
Take your camera out during your breaks. Think up new product ideas to craft after the holidays. Does your business cards need updating? Something like that.
Limit your daily orders.
Whether you ship out right away or you're a made-to-order shop, limit the amount of orders you ship out/craft daily. This will help your brain and the quality of your product. Just because you get 50 orders that day doesn't mean you have to make all 50 in one day. Trust me. I know.
Work environment.
What's your work space like? I have two dogs running around that keep my smiling. Smiling equals less stress. What helps your stress level go down?
You're not THAT busy.
Just remember if you are having a successful Christmas then you are doing good (great even!) Take a breather and enjoy your success one night or two during December. It's okay to have fun (or even brag) during your busiest season of the year. Take a small break then get back at it!
With this year being so fun (and overwhelming) I have decided that next year I will be hiring a part time team mate to help out with all of the emails, custom order requests, and packaging. There is only so much you can do alone! But once I hire someone, then I can give proper advice about it. But that's a different story.
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