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Prepare for Your Best Festive Season Yet

What gift would you like as an entrepreneur this festive season? We have 100% FREE ideas to support all the entrepreneurs in your life. 

  • Interact with their business's social media posts and tag a friend – this can boost the post organically.

  • Create your content to promote their business – You can give a testimonial through a video, for example. Talking about your experience with the brand, or highlighting outstanding customer service.

  • Leave a review – You can do this on social media on Google My Business, or review sites like HelloPeter.

  • Recommend their business to people you know.

  • Support seasonal in-house events.

Tell us your ideas on how you as an entrepreneur can be assisted in a simple, inexpensive way by your neighbours, family and friends – email us at [email protected].

In this week’s newsletter, we share how you can prepare for the best festive season yet. Get this:- A Checklist for Your Annual December Holiday Shutdown

- Free Webinar: How to Set Up WhatsApp for your Small Business- Holiday Marketing Ideas for Social Media- Take the E-commerce Survey to support SME growth

Have a great, productive week ahead!

The following content is sponsored.

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Research is being conducted on the Internationalisation of SMEs through e-commerce platforms. Understanding how platforms can assist SMEs in reaching foreign markets and customers. Your participation will play a crucial role in the research study and in understanding SME perceptions of e-commerce. To that end, you are asked to complete a survey relating to the topic. The survey should take no more than ten (10) minutes. Your participation is voluntary and you can withdraw at any time without penalty. Please click on the following link for your participation: https://forms.gle/K2V4v5P4iXdKX5VH9Access to the survey results and complete research study will be provided upon request, our details are provided below. Researcher name: Rebone MohlalaEmail: [email protected]Research supervisor name: Dr. Danéel van EckEmail: [email protected]Your participation in the survey will make a difference in understanding SMEs and the contributions YOU bring to this sector.

Holiday Marketing Ideas for Social Media

1. Showcase the positive impact your business has achieved throughout the year.

2. Share tips for the festive season – these tips can include you demonstrating how they can use your product or service to benefit their holiday.

3. Support a CSI project - Show that your company is willing to help and give back to the community, and better the lives of others.

4. Invest in a sponsorship campaign – Partner with a larger corporation with a bigger social footprint to host a festive event that is aligned with your brand beliefs and responsibilities.

5. Host a competition and give back to your audience to generate high engagement and conversation on social media. 

*** You’re invited to attend our free webinar: WhatsApp for Business on 25th November at 11 am ***

HERE’S HOW TO CREATE A WHATSAPP BUSINESS ACCOUNT IN 5 SIMPLE STEPS 

Step 1: Download the WhatsApp Business app from Google Playstore or the Apple iStore

Step 2: Enter your business phone number

Step 3: Complete your business details such as your location, industry, company name, logo or profile picture (professional), and website URL.

Step 4: Create your catalogue, automated messages, and e-commerce offering. Remember to include essential information such as your business hours.

Step 5: Connect with your customers

UNLOCK THE BENEFIT OF WHATSAPP BUSINESS

Join our FREE webinar on how to navigate the available WhatsApp Business tools to help you automate, sort, and quickly respond to messages. Plus you can ask us any question you have regarding WhatsApp and how to promote your services. Date: 27 November Time: 11h00 – 12h00

A Checklist for Your Annual December Holiday Shutdown

1. Let your customers know when you’ll be away – Send them an email or a text message notifying them about the dates of your holiday shutdown.

2. Use décor to make sure that your store stands out and draws people in.

3. Plan to make sure you don’t have to turn away willing customers – Bear in mind that some of your suppliers might be taking time off for the holidays so you might have to order in advance. Read more here

4. Arrange the skeleton crew –Ensure there are enough people around to attend to urgent customer requests, answer the phones, look after social media and keep an eye on the business. Read more about hiring temporary employees

5. Take care of your admin for the festive season (& January as well) – Ensure that you have a dedicated person to handle admin duties while you work on important tasks like business development. Read about financial management for small businesses

6. Make use of tech tools you can use on your smartphone – Over your holiday period to stay in control of your business. You can keep track of your finances with accounting software, stay on top of your e-commerce store [get reviews for e-commerce website builders here], or HR & payroll systems [get reviews for HR & Payroll Software here].

7. Plan to open the New Year with a bang – If you want, offer opening sales in January to attract new business.

Download the FREE Small Business Bounce Back Guide, in collaboration with Sage, and get help with some of the biggest challenges facing SMEs right now:

  • Access to funding

  • Financial management

  • Market access

  • Business compliance

  • Use of technology

Get ALL the Tools & Resources you need to plan your next Bigger, Better, Smarter move.