Maximizing Profits in the Fourth Quarter: Strategies to Boost Your Business or Nonprofit
We’re moving into THE PRIME time of the year for you as a small business owner or nonprofit leader; for maximizing profits in the fourth quarter
People need products.
People need services.
That’s why they need you! (Your brand, business or nonprofit)!
Maximizing Profits in the Fourth Quarter
Fourth Quarter (or Q4) are the months October, November and December, a time of year when the assumption might be that retailers are the only ones primed for success. But that’s not quite true. Service-based businesses (event planners, therapists, strategists, bakeries, florists, gifting) online businesses (coaches, consultants, trainers); and nonprofits can all benefit from fourth quarter. In fact, they do.
Ideally, you want to start planning for fourth quarter in first quarter, but if you’re new to implementing a fourth quarter strategy, don’t panic! It’s not too late. You can begin on a smaller scale, rally your team, business besties or reach out to me. Your choice of goals for fourth quarter is unlimited, and above all, are up to you.
Fourth Quarter Goals to Consider
Before getting started on your fourth quarter strategy or reviewing what you currently have, think about what you want out of this time. The first thing to remember in this process is that you can go about this with ease. Let’s take a look below:
- Brand Awareness. Focusing on brand awareness where everything you’re doing is on promoting who you are, who and how you serve.
- Client Retention. For business owners, think of your team, customers and supporters as clients. For nonprofit leaders, your clients include your donors, volunteers, teams and customers. Client retention is where you are focused on maintaining your current ecosystem of people through appreciation, recognition and celebrations.
- Client Acquisition. ‘Tis the season! With all of the celebrations and holidays we get to celebrate this time of year in the States, it’s an ample time for both businesses and nonprofits to utilize promotions, additional storytelling and creative ways to bring people into your community. If they decide to stay, this process is known as client acquisition.
- Profit. Focusing on a bottomline goal of increasing your gross profit is never a bad idea. Our friends over at COR go into detail about Increasing sales performance: strategies.
- Fun. Fourth quarter can be fun. It is definitely a time of high energy but it is also a time of reflection, and celebration. This is a time to celebrate wins from the year, recognize key team members, donors, supporters, volunteers – your business friends and have quality time with family.
Strategies to Boost Your Business
Business owners and nonprofit leaders can implement any combination of the following strategies for maximizing profits in fourth quarter. Whether you choose one, all or none, remember to pick something that you will enjoy.
Strategy 1: Goal Approach
When it comes to goal setting, many will recommend S.M.A.R.T. Goals, but if you’re all about creating a culture of transparency and improving communication, you may want to consider adopting F.A.S.T. Goals: Frequently discussed. Ambitions. Specific. Transparent. Decide what your focus will be for fourth quarter from the suggestions above or from meeting with your team. Identifying a goal strategy supports you in communicating the goal, tracking its progress and implement the actions towards it.
Strategy 2: Q4 Timeline
Days to remember: Nonprofits– Giving Tuesday is the first Tuesday after Thanksgiving. End of Year Giving happens on or around December 31. Businesses– Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and Cyber Monday. Pick the day that you’re working towards and develop your plan of action working backwards from that day. For example, if you’re a nonprofit planning for Giving Tuesday, every action you plan to take will be done or automated to occur at least 2-3 days before Giving Tuesday. If you’re a business, you will have your promotions identified, events planned, booked and emails, inventory, and social media planned before Black Friday.
Strategy 3: Social Media
To maximize profits in fourth quarter, you can also consider adding a social media strategy. You will first need to decide on your goal approach (strategy 1) and which timeline you’re working towards (strategy 2) before creating your fourth quarter social media strategy. The goal here is to become hyper visible with long form content in your preference of social media platforms. If you’re new to the online space or simply want to check off your list, consider preparing for your social media optimization by setting up the following:
- Business social media pages on platforms where your audience lives.
- Scheduler (Calendly, Acuity, or similar) for both online and brick and mortar businesses and nonprofits.
- Video conference tool (Zoom, Google meet (or similar).
- CRM for capturing leads and tracking communication.
- Email marketing tool (Mailchimp, Mailerlite, Convertkit or similar).
- Facebook banner with your photo/brand logo and your marketing statement. See here for an example.
- At least ONE service or package you offer for brands or businesses and a campaign or purpose for a nonprofit.
- Contract/ invoice system – or a way to send contracts for signature and a digital way to bill/receive payments for brands and businesses and for nonprofits, a way to receive donations.
Because people will only know your business or nonprofit exists when you show up and share that you have a solution for their problem. (Or maybe, you reveal a problem they didn’t know existed).
How are you showing up in the world? Where are you showing up?
If your budget doesn’t get allow for paid advertisements and marketing, you want to get social.
Strategy 4: Storytelling
Storytelling is a strategy that can be combined with your social media platforms and blog, but can also be a part of your public relations pitch, podcast, and media interviews. This is what you’ll need to prepare:
- Who is your customer?
- What pain point do you solve?
- How do you solve it?
You don’t need to pay for storytelling. It is a simple way to begin implementing a strategy TODAY.
Practice. Practice. Practice. This means you want to form the habit of communicating your value and you can only do that by sharing your message.
You can use any combination of the mentioned strategies to boost your business and check out What the Small Business Owner Needs to Know in 2023. Think of the people who are already shopping for their loved ones; those who want to support small businesses but may not be in your neighborhood. For nonprofits, think of those who want to donate, but don’t have time to volunteer; or the small business that wants to sponsor a cause, but hasn’t yet matched with one.
Comment below letting me know which one of these strategies you will implement.