Year End – a time to take stock

Year end.  Do those words send a chill down your spine?  Tell us about them, below!  If so, you’re not alone.

Year end is a time of renewal for many.  It’s a time when the old year is drawing to a close, and the new year is arriving with all the promises of a clean slate.

But the reality is, there are things from one year that carry over into the next.  For example, year end is a time for many when you have to quite literally take stock.  You have to count up all the inventory left on your shelves from the years just closed.  That often means several stressful days of counting stock and trying to serve customers, all the while hoping your tax bill isn’t going to be a whopper.

But it doesn’t have to be that way.  Year end can be a very positive time.

Of course, any year end is a time to take stock.  Don’t you agree?  But for any business, you should see your year end as a positive.  Do you?  Stay with me!

We talk a lot about tracking our advertising campaigns, but what about the results?  It’s true:  it’s very important to see how many clicks you’re getting on any online advertising you do, but clicks, by themselves, are not enough.  We all need buyers to turn a profit. Those clicks that turn into sales are called  conversions.  You need to know what ads convert best.

So tracking clicks that turn into sales is critical.  Do you do that?  What are you doing to keep track of conversions?  We’d love to hear from you in the comment section, below.

But what do you do with this information?  How do I sell more products?

The answer to that question is relatively simple.  Drop the ads that don’t bring a profit. Work on tweaking the ads that are converting best.  Run several similar ads in the same marketplace to find out how to increase their pulling power even further.

But back to the year end…

Your year end is also critical to increasing sales.  It’s not just a time to do a bunch of “unprofitable work” to satisfy the tax man/woman.  It’s time to take stock, not just of inventory, but of what’s working and what needs to be dropped or improved.

Doing inventory of your hard products helps you quit wasting space on products that don’t sell.  Those are quite literally costing you money.  They need to be cleared out at fire sale prices.  Have a big sale after your year end is complete and liquidate the stock that isn’t selling.  If you’re selling online, you might even consider using them as freebies or bonuses.

Increase stock on things you’re critically low on.  You don’t need to “go nuts,” but bump the big sellers up a bit.  There’s almost nothing worse than being out of something people want to buy!

If you only sell services, it’s still important to “take stock” at year end.  Go back over your year, just as if you were doing inventory of products in your warehouse or store, and start focusing on dropping the products that aren’t selling and putting more into the ones that are.

When you finish taking stock, think about your bestsellers, and do some brainstorming.  What items/services would naturally go with these hot sellers?  What other products or services would the people already buying from you want?  What would enhance the buying experience of new customers?  How can you upsell your customers without making them feel any pressure?

Year end is critically important to any business.  Unless you stop, at least once a year, to take stock, your business will start to slow down.  Just like the automobile you drive, if you don’t service it yearly, it won’t last long.

What do you do for your year end?  Do you work within the calendar year, or is your year end on a different date?  We would love to read your words of wisdom in the comments, below.