How to Prepare for the Christmas Time Retail Frenzy

Christmas is undoubtedly a holiday to cherish with your family and friends. A little celebration goes a long way for starting the New Year with a renewed energy. Christmas is also a time to shop till you drop. Quite literally, retails stores, traditional brick and mortar stores and e-commerce stores claim that they make approximately 30% of their annual profits in this merry time of the year. With the joy of a selling frenzy comes the liability of handling the taxes in the coming financial year end. While paying taxes is unavoidable, here is a list of things you can think about well in advance of the season’s arrival:

• Know the cash flow

A business owner’s top responsibility is to monitor the cash flow and be on top of it. This is where joining forces with a reliable and knowledgeable tax accountant will prove instrumental to prolonged profitability. Knowing the cash flow offers business owners insight on several other mandatory issues such as assessing the need for manpower expansion, asset purchasing and much more. The right accountant keeps a tab on each source and destination of cash flow, helping you have a clear picture well in advance.

• Do you need an extra pair of hands?

Hiring additional manpower in the light of festive seasons might be a good idea. However, there are several factors to be considered. Hiring employees to work through the holiday season means bonus wages, superannuation, over-time work and many more employee benefits. These expenses need to be articulated before making any recruitment decisions.

• Keeping the stock and inventory tight

This might be one of the trickiest parts for new businesses since it takes years of repeat business to fully comprehend the need for additional stock. While Christmas guarantees higher number of sales, business owners need to maintain a balance in regards to stock availability. Buying more stock than needed will often leave you with items that are quickly depreciating in value and are out of the season. And having lesser stock will disappoint customers.

Therefore, it’s always a great idea to make projections for expenditure and stock requirements well in advance.

If you would like to know more about maintaining cash flow and increasing efficiency during the Christmas rush, give us a call to chat with one of our friendly staff about your plans. We can then suggest to you what the ideal direction would be for your specific business.