Santa Ain’t the Only One Busy this Time of Year

As 2009 draws to a close, I am somewhat surprised at the extremely high level of commercial activity small businesses everywhere are undertaking! I thought, possibly naively so, that a handful of small businesses might be winding down at least just a slight bit ?? I was having thoughts about a good chunk of small biz owners possibly getting to enjoy a slower pace during this holiday season. Man, I don’t think I could have been more wrong! At each place I turn, it appears that just the opposite is happening.

Last week, I had the pleasure of attending a small local tweet up in Shepherdstown, WV hosted by a lovely PR copywriter and small biz owner. When I asked her if she was going to have an opportunity to enjoy the holidays a bit (assuming that her pace may have slowed down somewhat due to holiday season), she scoffed. Her response: she’s busier than ever!

Ditto for the super sweet vegetarian lady and nature conservationist I sat next to while ironically tearing into my medium-well-done New York Strip steak. During our casual chit chatter I learned this woman creates original sandblasted jewelry which she sells on Etsy.com. This is her full time job. She attends more than 30 some craft shows a year and when she’s not traveling to craft shows and fairs, she’s quite busy doing the homepreneur thang! When I posed the same question to her as I had done earlier to the copywriter about the possibility of business winding down somewhat for her at this time of year, the jewelry maker’s answer echoed earlier sentiments: no way! She’s *still* getting lots of last minute orders for custom gifts with only just a few days from Christmas away. No way she can fulfill all the orders in time.

A local farm owner also stopped by the tweet up a bit later during the gathering. After sharing with our tiny group about his daily carrot juicing morning ritual (apparently carrot juice is delicious; I will simply have to take his word for it LOL), a few minutes after joining our convo, the farmer — too — indicated he has been super busy. “I just sold 70 of our breads and have several more orders to fill right before Christmas.”

As I drove home after the tweet up ended, I thought about how awesome it was to see real-world, everyday type of entrepreneurs working hard to keep the marketing, sales and customer service aspects of their businesses in full throttle during a period that for many can often be a slower-paced time of year.

Nearing my home, thoughts about local small biz owners and their holiday hustle and bustle continued. I couldn’t help but to think of my own small biz clients who are being just as active and aggressive in their operations during this time of caroling, mistletoes and egg nogs. One client is launching a new product line. Another is diving into very nitty-gritty aspects of search engine marketing and preparing to develop various niche landing pages with targeted email campaigns shortly after the New Year. And then there’s the medical practice who is soft launching their new site a day before Christmas Eve. Boy, come to think of it … the list goes on and on …

Hell, if I look at my own small biz and the pace I’ve been keeping myself as of late, I guess I start wondering wtf would make me *think* for even a moment that small businesses were going to chill out for a bit during this holiday season??

Quite the contrary, folks.
Quite the contrary indeed …