The holidays are the busiest time of year for most retail small business owners, or any retail business owners really. Fall and Christmas are the biggest decorating seasons of the year, the biggest gift giving time and overall highest money output for many people. From October through mid December we work from sun up to sun down with little rest and a lot of stress, work and chaos. It is exhilarating, but exhausting. Then comes the day when the last day for orders comes, and shortly after the last order has been shipped out or delivered. We can all let out that breath we have been holding for months and really sit back and think about what we just accomplished. I also think about how thankful I am for my Tin Box family and that they think of me to help create memorable holidays and fun, personalized gifts and decorations. After a few days of taking it all in and cleaning up the mess we made finishing out the season, it is time for some much needed rest.
Each year we take a vacation after the busy season. Sometimes we go away and other years we have stayed home, and have taken trips for just a couple of days. Camping was always our favorite way to get out of town, but here in Hawaii we have chosen airport trips off island instead. We have many trips planned for 2025, but the trip just after the busiest time of year is always the sweetest. It is a chance to use the last of the adrenaline rush in a fun way before heading home to really relax and reset for the upcoming year.
While we do use a lot of this time resting and catching up on sleep and helping our bodies recover during this time, a lot of the downtime is spent planning. We plan for the upcoming business year, upcoming vacations and trips, we plan our garden, projects, new goals and so so much more. Planning during this time allows us to take the time to think about how to accomplish each goal or task and do it in a way that is not stressful.
Planning is a big part of our rest time. We start to map out the year and get ready for what is to come. We plan around big events and trips, and 2025 is no exception. We are heading to Nebraska, other islands, and more in 2025 and hope to dip our toes in the events around Hawaii. The events will be minimal, but it was very difficult not to be part of the fun this past year and we hope to figure out a way to be more active in person this coming year. This year we plan to keep up with the monthly theme and that will dictate a big part of our social media, new products and more. The themes really help us to stay ahead of the game with shipping times and suppliers and while it is an adjustment for many, we will still be offering our products after the monthly theme has ended.
Getting ahead is always the hope during this time. With constant chaos and busy schedules, we seem to always have a million things on our to do list. We work hard to batch our work and get a few days ahead, but during this time of rest the real goal is to get ahead. We try to schedule our social media posts, prepare products for the upcoming months and really just do a little at a time so that the stress levels are lower when we get back to work. We never fully get ahead with our crazy lives happening, but we do work through our down time. While it is not the constant work that happens during the holiday season, we do put in the hours to get these posts finished and published, products planned and supplies ordered. Things don’t happen overnight and the big part of what we have learned over the years that doing a little everyday is better than doing it all the same day or nothing at all.
While time off never actually happens, we definitely get our rest during this time. It is a great time for boosting our energy, taking a step back to think about what we have done and to really get our creativity pumped back up for the new year ahead. Have something you want to see at Tin Box in 2025? Now is a great time to ask, or let us know!
As always, thank you for reading and joining us on this journey. Simply, Beth