10 Ways to Make Last Minute Money

Let’s be real – we all want to make as much money as possible each year, yet as we get closer to shutting down for the holidays, we sometimes just get into “shut down” mode a little too quickly!

Let’s change that this year and take a vow together, to make the MOST of the last two weeks of every year and to think outside “outside the box” to make as much money as we can…..because we can!

Here are some ideas that we are using to generate more sales in both of my companies, Simply Sarah and Entreprenette.  Jump on board and let’s end in a BIG way this year.  Obviously, a lot of people are done with their shopping by now, and on their way out mentally as well. But every few orders add up to a larger sum at the end of the day……so let’s just piece it together.

1. We called Curves, a national Women’s gym and asked to do a holiday sale.  They were thrilled and my assistant went yesterday for a few hours and cleaned up!  The women there were excited to get their last minute gifts and work out at the same time.  Park once, accomplish twice.

2. We took advantage of tomorrow being the last day to ship UPS ground and we put up a ONE-DAY only 50% off sale yesterday.  We got 15 orders in the first 30 minutes……the rest of the day more trickled in.  Again, ching ching.

3. We have been commenting a lot on fashion blogs for the past 3 months testing the waters to see what kind of traffic we could get from each site by tracking through google analytics.  Luckily a blog we had commented on a few times wrote a review mentioning the Handy Hold All yesterday and we got about 6 orders.  Not a huge response, but every penny counts!

4. I took out an ad on Facebook Monday to test it out and see if new fans convert to sales.  We are getting new fans (which is always great) but I can’t figure out how to tell if they are converting……working on that part!!

5. Twitter, twitter twitter.  Can I say that again???  If you missed last weeks awesome demo by Kerrianne Mellot go back and try out her suggestions of how to get more sales using twitter.  I have gotten 2 paying clients for Entreprenette through twitter connections. I have also made some other great connections on Twitter for speaking engagements, as well as new friends etc..  all good stuff.

6.  Affiliate programs.  Get one going now!!  It’s not too late to offer someone a year-end bonus for promoting you or selling your product.

7. Start a drop ship program.  We have recently been promoting this again because it’s like making money in your sleep.  Someone else sells your product and all you do is ship it.  Let them do all the marketing while you do something else to bring in money!

8. Create a twitter storm.  Write to your list and ask them to contribute to a blog post you are doing (today). Tell them you are writing a last minute holiday gift guide for the slackers out there who can’t find the “perfect” thing.  Ask them to tell about the best “white elephant” gift they ever got – post all the responses in your blog and call it the last creative gift on earth…..or something like that.  Email all the contributors and tell them the blog post is up and ask them to tweet it out…..they will because they can tell their friends and followers they are # so in so.  NOTE: Be prepared to twitter a bunch of cool relevant things to attract all your new bees to the hive!

9. Create a last minute contest on your blog. Now that we are not allowed to post contests and giveaways on Facebook (ggrr)…..blogs and twitter seem like the places to do this now.  Get your fans to leave comments on a blog post you wrote and twitter another one to be entered to win something….because everyone loves to win!  Make them refer to your twitter name so you can see the mention.

10.Throw it all in the pan: Get your best customers on the phone and offer them a deal. Offer free shipping to one lucky person.  Email your friends a great deal and ask them to send it to 5 friends for you. Ask friends to repost your deal on their FB pages.  Post about your last minute deals on forums, meet up groups, networking groups and any on-line budget fashionista website you can find.  Find mommy groups, lactation centers, or the YMCA and see if you can go sell your stuff there.

Ok, I am fresh out of ideas……give it all you have and bring home the bacon baby!

BONUS: If you don’t have a product, give yourself a gift and let’s get one going!