The holiday season is nearly here, which means consumers are busy planning festive gatherings with friends and family and brainstorming gifts to get their loved ones. As a business owner, now is prime time to ensure your products and/or services are top of mind when your current and potential customers start planning their gift lists. Also, it is critical to find new ways to cut costs so you can improve your bottom line and end the year as strong as possible.

Yes, it is vital to hold a fantastic Black Friday/Cyber Monday sale, but are you having trouble figuring out which new profit-generating strategies to employ? No need to ask for advice in an online business forum! In my own experience as the CEO and founder of CMA Exam Academy (a Certified Management Accountant exam review program), I have discovered these tried-and-true ways to maximize profits during the holiday season:

Reward Repeat Customers During the Holidays

As a business owner, you are likely well aware that getting a current customer to make another purchase costs way less in marketing dollars and sales efforts than trying to secure a new customer. That said, set up a program with incentives/awards for repeat customers during the holiday season. For example, each time a person makes a purchase in your store, you can hand them a “25%-off one item” coupon that can be used in the next week. Or, if you own an e-commerce website, you can email a promo code to customers after they make an online purchase.

Make sure to share on all of your social media channels that all customers during the holiday shopping season (say, Black Friday through the end of December) will be given a special reward for their purchase. This initiative will really drive sales and amplify profits.

Set Up a Holiday Referral Program

Coinciding with the last tip, a cost-effective and efficient way to ramp up sales is to drive referrals from current customers. You can do that by creating a referral program that offers exciting perks and discounts to existing customers for referring new ones to your business. People trust the recommendations from their friends, families, coworkers, etc. more than traditional advertisements, so this initiative will really help to boost holiday season revenue.

For example, if you own an online store, you can offer all of your current customers a $10 e-gift card each time they bring a new customer to your business. You can create a “Referred by:” section in your store’s checkout page so that the new customer can input the name of who referred them to your e-commerce enterprise. Then you can look up the name of the referrer in your past orders and email them their reward. Make sure to increase awareness of this program by sending out a newsletter all about it to past customers.

Or, if you own a brick-and-mortar boutique, you can advertise on your Facebook page that all fans will get a special gift if they bring a new customer to your establishment. If the referrer isn’t present at the time of the new customer’s purchase, you can ask them to share the name of the person who referred them — then you can verify that that person is a current social media follower on an iPad by your register and message them to let them know they have a gift waiting for them at your store.

Negotiate Early Payment Discounts with Suppliers

If you are able to lower the cost of manufacturing goods while maintaining their price point and quantity sold, you will be able to really grow profits. You can do that by reaching out to all of your suppliers to see if they would be open to early payment discounts. For example, say you usually spend $3000 each month on raw materials from one supplier — if you can agree on a 10% discount for paying your invoice one week early, this would save you $300!

Many suppliers may be open to it, as they may need the funds for operational expenses or other new business initiatives. Inflation has impacted companies in virtually every sector, so your suppliers may be struggling to cover all costs and could really use the early payment.

Create a New End-of-Year Promotion

Sales can really slump once all the festivities for Hanukkah, Christmas, and other holidays are over and the New Year hits. This is because consumers may feel that they overspent while holiday gift shopping, or one of their New Year’s Resolutions is to adhere to a strict budget and save more money. That said, it is important for company owners to implement strategies that will boost sales through the New Year and ensure a strong first quarter. Holding an exciting end-of-year promotion is the perfect way to do just that!

This strategy will drive up revenue and enhance profits. For example, you can set up a BOGO (Buy, One, Get One) deal on one of your product lines that starts on December 30th and ends January 7th. Or, email an exclusive VIS (Very Important Subscriber) discount to all of your newsletter subscribers. You can even set up a fun “New Year, New Savings!” Facebook event, where anyone who RSVPs will be notified of a big discount that you post in the event page.

I recommend having the promotion run right before the New Year hits and for a week or so after — this will give your current and potential customers the chance to take advantage of the sale, and they can tell all their peers about it as well.

To Wrap It All Up

The holiday season is always a hectic-but-thrilling time for businesses. You can maximize your company’s profits during the holidays by rewarding repeat customers, setting up a referral program, and hammering out early payment discounts with suppliers. Also, keep the sales flowing in once the holiday festivities are over by creating and promoting a new end-of-year promotion. These strategies will help you increase sales, profits, and overall business growth throughout the holiday season and well into the New Year.

Nathan Liao is the founder of CMA Exam Academy, a top Certified Management Accountant exam review program. As a CMA and CMA coach, Nathan mentors accounting and finance professionals in over 80 countries to earn their CMA certification in as little as 8 months. The unique review framework in CMA Exam Academy has proven to be the key to his students’ outstanding success in attaining their dream of earning the Certified Management Accountant certification. www.cmaexamacademy.com