Welcome back to another episode of Crickets to Cha-Chings!, where we are super focused on taking your shop from struggling sales to consistent Cha-chings! On today's episode, we are going to be talking about getting ready for the holidays and not be stressed and freaking out about the holidays. I want you to get an early start on it really processing and thinking about what you're going to be doing. Before we dive into that topic today, I am going to read the review of the week from Stephvic13. “Lauren is very authentic and gives clear direction on how to overcome shipping obstacles. She gives real examples and explains each situation in great detail. She’s very confident in her speaking and makes me believe that I can overcome any situation that arises while growing my Etsy business.” -- Stephvic13 If other listeners are out there having shipping issues or feeling not so confident in there customer service, go back to episode 026 - Got a Shipping Issue, Now What?   In this episode, we’ll talk about: How are we going to get our shops ready for the holiday season - 8 steps/process to holiday preparations Whether or not your product is going to be something that fits the holiday niche of popular items Copying some of your listings and update titles/tags to reflect holiday Deciding on your holiday end dates Making sure you have product in stock and letting people know what is popular and likely to sell out Making things ahead of time if not personalize - TAT of your products and adding rush fees on last minute orders How to make this easier on the gift giver and less stress for them - gift wrapping, note cards, inserting gifts and more… Thinking about sales - running a sale, promoting on social media and building up excitement and hype before the date… listen to episode 024 about “Should you run a sale to your Etsy shop” Communicating with your audience about everything regarding the holidays - controlling your business and talking about possible shipping issues Finding balance between business and family - drawing boundaries That’s all for this week. I have a super special episode coming up next week. This is going to be my first time interviewing a guest on the podcast and I'm really excited for you guys to hear it.   Resources:  Free Holiday Planning Guide Episode 024 Should You Run a Sale to Your Etsy Shop Episode 026 You’ve Got a Shipping Issue, Now What Facebook Group