Imagine it’s Thanksgiving week, and you’re busy with family gatherings and personal holiday planning, when you realize you’ve already sold out of all your customer’s favorite handmade Christmas Products. Now your email and social media are getting hit daily with “when will you have more?”.

You go to your supplier’s site to place an order and they are out of half the items you need for at least another week. There is only one weekend between now and Christmas that isn’t already packed with markets or family gatherings.

Some folks might pivot entirely, creating something new that may or may not sell. Others will take custom or pre-orders and work themselves completely ragged in the two weeks right before Christmas. Others will simply watch their momentum die off and lose out on sales revenue because they just don’t have time to do anything more.

What if it could be different though? What if Christmas in July wasn’t just a Marketing Phrase, but a system that lets you go into your holiday season better prepared. How much better would Fourth Quarter be with a sales plan, plenty of supplies on hand, and enough inventory to prevent yourself from working like crazy when you want to be spending time with family?

Here are the four steps you need to take right now to be ready for the holidays.

Review your Data

The first thing you need to do is review the products you sold last year, and maybe even the year before. Which ones sold best? When did you start selling them, and when did you stop? Try to look at actual sales data if you can. Do you have an inventory management system in place through a store front or website? Pull actual reports to see what you sold. Look back through your calendar, and even your social media, to see when you began to market different products and when they stopped selling. Was it because you ran out of stock? Or did sales for certain items simply drop off at a certain point? Don’t forget to pay attention not only to seasonal items, but your standard items as well! Once you’ve got all that information in front of you, ask yourself if you are happy with your sales volume from last year. Do you want to see an increase this year? What is your overall sales goal for this coming holiday season?

Plan your Sales Map

With the numbers you pulled from last year, you know when your sales started to pick up as you entered the Forth Quarter. Could you have sold more in October if you started selling sooner? Would more frequent restocks or product announcements grow your sales in November? Do you need one last market or sales push early in December?

Create a Sales Calendar that gives a visual representation of what you want to sell, when you want to sell it, and how/where you want to sell it. Assign actual sales goals to these items. Figure out how many items you have to sell to meet those goals in those specific time frames.

Build Inventory in Order

Now you’re ready to start adding the inventory creation into your weekly to-do lists. Make sure that the items you sell best early in the season are the ones you create first. Map out your inventory creation goals for each week from now until October 15th. Be sure to take into consideration any other items on your calendar and allow yourself time. Would it pay off for you to bring in some part-time help? Even just for supply prep? Keep an eye on that list, and if you fall behind, be sure to decrease across the board so that you don’t end up cutting one profitable product entirely for the sake of finishing another set of products that may not pay out as well.

Organize & Photograph Early

Spend time in September getting good product photos and writing descriptions for product listings, social media promotions and any of the ways you get the word out about what you are selling. Once you get caught up in the frenzy of a high sales season, pausing for pictures and captions could slow down your ability to actually fill orders and make sales. So create a folder with photos and word documents for captions, product descriptions and email blasts. Your future self will be so very grateful for everything you did to help them out!