[00:00:00] Should you run a black Friday special. Well, let's talk about this. I have. Maybe an unpopular opinion when it comes to black Friday deals. So let's talk about that today on success in mind. Oh. And make sure you grab your pen and paper because I'm going to give you. Some questions to go through for yourself to decide if you should be running a black Friday deal. Okay, let's go.
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All right. Should your business be participating in black Friday now? I know what some of you are thinking. Isn't this a no brainer. Everybody does black Friday, but stick with me here. Because this decision is more nuanced than you might think, and it could have lasting impacts on your business. Well, beyond the holiday season, So let's start with what makes black Friday so tempting.
Well, the statistics are mind blowing. Consumer spend billions during black Friday weekend. And it's become such a big cultural phenomenon that your customers aren't just hoping for black Friday deals, they are expecting them. So picture this, your competitors are slashing their prices. Your email box is flooded with promotional ideas and your team is asking you what your black [00:02:00] Friday strategy will be.
And the pressure can be. Real. But should we give into that pressure?
So there might be some hidden opportunities with black Friday. And we're going to weigh out all the pros and the cons. And I'll share with you what I do for black Friday. A little bit later on, so make sure you keep listening. So let's talk about where the hidden opportunities are. Here's what most entrepreneurs are missing about black Friday. It's not just about discounting.
It's a strategic opportunity to build your customer base. To get rid of old inventory to generate cashflow before your year end. To build excitement around your brand and maybe to even test some new marketing strategies or to test out a new product or promotion.
But let's talk about some risks because with everything there is a risk. I have seen, and I see this every single year, way too many small business owners jump into black Friday without considering the full [00:03:00] picture.
First of all there's margin erosion, every percentage point that you discount come straight out of your profit. And for some businesses, especially those with tight margins, this can be devastating. Then there's brand impact. If you are positioning yourself as a premium provider. How does that align with discounting your product or your service? How does that align with your overall message and brand. You might get some short term sales, but you could lose out on the value perception of your brand.
So, how do we know what to do? Well, I'm going to share with you an example, back from when I was a personal trainer. Way back when, and that was when Groupons were the big thing and everyone was jumping on the Groupon bandwagon or similar types of products. And the idea of it was that people would buy into this Groupon deal.
They would get an [00:04:00] insanely discounted service or product. And the hopes would be that you would grow your clientele base. And I knew many bootcamps who were doing this. I was offering bootcamps and I felt a lot of FOMO that if I didn't offer a group on deal, I was going to lose out on all of this business that was coming through Groupon. So I ran a group on deal. And the thing with Groupon is it had to be extremely discounted.
Like we're not talking. 10 20% off. We're talking like 75, 80% off. Now I was able to do this because. Writing boot camps was incredibly affordable. Other than my insurance and paying for the field space with the city, which wasn't very expensive. I didn't have direct costs. It was mostly just my time. And I could sacrifice on time a bit.
And considering that it was a group program, it didn't really matter if everyone was paying the premium price or not. I was [00:05:00] still making money no matter what I was going to make money. So doing a Groupon seemed like a good idea to me. And I got a huge influx of new bootcampers that month. It was super exciting. And at first it seemed like, wow, this is going to be fantastic for me. Until the next month came around and they were at the next bootcamp, literally on the same field as me. The next one over. Doing someone else's bootcamp on that group on that month.
And I realized that people were just hopping from Groupon to Groupon bootcamp to bootcamp. And I wasn't going to retain these clients because they were there because it was cheap. And this is what I want you to really consider right now. They were there because it was cheap. Not because they wanted to work with me, not because they were committed to my brand or my bootcamp, not because of the community I had built with my bootcampers.
They were there [00:06:00] solely because it was cheap. And so they did not roll over into another month. And you might be thinking well, but it brought you some cashflow that month. Um, it was so discounted and that I had so many more people to manage. And it still costs me my time, but extra time, because I had to add in more sessions during the week. Which was time taking away from the people who are either paying me full price for bootcamp. Or my one-on-one personal training clients who paid. A substantial amount for their hour. Uh, so it really did not help my business in the long run.
It probably even damaged the brand significantly. I was offering a premium service. And to discount it that much brought in the wrong kind of clientele who were not there for the right reasons. And it also set me up to fail in that. If people are used to seeing that, oh, you run these Groupon deals. They [00:07:00] would wait for the next group on.
So they went to the next bootcamp next door. He ran his the next month. And they just bounced around from bootcamp to bootcamp. And some of them even asked me, when are you writing another group on deal? I'll buy your next Groupon and come back. These are not the people who I wanted. These were not the clients that I wanted. And while I do think that there is a place for that for heavily discounted services. In every marketplace, that's not the business I was running and it wasn't my business model.
So it didn't work for me. So, how does this relate to black Friday? Well, it's the same kind of idea.
I
have I run black Friday deals in this business I have, but I do it differently. And we're going to talk about that a little bit later. But first let's talk about how you might decide. How can you make the decision? Whether or not to run a black Friday deal. So you could go back to even last week's episode and look at the decision making framework. Um, but let's talk specifically about how to make this decision. [00:08:00] So number one, you need to know your numbers.
What are your current margins? If you're a service-based business, it's going to be very different than if you are a product based business. Can you absorb the discount? What's your inventory situation. If you have a product you need to know, do you have the inventory that can manage a massive influx in orders?
Secondly understand your market.
What are your competitors doing? What do your customers expect? How price sensitive is your market. Now I've used this example before I'm going to use it again here. Within the restaurant industry, we have McDonald's and then we have really high end steak houses who charged like hundreds of dollars just for kind of meat without any sides or anything else. They both exist in the food industry.
But they're catering to a completely different clientele. It's the same way that. A discounted a cheaper car. I don't know if any cars are really considered cheap [00:09:00] these days. But, you know what I mean? It's Kia. I think he is still considered an economy kind of vehicle. Exists in the same realm. In the same industry. As a range Rover. Or BMW. Or we can go in further and say rolls, Royce rolls, Royce. They make cars Kia makes cars.
Toyota makes cars. Ford makes cars. Do you get what I'm saying? There's room for everyone within the marketplace. So what. Market are you in? And where do your clients lie within that? I remember when I was in personal training, I was, I mean, not only did I do the Groupon thing. But I kept discounting services and I kept trying to compete with every other personal trainer in my gym. And not even in the gym, really in my city. And one of my clients said something to me that I will never forget.
She was a re [00:10:00] she was retired at the time, but she was a consultant. Prior to that. And she said to me, Terry. Stop selling hamburger. If you want steak clients. I'm going to say that again, because it bears repeating stop selling hamburger. If you want to stake clients. I was trying to sell hamburger, but I wanted the steak client. So, what do they expect in your industry? And then three, consider your brand. Does discounting align with your positioning?
If you are positioning yourself as a premium service, a premium product discounting. Might not be right for you. Just like it. Wasn't right. For me in personal training.
Could you offer value without deep discounts? We're going to come back to that one. And what's your longterm vision for the business?
Now I could see this being very appealing to business owners at this time of year, especially if you are a solo [00:11:00] preneur. And you're thinking about how am I going to pay for the holiday season? How am I going to buy my kids presents this year? If cashflow is tight, you might be thinking, well, this is a good way to get some quick cash into my business, but there are maybe some alternatives we can explore. And this is where I think it gets interesting.
So consider these alternatives. Instead of just discounting and cutting your prices. Could you do one of these instead? One.
Bundle products to maintain margins while offering value.
So, instead of saying, um, buy this lipstick at a discount, maybe it's when you buy the lipstick, you're going to get the lip liner included. Or maybe you get the lipstick and the lip liner and you're paying for both, but you get a discount when you buy both products, not just the one.
Create limited edition items.
So maybe you're going to offer something you don't usually offer. This is what I have done in the past. I don't normally offer hypnotherapy as a standalone service. It's bundled into my [00:12:00] coaching. It's part of my overall coaching methodology.
But I have on black Friday before offer just a three hypnosis special, where you get three sessions of hypnotherapy. So it was kind of a trial offer for people who were interested in working with me and just wanted a sampling of what I do. Or maybe they just had a quick fix kind of problem. That three hypnosis sessions could take care of.
Like maybe they're biting their nails, for example. Or maybe they're dealing with some mindset issues in their business and they just need a little push, a little nudge to get beyond it. Three hypnosis sessions. We'll do that.
Can you offer exclusive services or experience, offer something again, that's not normally offered. Can you give value added bonuses instead of discounts?
So, what can you add?
And lastly, focus on small business Saturday.
Can you give value added bonuses instead of discounting? [00:13:00] And finally focus on small business Saturday. Instead. So here's what I suggest doing, especially if you are a small service-based business. Add don't subtract. Instead of discounting your service. What can you add to it instead? Can you add an extra session? Can you add another service?
For example, say you do lashes. And you provide lash extensions for people. If that is your service, instead of discounting that service, could you add a lash growing serum for everyone who books with you? On that day. Or that black Friday weekend. That they will get a product, or it could be another service that when they book their lashes with you that weekend and they pay in advance, um, maybe can you add like a scalp massage or something else that you can do that you can [00:14:00] offer? So think about adding don't subtract. If you are a course provider, you probably have bonuses already that you can add in.
So if you're going to sell your course, I discounted rate. You probably have other courses you could add and you can bundle it. Or you could add it as a bonus, however you want to position it. So think about adding, not subtracting. That is my personal favorite strategy to dealing with black Friday. Now before you even consider running a black Friday special. You need to plan this out. I see way too often, people at the very last minute, throwing together a black Friday special and they offer it on black Friday. But they haven't warmed up their audience. No one's expecting it.
No one knows it's coming. And think about it. If you are not doing any marketing, leading up to your Brock, your black Friday discount special. Or her black Friday offer. And then on black Friday, you decided you're going to announce [00:15:00] this out to the masses. You are now competing with really big brands who have been paying for advertising leading up to black Friday. Who were dumping massive amounts of money into their black Friday specials to make sure that they are seen in front of people.
And now you're competing for that same attention. So, if you were going to offer any kind of a black Friday promotion, it is now Tuesday, November 5th, you need to be starting now, planning it out, teasing it out, letting your clients, your customers know that this is coming and to watch for it. You need to warm up the audience.
You need to be putting out content now, especially if you want to run any kind of paid ads. And. Here's my disclaimer. I am not an ad person. I don't sell ads or people. I don't do ads for people. Do I run ads in my business. Yes. Have I become pretty good at them. Yes, but please don't take my word for it.
I am not the ads expert. But what I'll tell you from my experience is that [00:16:00] if you put out content. Organic content on the platforms you intend to buy ads from, and you do that consistently before you run your ad. It warms up the audience and it helps the algorithm decide who should be seeing your ads. So that when you do put some money behind something, You can let the algorithm do its job.
It knows who's going to respond favorably to that ad because you've been creating content around that same product, that same service leading people to that. So the people who have been engaging with the content are the same people that are going to see the ad. You've warmed up your audience. They're ready for you. Again, I'm not the ads guru.
I'm not the ads person, but I've studied. Marketing with a lot of really successful marketers. And this is a strategy that's worked for me. But you need to figure out your own, your own way. That's just, what's worked for me. So remember this. The most successful entrepreneurs don't blindly follow the crowd just because [00:17:00] everyone else is doing it doesn't mean you should do it. And it doesn't mean you have to do it the way they do it. You need to make strategic decisions based on your unique business model and your goals. So before you decide, ask yourself this final question. Will this move, strengthen or weaken my business position. Am I acting from strategy. Or FOMO. And if you do decide to participate, do it intentionally. If you decide to skip it. Do it confidently. And the last thing I will leave you with to consider is that if you go down this rabbit hole and you start slashing your prices, Without a good strategy or a good reason behind doing so. Either setting your clients up to wait for the next discount and the next discount, and then you will get trapped. Into always selling based on price and only being able to sell your services when you run some crazy offer. And you're gonna burn out. And you're going to wonder, why am I not making the [00:18:00] kind of money that I want to make?
That is the trap. So that is it for today. My entrepreneur friends, if you found this valuable, hit the subscribe button. Share it with another business owner, who's wrestling with the same issues that you are. Leave me a comment rate, review the show. Leave me a comment. If you're on Spotify. Or reach out to me on Instagram.
That's where I spend the most time on social media. I would love to hear from you.
So until next time next. Ooh. Oh, I am before I must forgot before I leave you. Next week. I have a really exciting episode on differentiation with my brand strategist. You held Demontre and he is an absolute expert on how to differentiate yourself. So this falls right in line with what we're talking about today, not following the trends and making sure you stand out from the crowd. So, thank you so much for being here.
My friends, I hope you have a fabulous week and I look forward to being back with you next time. Bye. For now.
