You might think that Christmas is good for business. After all a lot of businesses, especially shops, do better over Christmas than any other time of the year because they receive a massive boost in takings – in fact, according to The Telegraph, people in the UK spent a total of £43 billion on Christmas in 2013. However, you might be surprised to learn the biggest holiday of the year can actually be bad for business. Read on for 4 ways Christmas is bad for business.
Distraction
It’s safe to say that Christmas can be a massive distraction because it’s such a big holiday and there’s always such a big build-up to it every year. It can be a distraction, especially when it comes to work, simply because for a few months of the year it’s unavoidable and it’s hard to get it off your mind. It’s not surprising that lots of people can’t switch off from Christmas while at work. As reported in BM Magazine, a survey carried out by MyVoucherCodes found that 48% of people have spent time at work shopping for Christmas presents. Businesses can lose lots of staff hours simply because staff haven’t been as focused as they should be.
Shutting up shop
Lots of business shut down over the Christmas period, whether it’s for a few days or even for a week or longer. They don’t want to do this, but they do it because of Christmas. A good business manager would want to keep their business going, but when Christmas comes around, they find themselves in a situation they would rather not be in. The main reason why so many businesses close temporarily over the holidays is because they know customers and clients are going to be focused on Christmas, so there’s no point trying to get their attention.
Money
As previously mentioned, lots of companies temporarily close over the Christmas holidays. However, staff usually still receive wages for a full month of work. On top of that, there’s typically a Christmas bonus as well. There’s also the fact that there’s a lot of overtime over the Christmas holidays – if you want staff to work over Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, for example, their wages will be reasonably higher than usual. In other words, business owners tend to pay staff a lot more at Christmas time than at any other time of year. For a business to be able to cope with so much money going out at once, it has to be prepared.
Staff retention
A lot of staff see Christmas as the culmination of the working year, even though New Year is just around the corner. If your business temporarily closes over Christmas, staff may well use this time off to think about their options for the future and re-evaluate what they want to be doing. Especially with New Year looming, people start considering their future more seriously around this time of year. You may well find that some staff consider leaving around the Christmas holidays because they want to start the New Year with a new job.
So as you can see there are a few reasons why Christmas can be bad for businesses. If you’re a business owner, you should be able to deal with the onslaught of Christmas and make your company survive, so long as you’re aware of what could happen. Be prepared for the worst, and you’ll cope with Christmas much better.
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