A (0:00)

Morning Zoe Got donuts.

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Jeff Bridges why are you still living above our garage?

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Wow.

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Impressive. Let me try. T Mobile is the best place to get iPhone 17 Pro because they've got the best network.

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Nice.

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Je free.

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You heard them.

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T Mobile is the best place to.

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Get the new iPhone 17 Pro on us with eligible traded in any condition.

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So what are we having for lunch?

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Dude, my work here is done.

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The 24 month bill credits on experience beyond for well qualified customers plus tax and 35 device connection charge credit send and balance due if you pay off earlier Cancel Finance agreement. IPhone 17 Pro 256 gigs 1099.99 A new line minimum 100 plus a month plan with auto pay plus taxes and fees required Best mobile network in the US based on analysis by Oklahoma Speed Test Intelligence Data 182025 Visit t mobile.com.

C (1:00)

Introducing the redesigned Dell PC with the Intel Core Ultra processor. It helps you handle a lot even when your holiday to do list gets to be a lot. From organizing your holiday shopping and responding to holiday requests to planning the perfect holiday dinner. Luckily you can get a PC with all day battery life so you can do it all faster to get it all done. That's the power of a Dell PC with Intel inside. Get yours@dell.com holiday so the holidays are about to be upon us and it's one of the best times of the year to make more money in your business, but not because of the gimmicks or the giant discounts that people offer. This is when people are already in the buying mode and you want to capitalize on that. People want to spend, people want to give, and they're looking for reasons to say yes. Today I'm going to show you five smart holiday strategies that can boost your revenue, deepen loyalty with your customers, and even make your business look better. In the process, it's going to improve your brand, improve how people perceive you. I'm going to show you step by step how to deploy each of these five. Welcome back to the $100 MBA Show. I'm your host Omar Zenholm where I deliver practical business lessons three times a week, Monday, Wednesday and Friday to help you start, grow and scale your business real quick. If these episodes Help you in any way. Hit the follow button on this podcast app. It helps us to keep bringing you practical business insights three times a week for free. Thanks. First, I want to address the fact that I'm talking about this right now so you can start working on this. Start implementing the things I'm talking to you about today. Because during November and December, statistically purchase intent skyrockets. People expect to get offers from you. They want a deal, they want a reason to buy, really. And the goal isn't to slash prices until, until you bleed out all your margins. What you want to do is you want to create timely reasons to act now. And what I found in my experience is that the best offers that tie into the season, tie into them emotionally with generosity, with giving, with gratitude, or a fresh start for the new year. You want to tie into those emotions so that you give them a compelling reason to buy. Now, let me start with strategy number one to increase your revenue this holiday season. And that's buy one, give one. Now, a lot of people know buy one, get one where like you buy one item from a store and they give you one for free. So basically it's like a two for one special. But this is a feel good strategy. This kind of turns it on its head. A good example of this is Masterclass. They do this brilliantly with their buy a membership, get a second one for a friend, and they run this promotion during the holidays. Why? Because they are tapping into the holiday generosity. They know you need to get a gift for somebody in your family that maybe you're not sure what to get them. And Masterclass is probably perfect for most people that want to grow, that want to learn because there's videos and courses on pretty much every topic. So what Masterclass is doing is allowing their customers to be the hero they're buying for themselves, but they also get a membership for a friend that they can gift. So how can you use it? Well, you can sell your course or your membership the same exact way and offer, offer a gift a friend code. So basically you don't have to make this super complicated. You could just ask the customer to email you once they buy and you will give them a code, a coupon code for their friend. That code will give them a hundred percent off. Make sure that this coupon code is limited to one and is is also unique. So that way you can give out unique codes to every purchase. Now you also want to run it in a limited window. So like if you buy today, you'll also be able to get a Gift code for your friend in the next seven days. You gotta buy within seven days, but you can also run the limited window for the actual voucher itself so that your friend has to cash it in at some point. So you want to give a little bit of leeway here because you want them to be able to give it during the holidays. So maybe you can say they need to cash in within six months. So you want to make it easy for them to gift this code so you can give them a template of messages they can send to their friend, or you can just go above and beyond and say, hey, we will send it to your friend if you'd like, with a special message, you know, you can provide any kind of extra message you want to, similar to what Amazon does when you gift a item that you're buying. So you could just send the email directly to the person that's getting the gift and say, hey, your friend so and so bought you this gift for their holidays. Here you go. The key here is to make this gift feel valuable and not cheap. And this is what I love about it, is that yes, you are buying a membership for a year, but then you're getting a free year of membership for a friend. So it feels like two birds and one stone. You're buying something for yourself, but you're also buying something for somebody else with the same amount of money. Kind of fun, buy one, get one free. But also in the context of, of learning and courses and programs and memberships, I think this is even more powerful because by getting a friend to do the courses with you, you kind of have a study buddy and you have an accountability buddy and you're more likely to do the work and do the courses and implement and get results. My second strategy for the holidays is a little bit of a different spin of the previous one. And this is get one, get a hundred dollar gift card. This is a perfect offer if your buyers are very practical. And the offer is basically buy today and I'm going to give you a hundred dollar Amazon gift card for your holiday shopping. So your holiday shopping is sorted. So why does it work? Well, it reframes the purchase. Instead of discounting your product, you're allowing them to save time and you're basically giving them money so they can buy gifts on Amazon. Now I like the Amazon example or any online store really, and that way you can, you know, ship the gifts to whoever you want with that, you know, gift certificate. It literally feels like you're giving them money. Now this works for products that have a Little bit of a higher price point that have high margins and you can afford to spend the hundred dollar gift certificate on Amazon. A good example of this is like a SaaS company, a software that you buy an annual plan for and then you get the gift card. So higher price kind of deals and make sense. Another one could be a coaching program. Maybe you have a coaching program for 5 or $10,000. Your margins are pretty high and you could say hey, enroll in the course, enroll in the program and you'll get a hundred dollar gift card that you can use on books or gear that you need to implement some of the stuff that we're going to be talking about in the program. The only little stipulation I would give when it comes to this strategy is you want to have a grace period before you give them the gift card and you want to allot some time for refunds or are chargebacks. So maybe it's seven days, maybe it's 14 days, you make that judgment. But the point here is that you don't want to give everything at once and then they want a refund and then they already use the gift card. It's a little bit messy and you're kind of out of pocket. So usually in this Strategy people wait seven or 14 days until the refund policy is over with maybe some leeway as well. And you know there is no kind of buyer's remorser chargeback. One of the tools that makes a huge difference for business owners is quo, formerly OpenPhone. It's the same great business phone system you've heard me talk about before, just with a new name. And here's why it matters. If you're running a business, you know that every time you miss a call, you're leaving money on the table. When every customer conversation matters, you need a phone system that keeps up and helps you stay connected 24 7. And that's why you need Quo. With Quo, your team can share one number and collaborate on customer calls and texts like a shared inbox. So anyone can jump in and keep response times fast. When we were building our software company webinar ninja, for 10 years before we got acquired, this was our hallmark. Responding to our customers so fast that they couldn't believe it. This is why I'm so excited to tell you about Quo. Because if I knew this existed when I was running my software business back in the day, I would use it in a heartbeat. See why over 90,000 businesses trust Quo, formerly OpenPhone. Get started free plus get 20% off your first six months@quo.com MBA that's quo.com MBA and if you have existing numbers with another service, quo will port them over at no extra charge. Quo. No missed calls, no missed customers. Today's episode is brought to you by Fabletics. When you live in activewear like I do, you can never have enough. But the good stuff usually costs a fortune. That's why Fabletics is amazing. When you sign up for Fabletics VIP, you can get 80% off everything. Seriously. And after that, it's about 60 bucks a month. Unless you skip a month. That monthly fee gives you exclusive benefits, including a credit you can use towards a full outfit or bundle worth up to $100. I'm a numbers guy, so I did the math for you. That equals crazy savings. But Fabletics isn't just great value. It's great quality, great fashion, great fabrics. And it's designed with an approach to reduce the environmental impact on the world. So what's there not to like? Fabletics is great quality activewear with amazing savings. Treat yourself to gear that looks good, feels good, and doesn't break the bank with Fabletics. Go to Fabletics.com MBA and sign up as a VIP and get 80% off everything. Strategy number three, in my opinion, is my favorite. It's brilliant. I've seen it implemented a few times with some of my friends, and it's just smart. Here it is. The price goes up next year. What is this? This is all about urgency, and it's all about transparency. You're going to announce your customers that right now is the best time to buy. Why? Because prices increase on January 1st. This is your last chance to get lifetime access or my rates at this rate in 2025. So basically, if you want my product or service at the best price possible, now it's time to buy. Because the price will go up on January 1st. Like I mentioned, a friend of mine runs the same promo every year. His customers expect it, and they buy before the price goes up, so they know for sure the price is going up because it happened last year, and they capitalize on the opportunities. This offer actually gets better over time. This plays to the fear of paying more later and not the fear of missing out on some Black Friday deal. It rewards people who take action early without devaluing your product. And like slashing prices, you're still making as much money as you would have made yesterday. But you're showing people that you are improving your product, you're improving your service, and therefore the prices are going up. And now is the time to buy Here's a pro tip. Announce the price increase publicly. Okay, so say, for example, it's during the holidays and you send the email out to your list and you say, hey, my prices are going up January 1st. So now's the time to buy January 1st rolls around, email the same people who haven't bought though, obviously, and say, hey, my price did go up and say, here's the new price. Wishing you guys all a great year ahead. Happy to serve you. That builds trust for the next year. Saying that you kept your word. Just like if something sells out, you tell people it actually sells out and they can't buy. Strategy number four. Buy today, pay most in 2026. This is a payment flexibility play. People are a lot of times strapped on cash, low on funds, especially towards the end of the year. They spent a lot of money on gifts already. You want to offer a generous payment plan. Maybe they can pay a small deposit now in 2025, and they can pay the bulk in 2026 over a course of a few months. So why does this work? Well, like I mentioned, December is a high expense month. Gifts, travels, holidays, people just buying groceries to make Thanksgiving dinner and making Christmas dinner and all that kind of stuff. You also remove the financial friction so people can say, yes now. So you say, hey, we know things are tight, so why don't you go ahead buy it now by just having a small deposit or one payment and we'll break up the rest of the amount over the next four or five months in the new year. So for example, if you have a program that's $997, you could say, hey, pay $97 now and the rest over 12 months starting in February. So even you give them a whole month of grace period in January. We've done this a lot in my software company, Webinar Ninja, you sign up today, first payment in 30 days. But make sure you communicate. You lock in today's price even though payments start later. That's a win win. So you get a good deal and you don't have to pay most of the money until later. Strategy number five, the anti Black Friday. We've done this so many times at Webinar Ninja year after year. It's one that's close to my heart. And what it is all about is that instead of doing Black Friday, we do Green Friday. It's a campaign that we decided to do for new customers who want to buy our product but need a compelling reason why to buy now. So what is Green Friday? Well, for every new customer during that period of time, we planted 10 trees on their behalf. We didn't discount the product we gave back. We gave them something that maybe they would be interested in. So people that are really into goodwill, into the environment love the idea of nature. This kind of stood out from the crowd of noise and, you know, Black Friday deals and slashing prices. People are like, hey, I like your platform. I don't need a discount. Or maybe I rather have this instead. Listen, you may not be this way, but there's a lot of people out there that think differently. So you might want to do something similar like donate a portion of the sales to charity or sponsor local families or schools. Or a portion of the proceeds go to feeding families that don't have, you know, Thanksgiving dinner or Christmas dinners. You could do what we did, plant trees, fund clean water, or support entrepreneurship programs, all kinds of stuff. Once everyone else is screaming, you know, sale and buy now, you can stand up by just saying, hey, we're giving back. We're giving back this holiday season and you're helping us out. Customers remember that. And it goes a long way after the holidays and it's a good boost for your brand and shows that, hey, you're not just trying to make money, you're also trying to make a difference. So I want to give you some advice when it comes to which strategy to use for which scenarios. So if you have a low price product, the buy one gift one idea is a really good one because it really shows a lot of value. They're getting double the value basically every time they buy your product. So when they buy your product, they can gift that product to a friend as well. If you have a high ticket, offer an expensive product, try payment plans or price increases next year so they feel like, hey, this is the best offer possible. And if you're a mission driven brand, go green on Friday, right? Go green on that Black Friday or that cyber Monday. Whichever you pick, make the deadline clear, keep your messaging simple, and you really want to just make sure you're delivering real value. If you're a customer of your own product, would you find this to be compelling? Would you find this to be a good deal? Ask yourself that question and it'll be pretty clear on what to do. So to recap real quick, here are five ways to use your holidays to make more money. The buy one, give one offer the gift card bonus. Prices go up next year. Buy now, pay later. And then finally, number five, Green Friday. Giving back. Whichever choice you choose, whatever route you choose, do it with intention. Make Your customer feel good about buying from you, opposed to your competitor. They're going to come back year after year if they feel like they're getting value, but also feel like you're doing this for the right reasons. And what I like to do is in my emails, in my marketing is just be transparent, honest. Why we're doing this? Hey, we are giving away a free membership for every membership that is purchased so that you can gift it to a friend to make your holiday shopping easy. But also we want to spread the word about our program and we want to make sure that you can invite like minded people to the program by gifting them this for the holiday. Just be honest and people will kind of resonate with them. Be like, cool, I get that. That makes sense. Let me find out how I can buy this product before I go. I want to leave you with this. The holidays are a time for you to get creative and it doesn't have to be this mad rush, it doesn't have to be crazy. And maybe the holidays are not like a make or break thing for you. You know, I used to work at a Toys R Us corporate big toy store in the US And I used to do tech support when I was in university there and do a lot of like it work there and help with their security and their computers and all that kind of stuff. And it was insane. November, December and even into January because some people celebrated orthodox Christmas that's into January. And you know, it's, it's toys obviously. So this is the season. And you know, Toys R Us made, I believe, 25 to 30% of all their annual revenue in the holiday season. So a crazy amount of revenue was made in that time. And if it was kind of make or break for them, your business may not be that way. You know, it may just be, you know, let's try to maintain the sales numbers we do every month, you know, so don't feel like you have to have like this huge boost of sales in the season just because it's the holiday season. Use some of the strategies I shared with you today. But understand you want to make sure that this is not just, you know, a time where you make all this money and you don't make money throughout the year. Right. Know your business, know your market, know your product. And with Toys R Us, for example, they know that they're going to make the bulk of their money in the holiday season because that's when people buy toys and gifts for kids. If you found today's episode helpful and you want more practical business lessons to help you start, grow and scale your business. The best thing you could do is subscribe to this podcast, hit subscribe or follow on your favorite podcast app, the one that you're using right now. Whether it's Apple or Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts, by hitting subscribe, you get our next episode automatically and it's the best way to support the show. It's absolutely free and it's a way for you to commit to growing your business. And now that you subscribed, I'll check you in the next episode.