Things In My Head

This article was originally written by me in November of 2009 when I owned an SEO and online marketing firm.  I still refer back to this article from time to time because it rings true every year.  I’ve updated the article slightly to include more information and updated references, but it’s original message is left intact.

I’m seriously thinking that we need to eliminate Thanksgiving from our list of approved holidays from here on out.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m a devout patriot and love holiday’s.

In fact, I agree wholeheartedly with the holiday festivities, and getting together with family.  I enjoy the games, sharing stories of the past, watching the kids play with Grammies dog, and cooking up the holiday feasts.

Many of us know that turkey has a chemical in it called Tryptophan that makes us a bit sleepy.  The rest of the meal probably helps us feel comforted and sleepy as well.  This phenomenon of feeling sleepy doesn’t seem to work on children, of course, but for the rest of us, we tend to take a little nap after the main course, relax and enjoy things.

And after a few hours, everyone seems to wake up…

…except business owners – they seem to sleep until after the New Year!

For the entire month of December, the turkey dinner puts them to sleep, no longer with a feeling of wanting to do business and make money.

If a business is taking one whole month off work, they are reducing their profits by 1/12, or 8.3%.  Many businesses  have gone under in the last few years,  and often times they were only seeing a decline of  5-10% in profits, so you can see where this 8.3% figure can put you out of business.

Can you imagine what would happen to your business if you could boost your bottom line by 8.3%?  I suspect that the fear of going under would simply vanish.  It is this 8.3% figure – caused directly by turkey – that is the impetus for my call to eliminate Thanksgiving turkey dinner.

Here’s a typical conversation that I seem to have about this time every year:

Me: “Hey Joe, you wanna have some coffee and talk about that new widget you’re working on?”

Joe: “Sure, but with the holidays and all, lets wait until after the New Year”.

Is he for real? The lessons that I grew up with were that business owners were the ones that put in the extra hours, sweat their own blood, and do everything they can to put it all together.  But I’m seeing business owners drumming to a different tune in the last few years where they do only what they have to, and a 40 hour week is almost too much for them to handle.

Before you go ballistic in the comments below, I know that there are many exceptions to this rule, where the business owner is truly busy during this time of year, keeping up with holiday loads, managing employee retention, keeping products fully stocked, etc, etc.

I’m talking about business owners and independent consultants that just up and take all of December off, and then complain for the next 6 months that they don’t have any business in the pipeline.

Do the rest of us a favor, lay off the turkey at Thanksgiving, stay awake for the month of December, and never, ever – under any circumstances – say that you’re too busy to schedule an appointment until January.

Have a Happy Holiday

no matter what you celebrate or where in the world you may be