The holiday season was on everyone’s mind at this month’s Mastermind. Marketers shared holiday flier designs, discussed if Black Friday was overrated, how to drive more sales during the seasonally slow months (Mums!?), tips for hosting holiday events, and new product ideas (like Poinsettias) for special times of the year. General Managers debated whether or not blackout dates for holiday PTO requests were a good idea, shared some blackout templates, discussed policy language used in conversations about employees wanting a raise, and talked about potential benefits to offer leadership positions. Oh, and everyone keeps talking about the comms hub for hardware stores, Dexter. Ok, let’s dive in!
key takeaways from Octboer's mastermind

Marketing Mastermind Takeaways:

Wondering how you can boost sales during the slower winter season? Festive holiday events are the perfect way to engage your community and stay on people’s minds. Some stores even noticed the average checkout was 2.5 times higher when the whole family came out for an event!

Here are some ideas for engaging holiday events and promotions:

  • Santa Photos – A couple of stores will find a local Santa, grab a camera, have parents fill out a form with their information, and email them the photos.
  • The Grinch – This one is always a crowd-pleaser! Grab a costume and get an employee to volunteer to make an appearance in your store and around town!
  • Elf on the Shelf – Alright, so this one might be a nightmare for parents, but it makes for a fun scavenger hunt for kids coming in the store, AND it makes for engaging long form daily social content for posts!
  • Ladies Night (Hosted Before Thanksgiving) – Some of our innovators consider this event to be the most important night of the year. This is your chance to feature your holiday decor and giftwares. Make sure to leverage your vendors!
  • Santa’s Workshop for Young Builders – Are you already hosting Young Builders events? Turn these into Santa’s Workshop and have the whole family attend. When both parents come, one ends up browsing the shelves for presents!
  • Festive Displays – Several innovators turn their greenhouse into a winter wonderland. This takes anywhere from a few days to an entire month, depending on how big you want to go! For those of you with 4 seasons, the ROI of converting outdoor garden space into a Christmas tree stand, holiday lights display, and gifting has proven to be highly successful.
  • Seasonally-Relevant Products
    • Christmas Trees
      • Pro Tip for Boosting B2B Sales: Partner with your town center, city hall, and local businesses to provide live trees!
      • Pro Tip for Delivery Branding: Keep things inclusive by offering delivery for some of your customers who may need it! Tack on a delivery fee depending on distance because it’s the experience they pay for when shopping in our stores.
      • Christmas Wreaths are a big hit!
      • Poinsettias and Mums (yes, Mums!)
        • Pro Tip: Hit up the local churches in your area – they go hand over fist for these!
        • Pumpkins, Squashes, & Gourds

The effectiveness of traditional Black Friday events was heavily debated. It may not be just one day anymore (for all you Ace folks), but you can shift your marketing messaging more towards the benefits of alleviating the shopping rush around Thanksgiving and giving your family-owned store employees the day off because family is more important than commerce. This saves stress for shoppers AND employees!

 

Helpful Resources:

General Managers Mastermind Takeaways:

Are you worried about everyone taking their time off all at once at the end of the year?

In this month’s call, we discussed the pros and cons of blackout dates for managing high-traffic seasons.

One GM encouraged us to review PTO accumulation before the end of the year. Another shared that they only allow one employee from each department or segment of the store to take off at the same time.

  • As a rule, consider PTO at 5 days after a trial period of 30 days earned 1 day per month worked, then increase PTO to 10 days after 1 year and 15 days after 10 years based on the ROI of the employee’s tenure with the company. This is exclusive of sick days (mandatory in CO).
  • When there is more than one role within a department, include language in your employee handbook about only one being able to take off time at once.
  • All PTO requests must be submitted no later than 30 days from the days off.
    When it comes to wages, consider starting everyone off at the same wage and then using a formula to calculate their raises from there. Some of us only do raises once a year, and that’s in January, which saves us from having to host a conversation at all times of the year.
  • Maintaining a healthy friction between those in your organization that are great at relationship building and those that excel in maintaining processes is crucial. Some stores have a single owner who is good at one or the other and that is detrimental to the rest of the organization.
  • Throwing more money/benefits at an employee doesn’t always fix the problem. When challenged with an ultimatum or disgruntled leader, taking a pause and listening to their frustrations is often much better received than offering an increase in pay or PTO.

One innovator shared the benefit of offering a short-term rollover through February. You might have an employee saving a handful of days in case of emergency, and when the year is up, they scramble to take time off. Do everyone a favor and allow them to roll it over into the beginning of next year (it’s the slow season, anyway).

The conversation also touched on the need for fairness in pay and benefits and the importance of clear, transparent policies to maintain trust and morale. Whatever you are doing should be fair for everyone, but there are unique ways of doing this! We concluded that if it works for your store (and it’s legal), keep doing it!

Helpful Resources:

If you’re a leader looking for a communication hub for your entire organization, check out Dexter which has been highly recommended by multiple members.

Join us next month for November's mastermind

Join Us on November 20th for our Next Mastermind

For November, we’ll have two groups that meet: marketing and GMS.

Marketers will discuss how to harness digital circulars in 2025.

GMs will discuss leadership tracks and recruitment ideas.

Need help signing up? Send us an email: hello@hardwareinnovators.com

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Email us at hello@hardwareinnovators.com to get access to the Slack Channel! The best part? It’s 100% free and puts you in touch with hardware store general managers and marketers to ask questions and get immediate feedback from what worked at other hardware stores!

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