The festival season is approaching fast. The season is a time of joy and filled with happiness and the promise of prosperity for families across the nation.

For business owners, the season brings with it challenges and opportunities. Working capital needs are at their highest during Diwali season and SMEs are looking for liquidity to stock up in anticipation of a time when there are peak sales.

Advance planning is key in this situation to ensure that you, as a business owner, can both capitalise on the business opportunities afforded by the festive season, and have a time with your family and friends that is filled with memories.

For many business owners, there will be a few things to keep in mind this festive season:

1. Inventory planning: Ensure that you plan your sales & have sufficient inventory in place to meet the demands of your customers. Asking customers to pre-book may be a good way of forecasting the demand. FlexiLoans, a partner of GlobalLinker provides collateral free loans, specifically designed to help SMEs stock up inventory for the upcoming festive season. Apply for the loan by filling a simple application form. Connect with Co-Founder Manish Lunia for business opportunities.

2. Get the marketing strategy in place. 

• Target segment for your product: It is most important to identify the common characteristics of users of your product. This helps make the marketing campaign effective with user targeting so that the message reaches the right people.
  
  
• Channels of communication: The medium used to promote your product is equally important and determines your marketing budget. Explore radio, newspaper, cinemas as potential avenues for publicity. For local marketing, social media channels like Facebook and Instagram can be used for reaching to a wider audience. GlobalLinker has a partnership with releaseMyAd which allows SMEs to book offline & online advertisements. 
  
  
• Have a good offer & communicate it well: Finally, without a quality offer it will always be difficult to sell your products. Ensure that the offering is clear in all your communications. 
  
  
• Collaborate: Collaborate with complimentary businesses around you to market your products to their clients & their products to your clients. Explore options of creating joint marketing campaigns & offers.

3. Do financial planning to make sure your business is geared to make the most of the mileage generated by the festival.