What Local Exeter Businesses Can Do to Profit from Winter Traditions
Winter can be a difficult time of year for some businesses but it is highly profitable for others. A survey from Notonthehighstreet revealed that 20% of small firms in the UK fear going out of business if their Christmas sales are lower than expected. Bad weather keeps people at home, while money is also tight at the end of the year.
What can be done to entice more consumers to support their local companies over this period? While many people choose to stay at home on cold evenings, some classic winter traditions can be used to entice others to go out and have some fun.
An Original Twist on a Well-Loved Recipe
This time of year is when we enjoy recipes such as eggnog, turkey and Christmas pudding. Yet, not everyone has the time or the culinary skills to make these treats at home. According to Aunt Bessie, the average British person rates the Christmas dinner they make as seven out of ten, with 60% of cooks feeling stressed in the build-up.
A different study from McCain brought back the result that only 5% of people in the UK will cook their festive lunch from scratch. Therefore, it seems clear that there is a gap in the market for businesses that offer quality food around Christmas time. This could involve a twist on the classic recipes that we all love. It is easy to imagine people venturing out in the cold and the dark when there is something delicious waiting for them at the other end.
Modern recipes for breathing new life into old treats can be found pretty easily online. Otherwise, there is a lot of fun to be had in experimenting with different ways to try and create new versions of these ageless treats. Running a business alone can be difficult to manage, so you may want to invest in recruitment for some extra manpower throughout the season.
You may have to invest in recruitment if you are planning on something special. This is a bold move, so you might prefer to start more slowly and test the water before you set your sights high.
A Winter Games Evening
For some people, Christmas time is all about gathering together and having fun. This can mean watching a classic movie. It’s A Wonderful Life from 1946 topped a Radio Times poll on the nation’s favourite festive film, coming in ahead of Elf (2003) and The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992).
Others prefer the pleasure of settling down to play a game. Board games such as the timeless Monopoly and Scrabble are among the ideal options for passing a few enjoyable hours. The Evening Standard revealed that Monopoly is the nation’s favourite board game and that 65% of us feel confident before starting to play, so it's one most will be keen to get started on - even if the outcome doesn't quite measure up to their expectations.
A further option is provided by reaching for a set of cards. This opens up the possibility of playing games such as poker and bridge. Many people only play these games during the festive season, so it is seen as something to look forward to each year. Not everyone knows the rules of these games, although the ACBL Educational Foundation found out that 15 million Americans aged 45 or over know how to play bridge, with five million of them playing it regularly. Perhaps you're one of the eleven million more respondents who were interested in learning the rules? In any case, it's always great to learn something new over the festive period.
There are plenty of online resources if you do want to learn something new. Sticking with card games in our example, blackjack is a popular one and you can find the basic rules for different blackjack variants on the Betway online casino. You might already know the rules to one format, but with games like European and Atlantic City Blackjack on there, you could learn a twist on a classic that will help you offer a games evening with something a little different.
Maybe you prefer to stick to the familiar, in which case a game that is perfect for a long winter’s evening is bingo. This game continues to remain massively popular, even when it is up against modern past-times and distractions. It needs no introduction, as the vast majority of Brits already know how to play it.
Some Alternative Seasonal Music
The sound of Christmas carols and festive pop songs is what lets us know that Christmas has finally arrived. In the build-up to the big day, the sound of our favourite songs can entice us to enter a shop, a bar or some other commercial premise.
The Pogues’ Fairytale of New York featuring Kirsty MacColl is one of the most played songs at this time of year. The same song was also voted as the best Christmas song by 2,000 people, according to a survey by PRS for Music.
Second on the list of most popular songs was Last Christmas by Wham, which was released in 1984 but only made it to number two in the UK charts. Next on the list were Slade’s Merry Christmas Everybody and White Christmas by Bing Crosby.
An evening of Christmas songs or a festive karaoke event can be a clever way to pull in visitors in the days leading up to the 25th of December. It could make sense to steer away from the classics we have looked at so far, though.
There are plenty of other festive songs that aren’t heard so often these days. These include underrated tunes such as the 31 interesting alternatives gathered on this list by Cosmopolitan. It covers titles such as Santa Baby by Ariana Grande and Feliz Navidad by Jose Feliciano.
Bearing all of this in mind, there should be nothing to fear about the winter season. Instead, it is a time that business owners can look upon as an opportunity to do something different and exciting to keep their profits ticking along nicely.
