EP 217 - How to Make Q4 Your Most Profitable Quarter - The Mini New Year Strategy

September is here—your "Mini New Year" and the perfect time to set up Q4 for massive success! Discover how service business owners can learn from retail giants who make most of their annual revenue in just the last quarter.

Maggie reveals the strategic playbook to transform your final four months into your most profitable period, complete with month-by-month action plans and operational preparation tips.

What You'll Learn

• Why September is your "Mini New Year" and the perfect Q4 launch pad
• How retail makes a large portion of annual revenue in Q4 (and how you can too)
• Month-by-month Q4 strategy: October early birds, November signature offers, December year-end solutions
• The difference between B2B and B2C Q4 opportunities and how to capitalize on both
• Operational preparation secrets to handle increased demand without overwhelm
• How to create irresistible Q4 offers that align with natural buying cycles
• Your Q4 Month-by-Month Playbook
  
  

Key Takeaways

🎯 Service businesses can sell solutions for year-end stress and New Year ambitions

🎯 Companies spend leftover budgets in Q4—position yourself as their strategic partner

🎯 Focus on retention during busy Q4 to create your 2026 pipeline

🎯 Prepare your operations and capacity before the demand hits

Feeling overwhelmed by the possibilities? Book a complimentary consultation with Maggie to create your personalized Q4 strategy and new year preparation plan - https://www.stairwaytoleadership.com/

Transcript

September is here, back to school, back to work, back to business. I call September Mini New Year. There is a great opportunity in this month and Q4 of. At the end of the year, there is an opportunity with this month and Q4 coming up to make it the best time of the year for your business, and today's episode is going to help you do just that.

In as service business owners, we can learn a lot from retail product industry, for whom, especially the holiday season. So anytime between October and December. Can make up to 20, 25% of the sales of the year, and for some businesses, the holiday season even becomes [00:01:00] the best part of the year when they make as much sales and revenue as they do for the rest of the year.

Of course, it differs from industry to industry, but we can learn from these experts. In our service businesses to use it and make the Q4 the best time of our year because also for our clients, it's an exciting time of the year, so why not get in front of them and help them for the time to be even better.

So while retail industry sells gift as a service business, you can sell solutions for your clients for the end, your stress, or end your. Needs and challenges and the New Year's ambitions. So of course it is important that you understand who your ideal client is. [00:02:00] What are their cycles of the year? Their cycles of, bringing in changes and improvements in their lives, in their businesses, whomever you serve.

So let's say if you serve. Consumers, individuals. Then very often in September or even New Year's, people want to improve their health. Then wellness, their beauty, their traveling home services, right? People always want to end the new the, you're strong. And also start fresh in January. If you're a business to business service, then many companies spend whatever is left from their year budget in Q4 because they don't want to miss out on that opportunity.

They also have new budgets that they're making plans for the new year, and they're looking for strategic [00:03:00] partners before those budgets reset. So why not make yourself such a strategic partner? So as you prepare for that time, you want to think about tweaking your messaging and tweaking how you talk to your clients and position yourself as somebody who can help your clients wrap up their year strong or giving them a head start in the new year.

Use up their budget wisely, or prepare for the new budget. With information, with due diligence, and you can help them with that. So as you're thinking about it, I wanna give you some pointers to help you prepare for Q4.

Definitely that quarter requires planning. So you want to think about a positioning your offers accordingly, and we'll [00:04:00] talk about it. And then promoting those offers and those services with a plan. So you want to have a promotion calendar just like retailers do. And September is a great. Time to put it together if you haven't done it yet in August.

Some businesses prepare already in August, but hey, better late than ever, and start thinking about maybe October. It's in Early Bird offers for your 2026 services, right? Or early bird. Gifting. If you can gift your services in vouchers, in, gift cards or just like retailers do, use October to plant that seed in your clients who are already thinking about a Christmas.

Shopping or who are already thinking about holiday shopping. [00:05:00] November in retail, that's Black Friday, cyber Monday, you can jump on the wagon and create a signature limited time offer for that time. But you don't have to. You can go get ahead of the game and yes, make November a signature limited time offer, but promote it in the first half and make it something unique and special so you can really stand out.

So whether it's some bonuses, so you create some mini service offering, whatever it is in your industry.

For example, gyms usually give a free membership at the end of the year to get people excited for the new year, and then sign up for annual membership right in January.

In December, you can cater to closing your year end strongly. Whether it is, if you are if your [00:06:00] clients are businesses thinking about what are some tax deductible investments that they can make with you, maybe in their strategic planning, you can help them. Maybe you can help them wrap up the year with your services. And if you are a business to consumer, if you have a.

If you offer consumer services, think about how preparation for holidays or time in between holidays, you can help your clients feel better, reduce stress, achieve last minute goals, or prepare for the new year, and then January kickstart that you can also sell in December. Caters to that renewal resolutions and new budgets.

Now as you are promoting your special services, special bundles, bonuses, or [00:07:00] just your current offers with new messaging, don't forget about preparing to deliver that. In operations in your capacity to welcome new clients, just like retail giants. If you think about the retail industry, they prepare their supply chain, they stock up on products, they make sure that they have reserves and backups so they don't run out of the products.

If there is an increased demand. So you need to also prepare your own business for that. Whether it's your calendar and your team, you need to build capacity for increased demand. You might need to block out some time for you delivering services if you're a solopreneur. Or if you have a team, you might need to schedule them more effectively.

You will need to think about how you stack their vacation time off. You might need to hire [00:08:00] extra help, whether it is support for services or at least marketing admin it's also, September might be a great time to maybe automate some processes that right now are taking a lot of your time, maybe booking, invoicing, onboarding, whatever it is, so that you can handle the extra Q4 volume without overwhelm.

And without your clients feeling like the quality of your service is dropping because you took on more than you can handle. And as we spoke, be creative in how you craft your offers to make them irresistible and special. Something that maybe your clients or your ideal clients haven't seen yet, so they get really excited about investing their money with you.

And then in your messaging and marketing, don't forget to market to urgency and timing, [00:09:00] right? So urgency, if you create limited bonuses or offers or they, there is a natural urgency in the year ending or starting the new year strong. And also timing of the holidays.

As human beings, we do make our decisions emotionally and then logically we reason with them. So that's not to say that you wanna manipulate the clients, but helping them make the best decision for them by using the emotions that come up, by utilizing the emotions that naturally come up for people.

In this timeframe about gifting, helping others, improving things, resolutions, all those things bring up in people's emotion of community, help, renewal, rejuvenation, et cetera.

[00:10:00] The last but not least, remember that with all those new clients that are gonna come your way in Q4, you do not want to just be happy about having a client, but then. Not deliver an amazing service because that will not keep them coming back or retain. That will not help them. You retain them and then probably you'll miss out on potential referrals in the new year.

So focusing on retention and amazing service delivery as important as on promoting your services in Q4, that will create your 2026 pipeline, not only with the customer staying and referring. But also maybe with the potential clients who just learn about you in Q4, just because you marketed more intensely, they gotten [00:11:00] to know you, they might become your customers 2026.

So think about finishing your year, your Q4 strong, and putting effort into marketing and being visible and being creative. Not only as a way to strengthen your income and your revenue in Q4, but also create demand and create potential client in 2026.

Now if you are thinking, Maggie, that sounds great, but I'm already overwhelmed by thinking about it. It definitely doesn't have to be complicated or overwhelming. I can help you. All you need to do. We can chat about it and I can help you strategize and really prepare for Q4 and the new year. All you need to do is book an initial free complimentary consultation with me and I'll share the link in the comments.

Have a fantastic [00:12:00] Q4 and the mini new year in September.