Small businesses spook up some fun
Don’t nix the Halloween mix – let it be a treat!
Halloween may never again be like it was when I was young, when we kids would run rampant for hours with nary an adult in sight, trick-or-treating ourselves into sugar oblivion.
These days, it’s the adults out running around on Halloween. According to the National Retail Federation:
❚ Since 2009, adult spending on Halloween has doubled – from a little more than $4 billion to more than $9 billion a year.
❚ Half of all Americans bought costumes last year. Half !
❚ And about 20 percent of us plan on outfitting our pets in costume.
How are these adults dressing up? You know, as witches, vampires, “Star Wars” characters, and maybe this year, Black Panther and Wonder Woman.
As a small-business owner, you may be inclined to nix the Halloween mix, but that’s the wrong plan. Instead of letting the Halloween bogeyman scare you, let the day be a treat.
Here’s how:
Decorate the store
Given the newfound popularity of the holiday, dressing up the shop in a Halloween motif is an easy win. Adding orange and black to the windows or putting pumpkins on the stoop is festive and fun, and Halloween excitement is attractive to everyone. Check out sites such as Pinterest for ideas, then make your own page and share it.
Get in the spirit
What about holding a pumpkincarving contest, with the winner getting a store discount? And even if you work in an office and not a retail location, you can still get in the spirit by having a candy jar available all month or otherwise handing out treats.
Have a costume contest
A costume contest for the staff – or even the public – is a particularly great way to have some fun and get some attention.
A costume contest – or even just allowing your staff to wear costumes during Halloween week – also is a surefire social media winner. Posting pictures on Instagram and Facebook of the different costumes in your shop will get you some social media love and could drive customers to your online store, too. (Your pumpkin-carving contest is ripe for social sharing, as well.)
Party on
Everybody has a Christmas party, but you can be different – and just maybe better – by hosting a costumed Halloween party for adults to make your business an evening destination.
Offer specials and deals
People always love a good deal. By offering a sale on something even tangentially related to the holiday, you become part of the conversation. Consider inviting customers to a secret, Halloween-theme sale that evening and running a flash sale at your decorated online site.
Cater to the kids
Now that most trick-or-treating is done in safe environments with lots of supervision, consider working with your neighborhood association to make your block/office building/area one of the places where kids in your town can safely get some candy. Decorating the neighborhood and making it, and your small business, a Halloween night destination builds community goodwill.
Halloween has become such an event that you need to ride this wave rather than resist it. Doing so sure is a lot more fun than saying “Boo!” ❚ Today’s tip: One challenge we small-business people have these days is that we run so many different applications, we can’t keep track of them all. Whether it’s CRM software, email, cloud apps, web analytics or online polls, keeping track of it all is difficult. That is why I was happy to learn recently about Nextiva’s new NextOS, an all-encompassing platform that streamlines all of these functions in one place.
It’s very cool, and definitely useful.
Steve Strauss, @Steve Strauss on Twitter, is a lawyer specializing in small business and entrepreneurship who has been writing for USATODAY .com for 20 years. Email sstrauss@mrallbiz.com. You can learn more about Steve at MrAllBiz.com.
The views and opinions expressed in this column are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect those of USA TODAY.