Weekly wrap up: prepare for holiday madness

Your weekly gathering of some of our favorite industry tips, advice, and news. And some fun stuff sprinkled in.

If you haven’t started prepping for the holidays, then there’s no time like the present! This year, more than half of retailers started their holiday promotions before Halloween. Even if you haven’t put away the pumpkins yet, don’t worry, we’ve got first-rate resources to get you up to speed.

Holiday marketing

• Not to toot our own horn but if you’re looking for holiday marketing tips, Pike13’s blog post is a great place to start! Check out this 4 Step Holiday Strategy to Rock Small Business Saturday

• Has it been awhile since you updated your Facebook business page? Our friends at Sweat Angels have a 4-part series on How to Publish Great Facebook Content For Your Gym. Check out their video on Tips for Outstanding Photos and Videos.

• Holiday shoppers are set to spend $630 billion this season, that averages $805 a person. Get a piece of that massive pie. MailChimp has partnered with big names like Google to get you tips to help you do your best marketing.

Good to know

• Get more done in less time! Infusionsoft offers 8 Productivity Hacks (and 16 organizational tools) for small business owners.
• We all know social media is important. But it can be quite time consuming! Entrepreneur gives us The Top Social Media Tools for Working Smarter, Not Harder

News and stuff

• Amazon opens its first brick and mortar location. And not everyone is excited about the offerings.

• PayPal surpassed $1 billion in small business loans. Could this lending program benefit you?