Last week, about 60 days out from Thanksgiving, we started promoting the Thanksgiving catering services of one of my clients.

We do this every year because it brings her better clients and makes her life easier.

The best clients--meaning people who expect to pay for quality service--don't wait until the last minute to start coordinating their vendors.

The best clients make their plans well in advance.

So to position yourself to get hired by the best clients, you have to market your business early and often.

That's why we get started 60 days out.

It Pays Off

What my client used to do was wait until mid to late October when turkey prices became available and then she would use cost-plus pricing to set her prices that year.

A major part of my coaching is to teach my clients how to get out of the cost-plus business and into the "priceless experience" business because you make a lot more money with a lot less headache in the priceless experience business.

We have priced her Thanksgiving catering services based on the problem that she solves and not on the cost of the ingredients.

So it doesn't matter how much a turkey costs this year because her Thanksgiving dinner is priced based on the size of the problem that she solves for her customer.

Rather than having to plan a menu, battle Thanksgiving crowds in the grocery store, and then spend a day or two preparing food, the customer simply places an order online and they know they'll have a fantastic, full menu to serve to their guests.

That is a major problem solved and people happily pay for it, whatever it costs.

And that's how we've been able to almost double the price my client charges for Thanksgiving dinner catering since we started in 2021.

And next year, we're raising the price again, even if the price of turkeys goes down, because she's not selling ingredients, she's selling the solution to the problem of feeding a lot of people for Thanksgiving.

The price of that solution goes up every year and she makes a lot more money from doing the same work.

The Key Is Marketing In Advance

Sometimes, you have to trade old customers for new ones.

Some old customers will complain about the new price and you replace them with new customers who are happy to pay it.

Always marketing your business ON TIME instead of at the last minute is how you make that process easy.

And replacing customers is something you MUST do if you're in a situation where you're dramatically undercharging the way my client was. A big part of why we were able to almost double her price is because she was way undercharging for all the work she and her staff were doing to prepare Thanksgiving meals.

But the funny thing is, she never got any complaints about the price increase because nobody remembers how much they paid for Thanksgiving dinner from one year to the next.

All people remember is having a great time without having the hassle of doing a lot of cooking.

That fond memory is what my client sells at Thanksgiving and that's why she has had to stop taking orders every year, despite the price increases.

She used to go crazy taking orders up until the last minute.

Now, she has an advance cutoff and knows in advance exactly how many meals she and her staff are going to have to prepare.

She Also Has A Vegan Option Now

I told her last year to start offering a vegan Thanksgiving entree and it proved to be so popular that she now offers a complete vegan Thanksgiving dinner package.

So now she's collecting money from customers who would not have hired her before.

And she's able to do that because she hired a coach (me).

The Three Ways To Grow A Business

And there are only three ways:

• Get more clients
• Raise your prices
• Generate additional transactions with existing clients

Through Thanksgiving catering services, we've done all three with my client.

• We've raised her prices.
• We've added vegan options to expand her customer base.
• And most of her Thanksgiving clients also go on to buy Christmas dinner and do the same thing the next year, as well as pay for various catering services throughout the year.

This is an example of how you can use one major holiday to significantly grow your business every year.

This is also an example of the kind of business development support you get in my Celebrity Chef Masterclass.

Click here to learn more about the masterclass because coming up in January, there's a major opportunity for creating repeat customers for your business who will pay you automatically all year long and if you don't prepare for that opportunity now, you just have to try again next year.