If you want to make Q1 the best one yet, it is never too early to start business planning and if you want to hit the ground running in 2026, planning now is the answer.
Forbes have penned the last quarter of 2025 as the Great Squeeze, citing AI and a macro landscape being the cause;
A VA can help with the execution and leave you time to finish wrapping up the year – or maybe even enjoying a longer Christmas break, knowing that next year is being planned for you.
Here is our top 3 things you can do now to make Q1 the best one yet.
1. Lock in Q1 Revenue Before January Starts
December is one of the highest-intent buying months, so make the most of it. People are used to seeing offers, discounts and early bird prices in their personal world – think of early bird sales, buy for next year and this year’s prices. So why not transfer this thinking to you business.
Create Q1 pre-sale offer such as discounted bundles, annual plans at a discount if you sign up now or simple early bird prices. Get in touch with your existing customers or warm lead before they disappear for Christmas to pitch these too good to miss offers.
Market the offers with the incentive to buy now and it be something to tick off the to do list for next year. It’s a win-win – they get value for money and one less thing to do next year and you start Q1 with revenue already booked and predictable cash flow.
You use a VA here to do you lead follow up and sales support. They can send emails out with your offers on and follow up with those that show interest, tracking responses and scheduling any calls that are needed to sign clients up.
Your VA can update your website and social media pages with your seasonal offering.
You can stay focused on closing the yar whilst your VA handles the logistics of bringing in Q1 leads.
2. Plan (and automate) your January–March marketing now
Once January hits, you might be too busy with the day to day to plan high-quality marketing campaigns. So take some time in December to plan out one campaign for each of the 3 months in Q1.
You can pre-write email, ads and social media posts and schedule your content, so your online presence is ready to go as soon as you are in the new year – or maybe a bit earlier! The first working day back in 2026 is a Friday, it is highly likely businesses will take an extra day off and come back on the following Monday, and if they haven’t scheduled any marketing – the first communications might not land til mid to the end of the week, so if you can get ahead and have marketing going out on the 2nd, even if you are still in a turkey coma, you will be ahead of your competitors.
A VA can draft your posts, newsletters and promotional emails for you and line everything up in your calendar and scheduling software so that January essentially launches itself. They can also manage email automations, gather data on trending topics, analyse your competitors and provide December insights to shape your Q1 strategy so that you go into the new year with a. full campaign ready to go.
3. Strengthen your internal systems now so Q1 doesn’t bottleneck
December is the perfect time to fix the things that slow you down. Review your sales funnel, are there steps that cause drop off, how does this translate to your customer journey, how can you improve your systems? Take a look your documentation, are your key processes accounted for, does you utilise tech to save time and reduce errors.
Better systems, give higher capacity and can give more revenue without burnout. If you can have your systems the best they can be now, they will be ready to support your business.
A VA can build SOPs and document your processes for you. They create documents for you, your sales team, your customers to ensure all communication gives the best impression of your business.
They can also spend time cleaning up CRMS, databases or mailing lists, even migrating you to better more efficient systems.
Getting your infrastructure upgraded now will mean you can focus on strategy and revenue in the new year, knowing nothing has got lost in translation or poor communication.
Slice’s VA service and support with your lead generation, marketing and CRM migration, taking the pain away from hours of admin and follow ups – leaving you with the results. With flexible pricing, it’s not too late to put a call in now to see how we can be part of your team in 2026!