I know it sounds crazy to be talking about Black Friday in the middle of the summer, but during the last five or six years of running Erin's Faces, our Black Friday planning meetings started around this time. These early meetings completely changed our Q4 experience - instead of scrambling, we had a plan. Instead of constantly reacting, we were prepared.

If you sell physical products, here are three things I'd be doing right now.

1. Start poduction on anything with a long shelf life.

Look back at last year's Black Friday sales, your current sales trends, and your forecast for the rest of the year.

Then ask yourself, "What can I make and put on the shelf now?"

For us, that included products like:

• Anhydrous products like oils, balms, scrubs, lip glosses, concealers, etc.

• Bar soaps

• Candles

• Loose powders

Getting those made during the summer took an enormous amount of pressure off our production schedule in the fall. It also meant our team wasn't trying to make everything at once.

2. Order the things that take the longest.

Summer is a great time to place orders for anything with a long lead time.

That might include:

• Printed packaging and custom components

• Bottles, jars, caps, pumps, and boxes

• Contract-manufactured products

In addition to running our business as usual, we spent the summer building inventory of shelf-stable products and placed our ingredient orders for water-based products (with a shorter shelf life) in early September so we could move into fall production on schedule.

The earlier you secure your inventory, the less likely you are to run into supply chain delays or unexpected backorders when everyone else is trying to order the same things.

3. Make your Black Friday decisions before fall gets busy.

Now is also the perfect time to revisit last year's Black Friday postmortem (I have a post on that you can bookmark for December). What worked? What didn't? What did your team wish had gone differently?

Now is also the time to decide what your actual offer will be:

• A gift with purchase?

• A percentage discount?

• A bundle?

• An exclusive product?

• A limited-edition size or set?

If you're creating something new, you'll want plenty of time for product development, packaging, photography, inventory planning, and marketing.

It may feel early to be thinking about Black Friday. 

But every decision you make this summer is one less fire you'll have to put out this fall.

Your November self will thank you.