Early November is crunch time for anyone who makes and sells their own products. The holiday ship-by dates are coming whether you're ready or not, and you're trying to make, fill, pack and ship more than you have all year. Streamlining even one part of how you make your products can save you hours, and those hours matter a lot when you're up against the calendar.

Here's an example from Erin's Faces. Filling jars of our Extreme Moisture Balm used to take forever. We scooped the balm into each jar by hand with a spatula, smoothed the top, and moved on to the next one. Then the next one, and the next one.

The fix was already in our kitchen

The idea came from our production manager, Sylvana, and I was thrilled when she brought it to me. Once a batch was made, we put the finished balm in a gallon-size Ziploc bag and set it in a warm water bath to soften. Then we snipped a corner off the bag and piped the balm right into the jars, like frosting a cupcake. A jar that used to take minutes took seconds.

Before we made the switch for good, we tested it to make sure the finished balm firmed up and settled properly in the jar, because that's not always a given. It did, and just like that, we had a new way of making this product. That one change gave us back hours and hours every year on just that one product, and all it took was a box of Ziploc bags and some warm water.

Why this matters right now

A few extra minutes on one jar feels like nothing in July. In late November, when you're filling that jar for every order in the queue, those minutes add up fast.

When your team isn't stuck filling jars one spatula at a time, they can be working on everything else that needs to get done before Black Friday. Your time and theirs is part of what every product costs, even if it never shows up on an invoice. So when a bestseller takes less time to make, it gets more profitable without you changing the price at all.

Try this before the rush

Start with your bestseller, or with the product that takes you the longest to fill. Sometimes they're the same one! Time one step of making it, like filling, labeling or packing, and a phone timer works just fine. Then picture doing that step for every order you're hoping to get this season. If that makes you wince a little, that's the step to fix first.

Then look for a simpler way to do it. Sometimes the answer is a new piece of equipment, but sometimes it's sitting in your kitchen drawer. Ask your team, too, since the person doing the job every day usually knows exactly where it gets stuck. Sylvana was right, and I'm so glad I listened. Listen to your people, especially the ones who know your products and your standards as well as you do.

You may be doing everything perfectly, but sometimes fixing one step can go a lot further than trying to change everything at once.