With just under 2 months left before the holiday season starts, many small businesses are starting their 2026 planning as the end of 2025 nears.

For some small businesses, there’s a natural “ebb” around the holidays, so it can be a great time to polish up things ahead of the turn of the year.

As mentioned in a previous post, even with those ebbs there will always be opportunities for you to keep “planting seeds” – improving and sustaining your momentum ahead of the next “flow”, so to speak.

Many of my clients stay busy year-round, so it can be hard to find time for these “seed planting” activities (which is where we fill in – helping them replace themselves in the digital marketing world, essentially).

While each small business is unique, there are some things that most – if not all – of them can take a look at and sharpen up ahead of the New Year.

While this seems like a “boring” task, confirming your business schedule, hours, holiday schedule and updating your associated business listings can make sure you don’t miss any would-be opportunities.

This is also a great time to make sure your visual branding assets (logo, photos, graphics, etc.) are consistent across your business listings.

Even a small inconsistency on a business listing might be enough to cause some folks to decide to not reach out or get in touch, so double check those and make sure everything is up-to-date.

2. Reviews & Feedback Processes

During times of the year when you’re the most busy, it can sometimes be difficult to keep up with your online reviews.

While the best way to get reviews is by offering the best services or products possible (delighted customers, in most cases, will offer reviews on their own), this time of year can be a great chance to get in touch with some that haven’t had a chance to offer their feedback.

As you’ll see in the next step, finding ways of integrating your review & feedback processes into your digital infrastructure before the end of the year can be helpful to keep these updated moving forward in 2026.

3. Digital Infrastructure Review

Digital platforms can get (very) messy without proper check-ins and clean up.

From email, to Customer Relationship Management systems (CRMs), to the wide array of data & Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platforms for small businesses, things can quickly get disorganized and overwhelm many folks over time.

This can be a great time of year to do some “digital hygiene” – and do a full review of your digital infrastructure.

Any time you can trim off some things that you may not use often – or assess if you’re using the platform to its full potential – is time well spent.

As mentioned above, reviews & feedback mechanisms are important, so whether you have templates to gather those reviews – or have it integrated into your CRM – this is a great time to polish up those processes (or have someone help you polish them up) so you can start the year with a running start.

4. Creatives Refresh ( Search, Social & Content )

As mentioned a few weeks ago, staying fresh is a key component to staying relevant, so now is a great time to map out updates to key areas of your creative deck: photography, videos, written content and other assets you put out in the digital world.

Fighting off “digital decay” can be a challenge, especially as new small businesses with the same alignment enter into the view of your ideal customers.

Refreshing your creatives can be a great way to continually feel “new” in the eyes of your best customers – and helps you identify any potential changes you might need to make to stay relevant in 2026.

It’s Only October, but…

While we’ve only just turned the page on October, some of these things might feel early to tackle, but with how fast the holidays can go, 2026 is a lot closer than it appears.

You’ll want to spend your time with your loved ones during the holidays, so with a little planning ahead you can enjoy that time a bit better – and have everything ready for an improved 2026 campaign for your small business.