October isn’t just another month on the calendar home to our favorite holiday for kids, Halloween. It’s the last full month you really have to lock in your business goals for the year. By the time November rolls around, productivity starts to dip with Thanksgiving holidays and year-end fatigue. And between Christmas parties, family vacations, and that fu$$ing Elf on a Shelf madness, we never get as much done as we had hoped.
That means October is your window. If you want to close the year strong and set yourself up for an even bigger 2026, here’s where you should focus your energy.
1. Review Your Product or Service
Take a hard look at your current offerings. Are they still aligned with what your customers need right now? Are there quick improvements, enhancements, or bundles you can introduce to boost year-end sales? October is the perfect month to make small, high-impact adjustments. Maybe it’s refining your marketing message, making much needed tweaks to your website or figuring out a new bundling strategy to increase your revenue per individual sale next year.
2. Take Advantage of Your Client’s Own Unfinished Goals
October isn’t just about your goals; it’s also when your clients are scrambling to finish theirs. Many of them still have budgets to use, targets to hit, or projects they promised their boss they’d wrap up before year-end. That creates a natural sense of urgency you can tap into. Call them, text them, throw a few good ideas into an email and ask for 10 minutes of their time. It may just be exactly what they need.
3. Secure Key Hires for January
Hiring during the holidays is notoriously slow. If you know you’ll need new team members or outsourced providers so you can start the year strong, October is the month to act. Post the job openings, start the interview process, and line up your onboarding plan now. Get agreements signed so that you aren’t scrambling in January at the same time you are trying to get the final contracts signed for 2026 work.
4. Plan 2026 Projects and Funding Needs
October is also the month to think beyond this year. Is next year the year you finally make the big investments you have been thinking about? New product lines? Expansion into different markets? A new tech stack you have been putting off for months? Map them out now, and determine whether they’ll require outside funding. If you’ll need to raise money through investors, loans, or grants, it’s time to start thinking about that now.
Final Thoughts
We always thought of October as our last “sure thing” month to make sure we hit our annual goals. So, treat this month as a sprint: review your product, nail down your budgets, make those hires, and plan for what’s next. By doing the heavy lifting now, you’ll be able to focus 100% on where to hide the damn Elf on a Shelf this week.
