Start with your own enquiries and orders
Your busy period may be wedding work, graduation outfits, festive purchases or a local event. Look at your actual enquiries, confirmed bookings and previous orders. A popular season elsewhere does not establish demand for your shop.
Group requests by the date the customer needs the outfit, then distinguish confirmed work from enquiries. Note materials that still need sourcing, fittings that need booking and stock that has not arrived. Keep a customer's event date separate from the date you have agreed to deliver.
Work backwards from a realistic handover
List the steps a piece still needs: sourcing, making or alteration, fitting, finishing, checking and handover. Include the people and equipment each step depends on. Leave room for a missed fitting, a material problem or a repair rather than filling every available hour with new promises.
For ready-to-wear and thrift stock, count the pieces you can actually prepare and dispatch. Confirm any supplier date before advertising an arrival. Give a clear order cut-off for a particular handover date only when your capacity supports it.
Make your current availability easy to understand
Tell customers which items are ready, which are made to order and what timing applies to each. Update old promotional posts or replies when availability changes. Avoid ‘last chance’ language unless the limit is real and you can explain it.
If a deadline becomes uncertain, contact the affected customer early with the actual situation and available next steps. Record the revised agreement. After the busy period, note where work waited, which stock remained and what customers asked for; use those observations to plan the next cycle.
- Confirmed orders are separate from possible enquiries.
- Materials, fittings and handovers have realistic dates.
- New orders fit within the capacity still available.
- Public availability and customer messages reflect the same plan.
Put it to work
Choose one upcoming busy period and write the steps backwards from handover. Set customer promises from that plan, then review it as orders change.