Every year, millions of viewers tune in to the Hallmark Channel during the holiday season to catch one (or all) of their dozens of original Christmas movies. These holiday staples, which often feature an aspiring entrepreneur or a struggling small business, are jam-packed with inspiring messages and leave viewers with the gift of perfectly wrapped happy endings.
In addition to dispensing life lessons, Hallmark Christmas movies are also a surprising source of business lessons that every entrepreneur can apply to their journey. Here are 19 business lessons from Hallmark Christmas movies that might help your business thrive.
Create traditions that make your brand memorable (Christmas at the Plaza)
Tasked with creating an exhibit that honors the history of Christmas at New York City’s iconic The Plaza hotel, Jessica, a historian, is paired with Nick, the hotel’s decorator, for the project. After digging through boxes of Plaza history without any inspiration for the exhibit, Jessica is ready to call it quits. Luckily, Jessica’s planned departure is short-lived when she notices a tree topper on a Plaza assistant’s desk and learns the hotel has had a different tree topper every year since 1907.
The project takes Jessica and Nick on a wild goose chase to locate the missing tree topper from 1969. They discover the bellman, Reginald, was supposed to create it but never did. With a bit of inspiration, Reginald makes the tree topper to complete the exhibit.
While The Plaza hotel is nowhere near a “small business,” it has excellent branding around Christmas time that its visitors have come to expect. Learn how to elevate your brand to make a lasting impression on your customers.
Take advantage of opportunities that can beef up your resume (even if they are out of your comfort zone) (A Gingerbread Romance)
In “A Gingerbread Romance,” architect Taylor is assigned to represent her firm in a life-sized gingerbread house competition. Hoping the project will boost her chances of running the firm’s new office in Paris, Taylor agrees to enter the competition. After losing her baking partner, however, she seeks help from Adam, a dedicated baker and single father. Although Adam, who dreams of running his own bakery, is hesitant to join the competition, he finally agrees with persuasion from his daughter.
Initially clashing, Taylor and Adam gradually bond, with their growing connection bringing warmth to Taylor’s typically transient life. Include a friendly rivalry with another team, and the competition becomes about more than gingerbread.
Although a Christmas-themed competition may not fall into your lap to help boost your résumé, keep an eye out for opportunities that can take your career to the next level. Learn how to highlight your small business skills to make your résumé that much more impressive.
Identify your strengths and capitalize on them (Coming Home for Christmas)
Lizzie, a down-on-her-luck art history graduate, takes a job as a house manager at the Ashford, the Marley family’s estate in Virginia. Tasked with planning the family’s Christmas gala, Lizzie faces challenges from the grumpy heir, Robert, and his socialite relatives. Lizzie, however, actually finds herself enjoying — and succeeding at — planning the holiday gala.
Through holiday traditions and festive cheer, Lizzie helps rekindle the Marley family’s Christmas spirit. Ultimately, she finds herself enchanted by Robert and realizes her desire for love and stability and seals it with a romantic Christmas kiss with Robert.
If you identify with Lizzie and sometimes feel stuck in your career or you are in a job just to pay the bills, it’s time to identify your professional strengths. Here are some tips on how to turn your passion into profits.
[Read more: Embracing Excellence: Finding and Leveraging Your Business Strengths]
Success isn’t always about a big paycheck (Northpole: Open for Christmas)
In “Northpole: Open for Christmas,” Clementine the Elf returns in this sequel to help Santa restore the Christmas spirit at the Northern Lights Inn. The inn, which is a crucial source of holiday magic for Santa, is in jeopardy. McKenzie, a businesswoman who inherited the inn, intends to sell it and make a big profit.
With Clementine’s guidance, and a growing friendship with the inn’s handyman and his daughter, McKenzie rediscovers the magic of Christmas she lost in childhood. Realizing the inn’s source of Christmas spirit is more important than any amount of money she could make from the sale, McKenzie chooses to keep the inn.
Although a big cashout may seem like the ultimate measure of success, it’s not always the right decision. In fact, sometimes success can look wildly different than you initially planned. Whatever direction life takes you, here’s the secret to long-term business success.
Remembering your ‘why’ is key to a growing and thriving business (Christmas CEO)
As her toy company CJ Toys grew and grew, Christmas “Chris” Whitaker gradually lost sight of her long-standing love of toy-making — which stemmed from her adolescent years selling toys at a holiday toy stand with her best friend Joe.
When she and Joe started CJ Toys together, it was out of that shared passion. However, as Chris escalates the business by focusing more on profits and a potential merger with a large toy conglomerate, Joe steps back, not wanting to sacrifice the uniqueness and quality that sparked their entrepreneurial journey.
When Chris needs Joe to sign off on the merger, she is soon reminded of their “why”: why they started their business, what their mission is, and how to return to it.
There’s a lot that goes into selling your business (Gingerbread Miracle)
When freelance attorney Maya moves back to her hometown after a setback with work, she begins spending a lot of time at the Casillas Panadería, the local Mexican bakery she used to work at in high school. When the owner of the bakery — who is also the uncle of her high school crush Alex — decides he’s ready to sell the business, he asks Maya to help him find a buyer.
Alex returns home once he hears of his uncle’s decision, and romantic entanglements ensue between Alex, Maya, and a potential buyer for the bakery. However, in true fashion, the movie closes with each party getting their happy ending.
Selling a business can be bittersweet. If you’re ready for your next chapter, here are our tips on preparing a business for sale and how to create an exit plan.
At the heart of these Hallmark Christmas movies is a struggling small business.
Partnerships aren’t always easy, but sometimes they’re worth the effort (Best Christmas Party Ever)
After finding out that her boss Petra is retiring, party planner Jennie Stanton hopes she will be left in charge of Petra’s party planning business. But when Petra’s charming and handsome nephew Nick arrives on the scene to take over the business, it looks like that dream is dead. That is until Jenny discovers how well she and Nick work together and she faces losing him to a career in acting.
As Jenny learns, partnerships aren’t always smooth, and it’s tempting to want to do everything yourself. But partnerships also allow you to leverage the strengths of both partners.
Is a partnership right for your business? Read our article on the pros and cons of having a business partner.
[Read more: How to Write a Business Partnership Agreement]
Employees are your most valuable asset (Christmas Cookies)
When his cookie factory is sold to a large conglomerate, Jake is pressured to sell his share so the company can be relocated to a bigger city. Hannah is sent to complete the deal, but after meeting Jake and realizing how important the factory is to the town, Hannah decides its employees are more important than profits.
Hannah learns that the real heart of any company is its employees. To make sure you retain your best asset, read our article on the best employee retention tactics.
Sometimes saving a business takes a village (Christmas Land)
Upon finding out that her late grandmother left her Christmas Land, a magical Christmas-themed village and tree farm, Jules Cooper finds herself at a crossroads: Should she sell Christmas Land and get back to her life in the city or stick around and restore it to the captivating potential it once had?
Jules decides to make a sale — to a buyer she thought would keep the village alive in its current form — only to find out that he has plans to raze the land entirely. To buy it back, she needs to raise over $1 million so the buyer can turn a profit. With one investor and the help of the entire town, she is able to raise the money that the business needs to be bought back and kept alive.
With a few obstacles, Jules learns various ways to raise capital in order to keep the business afloat. If your business needs funding, read which option is the best way to do it.
Buying an existing business can be challenging (Christmas in Evergreen: Letters to Santa)
Retail designer Lisa revisits her hometown and discovers that the beloved general store she remembers from her childhood has closed. After an unsuccessful attempt to sell the store, Lisa decides to buy the general store and relocate back to her childhood home. Starting a business is tough, but Lisa learns that buying an existing one comes with challenges too.
For more on how to purchase an existing business, check out our guide on financing the purchase of an existing business.
Nobody knows your business better than your employees (Christmas in Love)
Ellie Hartman is an aspiring crafter working in her small town’s bakery. When big-city CEO Nick Carlingson visits the bakery with plans to modernize it, Ellie shows him it’s the people who make the business a success.
As Ellie proves, your employees are often your most avid supporters, so it’s essential to hire the right ones from the beginning. Here are five tips on how to hire the best employees.
Learn from your competition (Check Inn to Christmas)
Julia Crawley is planning her annual return home for the holidays — from the Big Apple to her hometown in Colorado, where her family owns and runs an inn. Being only one of two inns in town, the Crawley Inn finds itself constantly in competition with the town’s other inn, which is owned by the Mason family.
When they’re faced with a large real estate company looking to buy the Mason Inn, Crawley and Ryan Mason — the Masons’ son and manager of the inn (and her budding love interest) — devise a plan that will prevent the sale, save the Mason Inn, and grow both inns together.
If you’re finding your business in a competitive situation within your industry, sans the budding romance and holiday magic, read more here about how to conduct competitive research and learn from your competition.
Outside funding can save a business, but it comes with challenges (Merry & Bright)
Cate Merriweather is finding out the hard way that seasonal businesses present challenges for profitability year-round, as she runs Merry & Bright, a family-owned and operated candy cane factory. That’s when Gabe Carter enters the picture — Gabe is a consultant with a corporate recovery firm who is assigned to get to know Merry & Bright and figure out a way to fix the business’s situation.
This leads to Gabe finding a large investment company to provide funding — which sounds great in theory, until Cate realizes that she has to give up some of her power. She’s then faced with the struggle of changing her family’s traditional business for the sake of keeping it alive.
If your small business is struggling, or if you are looking to outside funding to help get you to the next level, here is what you need to know about venture capital.
To grow, your business may have to evolve (Marry Me at Christmas)
Maddie and Isabel, the co-owners of Paper Moon Bridal, are facing the possibility of going out of business when a new customer, Ginger, asks Maddie to try her hand at wedding planning. After accepting, Maddie and Ginger become fast friends and the wedding is a huge success. The two work together to grow and expand their business.
For more inspiration on how to grow your business, here is some advice from entrepreneurs who’ve done it.
Identify a need and market it to your targeted audience (Holiday Hotline)
Abby, a sous-chef from a top restaurant in London, heads to the U.S. for the holidays after being burned by her boyfriend/boss. Though Abby says she’s sworn off cooking, a neighbor convinces her to work at the Holiday Hotline — a call center of “poultry professionals” who help talk through the stressors of cooking a turkey for the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. Taking on an American accent and calling herself “Peggy,” Abby creates a bond with a caller that eventually leads her to find love in and out of the kitchen again.
Like the Holiday Hotline, anything can be a service if you know how to market it — and whom to market it to. Check out these marketing resources, including strategies from social media to advertising, to help advertise your small business successfully.
[Read more: 5 B2B Marketing Tactics That Work]
Remember, the hard times your business goes through become an important part of its history (The Christmas Ring)
A reporter named Kendra finds an antique engagement ring in a pawn shop with the engraving “My Christmas Love 1948.” Intrigued by its unique message and looking to advance her career, Kendra decides to track down the love story behind the ring. Her investigation uncovers the story of how Pearl, the ring’s original owner, sold her engagement ring to save her family’s general store — the same general store her grandsons own today. After a misunderstanding between Kendra and Pearl’s grandson Michael, Kendra writes an emotional article that eventually brings the pair together.
Like Pearl, small business owners often go through hard times and need money to keep the business afloat. Rather than selling off personal assets, check out this article about secured versus unsecured business loans.
Follow your passion (Cranberry Christmas)
Separated couple Dawn and Gabe find their cranberry farm at the center of national television, so they pretend to be a happily married couple to save their town’s Christmas festival. As they navigate the demands of the TV appearance and the presence of the celebrity host who is staying in their home, the pair eventually discuss their unresolved issues and the lost career aspirations that led to their separation. Ultimately, the town’s Christmas festival is saved and so is Dawn and Gabe’s marriage, despite their career opportunities taking them in different directions.
When you are unsure if you should take a leap of faith in your career and follow your passion, this guide provides a way you can bet on yourself and your business.
Without opportunities to advance, good employees will leave (Campfire Christmas)
“Campfire Christmas” follows Peyton, an aspiring writer working as an assistant at a publishing company. Peyton’s parents, who run a camp from her youth called Camp Evergreen, tell her they are retiring and ask her to take over the business.
Peyton is inspired to write a book about Camp Evergreen’s Christmas in July tradition and pitches it to her boss, who loves the idea but would rather have someone else write Peyton’s story. Peyton later finds out her boss didn’t want her to write her story because she didn’t want to lose Peyton as an assistant. Without the opportunity to advance, Peyton ultimately quits and pursues her dreams of being a writer.
Here is a list of the top reasons why good employees quit.
You may need to get creative to find funding for your business (The Sweetest Christmas)
Kylie, a talented baker, dreams of opening her own bakery. As Kylie prepares for a Christmas gingerbread house competition with a large cash prize, she reconnects with her high school sweetheart Nick. Their bond grows stronger, and old feelings resurface as they work together to try and win the competition. However, conflict quickly ensues when Kylie faces pressure from a celebrity chef and a proposal from an ex-boyfriend. Kylie eventually finds a way to express her true feelings and win both the gingerbread competition and Nick’s heart.
Although Kylie was lucky enough to win the big cash prize during the gingerbread house competition, most entrepreneurs can’t rely on competitions to fund their fledgling businesses. Instead, see how you can start a business on a budget.
This article was originally written by Ciara McGibbon and Jeanette Mulvey with contributions by Kaytlyn Smith.
