I'm Michael Collins from Wagyu Digital, and each month I share a few simple changes that can help small businesses in West Cork bring in more customers. 

As promised last month, this one is all about gift vouchers. 

A voucher pays you in December, when you're busy anyway, and brings someone through your door in January or February, when things are quieter.

There's a good chance that person has never been in before, and they could become a new customer. 

Some businesses don't sell vouchers at all. Others sell them in person, handwritten or pre-printed, to whoever comes in.

Selling them online opens up a route to people who can't call in, or who might never be passing your door. 

Think about who's buying presents for people in West Cork this Christmas.

A daughter in Dublin shopping for her parents. A son in Boston or Sydney who won't make it home this year. Someone local who only remembers on Christmas Eve. None of them can get to your counter, but all of them could buy a voucher on their phone. 

That's what an online voucher does. Your customer picks a gift or an amount, pays on their phone, and the voucher arrives by email for them to print or pass on. 

You don't need to be technical to offer one. Start with the company that supplies your in-store card machine, the one customers tap or insert their card into when they pay.

Some of them offer online vouchers as well. SumUp and Square, for example, are two card machine companies used by small businesses in Ireland, and both do. If people book with you online, as they do with a lot of salons and B&Bs, your booking system may have vouchers too.

I'd start with a quick call or email to ask, and if they don't, there are other services built for this. 

Then decide what kind of voucher to sell. You can offer something in particular, like a night at a B&B, a haircut and blow-dry, a full valet at the garage or dinner for two.

These make a more personal present. Or you can offer a set amount, like 50 euro to spend, which suits someone who wants to give a gift but isn't sure what the person would like. Offering both covers everyone. 

Once it's set up, you'll get a web link, which is simply an address people tap to go straight to your vouchers and buy one.

Share that link wherever your customers already find you: on your Facebook page, in a post on your Google Business Profile (last month's column shows how to add one), and in any messages or emails you send.

If you have your own website, give vouchers their own page there too, so anyone who finds you on Google can buy one at any hour. 

Mention vouchers every time you post between now and Christmas. 

If you put a review QR code on your counter after last month's column, print it on your paper vouchers as well.

And ask buyers if they're happy to hear from you about offers. More on that next month. 

One rule to know: by law, a gift voucher sold in Ireland must last at least five years from the day it's bought, or have no expiry date at all, and customers can use more than one voucher at a time.

Put the expiry date on every voucher so nobody gets caught out. 

If you only do one thing this week, contact the company behind your card machine or booking system and ask whether they offer online vouchers. 

Email me at [email protected] with anything you'd like me to cover, and I'll answer the most common questions here over the coming months. 

Michael Collins, Wagyu Digital. See what I do at wagyudigital.com