So, the last ever Harry Potter book will be published on July 21st. You need to start planning now to ensure your business gets publicity from what is going to be a huge event. I went to a midnight book shop opening when the last one launched, and it was huge – I simply could not believe how many people and photographers were there!

If you have a book store, you need to work especially hard on this to ensure you are doing osmething bigger and better than the chain stores. If you own a business near a book store, ask yourself if a crowd of excited people stood outside your shop for an hour before the book is launched, will buy whatever you are selling (and that’s a definite yes if you sell food & drink).

If you have a business that’s totally unrelated, what else could you do? Could you do a competition to give away the first place in the queue at your local bookshop? Could you publish a list of the top 10 guesses for the last sentence of the book? Could you start a character death sweepstake?

You’ve got plenty of time till the launch, but you need to have your plans in place soon to ensure you beat the competition.