Don’t Be a Spooked Business This Halloween

Halloween is scary for many reasons: darker evenings, people dressed as grim reapers, and trick-or-treaters. It’s a time to embrace the eerie atmosphere—an occasion that we at MorphCostumes thrive on as our busiest season. But beyond costumes, business itself can feel scary, particularly in today’s fast-changing world.

The Fear of Rapid Change in Business

A recent study revealed that many executives feel intimidated by the pace of technological advancements. With constant pressures to stay agile and transform, it’s no wonder leaders feel as if control is slipping away. In addition to the economic, geopolitical, and workplace shifts, the impact of new technology, particularly AI, has intensified this fear. While I'm not a change management expert, as a business owner responsible for a team, I feel the weight of these changes and the need to stay informed.

AI has become a hot topic, often surrounded by sensationalist fears. It’s easy to focus on concerns about AI taking over jobs or upending our lives. However, I see it largely as a force for good. We live in an age where technology can achieve feats that seemed like science fiction a few decades ago. Industries like healthcare, travel, and retail are evolving rapidly, and understanding data has given us exciting new ways to engage with customers.

At MorphCostumes, we’re a majority online business, and while we may not be a household name, we lead in the UK’s fancy dress market and are expanding rapidly internationally. Staying ahead means understanding how people now search, choose, and buy. This requires a clear grasp of technological trends and shifts in consumer behaviour.

Embracing AI and Continuous Learning

Earlier this year, I made a commitment to learn about AI daily, even with a packed diary. I prioritised it because AI is already here and is reshaping business practices. In our business, AI helps us refine website content, emails, and Amazon listings, making them optimised yet personalised. While AI-generated drafts aren’t perfect, they give us a strong starting point, saving time and enabling teams to focus on higher-priority tasks.

AI has also been transformative for our creative process. It allows us to generate ideas and selectively refine them, offering inspiration rather than competition for our jobs. We’re excited to see how it can push our creativity further.

Learning about generative AI has also motivated us to develop AI-driven chatbots to enhance our affiliate marketing efforts. Our next goal is to build an autonomous bot that can manage routine tasks, but this requires ongoing learning, courses, and team involvement. Though my team might say they’re one step ahead, the process of shared learning has fostered a great collaborative spirit. We exchange insights and laugh about AI mishaps, collectively finding solutions and refining our approach.

The Cost of Falling Behind

What I wanted to avoid was becoming a business leader without a working understanding of new technologies shaping our industry. This drives me to keep reading, watching, and asking questions—something I recommend to other leaders. An example of this came with TikTok, which initially felt foreign to me. To understand it, I downloaded the app and spent hours observing what draws people in and how the content, advertising, and shopping functions work. This experience highlighted that each platform has unique nuances.

Our approach to TikTok was a trial-and-error process that taught us what worked and what didn’t. My advice is to get hands-on experience, study how advertising and sales functions work, and jump in—sometimes you have to “fire and then aim and fire again” to learn and adjust along the way. By testing quickly and inexpensively, we could gather useful data before fully scaling our strategy.

Moving Beyond the Fear

As we hear the sounds of Halloween—a cackling witch or “Monster Mash”—I remind myself that, like Halloween, unsettling times in business are temporary. Facing fears directly reduces their power, whether it’s tech change, new platforms, or an unfamiliar market. By embracing shifts rather than resisting them, we can find excitement in what lies ahead. Take ownership of the journey and see where it leads, rather than letting fear hold you back.