Every business experiences slower periods. For some, they
sell more during the Christmas season while others move at a
snail pace. Some sell more during the summer and others
less. The key is being aware of your seasons and
alternatives available to solve the challenge and change the
results.
All businesses need down time, breathing room to re-evaluate
where we’re going, and where we’ve been. What’s working and
what’s not? What changes need to occur and where we want to
go in the future?
Have you planned your breathing room time into your calendar
year?
As a coach and independent professional, I know by personal
experience and through the feedback of my clients, that
during the slow times, stress, fears, and challenges on how
to pay the bills increases. Sometimes, stress increases
without any money factors because we’re not used to having
additional time on our hands, so our brain manifests things
to fill the void. So, what are the alternatives? Good
question. Let’s explore the possibilities...
You can use the "save for a rainy day" philosophy by moving
a certain percentage from a regular account to a money
market or savings account for those rainy time periods.
You can plan out, on a paper calendar your seasonal periods.
Look at your Income Statement for the past few years and you
will see a pattern appearing. If that history isn’t
available, ask others in your field area. As a coach, I’m
in the personal development field. I would contact others
in this field, like speakers, trainers, who have experience
and history and interview them on the question.
After you review your historical financial information, keep
in mind that future economic conditions will influence your
seasonal plans. This requires a strategy on who and what
you are going to use for economic indicator flags. This may
require a financial planner, economist, or other
professional on your support team. Reading the paper or
watching the news is all well and good, however, it can also
add to confusion. Too many cooks in the kitchen syndrome.
Choose one or two cooks and ask the others to leave the
kitchen.
Remember, there are different seasons all over the world.
When its summer in the United States, there is a different
season in Australia and Japan. If your marketing vicinity
is global, you need to plan your seasons very carefully.
Each requires different marketing strategies and procedures.
When marketing in the U.S. reduces, marketing in other
countries will most likely increase. Especially if you are
in the bathing suit business.
If your business is strictly local, you can create
additional products or services that will only be available
during that season. This can maintain momentum. You can
use the "limited availability" technique for these products.
You can use this time for vacation, organize, plan, create
new products, and use your rainy day funds for support.
As well as, establish new joint ventures, expand personnel,
test new product ideas, clean up backlogs in filing or
emails, send out thank you gifts, upgrade your computer, or
learn new software.
Keep in mind that leaving some of these to-dos might be
detrimental to your revenue generation thinking. Allowing a
build up of the items that support your success, as
mentioned in the above two paragraphs, can create a desire
to create your own self-fulfilling prophecy. You will
intentionally create a slow period when a natural occurrence
wouldn’t regularly happen. An indicator can be if sales
don’t return after the slow cycle. Pay particular attention
if it occurs.
Choose to do some planning today on your seasons for the
money results you want tomorrow. Identify when and where
your business and industry seasons are, explore all possible
solutions, and work through a plan to fill the void. The
results will almost be a given.
About the Author
Catherine Franz provides writing and marketing assistance,
to individuals who want to write and businesses that want to
increase business. For more ideas and programs, visit The
Abundance Center at: http://www.abundancecenter.com.