|
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.
(c) Copyright, Catherine Franz. All
rights reserved. |
