For many businesses the first few months of the year are a slow time -- retailers and summer resorts come to mind, but it hits every business sooner or later. The holidays are over and you're just slogging through until things pick up again in a few more months.That doesn't have to mean you have to go into the red, though. Time to get creative and figure out ways to make the offseason profitable.
Here are eight tips for making the slow time more productive:
1. Shed staff. I recently visited my local 5-plex movie theater and discovered it is currently staffed by exactly two people. Obviously, that's not ideal for customer service, but it reflects the reality that business is slow now. No doubt as the busy summer season approaches, they'll hire a few more workers.
2. Cut other spending. Whether it's ordering office supplies or inventory, now's a great time to review the budget and see where purchases could be postponed or costs reduced. Take a look at your phone plans and utility providers to see if there's a better offer out there.
3. Manage cash flow. When income is down, it's important that invoices get paid on time. Call customers promptly, extend less credit or hire a collections agency if you need to. Just make sure you aren't waiting too long for payments.
4. Think of new uses for your resources. If you have a physical location, maybe you could rent it out after hours for parties or meetings. Or maybe your company truck could make a pit stop at local events to pass out samples if you aren't making many deliveries.
5. Ramp up marketing. While you have time, reach out to customers, as USA Today columnist Rhonda Abrams wrote recently. It's a great time to try creative marketing approaches you haven't used before. Hold a contest on your Facebook fan page, or have an in-store event with special giveaways. The goal is to keep your brand in customers' minds until they're ready to buy again. Which may be sooner than you think -- Macy's marketed aggressively in the new year and raked in over 4 percent more sales than the department-store chain had in January last year.
6. Think of ways to extend your season. Whistler, BC is famous as a ski resort. But they've developed a substantial summer business too, by offering carnival games and other amenities for families with kids. If you're a retailer, maybe you could stock other merchandise that might be more of an offseason draw.
7. Team up. You're probably not the only business in your town with down time. Find others and cook up a promotion together to bring people back. One that happens in my town that's always a big success is a Girls' Night Out in early May.
8. Refresh. Whether it's the decor in your store, the design on your business cards or the layout of your website, slow times give you the opportunity to introduce a new look.
What do you do during your slow times? Leave a comment and let us know.
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Comments:
This is really an awesome tip for all businessmen. All your points are really useful especially the fourth.
Great tips, but cash flow should be #1. Controlled spending and a war chest for slumps is the best defense. What happens when you shed staff every time you get spooked over a slump? You'll end up with high turnover and staff who aren't properly trained and afraid you'll cut them at a moment's notice. It's better to always manage costs well, build up cash reserves and once they're a slump, then take advantage of other companies making cuts. That's the perfect time to expand and ramp up marketing - advertising and marketing can often be had much cheaper and you can build a lot of momentum for when things recover. Ride the wave!
All Carol's suggestions are good, but one that our school uses most is to review what your salespeople are doing....number of calls, demos, closes. Working past accounts (we've had business owners who haven't even converted old clients into new databases, or have no database). Many salespeople got very lazy during the 2005-2008 period, and really forgot how to sell. Many companies saw, without reaction, their competitivee position eroded for various reasons during the same time period, and they've got to innovate to stay afloat.
Thanks for your suggestions, Can you give more tips to figure out the way to manage the cash flows during off seasons?
Great tips! Permit me to add one more that has been vital to me and my growing business. Prepare to Bend by Predicting the Trends: Be vigilant about monitoring relevant trends, since they're always in flux. Even more importantly, anticipate and maintain an awareness regarding forces that could affect the trends you're monitoring. Doing so enables you to foresee and adapt to emerging trends before your competitors do. - Francie Dalton www.daltonalliances.com
Your suggestion to Team Up is one of the best ideas for businesses to take during slump times! Stategic partnering can make or break your business. If you don't already have some great strategic partnerships in place, work on developing some NOW! If you're not familiar with this concept, here's what to do: Think of all the other businesses who are calling on the exact same people that you are. You''ll (obviously!) want to exclude competitors, but.. think of others who sell differing or complementary services to your same target market. Reach out to them and get creative.... see what ideas you can develop together to partner, make the most of your marketing dollars and efforts, and bring greater value to your shared customer base. It's the Win-Win-Win formula! Lisa www.StartYourOwnSmallBiz.com