If you’re in the business of selling swimming pool floaties or fly fishing lures, you’re probably not worried about summertime slumps in sales. However, many companies experience a decline in sales during the summer. Much of this dip in business activity is due to people taking vacations or focusing their attention on summertime fun rather than buying your products or services.
Don’t let the summer slump get you or your business down. While the lull in sales may be daunting, this temporary downtime presents the perfect opportunity to spruce up practices or boost your small business strategies. Here are a few suggestions to use the summer months to prepare for the next wave of sales in the future.
Tips to Staying Productive During a Summer Slump in Business
Most small business owners understand that weather has a direct impact on sales. However, not everybody recognizes these seasonal trends offer opportunities for improvements and better sales. Utilizing the slow times to regroup and refocus on your company’s mission and goals is essential. Here are a few quick tips to keeping your business on track during a summer slump.
Polish Your Presence: Summer downtime is the perfect time to overhaul your business profiles. Dig deep into various online outlets where you and your business have a presence. For example, check out your Google business listing, update your profile, attend to any reviewers who may have left comments, and confirm that all your vitals are correct, such as hours of operation and phone number. While you’re there, add more information to your profile and think about uploading attractive pictures of your product or service offerings. Take these same steps for all your social media accounts such as Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, etc. Dusting off your social profiles and adding fresh content to these media platforms can prepare you for the next wave of customers searching the ‘net for your services.
Clean, Clear and Unclutter: Although spring is known for a time of deep cleaning (hence the term “spring cleaning”), a summer slump in business opens up grand opportunities to get rid of clutter and get your offices sparkling clean. Studies show tidy workspaces result in more efficiency and productivity. Furthermore, if you have employees, you’re responsible for their environment while working within your business offices. So do a massive clean on offices, catch up on putting piles of files in proper places, store that stack of boxes that’s been collecting dust in the corner. Make sure your work environment is safe and healthy. And don’t stop at surface cleaning. Go deeper by removing safety hazards, get proactive with allergy testing in the office, replace air filters, scrub away any molds or mildew so you can have an allergy-free environment. You get the idea. Use the summer downtime to render a clean, healthy workplace because a tidy office leads to happier employees and better productivity.
Rethink Your Marketing Strategies: While folks are reading novels at the beach this summer, you can be improving your business by reading up on how to improve your marketing tactics during a summer slowdown. First, stay on top of your marketing strategies. Next, research what marketing works best for your industry. Start to rethink and revamp your newsletter or sales letter offerings. Finally, keep your marketing channels active and employ new strategies. All of these tips will put you in a commanding position, so you are prepared for a flood of business when folks come back to reality after the summer break.
Research Trends: If your business is slow during the summer, this is an excellent chance to conduct intense research on projections about consumer buying trends. This is a perfect time to introduce a new product or service according to potential consumer spending behavior. For example, are you seeing a spike in specific health trends? Consider hopping on that momentum by inventing products or services that cater to those health-centric issues that might hold your future customer’s interest. Downtime in your business gives you the opportune moment to prepare and pre-launch a new product or trending service that your customers will fawn over when they come back to buy your offerings.
Don’t Let Summer Business Slumps Get You in the Dumps
While seeing your numbers decline during the summer months is a major bummer, you don’t have to take those lumps sitting down. Get your thinking cap on and rev your entrepreneurial engines so you can make inroads and progress during the summer. Doing so will put you in a position of great advantage when business starts picking back up. Lastly, take some time for yourself. Summer isn’t just for ‘everybody else’ – you work hard and deserve a break too. Take a day or two to savor summertime fun and relaxation so you can return to ‘business as usual’ recharged and refreshed.
Shopping stock photo by Kamil Macniak/Shutterstock
