Planning A Slow Season Calendar

Every business experiences slower periods. For some, theysell more during the Christmas season while others move at asnail pace. Some sell more during the summer and othersless. The key is being aware of your seasons andalternatives available to solve the challenge and change theresults.

All businesses need down time, breathing room to re-evaluatewhere we’re going, and where we’ve been. What’s working andwhat’s not? What changes need to occur and where we want togo in the future?

Have you planned your breathing room time into your calendaryear?

As a coach and independent professional, I know by personalexperience and through the feedback of my clients, thatduring the slow times, stress, fears, and challenges on howto pay the bills increases. Sometimes, stress increaseswithout any money factors because we’re not used to havingadditional time on our hands, so our brain manifests thingsto fill the void. So, what are the alternatives? Goodquestion. Let’s explore the possibilities...

You can use the "save for a rainy day" philosophy by movinga certain percentage from a regular account to a moneymarket 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 youwill see a pattern appearing. If that history isn’tavailable, ask others in your field area. As a coach, I’min the personal development field. I would contact othersin this field, like speakers, trainers, who have experienceand history and interview them on the question.

After you review your historical financial information, keepin mind that future economic conditions will influence yourseasonal plans. This requires a strategy on who and whatyou are going to use for economic indicator flags. This mayrequire a financial planner, economist, or otherprofessional on your support team. Reading the paper orwatching the news is all well and good, however, it can alsoadd to confusion. Too many cooks in the kitchen syndrome.Choose one or two cooks and ask the others to leave thekitchen.

Remember, there are different seasons all over the world.When its summer in the United States, there is a differentseason in Australia and Japan. If your marketing vicinityis 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 othercountries will most likely increase. Especially if you arein the bathing suit business.

If your business is strictly local, you can createadditional products or services that will only be availableduring that season. This can maintain momentum. You canuse the "limited availability" technique for these products.

You can use this time for vacation, organize, plan, createnew 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 oremails, send out thank you gifts, upgrade your computer, orlearn new software.

Keep in mind that leaving some of these to-dos might bedetrimental to your revenue generation thinking. Allowing abuild up of the items that support your success, asmentioned in the above two paragraphs, can create a desireto create your own self-fulfilling prophecy. You willintentionally create a slow period when a natural occurrencewouldn’t regularly happen. An indicator can be if salesdon’t return after the slow cycle. Pay particular attentionif it occurs.

Choose to do some planning today on your seasons for themoney results you want tomorrow. Identify when and whereyour business and industry seasons are, explore all possiblesolutions, and work through a plan to fill the void. Theresults will almost be a given.