It’s so hard to believe that we are already at the last day of the May – as cliched as it sounds, time is really flying by and much too quickly for me. This means that June is upon us and the start of summer season. For us here in Florida, it’s also starting our rainy and hurricane season. This is typically the time when kids are out of school and people have scheduled vacations.
This can mean a slowing of business for some so the question becomes: Are you prepared for this slowdown? How will you ramp up your marketing efforts so you won’t feel the ‘pinch?’ We all deal with it but, if you’re prepared and have a strategy in mind, then the pain should be less if you take consistent action.
Here are some quick tips to ensure your business is ready for any potential downturns and to ensure you’re bringing in clients/customers:
- Review your past practices to see how you survived in previous times; if you don’t have to reinvent the wheel, then don’t. Look for patterns that may have occurred and interventions you took that got you through
- Determine your numbers: money you want to make each month, then break it down to how many clients you need to see at the current rate you are charging for your products or service. You can take this down to your hourly rate; it will all depend on you price your services. For example, if you want to make $5000/month, and you charged $100/hr, then you need to have 50 people paying this number. If you broke that down to weekly, you would need to have roughly 13 clients. This will give you a number to shoot for as a target. You also may want to think about raising your prices; another might be to run the numbers if you did a ‘sale’ on your services to get twice the number in
- Now you need to create an action plan for how you will market and attract these clients, again looking at past practices and what has worked best so you will keep consistent in these practices. You also need to look at past clients – can you go back and reup them as these people already know you, who may need you again or who can refer you to someone they know.
- Determine how you will attract new clients to you and your business – social media, writing articles or a blog, speaking at events, holding your own events, doing a teleseminar or webinar, sponsoring an event and so forth; choose one or two of your top activities and streamline your focus and attention there for the next 90 days
- Be sure to look at your personal/business finances to ensure you can weather the storm and see what you may have to cut back on (eating out, cable, etc.). Look at your spending habits and how you can bring more money in
As our economy is doing better, overall spending has increased which is the good news. But, realistically, these few upcoming months are historically a slow-down for some businesses who need to be prepared and ready to take alternate action. Doing so will ensure you enjoy the summer months both happier and more profitable.
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