Most businesses have some predictability about them as to when you can anticipate being busy – and when you may be less so. Carol dives into this topic in her latest post on MasterCard Biz, “5 Ways to Survive a Seasonal Slowdown.” She begins:
“Most businesses have some sort of seasonality to them. Sometimes you’re really busy, and sometimes the phone stops ringing and you just hear crickets.
When you start to understand the ebb and flow of your business, you can get in sync with it, and learn to maximize the downtime (instead of freaking out about the slowdown).
Here are five ways to make the most of this time:
Reach out to past customers. If your business is in a lull, maybe it’s a good time to reach out and touch someone – specifically, former customers (figuratively, of course). You might be surprised at how happy they are to hear from you, especially if you’re just connecting to see how they’re doing.
Please note: This isn’t a time to try to sell something; it’s an opportunity to build a deeper relationship.
You may be surprised though, at the number of people who say they have been meaning to get in touch, and that they are finally ready to learn more about “x” or buy something.
Plan for the next quarter and/or year. I always say if you fail to prepare, prepare to fail. Planning definitely falls under this category.”
You can read the rest of the post here.
