1. Things feel out of control right now as the holidays approach, with orders coming in like crazy for your product/service.
2. The business has slowed down drastically in the winter season, and you have nothing new on the horizon to finish the year off strong.
You don’t see much middle ground between these two when we head into December. And if you usually experience a Christmas rush, January will probably slow down drastically.
No matter what you do, you will experience slow periods. However, when you anticipate them (and build the business in a way that prepares for them), you can maximize this time to work towards exponential growth. Let’s go through a few things you can take care of now.
Work Your Current Database
Remember the Pareto Principle (80:20 rule) – 20% of your customers create 80% of your sales. What do you do right now to keep your current customers hungry for more? Do these customers feel like V.I.P.’s? They probably should if they affect your bottom line this much.
Leverage this principle with your social media followings and email lists. Think of ways you can engage and reward the 20% of the people who DO engage with your content, browse your site, read your emails.
Your next big customer or client is only a few “touches” away, so don’t take your foot off of the marketing and PR gas pedal when things slow down.
Create the Plan For Next Month
Instead of sitting around and pouting when you struggle to get leads, convert them, or get big sales versus bread crumbs, sit down and actually analyze your numbers. Find the data points that actually prove that the business is in a slow period. Then, take a look at your 5 Ways and determine what one metric you need to increase to speed things up.
From there, making the next month’s plan becomes so much easier. I’m sure you can think of at least three strategies to try that will get that number up. Just a 10% increase in one of your 5 Ways metrics can have thousand dollar impact.
Get in this habit every month (not just slow months) and watch as these 10% increases compound, leading to million dollar impact.
Great annualized data sheets allow you to anticipate slow months in the future (versus playing the guessing game). This then allows you to….
Block Out Time For Education
What does this boil down to? Working ON your business, not in it (one of the things I get sick of typing – but I’ll continue to do so)!
In all honestly, our business tend to slow down a bit in December. The data tells us that this will likely happen – so we block out time to refine processes, plan for the next year, conduct performance evaluations, and learn new skills. This period of time becomes much busier than it would have been – and much more productive.
I understand the urge to step into the day-to-day operations when revenue, leads, or general foot traffic dies down. Don’t get sucked in. Develop yourself by learning new things. Remember where Learning falls in the formula for success. Teach what you learn to your team members who will do a much better job taking care of the customers than you will.
Update Online Presence
When was the last time you worked on that ancient LinkedIn profile of yours? That profile pic from 2013 in your Corporate America days will not help you much. Use slow periods to focus on the intangibles such as social media and website.
Has the business experienced any major shifts in the past few months or year? Make sure to reflect that in your social media profiles. Have you had some great success this year with a new customer persona or target audience? Speak to those people in your bio or on your site’s homepage.
People spend nearly 14 percent of their total time online. Ensure that every online experience they have with your business is a good one.
Build Strategic Partnerships
Feel like you’ve “maxed out” on all of these internal strategies? Time to look externally.
Even in your peak business season, you should constantly seek out and forge strategic partnerships. Your current database will only get you so far, and the business professionals in your network probably know some great, new potential customers and clients.
Start by identifying potential strategic partners who target the same types of customers that you do and share a general “why” in the business community with you. Think through win-win strategies and come prepared to add value to your potential partner’s business.
Bring an abundance mindset to the table when entering partnerships. You’d be surprised at how seemingly “weird” or “outside the box partnerships can turn into huge growth catalysts for your business.
Final Thoughts…
Remember that most businesses don’t have steady, perfectly predicable cash flow. Make the most of your time and prepare now for exponential growth in 2022. And if you fall into the first bucket (December madness), don’t get blindsided by the upcoming slow period that January might bring.
Ready to dial in some of these plans for huge business growth, but don’t know exactly where to start? Reach out to us. Our coaches work with business across the entire spectrum of size, industry, growth, and other demographics you can think of.
