Unless you have a seasonal business, summer is traditionally slow for many businesses. Some businesses are immune, but for a lot of us, we will see a slow down in the summer. Our clients & customers are busy taking vacations or spending time outside and aren’t spending as much time on their computers. If this is your first year in business, that can seem scary, but once you know it’s coming you can prepare your business for the summer slump and make the most of it.
You may not make as much money or take on as many new clients in the summer, but I would argue the summer can be an excellent time to move your business forward. Assuming you continue to have business expenses during the summer, it’s important to set aside money throughout the year to make sure those are covered.
7 Ways to Prepare your Business for the Summer Slump
1. Focus on education
Since you aren’t going to be as busy with paid work, the summer is a great time to take online courses, read books, or attend seminars that will help you grow your business.
2. Update your website
All of our websites could use a little refresh every now and then. The summer is a great time to work on the backend and make some improvements or switch things up. Maybe you need to focus more on SEO or you want to do a rebrand. The summer can be a great time to tackle those projects that may never get done otherwise.
3. Create something new
Use the summer to work on new products, projects, ebooks, etc. that you can launch in the fall. Summer may not be the best time to launch a new product, but if you are aiming for a fall launch, summer is the perfect time to create it.
4. Take a break
This may not exactly move your business forward, but we work hard and deserve a break sometimes, too. You may find that by taking a break during the slow months of summer, you are ready to come back to your business refreshed and ready in the fall.
5. Plan out the rest of the year
Once summer officially hits, you are officially in the last half of the year. Use this slow time as an opportunity to plan out Quarters 3 and 4 of your business. What else do you want to do this year? Are you on track? What project were you really hoping to get out there this year? The great news is, you still have half a year left so anything you want to do you still have plenty of time for.
6. Update your current content
Since people may not be around as often to consume your new content, use the summer to update old content. You can update images, create new pins for Pinterest, update the actual content in an old blog post, or update old posts for SEO.
7. Try out a new marketing strategy
I wouldn’t invest a lot of money in this, but to see if you can continue to get clients/customers in the summer, try out some new marketing or promotional strategies. Host a giveaway, play around with Facebook ads, or get out for some face-to-face networking {maybe at the pool!}.
The summer is typically a slow time for most businesses, but that doesn’t mean you can use these next couple of months to make forward progress in your business. Once you’ve been in business over a summer, you will know exactly what to expect. Then, next summer, you will know exactly what you need to do to prepare your business for the summer slump.