what to do when your business slows down

I have to admit that when I started my first business back in 2011 and we hit the first ‘dry spell’ I panicked. Until then the business was growing steadily, but suddenly the inquiries have dried up, orders slowed down a bit and nobody booked anything for a day, two, a week…

And as I panicked, I immediately thought: I have to up my marketing, get more out there, work 16 hrs instead of the usual 12.

And of course, sometimes that might be the case, but in this blog post I want to concentrate on the times in the year when the business slows down naturally around holidays and seasonal celebrations.

Once you’ve been in business for year or two you should be able to predict when these times come, based on your income spreadsheet. If this is your first year and things suddenly slow down, don’t panic, they will pick up again!

And instead of worrying or wasting time and money on marketing when nobody is around to respond to it anyway, this is what you can do:

  1. Take a break and go on a little holiday
  2. Do a proper tidy up of your office
  3. Sort out your tax return ( I know I’m spoil sport, but you will thank me later…)
  4. Take a business course or learn something new, that will help your business
  5. Catch up with your friends
  6. Sort out the forgotten to do list (the one that’s still worth doing – don’t do anything just for the sake of it)
  7. Write a textbook or e-book that you’ve always wanted to write, but never got round to it
  8. Tidy up your website (sort out blog posts, graphics or even go for a little overhaul)
  9. Put together a super plan of what you going to do (like marketing strategy) for when the ‘dry spell’ is over and schedule it in. For instance, you can plan to launch a new service or product when everyone returns back from summer holiday.
  10. Write content for your social media and where possible schedule it in.
  11. If you have a blog on your website, plan out the next few months (or even a whole year).
  12. Once you got your blog plan, start drafting some of the posts. You can always come back to them later, but you’ll be glad you’ve started.

 

There are obviously hundred of other things you can do, but no matter what you do, I’m sure you’ll be glad you have done them, when the business picks up again.

Want to know what I’m going to be doing this summer?

1 I will be reviewing and auditing all my websites for SEO and looking at some more quality link building.

2 Writing new material for my online school for creatives in October

3 Learning how to use properly my new camera (I’m still on auto…)

Now over to you, what is your favourite way of strategically filling up the time when business is slow?

Leave me comment below – I really love to know…

Magdalena