Catching the Seasonal Wave Part 2

Tactics for Seasonal Business

The pressure in a seasonal business requires that you succeed in a short period, then plan and cope through the down times. In the first part of this article, we talked about some of the strategies you can employ behind a seasonal business. This week we’re offering some tactical tips to help you plan for the ebbs and flows.

Tactics that Alleviate the Pressure

To help maximize your skills, time and resources, follow this list of tactics:

1. Budget. Establish a tight budget and stick to it all year long. Avoid the temptation to spend when you’re flush with cash. Money management is always important in any business, but even more so to the seasonal business that must stay on top of an uneven cash flow.
2. Create a cash reserve account for lean months. Save, save, save, and save some more!
3. Create a cash flow forecast. Cash planning helps identify patterns and lets you see what you’ll be facing in the future.
4. Manage your time. Master your time management skills so you can work 80 hours a week in season and 10 hours a week off-season and still be efficient and know your priorities.
5. Market and Promote. Use slow times to devise marketing plans, conduct customer surveys, catch up on maintenance or strengthen client relationships. Send mailers, make calls, set-up meetings.
6. Create the right team. Use only a small core of permanent employees and consider temps and part-time workers when needed. Planning ahead is essential to your staffing needs. Aside from cash flow, the second biggest struggle for a seasonal business is often one’s people strategy, causing management challenges. Constantly having to recruit, hire and train new workers can put an added strain on tight resources. It may pay to hold onto workers. If not, keep in touch. Make working enjoyable. Give them incentives to come back the next season. Organize events when working to build teamwork and community, encourage employee feedback and offer performance based financial incentives.
7. Keep stock levels low. Carrying unneeded inventory ties up cash you may need elsewhere during the slow season.
8. Look for deals. Shop for the best discounts from suppliers; then build strong relationships with them to establish credit so you can extend payments if necessary.
9. Generate revenue. Offer off-season sales or rates, and look for ways to generate revenue during quieter periods.
10. Update your website. Off-season is a great time to enhance your website and jump into social networking and other forms of web marketing.

Develop Your Business

Though most small businesses are affected by seasonal changes, a seasonal business depends on them. Being profitable in the face of uneven cash flow, unpredictable sales, and high employee turnover requires a great deal of planning and ingenuity. With the right planning and execution you can alleviate the pressure and find fresh ways to view the opportunities as they present themselves.

One clear advantage to a seasonal business is that when operations stop or slow down you have a perfect quiet period to regroup and refocus. What better time to work on it, instead of in it, when there isn’t much in it going on at all.

The real key to making your seasonal business a success is the creation of good controls along with engaging in strategic thinking that may unlock new ideas that capitalize on your assets and create new markets for the slow times of the year.