Attention small business owners: It’s time to get ready for the summertime slowdown.
Business slows down a bit in the summer as people head away to take vacations. But that doesn’t mean you should flip the sign on the door to “closed,” pull out the swim trunks and head to the beach until Labor Day. The more relaxed summer months are also a good time for company owners to step back and take steps to improve business.
If you don’t own a seasonal business such as an ice cream or surf shop that gets busier when it heats up, here are things most small business owners can do this summer to set themselves up for a profitable end to the year.
Grow your network
Get out of the office and meet people. “All my business leads and clients came from networking and word of mouth,” says Jennefer Witter, the CEO and founder of The Boreland Group Inc., a public relations firm that represents small businesses and real estate developers.
Go to a conference or networking event, and don’t be afraid to start conversations. “Turn to the person to your right and say ‘isn’t this a great organization or event,’ ” says Witter.
Take advantage of people’s lighter summer schedules. Email or call potential clients and see if they are willing to grab a coffee with you. If there’s someone in your industry that you have always wanted to meet, take them out to lunch.
If you are chained to your desk, improve your digital networking. Connect with people you want to get in front of on social networking websites such as Facebook.
Refresh website
“People will Google you before they call you,” says Melinda Emerson, who consults with small businesses on their social media strategies. Sites such as Weebly.com and Yola.com let you create basic websites for free. If you don’t want to be bothered with doing it yourself, hiring a developer to create a simple website shouldn’t cost more than $1,500, says Emerson.
And the website must be readable on mobile devices. “People are traveling, and there will be new people in your town who have never been there before,” says Emerson. “If they can’t find you on a mobile device, you are toast.” Ask your Web developer to make it mobile-device ready.
Assess your goals
By the summer, you should know if your business is on track to reach its goals for the year. Take out the list of goals and plans you wrote down at the beginning of the year and make sure you are sticking to them, says Brian Moran, founder of Brian Moran & Associates, a consultancy that works with small business owners.
Get staff on track
Give your employees a break from daily duties, and train them one on one. Love and Quiches, a dessert and baked goods seller, brings the company’s salespeople, who are scattered around the U.S., to its Freeport, N.Y. headquarters. Vice president Joan Axelrod schedules two days to talk to each of them about how they can reach their goals for the rest of the year — and help correct any mistakes. “July and August are do or die time,” says Axelrod.
Automate business
Putting aspects of your business on autopilot can save time and money. If your website lets potential customers email you to ask for an estimate, set up an automatic response with a list of rates, says consultant Carrie Wilkerson.