What are you doing to survive this holiday season? Whether it’s your busiest time of year or your slowest, this season can be stressful for almost every business out there. With the help of Community Super Seller @pessosices, we put together this guide with tips and advice from Seller Community members so you can make the most of this magical time of year!
See below for more ideas on how to take advantage of your slow season:
Slow Season
If the holidays are your slow season, how do you occupy your time? The ideas in this section are all about setting yourself up for success in the future.
Do Maintenance & Clean Up
Use your downtime to fix all the little things that you didn’t have time for during your busy season. Check out the following ideas on how to prioritize these projects.
Deep Clean Everything
There’s no getting around it - it’s time for that deep cleaning.
Pesso, Pesso’s Ices and Ice Cream: “While we keep everything as spotless as possible, in the busy seasons it's hard enough just to manage the lines. The winter gives us more time to move all of the tables and counters and freezers, give the walls a fresh coat of paint, and spruce up with some small renovations.”
Make Snow Days Productive
Take advantage of winter weather to do maintenance. If you don’t have customers coming through your doors - does anything need to be repaired? Which projects would you tackle without customers there?
Rusty, Kermit’s Super Wash: “When it snows we do maintenance on our wash. Then when the snow melts we wash a ton of cars to get the dirt and salt off. We focus our efforts on our online store for wash punch cards and gift cards. When it is cold and snowing outside we are advertising these items and still making money.”
Plan for Next Year
Your slow season is the perfect time to make a plan for next year. Take a few days to write out your goals and figure out how you’re going to get there. Take a look at these ideas for where to start.
Dig into your Data
Analyze your sales and marketing data and make a plan for next year. By looking at your previous year’s sales, you can make changes to save you time and money.
Pesso, Pesso’s Ices and Ice Cream: “When it's busy, it's hard to take a step back. Taking a closer look at the data of what you're selling can help revitalize your business. Take the time to re-evaluate what's the most cost effective, what's selling and what's not, and see if you have any room to simplify and improve your offerings. Whether it's cutting down on some menu items, simplifying sizes, tweaking prices, or maybe starting that new product line you've been dreaming of, now's a great time!
For example, we looked at our Item Sales Report on our Square Dashboard and saw that we’ve been selling more and more Kid’s Sizes over the years, but still not as many as our Small. So we decided to simplify and rebrand our sizing to just 1 Scoop, 2 Scoops, and 3 Scoops. Since then, sales of our 1 Scoop have skyrocketed and surpassed our old sizes. Our customers also end up asking fewer questions and leave our store happier than ever!”
Square Tip: Depending on your business, look at sales reports by employee, location, time, item, category, or new vs. returning customers. All of this is available on your Square Dashboard - learn more about the sales data you can track with Square.
Build a Budget
Slow season is the perfect time to make a budget for next year. Look at your expenses and figure out how much you need to set aside throughout the year to make it through your slow season.
Rebeka, B Stitches Gallery: "All year round I set aside 15% of profits to go toward taxes, and 20% of profits to be used during the slow season, and 10% of profits to be set aside for emergencies/savings (heaven forbid a fire break out or I get into an accident and then need to hire someone). After taxes are completed for the year and paid any remaining money I put aside of taxes goes into the savings/emergency fund. Year round the other remaining profit (55%) stays in the business to be used for things such as advertising or charitable donations.”
Bob, Van Kalker Farms Garden Center: “Budgeting is by far the biggest thing for us, we're kind of like a startup where we need to know how much runway we have for the off season. We have basically $0 in income from November 15 till April 15 yet maintain 7-10 employees during this time plus all the normal monthly bills. Getting companies that deliver supplies to give payment terms till May is huge and fairly standard in our industry due to the cyclical nature of the revenue stream.”
Think about Taxes
Get organized for tax time. Make sure you have your paperwork ready for your accountant to make tax time a breeze.
Pesso, Pesso’s Ices and Ice Cream: “Purchases are a regular occurrence, and invoices and receipts tend to pile up without enough time to go through them. Don't wait until tax time to rush it all, the slower season and the end of the year is the perfect time work through those mounds of paperwork and get ready for a fresh start for the new year.”
Rebeka, B Stitches Gallery: “I take the time to go over last year’s sales, prep for taxes, and project what my up coming year will be like and what trends I see coming forward. This is the best time to do SEO research as you aren't rushed and the best time to adjust websites, store fronts. I also make sure to do Inventory of supplies and finished products to ensure I am organized and set up for next year.”
Build your Community & Recharge
Use your slow season to think creatively about ways your business could get involved in your local community. Look into local chambers of commerce, groups for entrepreneurs (like Rotary or Young Professionals groups), charities, and events that you could join.
Participate in your Community
Participate in local events in your area - the things you might not have time for in your busy season. Get creative with how you get involved - you could Invite a local school choir to sing carols at your business for Christmas, or invite your local girl scout troop to sell cookies in front of your business when cookie season arrives. By doing events you’ll build trust with your community and may even drum up some new business in the process!
Rebeka, B Stitches Gallery: “During my slow season, I also try to attend as many local events as possible. I donate leftover stock that I won't be able to sell to local charities or homeless shelters, this gives you good press and people are more likely to purchase from a caring small business than a greedy one.”
Square Tip: Check out other ideas for crafting an amazing in-store experience to build your local community.
Take a Break
You work hard. If you can swing it, take some time off this holiday season and enjoy that cup of hot cocoa! ☕️
And last but definitely not least, here’s a list of the amazing businesses included in this guide - thank you for all your wisdom and advice!
📝 Comment below with what you do to get through your slow season and check out our attached guide (thanks for putting it together, @pessosices!) for a condensed version of this post!
