Shutting down for summer?

For small business owners, the end of the school summer term can sometimes mean an end to business activity. But this doesn’t have to be the case – far from it!

Ok, so you may have a child or two to occupy throughout the 6 week holidays, or a break away arranged, but with a bit of planning and canny activity, you can still get working – even if it’s only ON your business instead of actually IN it!

• Identify which usual activities cannot physically be done without you and work out if having someone else stand in your shoes will allow for things to continue.  If you provide a 1-2-1 service, then this may well be tricky, so factoring in a break and booking your Clients around those dates has to be done.
• Plan in some time for activity that allows you to keep in front of your customers, whether this be making phone calls, email marketing, or meetings – where time and location allows!
• Maintain an online presence by scheduling your Twitter, Facebook & Linkedin activity a week or so in advance, allowing you to jump in and out of discussions that interest you, but safe in the knowledge that your key messages will still get out there.  I personally like to use Hootsuite.
• Make the most of online applications such as Dropbox to gain access to your documents whilst you are away, and Skype to allow you to keep in touch via phone/video calls.
• Ask your children to come up with new ideas for you – or better still get them doing some jobs for you; price labelling stock, adding business cards into a database, posting flyers, shredding unwanted material. Pay them in ‘days out’ or ice cream!!
• Declutter your immediate work or desk space and review the literature around you. Are the documents you have still up to date & relevant?
• Update your accounts, contact lists, website content, etc.
• Pencil in content for newsletters, website, blogs so that you have a template to work from when needed.
• Most useful of all – use the ‘downtime’ from your normal day-to-day work activity to think differently. Make plans of the things you’d like to try in your business, who you want to work with, how you might get in front of these people, the new offerings you want to put in place. It’s amazing how just being in a place other than your normal workspace can get you all creative!

If you’re wondering, then yes I will be taking a short break with my family over the school holidays, but inbetween days out at a plethora of places, and of course the odd dip in the pool, I’ll be making the most of the ‘me time’ whilst we’re away – to ponder, plan and power up my business!!

If you are a small business who would like some help getting things back into order; perhaps things quieten down whilst Clients are away, or maybe your business starts to hot up in the autumn, then please do get in touch. I’m only a phone call or email away!