How to Make the Most of a Slow Season in your Small Business
As small business owners, life can be a bit of a rollercoaster. One minute we’re on top of the world, the next it can feel like the complete opposite. The orders might not be coming in. Or the enquiries have dried up.
If you’ve found yourself in this situation as factors beyond your control take over, it’s okay. Let’s take a deep breath. You’re going to be alright. Here’s some wise words from Eleanor Roosevelt:
“Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.”
This is something that every single business owner has experienced at some point. You most definitely aren’t alone. Trust that good can be found or created out of this situation.
With extra time on your hands, there’s many things you can do to fully set up your business to ride out future storms and truly thrive when the clouds have parted.
There’s always a silver lining, sometimes it is just hard to find at first.
So, here are 13 ideas to make the most of a slow season or those quiet days as a small business owner:
Revise and automate your processes & Systems
How many tasks do you repeat in a typical week or month? For me, it was surely close to 100. And each time I was repeating a task, I was getting more and more frustrated at my time being seemingly wasted.
Cue Nesha Woolery’s Organize and Automate.
This course has transformed by business. I’ve been able to automate and systemise my processes so I’m able to claim back time to spend it doing the things I love.
Let’s use this slow time to make better use of time in the future. If you’re not ready to invest in a course for it, you can take a look at your business processes and search for ways to streamline them. Think: sales calls, content creation, your onboarding process… How can you create a better experience for your customers whilst also speeding up the time you take on a project?
Some of my favourite tools to use. I use both of these every single day in my business:
Dubsado, my favourite customer relation management (CRM) tool. Use my affiliate code ‘eleanor20’ or follow this link for 20% off your first month. I use Dubsado for invoicing, contracting, recording time, store my email templates and share files with my clients.
Asana, this is a free tool which I use to organise my to do list on the day to day and those bigger projects too.
Revise (or create) your marketing plan
You need to have a plan when it comes to marketing. I’ve been there without one and it’s not somewhere I want to go back to. It looked like a lot of time spent getting very few results. If you don’t have a marketing plan already in place, stop what you’re doing and create one.
‘Built it and they will come’ only applies to the movies. Unfortunately in the real world we have to put in time and effort to getting word out there about just how darn amazing our business is. So we need to start shouting from the rooftops and drawing people in to our website.
Having a plan keeps you accountable and makes sure that you’re spending your time and money in the most productive way.
Marketing usually works on a 3-6 month rolling rota. By this, I mean that the work we put into our marketing now probably wont give us results until we’re 3-6 months down the line. Sure, there are short term rewards but a larger proportion of what you will do now will help you later down the line. Future you will be ever so grateful for it!
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Update your website & Brand
Now you’ve put the work in to driving traffic to your website, we need to make sure it’s looking ship shape and ready to convert potential clients who come knocking. A website is an incredible tool in your business. It’s probably your hardest working ‘employee’ too. It works for you day in, day out, selling your services and products whilst you sleep. Pretty sweet, huh?
Have you ever hesitated to send a potential client to your website? Your website is probably in need of some much needed TLC - and you certainly aren’t alone out there.
With some more time on your hands, a slow season is the perfect opportunity to make sure your website reflects your brand and all the content is up to date. You could take some time to DIY your site, or hire out the project to a designer.
When a potential customer or client lands on your site, you want them to know exactly who you are, what you do and who for. If they don’t, they’re probably slipping through your reach which is super annoying to think about.
So, take this time to make sure your website and brand are optimised for conversions. Make sure that they are up to date with the latest information and offerings too.
You might like: Easy Website Tweaks to Win Clients
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If you’re looking for a hand with your brand and website, take a look at my services to discover the magic we can make together.
Get HElp
When things are slow in business, it isn’t the time to take your foot off the gas and stop investing.
“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.”
If we keep doing exactly as we always have, we’re pretty likely to get the same results that we’ve always done. So, when things aren’t working for us, it’s time to get some help. This could be in the form of a coach, a VA, a website designer… Look for your weaknesses and hire someone to breathe new life into your business. It’ll be amazing to get a second pair of eyes on your business to spot things that you’ve not been able to. Hey, that’s okay - we’re all human here.
If you’re looking for a hand with your brand and website, take a look at my services to discover the magic we can make together.
REach out to past clients, customers & Audience
You past clients and customers are an amazing resource. Whether you ring them up for a chat over Zoom or ask them to fill out a quick survey, you can gain a lot of direction, clarity - and maybe even some new clients.
Sometimes life gets in the way and clients forget to submit their “you’re blooming great” testimonial. So, now’s the time to give them a gentle nudge in the right direction.
Check in on them and see how they’re getting on. Perhaps they could even do with some more help or maybe they know someone who is after your services too. The worst that can happen is you simply have a lovely catch up with a gorgeous past client!
Your past clients can also provide you with much-needed confidence boost for these times. I like to keep a folder full of sweet words from my lovely clients to pick me up when things feel tough.
If you’re stuck with marketing and your offerings, ask you audience. Don’t just rely on investigating other businesses within your market, your audience is full of the people you’re going to be selling to, after all. So they’re going to have a lot of answers to the questions on your mind.
What are their current struggles? What do they want to see from you? How about their dreams, goals and aspirations? What do they do in their free time? All this juicy information can help shape your business going forward.
This could be as simple as a quick survey on your instagram stories using their question and poll tools. Or you could create a more in depth survey using Google Forms or a form on your website.
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Create new offerings
So, you’ve surveyed your audience and past clients and you’re full to the brim with knowledge about them. The next step is to consider using this information to create a new offering. You’re in the best space for it, after all.
This offering could be a new service to add to your repertoire. Or it could be as simple as a eBook that you can sell on your website to create a stream of passive income.
Passive income in an incredible tool to use in running a small business. Don’t be fooled by the name, it will require work to get it up and running. But once it is, it can bring in a huge chunk of revenue to your business. They’re usually prices a lower than 1:1 or group services, but they can be sold to a wider market.
I’m not being overdramatic when I say my passive income products have transformed my business.
Say, for example, that you’re a life coach. Was the feedback from the survey filled with questions about self help? Then maybe it’s time to put together a course or workbook that you can sell online to help those people out.
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Refresh your testimonials and portfolio
Now you’ve gathered as many testimonials as possible, it’s time to sprinkle them all over your website - just like confetti! One place to add them is into your portfolio profiles for different clients.
Hands up who leaves updating their portfolio to the bottom of the to do list? 🙋♀️
Yeah, me too. I’ve always got a file on the go waiting to head to my site. Oops!
So, with a little extra time on your hands, it’s the perfect opportunity to take stock of your portfolio. Add in some gorgeous new projects that really sum up your favourite style or type of clients you want to work with. Sometimes this might mean getting rid of some older work that doesn’t sit so well with you. It’s all about curating a portfolio that causes potential clients to shout “I wanna work with her” when they land on your site.
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Invest in yourself
Because you’re SO worth it! Now is the perfect time to invest in yourself so that you can take your business to the next level.
Is there something that you’ve always meant to learn or get better at? Perhaps you want to polish up on your Adobe skills or maybe you’re looking to improve your copywriting. Here’s some ideas of what you can do:
Take a course
Read a book
Attend a workshop
There’s so much good stuff out there that you can access from your fingertips. I’m so excited to see what you’ll discover!
You might like: The Book Club: Top Mindset Books
Network
Networking definitely doesn’t have to been pristine suits and talking about yourself non-stop. But, let me tell you, there are a lot of those types of networking groups out there. *shivers*
When I started out, I attended a lot of different events which involved standing up and talking about yourself for one minute straight or getting as many referrals for other businesses there. It all felt very forced and I just knew that my dream client wasn’t hanging around here. They would likely be just as put off as me. After feeling like I was getting nowhere with networking, I was about to give up.
And that’s when I stumbled across Facebook groups online.
Over the years, they’ve provided me with a shoulder to cry on, a place to speak to other like-minded business owners and I’ve picked up a fair few clients along the way. These amazing groups don’t cost a penny to join but are a great place to hang out on your lunch break or with your morning latte.
Here’s some of my favourites. I’ve also joined a bunch of groups which are regional so it’s worth sniffing around to see if there are any in your local area too.
Don’t just stop at Facebook groups. Another really effective tool to networking online is to engage with the community you’ve already got. Well, duh? But it’s often something that’s overlooked in marketing and networking. Make the most of what you’ve already got by showing up consistently with useful content and engaging with your follower’s posts.
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Update your workspace
I’m a firm believer that there are two types of people in the world. The inbox zero people. And the inbox 1000 people. I fall into the first category but that doesn’t mean it sometimes gets on top of me.
With more time during a slow season, it’s the perfect opportunity to tackle that overflowing inbox or that bulging receipt folder. I promise you will feel so much calmer when you sit down to work. Get these housekeeping tasks out of the way and that’s one less thing to procrastinate over.
Whenever I take time to declutter my desk space and light a candle, I’m instantly so much more productive than the previous day. Tidy space, tidy mind and all that, eh?
It’s also a good time to check in on your goals and priorities. If things aren’t aligned from this root, you might want to spend some time shifting the business to feel like a much more comfy fit.
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Create content & Freshen Up the Blog
Having spare time is the perfect content creation opportunity. I’m a BIG fan on batch-producing work. I’ll sit at my desk and produce 3-5 blog posts in one sitting. Trust me when I say it takes me about 2/3rds of the time it would to produce each blog post as a one off.
And when you’re looking for a break from the podcast or blog creation, why not look at repurposing some content? Take an old blog post and break it up into shorter chunks of text. Ta-dah! You’ve got captions for 5 social media posts this week.
My final task to breathe new life into my blog is to go through each post and add in internal blog links to my newer content. It can be a lengthy task but it’s going to keep your audience hanging out on your site for a lot longer.
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grow or nuture your Email list
If you haven’t got an email list set up for your business yet, do it. Email allows you to build a relationship with the subscriber which means email marketing is one of the highest converting methods in the game. It averages out that each subscriber is worth $1 a month. So for 100 subscribers, that’s about $100 you can earn from your list.
MailChimp is a great free tool for those just starting out. If you’re after something which is super easy to use yet a powerful tool at making the most from your email list, Flodesk is a great choice. I’ve recently made the jump to Flodesk where I have built in some brilliant automated workflows and new opt ins. In a short space of time, my audience has doubled in size.
Click here or use code ‘eleanorstones’ to get your 50% discount today. Yep, that’s an affiliate link - I’ll only ever share things I’m passionate about and this sure is one of them!
You could use your time to create a juicy and enticing opt-in that visitors will exchange for their email addresses. Then you could develop a neat welcome sequence to introduce yourself and the business to your new sign up.
If you’re already up and running, send a newsletter to your audience. Share some of your new content, deliver an exclusive offer or ask for feedback from them.
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Take some time out
As a small business owner, our own health and happiness is vital to the success of our business. When we’ve got things going on in our personal lives, it’s probably going to impact our business to some extent. And the same goes for the other way round. We need both our personal and business selves to be showing up
So, for personal happiness and the success of our business, it’s so important we take time to look after number 1. For me, it was only really when I’d dealt with things going on in my personal life that I was able to dedicate myself to my business and really see it take off.
If you need it, don’t feel the pressure to keep grinding to the point of burn out. Take some time out. And you’ll be able to come back stronger and full of motivation.
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