Some of my business partners are experiencing a slow month. However, they are not even close to being frustrated and anxious. Instead, they are working out on improving other aspects of their business, getting ready to handle an increase of revenue in the coming months.
Here are some very useful tips you can implement – some may bring you benefits in an instant:
1. Slow month = catching up with the neglected
If there’s one bad impact of thriving business, that would be resource allocation problems. When your sales increase, you naturally prioritise your business resource to handle the sales – more staffs, more equipments, and such. Now the question is, what if the sales decline in the near future? What to do with the no-longer-productive assets? What to do with the other neglected aspect of business operations?
A slow month, according to a business partner, is a great chance to catching up – taking care your filing, fixing broken non-sales-impacting equipments, etc. Another business partner of mine uses a slow month to focus his effort in promoting his business.
2. Slow month = the right time to take a break and procrastinate
On the other hands, another business friend of mine takes a bit of unorthodox approach toward slow business. When the business is not doing well, he immediate takes a vacation; he also allowing his staffs to take a leave, too.
The logic behind his action is that by taking mini breaks, he and his staffs will come back refreshed and ready to tackle any business issues arise when they get back.
Of course, not many business owners can take this approach at will – most can’t even turn-off their phones and avoiding the Internet during the break. This strategy is more difficult than it sounds, but when you are able to do it, the reward is substantial; nothing beats a revved-up group of staffs, saying “bring it on!” to business problems.
3. Slow month = train your business to run on a tight budget
Slow business forces you to find a way to be more productive with a limited resource. Just like human, business can amazingly do well when pushed to the limit.
Today, I can do more productive things and bring more business revenue for each dollar and minute I spent on the business compared to those times where I have excessive budget and working long hours on my business. In limited resources you will eventually find creative ways to do things better, faster. You can also miraculously discover ways to cut your business expenses – all likely happen on slow months.
So, when your sales are too-stagnant, or even declining, start your penny pinching endeavours – you’ll be surprised how well your business can run on such a low business operating cost.
Any thoughts or tips to share?
I’m sure there are plenty of ways to thrive even on slow months. If you have any thoughts or practical tips to share, I – and Noobpreneur.com’s readers – would be more than happy to learn from you.
Ivan Widjaya
Slow month buster