Surviving The Season As A Business

Photo Credit : Michal Parzuhow - Unsplash

Christmas is one of the busiest times for all businesses: restaurants, hotels, bars and shops all take a large proportion of their annual revenue in the Christmas season. For some it’s even more dramatic: they exist entirely to take advantage of demand around the holidays, from specialist caterers to small scale retail firms. 

Success for these businesses is a close run thing. They need to take advantage of every trick and tip to make sure they capitalise on the limited period they’re in demand and take as much money as possible while limiting their costs.

Here are a few of secrets that help seasonal businesses thrive, that might inspire you to join their entrepreneurial ranks.

Storage

One of the main challenges for a seasonal business is warehouse space. If you’re running a retail operation that’s quiet for 10 months of the year and then frantically busy in November and December, you have extremely flexible needs that change at almost a moment’s notice. Buying or renting warehouse space in the long term is a waste of resources: you need it for only a fraction of the year so for the majority of the time you are paying for space you don’t use and you can use a complete moving service such as https://www.mybekins.com/

Most storage firms offer special rates for businesses, and allow you change your unit at short notice, which is perfect for a business that needs to suddenly increase its storage dramatically without paying over the odds. Self storage firms allow seasonal businesses to manage their needs quickly and efficiently, so they can always store what they need without paying too much.You can also keep your seasonal storage freeze-free. Heat-Line have so great tips on their website.

Income in the Off Season

When Christmas gives way to the New Year, your income experiences a rapid drop off but your outgoings don’t disappear. Your businesses still exists, even if the peaks of demand won’t come back for another ten months. You need to manage your down months effectively to make sure you’re ready to come back in full force.

Instead of cutting down your staffing keep them motivated by taking them to Chuck's Roadhouse.  With regards to advertising budgets, try to get creative with how you invoice clients to ensure a supply of income over the off season. Offering delayed payment to some, or considering payment in instalments for big orders will keep the money coming in long after the Christmas rush has abated, and keep you in your clients’ thoughts ready for next year!