I just received a call from someone on my team who shared with me they don’t expect any business growth right now because it’s the summer time. They’re falling into the same trap that newbies fall into or people with the wrong mindset.
Whether it’s summer, winter, fall or spring, if you feel it’s not worth the effort to build your business and you slow down, your business will slow down and so will your income.
There was a great story I read recently where a father had his own business and his son was visiting him from out of town. His son saw the advertising money he was putting into the business and said to his father, this is not the best time to do this. Everywhere business is slow. Meanwhile the father had a great business and was attracting many clients. But when he thought about it, he agreed with his son and slowed his advertising. Guess what happened? His business slowed down and his reaction was, my son was right.
Now of course you’re reading this and saying, Kathy, it is a known fact that summer is a slow month for growing your business. Yes, but you can still be building your business AND your pipeline. Even though it is summer, continue to put forth a concerted effort, and you will LOVE the momentum this builds for the fall.
And if you really take a look at it, there really isn’t any good time to build a business. Let’s see – starting November is holiday season and people won’t want to spend money. January to March is tax season and that’s not a good time. June to end of August is summer time. Doesn’t leave much room to build a business, does it? What you need to keep in mind is be persistent and consistent and you will build a sucessful business.
With the summer time, you can also change your strategy. Realize that people will be out during the day and most of your calls will take place in the evening. If you are able to do trade shows and events, now would be a great time to share your products. Even if you don’t have the money to set up at an event, you can still go and gather business cards and make contacts.
Always get people on autoresponders. Whatever the season. I have someone who responded to my 5th autoresponder indicating they were on vacation but would be getting back to me as soon as they got back. Now that explains why they didn’t return my phone call. And that’s ok – because the autoresponders continued to follow up and it worked!
You should always be reevaluating your advertising. Not just in the summer but always. There are seasonal advertising techniques that need adjustment. I recommend always having more than one method of advertising. You can always make changes and there will be times when one is more powerful than other. Always be building a list so you can be building a pipeline. Maybe you have a marketing campaign that isn’t producing well in the summer, or maybe even COSTING you too much. It’s time to “trim the fat” and get rid of that marketing strategy.
Also, think about this. If most people think that summer is not a good time to call people, guess what? If you’re calling your leads when no one else is, you’re going to have access to more people! I just read recently and thought it was great and will share it here. While there are a few less “fish in the lake” in the summer months, there is a far greater percentage of the “fisherpersons” that pull their bait out of the water.
To share what Jim Rohn has said, water and nurture the crops in the Summer and harvest them in the Fall. If you work just as hard in the summer months, you’ll either be building your business or setting a strong foundation where you’ll be rewarded in the Fall. Where most people who believe in the myth that they can’t build their business in the summer, start to build their business again in the Fall, you’ll have a head start because you’ll be capitalizing on the momentum you built.
And as Henry Ford said, if you think you can; you can and if you think you can’t, you can’t.
So go forth and build your business, and if you’re seeking a business where the company does the advertising for you and you can profit share off their customers, call me on 718-407-0035 or go to:
Wishing you much success, good health and great wealth!
Kathy
