Christmas may have been and just gone, but as most businesses will testify this isn’t the only seasonal period. For some it might be summer, for others it might be around a particular event of the year. However, regardless of when your seasonality begins, most businesses have to work around this.
Every year we also hear stories of businesses who didn’t maximize their sales during these periods. Sometimes, these effects apply to everyone, while on other occasions it’s because companies haven’t done enough in their own sector.
Unfortunately, there is little advice we can offer in relation to the former. Sometimes, the market can be on its knees, and it’s difficult to capitalize. More often than not there are steps you can take though, and the remainder of today’s post will show what you can do to prep for those seasonal sales hikes.
Make sure you have enough stock
It sounds utterly simple, and bordering on the ridiculous, but you might be surprised at the number of companies who approach this period without enough stock.
Let’s put it out there again – some parts of the year are the only periods in which some companies make their serious profit. Ultimately, if they don’t order enough stock, they are leaving a lot of profit on the table and making themselves vulnerable for other parts of the year.
Sure, you might have to invest in extra storage, but this can be rented from safestore.co.uk at a relatively low cost (at least, much lower than that lost profit we have just spoken about).
The same rules apply with staff
While the first point may have sounded quite obvious, a lot of companies still don’t consider this next one.
As we all know, staff are the lifeblood of a business, and you shouldn’t be aiming to cut costs during those peak periods where you are bracing yourself for high sales.
Unfortunately, this is what many do. One of the easiest ways to put off customers in a retail environment is to showcase a queue running out of the store because you don’t have enough people working the cashier. Then, one of the easiest ways to prompt a wave of order cancellations in the ecommerce sphere is not having enough manpower to complete those orders.
You might be hiring on short-term contracts, but by doing this you can again ensure you are not leaving money on the table.
The rules about cash flow
Finally, let’s conclude with cash flow. You’ve probably heard all of the terrible tales of the C-word and unfortunately, most are true.
When it comes to popular sales periods, all of the rules need bolstering again. Particularly if you work in the service industry, where payment terms are more common, you can run into the risk of committing to work and then being left with long periods without payment that can quickly destroy your business.
As such, insist on shorter payment terms, but also make sure that your bank account is in the right condition to deal with an increase in the volume of work.
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