ADVOCATE COLUMN 4th WEEK OCTOBER 2016
Not even those of us who live in a permanent state of denial cannot fail to notice that the holiday season is fast approaching, some lucky people are planning for holidays but for a good portion of business owners this is an important period for ensuring their future business success. The approaching holiday season reminds us of the seasonal nature of many Northland businesses. It reinforces the importance of understanding and managing your cash flow is a constant endeavour. By understanding the seasonal effects on your turnover and costs you a can be better placed to manage your cashflow and have sufficient working capital to see you through the slow periods of the year.
Let’s start with the lucky ones first, if your business is to be closed over the holiday season, how do you make sure that you are still front of mind with your customers? What contingencies have you made to ensure that when you are back to work in the New Year so too will be your customer. Does your marketing strategy, social media activity and communications plan ensure that when you start back in the new season you will already have work on the books?
From a marketing perspective if this is the season you rely on for sales, how do you stand out form your competitors, what is your strategy for special seasonal offers and how will you let your customers know about these. If there is going to additional demand for your product or service, do you have the capacity to meet this additional demand. Based on previous years how much stock will you need to carry and do you have an alternative source of supply if your usual supplier is closed over this period.
Another piece of the puzzle is your staff. Have you communicated well in advance with your workers to ensure they are available for work and that your planned staff levels will be sufficient to meet with anticipated increases in demand? It may well be that this is the time of the year where you take on seasonal workers. Because this is a period that is important to your businesses success it is crucial that the staff you hire have the capability to maximise this season’s potential revenue. Even if they were used last year make sure you hire early enough so you have time to train or reacquaint them with the products and policies of your company so that they can give your customers the ultimate customer experience.
