Just as New York is the city that never sleeps, the self-employed are the worker who (almost) never rests. The truth is that many self-employed people cannot afford to close their businesses during the summer season. Some of them, especially those dedicated to the hospitality or tourist sector, are kept at the canyon’s bottom to make the August, and that is never better said.
Aware of this situation, we would like to offer you some management tips so that you can manage your business more efficiently in these summer months, whether you decide to hang the closed sign for holidays or not.
Accounting Analysis Before “Throwing Yourself into the Pool”
As we have just indicated, you must weigh whether you want to go on vacation. Your business model may require more production during the holiday season, but the opposite can also happen.
The best way to determine the profitability of keeping your business open throughout the summer is by reviewing your current accounting situation and previous summers. If the expenses have been exceeding the income, you can not only close for a period, but you must do so, and if not, you must continue to invoice.
Plan and Advance Your Tasks
We will not deny it; work in August can be a nuisance, but if you advance your tasks to July and thus alleviate the workload, it is possible.
Even if you have not decided to leave on vacation, July and August are ideal for setting your business objectives for the “next course.” Yes, you heard correctly. For many businesses, September marks a return to the load and an exceptional time to implement those changes or novelties.
Help Others: Delegate Tasks
We have advised you to advance tasks in the previous point, but this would mean an overload of work. What is the solution? Do it if you have hired qualified staff to participate in your daily routine. Delegating tasks not only leaves you more complimentary but also reinforces the management skills of your trusted employees. In this way, you will only have to be aware of the most urgent aspects.
Inform Your Customers Conveniently
If you finally choose to close for a while or reduce the opening hours, do not forget to give notice in advance. We do not speak of a day or two before but must inform at least one week in advance and by all possible means. It is best to send a reminder email of the closing or the new schedule to your list of users. Of course, do not forget the automatic email notifying you of your absence during the holiday period.
Create Summer Promotions
For many businesses, summer is the high season. For many others, the summer period is synonymous with falling billing. Despite this, many self-employed cannot close, but they must continue making cash to cover the activity’s expenses. If this is your case, how can you increase your income?
You can consider a maxim that many self-employed entrepreneurs serve: if demand declines, you lower your prices. In this way, you can attract potential customers and encourage the purchase of your products or services.
Form and Apply Your New Knowledge
Renew or die is another of the maxims that you should consider, especially in the summer months, the perfect time to catch up on those areas of your activity in which you falter. The pace of work slows down and leaves you with time for that online seminar that you had wanted to do for some time or the book on management techniques that you bought for months and have stored on the bookshelf. After the holidays, you can put everything you have learned into practice in your business.
Create Your Editorial Calendar and Program on Social Networks
It is more than possible that the traffic to your website will be affected through social networks in the summer, but this does not mean you should forget to keep your profiles updated. Otherwise, you will lose the trust of your followers.
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