After long months of cold and sun-deprivation, the promise of long days, warm nights and vacation time are present on everyone’s mind. While this season offers great promise for industries like travel and tourism businesses often struggle with rallying clients during the summer months and with keeping their staff present and engaged. Many businesses have accepted the downturn in their revenues during the summer months as part of an inevitable business cycle.
But is it?
How can you take the most coveted season of the year for fun in the sun and make it profitable? Here are some ideas:
1. It’s all in the planning – One of the challenges employers are faced with during summer months is staff vacation schedules. Often summer arrives and there is a sudden realization that critical areas of the business have been inadvertently left unattended. To avoid this, circulate an annual corporate vacation calendar at the beginning of the year for your staff to submit their vacation requests. Be sure to black out the days/weeks that are not available for vacations. Set a cut-off date and when all requests have been submitted, prioritize who-can-go-when based on a system that your staff feels is fair and impartial. Ensure all bases are covered when it comes to critical roles and responsibilities so that someone is always on site to manage the business or deliver key services.
2. Rethinking summer marketing – While it is true that some businesses are logically positioned for business growth during the summer, many others are not. Often this leads to “marketing apathy” which then becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy about summer business growth. Try looking at your business in a different light. How can you tie products or services to your customer needs during the summer months? Are there incentives you can offer to entice clients to do business with you when they normally would not at this time of year?
Here are some ideas:
- Market to the season – Find creative ways to tie your products to summer experiences like movie theatres do when they market their “air conditioned experience” as an escape to summer heat.
- Market to the off-season – Tie a marketing campaign to downtime being the perfect time to be a proactive consumer, such as a “Get a Jump on Back to School Sale” (and offer products at greatly reduced prices).
- Market to gift giving – Gift giving occasions happen all year round. Create a gift giving display of your products or service to inspire your customers to think ahead.
- Discounts and promotions – Offer discounts for customers willing to make off-season purchases.
3. Try a little team building – There is no question that summer days can be a distracting to the workplace focus. While many businesses survive the long winter months through corporate retreats and team building activities, booking your team building events during the summer can mean fun options and reduced prices. Because fewer businesses use corporate team building consultants during the summer they can often be hired at reduced costs. Whatever you plan, be sure to include down time that allows everyone to just relax together and bond. Some of the best team building moments are unscheduled!
4. Have Some Fun – Inject a little “summer” into your workplace. Try changing up the dress code one day a week during the summer months (i.e.: “Bermuda short” day). Or how about a staff “picnic” every Friday where everyone participates with potluck? Employees who enjoy their workplace tend to be more engaged in their jobs and have a greater concern for outcomes. Summer months can be fun and productive in a workplace that demonstrates energy and enthusiasm – so have some fun!
5. And…. what about you? Are you setting an example of balance and quality of life, or do you head to the beach with your sunscreen and cell phone in hand? Like your staff you need a re-charge to allow you to keep focused and inspired to continue growing your business.
So before leaving on vacation set some ground rules for yourself:
- Only check voice mail and email once a day (if you must…)
- Set your out-of-office trigger on your email so people don’t expect a reply from you
- Assign all critical tasks to others on your team before you leave and ensure they understand them. This has the dual benefit of easing your workload when you return and creating a sense of engagement among your team.
- Take no work with you, not even your laptop!
Lead by example. Vacations are a corporate investment – today’s rest and relaxation is tomorrow’s fuel for workplace productivity!
From effective vacation scheduling to seasonally-inspired marketing opportunities to team building fun, summer does not have to mean sinking profits. Try seeing the opportunities in the season – and watch your summer success grow.
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Submitted by Stephanie E. MacFarlane
Director of Business Development, Salon Resource Group (902) 455-1504
