Business Seasons

 

Just as a farmer knows that their business is affected by the change of seasons, so are our businesses.

Unlike a normal season that typically lasts about three months, each business season can last many years or on average about 10 years.

If you don't understand how this business season will really affect your business you could be caught off guard and this can have a very negative effect on the health and the survival of your business.

Let's start talking about Spring. This is the time when the farmer starts to sow the seeds. We are starting to plant ideas and they start to grow. You've survived the Winter and now you're beginning a totally new economic cycle planting the seeds and maybe even looking for other revenue sources. We may even possibly recruit new talent to help us grow. Generally, at this point, we plan and map out our focus for the succeeding years. Business Spring usually lasts many years. You need to give these ideas time to develop.

Then after Spring, here comes Summer. This is the time to maximize our revenue in our profits. You can feel that the market is stronger and people are happily spending money this time. During the Summer season, your business should be well-established and your revenue streams must be stable with a pretty good healthy base. This is the time where you want to use your profits that you've gained and invest in your business and possibly expand if that's something that you're even considering.

If you're not really experienced with business Summer, you might think that this is going to last forever. Lots of businesses during the summer months are going to spend lots of money and not worry about saving money because the money keeps rolling in. But a farmer knows that seasons change. Summer is not going to last forever. That's why a smart business owner knows not to be spending a lot during this time.

Then now we're in the season of Fall. Fall arrives and businesses slowly begins to slow down. Sometimes it's going so slow we don't even know if we're not really paying attention. At the end of Summer and the beginning of Fall, competitors start to pop out of nowhere. They're coming into the game late, but they start coming in all over the place and many businesses really start to hit the panic button because they see their business starting to slow down and there are more competitors out there. Those business owners who don't have a season plan in place often start competing on price alone because there's just so many new competitors in the marketplace and they don't have a plan to deal with it. This is not the way to ensure that you're going to survive the next season.

What we really need to focus on is if you really executed your seasonal plan correctly by the time Winter arrives. You're actually in a pretty good shape because you have cash that you saved when business was good. Competition for customers isn't as fierce because they were just living off the low-hanging fruit when business was good when most businesses out there didn't even have to think about it. They just picked up everything that you could get to.

But now that business is no longer there, they're having a tough time surviving running into cash flow issues. However, because you planned out your business for the next season, you're in a position to take advantage of these really good deals that are now out there.

It's a good time to buy equipment when there's not so much demand and you can get a really good price. It's also a time to grow by acquisition. You can purchase equipment from those competitors that are having a hard time surviving now, pennies on the dollar. You can look at buying their customers or keeping any good employees that they have. And you can even get a great deal by just offering them a job with a steady paycheck and just absorb their business as well.

Now, Winter doesn't last forever. You start to begin to plan for Spring so you can get a jump on your competitors that did survive. And because you've been proactive, you now have a plan going into Spring. You're in a position to take advantage of the Summer growth cycle to scale up your business.

So, how well are you following these four seasons of business? Has it put you in a strong position?

If you want to learn more, schedule a free strategy session with me and learn what you need to do to take advantage of these four seasons in your business.

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