When one owns a seasonal business, such as landscaping or wedding services, they can face several challenges. How do seasonal businesses survive in the “off season?” Are there ways to revitalize seasonal businesses so that they can stay open year-round and generate revenue no matter the season?
Challenges of Seasonal Businesses
The types of seasonal businesses run the gamut, from ice cream stands to snowplowing services. While they can be very lucrative, they also encounter several challenges that are unique to their seasonal nature. From unpredictable cash flow to weather interruptions that can throw an entire season into upheaval, seasonal businesses must be able to adapt to a litany of hurdles placed in their way.
Cash flow management can be one of the most significant issues for seasonal businesses. Enough revenue must be generated during the peak seasons to carry them through the entire year, even as business slows. Managing this requires keen budgeting skills and pre-planning, which can cause stress for seasonal business owners.
Many who own seasonal businesses have decided to break the unreliable cycle of feast and famine and revitalize their businesses so that they can thrive year-round.
Advertisement
Ways Seasonal Businesses can Generate Year-Round Revenue
With the right approach, businesses can scale a seasonal business into a successful moneymaker year-round. By implementing strategic approaches, entrepreneurs can learn to minimize their expenses, diversify their offerings and build strong relationships with a new group of customers.
Thoughtful budgeting and money-saving strategies are a crucial part of any business plan, seasonal or not. By reducing unnecessary expenses, even during a busy period, businesses can better weather the slow seasons they know are to come.
Diversification of offerings also is a key way that many businesses draw off-season customers. For example, businesses that offer cool treats in hot weather can switch things up, offering cozy confections like hot cocoa in the winter months. Additionally, companies that offer landscaping can integrate snow services into their offerings. With a bit of creativity, businesses can brainstorm how they can expand their services to keep things rolling in the “off” season.
Another component that seasonal businesses must rely on to achieve year-round success is marketing, which is integral to any expansion plan for a seasonal business. If existing or potential customers do not hear your name or hear about what you offer, they will move on to the business that is attempting to engage with them.
A successful strategy for any seasonal business is building up repeat clients by thinking forward and pre-booking them for future services. While providing services during the summer, businesses should remind and book them for winter services. Similarly, while providing services during the winter, businesses should remind and book them for spring, summer and fall services.
Businesses should integrate regular email marketing into their outreach plans so they can check in with their customer base year-round and work hard to maintain their strong existing customer relationships, which can lead to repeat business and referrals in the off-season. If you have already built a foundation of trust with customers, they will be more likely to follow you as you expand your offerings and revitalize your business to run year-round.
Workforce management also can be a key component to expanding into year-round operations. Having a trusted employee base can allow you to delegate some of the hands-on work, allowing you time to strategize and plan for the expansion of services. Maintaining flexible staffing strategies and creating a positive work culture also can encourage seasonal employees to become year-round employees.
Lastly, businesses should work to embrace technology. For instance, mobile apps that help seasonal businesses with bookings, calendar organization, staffing and inventory management can help them efficiently scale and grow beyond being seasonal ventures.
Building Year-Round Success
Turning a seasonal business into something that generates revenue year-round can be challenging, but ultimately rewarding when all the pieces come together. To successfully expand, business owners will need savvy strategy, creativity and a keen ability to adapt to the ebb and flow of a year’s worth of running a business. It is certainly not for the faint of heart!
Entrepreneurs must learn to see the off-season not as an insurmountable hurdle but as a time of near-endless opportunity. Businesses can explore new service or product offerings, cater to events that happen away from peak season and create new opportunities for staff members. All of this work can culminate in regular revenue that allows business owners to break out of the boom-or-bust nature of seasonal organizations.
The transition to a year-round business will not happen overnight. But with patience, outside-of-the-box thinking, and persistence businesses can set themselves up for long-term profitability and success.
Brandon Naughton has been the Marketing Manager at Repicci’s Real Italian since its inception in August 2020. In addition, since 2010, Naughton has operated a mobile business similar to the Outlet offered under this Disclosure Document. He operates these positions from his location in Denver.
