A slow season in a business can be caused by various reasons. While traditionally, winters have been considered the slow season for lack of projects and execution difficulties, the present economic conditions are also predicted to cause a slowdown in business opportunities. The upcoming slow season is often a trying time for business owners as opportunities dip below expectations and the business slows down. However, this also presents a chance to work on overall business goals and objectives, that can help grow your brand when the opportunities finally start coming in again.
Here are some things you can do to make the slow season more productive for your business.
Add To Your Skills
As the slow season approaches, it’s the perfect time to think about upgrading your trade skills. This will help in improving your profile on HomeStars while ensuring that you get more opportunities when homeowners decide to unpause home projects. Whether you need training on using new equipment or simply want to learn about the latest developments in your industry, now would be a good time to enroll in such training and courses.
Attend Trade Shows And Award Ceremonies
Even when you are not actively taking on jobs, you can still work on converting opportunities and growing your business by networking. Attending trade shows and network events would be a great place to start – you can utilize this time to know more about industry developments, network with subcontractors or even form relationships for the upcoming seasons. Similarly, industry award ceremonies like the HomeStars Best Of Awards provide ample networking opportunities and add visibility to your business by showcasing awards to homeowners. These awards can help get more opportunities when the business picks up. In fact, according to our survey, award winners are preferred by a whopping 75% of project-ready Canadian homeowners for home renovation and repair projects, whereas only 2.5% of service professionals won a HomeStars Best of Awards in 2022.
Annual Maintenance Of Equipment and Vehicles
The slow season is a good time to take care of your business needs. Take this opportunity to conduct annual maintenance and repair of business equipment and vehicles. If your vehicle needs servicing, you can use this time to maintain it, without losing out on business. As your vehicle is also a marketing tool, ensure it is in top condition when you resume work full-time. With a busy season ahead, you don’t want to be caught off-guard with vehicle or equipment troubles.
Plan For The Season Ahead
As a business owner, you would have a fair idea of the days to come and the projects to be done. Depending on the needs of your business, you can utilize this time to plan the projects, train your employees or even look at hiring a subcontractor if you need one. You can also look at digitizing your business and making processes more efficient by adapting tools like automated business replies, employee management systems etc.
Spend Time On Marketing Strategies
A big mistake that many business owners make is cutting down on all marketing budgets and strategies during this time. This is the ideal time to invest your efforts into marketing your business. Marketing during a slowdown helps you stand out from your competitors and also creates better brand recall. This ensures that homeowners reach out to you when they are ready to start their home projects. You can also take this time to connect with previous customers and request reviews or take their feedback to stay connected. This will create a positive customer experience resulting in more referrals and help your business qualify for the Best Of Awards 2023. This is also a good time to showcase business offers on HomeStars Deals in Toronto to push seasonal projects and get more opportunities, which would have otherwise been missed. You can also look into the HomeStars-Perch partnership which helps homeowners finance their projects, as a tool to inform your customers about financing options. Also, take this time to consider other business opportunities and offerings like indoor projects and small renovations which homeowners would be more open to executing.
Update Licenses and Registration If Needed
Utilize the slow season to catch up with business registrations, license renewal and other legal paperwork for your business. If there are any upcoming expirations on any of these, now would be a great time to concentrate your efforts on these. You can also check if your HomeStars Verification Badge is pending and upgrade your account to initiate the same. With all your legal requirements taken care of, you would be free to take on more job opportunities without losing time on administrative tasks in peak season.
Work On A Strategy For Growing Your Business
A slow season is an ideal time to catch up on paperwork and business strategies to ensure continued growth. Take this time to revisit the business goals, and tasks at hand and set new goals for the business expansion. You can still expand your business during this labour shortage by revisiting business processes that can increase the efficiency and productivity of existing employees and their time. This would also be the perfect time to set your goals and objectives for the upcoming season and set up a sales funnel as well, so you can better monitor growth and aid business expansion with the appropriate steps.
Ready to build your profile on HomeStars for an effective marketing strategy? Upgrade your account today to make the most of the slow season ahead!
