5 Things To Work On Over The Slower Summer Months

For most businesses, the summer months are usually a bit quieter. The kids are out of school, people are taking vacations and everyone is just spending more time relaxing.

While you certainly can launch new products, programs, or services during the summer, your audience may not be as engaged once mid-June hits, so sales can be disappointing. This isn’t always the case and varies by audience, but it’s something to keep in mind.

A slow summer doesn’t have to be a bad thing, though! A bit of free time can be the perfect opportunity to focus on business tasks that will help you bring in even more revenue this fall.

Take this time to get things in place so that when September hits and people are ready to get back at it, you’re ahead of the curve and ready to go!

So grab a lemonade (stevia sweetened of course :), pick a task, and start checking things off your to-do list!

Here are 5 of my favorite things to get done during the slower summer months:

1. Get Your Fall Launch Organized

If sales are slow in the summer, you’ll want to make a big splash in the fall to make up for it! Spend your spare time this summer planning your best fall program launch yet. If you get started now, you can have everything in place so that come launch time, you’re not so stressed by all there is to do.

Start by creating your sales and promotional materials – your sales page, social media images, and promotional emails. Create a folder on your computer or Google Drive and store it all so it’s ready to go!

You can also start to schedule in any webinars or speaking gigs you’ll be doing and approaching webinar partners. Which brings me to the second biggest impact activity you can do this summer…

2. Line Up Speaking Gigs

Speaking in person or online is one of the best ways to find new clients, fill your programs, and grow your bottom line. Take advantage of the slower months to get a few gigs lined up so that you can do an amazing job of promoting your fall programs.

(Read my advice on lining up speaking gigs here and here)

Make it your goal to reach out to one potential speaking partner every week this summer. You’ll be booked solid once everyone’s back from vacation!

3. Clean Up Your Email List

This is a task most people don’t talk about. With everyone wanting huge email list numbers, why would you want to remove people from your list!? Having unengaged people on your list really doesn’t do you any good. If they haven’t opened an email from you in 3 months, they probably aren’t going to buy anything from you. And if you’re paying your email provider based on how many contacts you have, those unresponsive people can be expensive!

Start this task by looking for duplicates and merging them. Some people may have signed up for more than one of your lists (example through a download, a webinar, and your latest free gift). Some email providers count that as 3 contacts.

Next, look for people that haven’t opened any of your last 6-10 emails. Send them an email with the option to continue receiving your emails or opt-out. No hard feelings.

4. Create A New Opt-In

Just because summer is quieter doesn’t mean people aren’t still looking for great content (they need something to read on the beach!). Do a bit of list building before your next launch by creating a new opt-in.

Spend some time creating something new that will compliment your fall launch – a cheat sheet, free guide, an ebook, or a quiz. Share it on social media, with your current list, and even consider promoting it with Facebook ads. You might grab the attention of some new folks that will be craving more from you by the time fall hits.

5. Administrative Tasks

Maybe this summer is the time you finally stop putting off those small tweaks you need to make to your business. Tedious administrative tasks like this are annoying and we usually avoid them like the plague, but they can actually have an impact on your client experience. So use your free time to get these administrative tasks out of the way.

What kind of tasks am I talking about? This can be things like checking all the links in your website footer and sidebar, updating your social media profiles, updating your invoicing software, going through your client intake process and making sure everything is still on point, or updating your testimonials.

Start by making a list of what needs to be done, block off an hour or two, grab a green tea, and just get it done!
It can be tempting to take the entire summer off when things are slow, but spending a few dedicated hours each week on your business can help prepare you for the best third quarter you’ve ever had. And of course, take some you-time too!

Now I’d love to hear from you.
What do you plan to focus on this summer? What’s one project you’ve been putting off that you’d like to finally complete this summer?