Make the Best of Your High Sales Season

In each business, there are seasons of high sales and low sales. For many, the high season falls to the summer time as families travel and have more leisure time for hiring small businesses and traveling. This high season, make the best of the opportunity by getting yourself ready for success ahead of time. Below are some tips to help you get ready so you aren’t caught off guard when the line is out the door!

Make sure you bulk order as many collateral assets as possible to keep your shop stocked up. This has the added benefit of taking advantage of price breaks keeping costs down. If you don’t foresee changing your collateral assets such as business cards, menus, promotional flyers, or signage it's a great idea to order as many as you can reasonably afford at a time.

Don’t get stuck doing last minute promotions. Sit down now and plan your sales events in advance on a calendar so you can see how close they are and if they fall on holidays or community events. Then, create your marketing materials ahead of time so you can simply publish when the time is right.

We all love the novelty of seasonally available products. It's fun to feel you got to try the limited-edition version of something you love. You can create this experience for your customers by offering a limited time product or service for the season. Take advantage of the warm weather, seasonal ingredients, or seasonal themes. The “FOMO” (fear of missing out) feeling will engage your customers and drive sales. Lean into the season and make something special and limited so that customers will rush to get their chance before it's gone!

A huge sales tactic that is often overlooked is to focus on the upsell. If you know you sell a lot of coffee, think of how you can promote add-ons or pastries. Look at your best sellers and push products or services that complement the items your customers already want. If you can tie this in with the seasonal limited-edition items this will make a huge lift in your sales.

Yet another way you can boost your sales is to work on a cross promotion with another business in your community. If you have a wine bar, it might make sense to join with a regional creamery in your area so you feature their cheese and they feature your wine at their location. Think of products that make sense with what you offer and reach out to see if the other business would be interested in joining forces for a few weeks. Planning this out ahead of time will take make it a breeze to pull off and you’ll both be glad you did it!

With all of the summer chaos at work and likely in your own life, you can get burnt out fairly quickly. Plan a break for yourself midway through the season so you can recoup and come back refreshed. Make sure you have your break planned out well in advance so you can set up schedules, set up contingency plans, and ensure everything is in order before you walk away for your own vacation.

Finally, make sure you plan to have fun! The high-season isn’t something to dread. Look forward to it as an opportunity to grow your business and learn for future high-seasons. Take advantage of every opportunity and enjoy your success!

What do you think? Are there any tips that have really helped you in your own business? Drop your best advice in the comments!