5 Business Tips for Autumn
With most employees back from vacation, and companies holding regular hours once more, autumn is the ideal time to think about how you can meet this year’s targets as you push into the final quarter. Read on for our essential back-to-business tips.
Photo via WOCinTech Chat.
1. Establish the status quo
Before getting into details, it’s best to regroup and establish an overview of your business. Consider: number of employees, budget, inventory, marketing materials/efforts, partnerships, orders/shipping, operations, and more. Do you accept card payments with SumUp? To determine your current sales volume, simply access your account. There, you can see your sales overview as well as card and time-based breakdowns.
2. Analyze the market
Re-evaluate market conditions. This first starts with research: read industry-related news and examine your competitors. Create Google Alerts for key topics and brand names and get a daily report on online content related to them.
Is there a market need that is going unaddressed? Determine how your business can fulfill it. It’s also important to consider retention. Think about your loyal, returning customers. What keeps them coming back? You can survey your current customer base with services like Survey Monkey.
3. Autumn marketing plan
Ensure that you’ve finalized your marketing strategy for autumn. Restaurants and cafes can focus on switching their menus, if need be, to suit the weather. Warmer, heartier meals create a sense of comfort while utilizing the produce that’s in season.
Take advantage of seasonal events, such a harvest markets. Furthermore, holiday festivals often begin during mid to late November. Consult your community calendar and contact the event organizers to see if you can set up a booth and participate.
Ensure your website, social media and print materials are up to date and advertise your autumn catalogue. Your promotional graphics should feature darker, earthier tones to reflect the season. Specifically, images of: coffee, leaves, wood, knit fabrics, and low-lighting resonate well. You can search for free stock photos at Stock Up and Pexels. For a more artistic, curated collection, visit Unsplash and Death to Stock.
For retailers, it’s important to do an ‘autumn flip’, which means that mannequins are dressed in seasonally-appropriate clothing. Jackets, long-sleeved shirts and pants should be moved to the front of the store and T-shirts, tank tops and shorts as well as clothing featuring light fabrics should be moved to the back.
Consider creating an autumn themed window display. First, think in visual planes: give priority to eye level and integrate your key pieces there. You can also suspend items, like leaves, to bring a seasonal scene to life. Also ensure that your window is well lit. Hang a light directly above your mannequins to avoid shadows. If your store is located in an area that enjoys foot traffic at all hours of the day, consider keeping the display lit overnight.
4. Make valuable partnerships
Were you in contact with a potential business partner, but lost track of them during the summer? It’s time to re-connect. Follow up on the email thread you dropped, or send them a message via LinkedIn to arrange a meeting.
Looking to network? Visit Allconferences.com and search via category for relevant conferences near you. Meetup.com is another albeit less formal tool for locating industry-related events.
5. Get down to details
Now that you’re warmed up and thinking about the season broadly, you can get to the nitty gritty of fourth quarter plan ning and execution. Make a detailed list of existing work load and planned projects and measure them against your resources (human and material) as well as your projected timeline. Adjust accordingly.
If possible, leave 30 minutes to an hour of your day to clear your mind and think creatively: sometimes the most successful business ideas are also the most spontaneous.
Don’t forget to take a look at these 5 business accessories, so you can best meet the demands of the season.
