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How to even out the peaks and troughs in your business

Guest post by: Helen Dowling

Article Overview: Do you ever get times in your business where you’re really busy and then other times when you’re really quiet? Annoying isn’t it and frustrating? Wouldn’t it be much easier if you had business constantly coming in and never faced the really quiet times?

How to even out the peaks and troughs in your business

Do you ever get times in your business where you’re really busy and then other times when you’re really quiet? Annoying isn’t it and frustrating? Wouldn’t it be much easier if you had business constantly coming in and never faced the really quiet times?

Well, let’s see if this situation sounds familiar to you. One of my clients had lots of feast and famine times in her business. Analysing her business further, we concluded that when it was quiet in her business, she often panicked and did loads and loads of marketing resulting in customers. When her business was busy though, she didn’t have time to do any marketing so eventually customers dried up and when they did, she did some marketing again.

That way, she virtually guaranteed herself the peaks and troughs a lot of business owners are familiar with. Are you the same in your business? Do you only do marketing when you can see current projects drying up and ignore it when you’re really busy?

If you want to even out the peaks and troughs in your business, the easiest way to do that is to do marketing all the time – yes, even when you’re busy and you don’t have time.

Why? Well, any marketing that you do today takes a little while to have an impact in your business. I usually give out an average of three months (although it does vary from business to business). That means that any marketing you do today, will take an average of three months for you to see the results in your business.

So, it stands to reason that if you’re really busy today and do some marketing, you won’t see the impact immediately, but you will see the results two or three months down the line. Instead of getting quieter during this period, you’ll actually have business coming in through the door – how great would that be?

Two common points that get often get brought up when I pose this idea are 1) I don’t want to get too busy – if I promote my business all the time, I’ll be snowed under and 2) I haven’t done any marketing for ages, but I’m still getting business – I obviously don’t need to do any more at the moment.

Let’s address each of these in turn.

Getting too busy is a common concern of small business owners who are worried that they’ll be snowed under if they do too much marketing. My response to this is “let’s get you really busy first and then we’ll worry about what to do about it”. Being too busy is always an easier problem than being too quiet and if you haven’t got enough business at the moment you need to create some momentum to get you business consistently. Please don’t worry about being too busy – we’ll worry about that, if and when it happens.

If you haven’t done any marketing for ages and are still getting business, there is a reason for that. To explain what’s going on, let’s use the analogy of a bike. When you first start doing some marketing, it’s like riding a bike and you need to peddle really hard to get it going. When you’ve reached a crescendo you can coast for a while, but if you don’t start peddling again, your bike will stop.

If you’re still getting business even though you’re not doing any marketing, it’s likely that you’re coasting on your bike, which tells me that you’ll need to start peddling again very soon, otherwise your bike will stop. And believe me once it’s stopped, it’s much harder to get back on the bike and start peddling really hard again. It’s much easier just to peddle a little bit occasionally to keep the bike going.

It’s easy to iron out the peaks and troughs in your business – just go out there and market continuously. Well, ok I know it’s not that easy, but give it a go and I promise you’ll reap the rewards.

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Article Tags: business owners, current projects, famine times, feast and famine, marketing, quiet times, three months, troughs



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Re: How High Do You Bounce? - ooh I love this concept!! The harder you fall, the higher you rise. It's finding the sense of stability and managing to stay calmly focused throughout the peaks and valleys that is a goal of so many of us!
Re: Direct Mail Postcards - [quote="mbrand2222":1lhwzvgm]I have found that the best way to get your direct mail opened is to make it look like a friend mailed it. In this case, you have to decide which is more important; quantity or quality. To get things to look less commercial you have to hand address them or find a machine that makes it look like it's been hand addressed or it will go straight into the garbage (better know as file 17 - and I have no idea why 17), anyway, why waste a good lead. Even if you pay a teen-ager to address envelopes for a few hours everyday, you'll probably get a better response than sticking labels on or just printing them by machine. Don't include a return address. This peaks their interest because they want to know who it's from. I know I would. Do this can increase your response greatly depending on the type of product you are selling.[/quote:1lhwzvgm] This tactic is used a lot. I would recommend actually handwriting it yourself, or paying someone else to do it. It's obvious when it's done by a printer, and I usually throw them out. Having no return address peaks my interest, and I'll usually open it, though. However, when using postcards, this strategy is a little more complicated since everything is seen instantly with no envelope to open. I would try this strategy and do what David suggested by split testing two different versions to see what converts better.
Re: Direct Mail Postcards - I have found that the best way to get your direct mail opened is to make it look like a friend mailed it. In this case, you have to decide which is more important; quantity or quality. To get things to look less commercial you have to hand address them or find a machine that makes it look like it's been hand addressed or it will go straight into the garbage (better know as file 17 - and I have no idea why 17), anyway, why waste a good lead. Even if you pay a teen-ager to address envelopes for a few hours everyday, you'll probably get a better response than sticking labels on or just printing them by machine. Don't include a return address. This peaks their interest because they want to know who it's from. I know I would. Do this can increase your response greatly depending on the type of product you are selling.
Re: Is A Business Plan A Waste Of Time? - I don't see a business plan a waste of time. Actually it's a great goal-setting tool for a business and it also helps evaluate a business' performance which allows the business owner to see where the business is going. Others say that it is only important when seeking funding from lenders or banks, but I believe it is more than that, that's why I have mine written and it's a work in progress since I first started in business.
Is A Business Plan A Waste Of Time? - According to various government statistics, up to 80% of businesses will fail within their first five years of operation. That number is staggering to me. At the same time, when I look at most business owners, most of them do not have a business plan for where they want to go. When you ask entrepreneurs why they don’t have a business plan, most of them will say something like: “it’s too much work”, “I’m not trying to raise money”, “it’s all in my head already”, or “my business changes too often for a business plan to be worthwhile.” Sound familiar? Did you write a business plan for your company when you first started? Are you planning on doing it for your new business idea?


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