Quiet August – is it a total myth or reality?
At Altrincham HQ we’ve never had a quiet August. For some reason April is always our quiet month as the families of Hale and Altrincham disappear for Easter school holidays and enjoy Hale-By-The-Sea, or Abersoch as it’s better known
If Quiet August is your reality though, what can you do to maximise the month and ensure it isn’t the month where your business achieves nothing and you look back in December with regrets of “if only i’d have done …. then”
Here are 5 ways to use a quiet august to improve your business (which you can do on the weeks you’re not sunning yourself)
Arrange Your Own Meetup
Networking meetings generally take a break for August and there are business owners who still want to get away from the office and meet other local business owners
Working on your own can be a lonely place and networking meetings can be those escapes from the home office to actually see human beings
Why not buck the trend and arrange either a traditional networking meeting or a summer social BBQ (if we can rely on a sunny August)
Don’t be afraid that it’s August and some people will be away. There’s excuses the whole year round as to why people can’t make certain dates for networking and you’ll find a new set of faces who can attend if you throw an event in August
If you don’t want to go for a big fanfare and something high pressured – why not just meet up with 5 or 6 other local business owners for a coffee (or something stronger)
Content Production
“I don’t have time to write blogs” is a common excuse for not producing content
If August is a quiet time in terms of client work why not prep ahead and write most of your blogs until the end of the year in advance
With a target of 1 blog per week if you write all your blogs in August – and it will mean writing a blog every single day – but it means you have your content in the bank and ready to go for when you hit the back to school rush or the Christmas rush
Also – why not get some videos and photos in the bank?
After all you know video marketing and photos are important to your business as all the social media platforms are drilling down on them
Processes
Invest your spare time looking at the processes and tasks you do on a regular basis and working out ways you can streamline them
You’ll be amazed at the ways you can save yourself time when you just analyse and think about things
For instance we have processes in place for enquiries, bookings and follow ups after training. All of those processes save us hours each week in what used to be wasted time in duplication
There are probably areas of your business that you spend hours on each week that if systems were in place you could shave 2 or 3 hours a week off.
Do a time and task audit of each day and use August to refine everything you do
Training
Do you know that training that hasn’t happened in the 1st 7 months of the year because paying clients always come 1st?
And now it’s August there’s some free time in the diary where clients are a little thinner on the ground
Would it not be a good time to book a training session so that as you hit those last 4 months of the year you do so with a renewed energy and vigour and sprint to the finish line that is December 31st rather than sluggishly pacing along
The businesses that grow each year invest in training on a regular basis, so why not make August every year your learning and training month
Client Catchups
When was the last time you had a real catchup with your existing clients
You know – those people that enable you to run a business
We make sure we keep in touch with clients via email or whatsapp every single week, but it’s nice to take that time out and see people face 2 face and really look at how we can help them grow
When was the last time you did this for your business? In the last month? 3 months ago? Longer than a year?
Why not make August your month of client relationship meetings?
NEED HELP WITH YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA?
Chat to us about Social Media Marketing for YOUR organisation , so we can better understand YOU and what will grow your organisation
We can only find out what is unique to your business by chatting with you
Look at our Social Media Training and Social Media Management services
Or Please call Alex on 07806774279 or email alex@altrinchamhq.co.uk