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It’s easy to assume that the changing of the seasons has relatively little impact on your business. If you run an all-year business that is based in an office or retail store, the changing of the seasons can seem largely irrelevant, with the only notable change being a shift from using central heating to central air.
However, even for standard non-seasonal businesses, the changing of the seasons is vitally important to the health of your business. Here’s why.
#1 – The weather challenges
Arguably the biggest impact that seasonal changes will have on your business is what they mean in terms of weather. Any kind of extreme weather has the potential to be damaging to your business— literally.
Your business premises are likely to sustain the brunt of this very real damage. For example, you’re likely to struggle with wind and rain issues during the transitional seasons of spring and fall, which means you will need to ensure the roof and windows of your business premises are sound. In winter, the issues have the potential to be all the more catastrophic; burst and frozen pipes can mean your business has to grind to a halt for a period, so you’ll need to get heating cables here to prevent this problem from developing. Even summer — the season we all love — can be tough on your business premises, with problems caused by summer-active insects and pests a continual threat.
#2 – The changes in customer behavior
Somewhat surprisingly, your profits are likely to be impacted as the seasons change— and it’s all because of alterations in customer behavior. You’re likely to experience what many business owners term the “summer slump”; conversely, you’ll also see a pick-up in business from October through to January.
If you don’t structure your business’ year to account for these peaks and dips in turnover, then your business is going to suffer. Understanding how your customers are going to behave through the year is an absolute essential, so it’s worth going back through your old records and seeing what trends you might be able to spot.
#3 – The recruitment calendar
The final seasonal impact on your business involves how easy recruiting staff is. Generally, you can expect to find it easier to recruit staff towards the end of spring and the beginning of summer. On the flip side, you might struggle to find the perfect candidate at the start of fall.
What’s going on? Simple: it’s all about school term times. Parents of young children will always want to move house around the end of spring, but will want to stay put by the fall. If people aren’t willing to move house, then they’re less likely to switch to a different job. Advertising towards the end of the school year means that parents are more flexible, and thus more likely to be tempted by a lucrative job offer that might require a house move.
Final thoughts
As the above makes clear, seasonal changes have the ability to impact all businesses. Now you know the above, you can follow the trends carefully, and make changes where required. If you do this, your business should be able to negotiate the changes and continue to be as profitable and successful as you have always wanted. Good luck!
Growing Forward 