Knowing the Seasonality of Your Business
What is Seasonality?
Just like the weather goes through cycles and phases, so does business. One definition of seasonality is any predictable fluctuation or pattern that recurs or repeats over a one-year period. Seasonal patterns in nature tell you when it’s time to plant new seeds, when to harvest, and when to let the ground fallow and seasonal patterns in business do the same for your businesses. Seasonality lets you plan ahead for the fat and lean times in your business and know how to spend your energy strategically.
Why is seasonality important?
We all make day-to-day decisions based on seasonality. As daylight savings time ends, that becomes extra apparent in our energy levels (and if you’re anything like me, the sun being down at 5pm is a huge bummer). Just like you decide what to wear based on the seasons, knowing how to guide your business depends on decoding what your business’ seasonality looks like. To figure out your business’ seasonality, it takes a mix of research, putting yourself in your customers shoes, and getting creative.
How to Figure out Your Business’ Seasonality?
When it comes to figuring out your business’ seasonality
Approach #1-- Look at your business’ sales history
If you’ve been in business for at least a year, you can take a look back at your prior date to notice trends. So much of getting the timing right for your business depends on taking a step back and observing without judgement. Not sure what month is busiest? Pull a report from QuickBooks or whatever payment platform you use and see what information you can gleam.
Approach #2-- Examine your industry
Now, if you haven’t been in business and you feel like you're taking a shot in the dark this approach is for you. Look to others in your industry and see what they do seasonally-- do they participate in the Holiday rush or is Mother’s day and Valentine’s day their jam? You can get a lot of information just from taking a look through their social media channels or looking to google AdWords.
If this feels overwhelming or too technical, go the low-fi route and talk to people! Talk to other people in your industry, ask them to coffee, and you’d be amazed at the wealth of knowledge your fellow business owners have. I believe in karma and often meet up with folks who are looking to break into my industry and always more than happy to help.
Approach #3 -- Talk to your customers
Go right to the source with this one! Ask your customers when they anticipate needing to purchase from you or why they buy from you. There are a few ways to do this, you can go the survey route, ask informally in a conversation (if you see them in person), or hold a mini focus group. This approach works best if you have a loyal customer base, even if it’s small, because they’re rooting for your success. Customers are often happy to share their thoughts and sometimes even flattered that you would ask!
Now, to put it to use!
Armed with this new knowledge, you can work on getting information to people at the right time. As we’re in the swing of the Holiday season you’ll notice how important timing is to reaching people when they’re ready to receive information. If you start marketing for the Holidays too early, people will have already forgotten about your promotions by the time the Holidays roll around. And, if you do it too late, say at the end of November, your customers don’t have enough time to get the information and may have already made Holiday purchases.
