Most painting contractors are at their slowest season in January, excepting those who may have some special niches, or others who may have developed some specific marketing strategies that keep them busy in in the winter. So, what are you doing during this month when your business is slow and you have perhaps laid off a number of your team? Some of you are working really hard to drum up business, some of you are working in the field (actually painting) to augment your working crew, and some of you are just taking a break from your busiest seasons. After all, you worked really hard this past year.
I suggest that the best thing you can be doing this January is working ON rather than IN your business. What if you spent your least productive revenue months developing your strategic plan, creating a workable profit plan with budget for 2012, working on internal operating systems to make your business run better in your busy times, and setting up a plan for your marketing intitiatives along with a calendared action plan to execute it? Would you be massively further ahead once you hit the beginning of your busy season? I think so….no, I know so.
After all the years I have been working with painting contractors, one trend that I see year after year is that you miss out on jobs you could have sold and lose profits you could have made by not being as prepared as you could be when spring comes. Take the time NOW to plan ahead for your best 2012. I recently posted my 10 Tips for a Successful 2012. I hope you find them helpful.
Here’s to your success!
Great suggestions, Linnea, thanks for sharing.
I procrastinate when I have time, and wish I had the time to work on my business when I don’t have it. Strange how that one works.
I agree, it does work that way for many of us, much of the time, me included! But now that we’re talking about it, why not designate some time this week to reflect on what you want to accomplish in 2012…that might just inspire you to work on something that will make your business better this year.
Am working on incorporating greater use of social media and setting up my tablet to enable me to perform “one call closes”.
Way to go!
I generally talk a breath and get ready for my accountant and the dreaded taxes.This time of year the apartment complexes I work on keep me working steadily until spring then the chaos comes back.
It’s always great if you can line up the type of work you describe to keep things rolling in the slow season. Good work! Regarding getting ready for your accountant, here’s a tip (maybe you are already doing this), meet with your accountant in late fall to do some tax planning so you can take some actions before year end to mitigate your taxes.
Great stuff Linnea, I spent a lot of time in December packing up 2011’s paperwork and making notes on where my leads came from and which jobs went well and why. Gave me a lot of stuff to chew on in January!