Its Sunday, September 21st. A day I am supposed to be laying on the couch coaxing the clock to get to 1PM for the Eagles game while watching reruns of MadMen. But we we are quickly approaching the end of the year and this is when we get REALLY busy. I don’t mean it’s nice to be busy, I mean stupid busy.
You see, we get a mad rush of contractors who are coming back into the office after a long season realizing they are having trouble making their year, or worse, realizing they aren’t even close. And aside from some quick advertising and promotion, there isn’t much you can do.
What Should Have Been Done
Let me just say this, there really is no GOOD time to plan a year. Some contractors plan and promote all year, some do it in the fall and some wait until after the New Year.
It all depends on:
- What part of the world they are in
- Do they procrastinate
- Is their current program working or not
- Are they just starting a new business
- What their skill level is
- What is the availability of help
The Problem
There isn’t much left you can do…for this year. But it’s a great time to get an early jump on 2015. While others are trying to figure out the P&L for August, you can have the foresight to start planning ahead. Now is a great time to not only look at what you can do from a marketing standpoint, but other parts of the business as well.
For example, you could plan for not only this year’s home show season, but get that new booth or display going for next spring too. You can get an early idea on what color trends are going to be popular next year and what new or improved appliances are going to be must haves for Mrs. Jones come next season.
The trick is taking a step back and working on your business, not in it. Advice we can all use. New content, setting up a blog, redesigning your site, redoing your business cards or logo, reworking your advertising, doing a new mail drop campaign. Whatever you think you should be doing, just do.
The art of the do…
We don’t DO enough. We THINK and PLAN but we often fail to DO. Execution is the key. So before we get too far into this fall, start doing something to move the needle. I don’t care what it is. If we aren’t moving forward, we are moving backwards.
If you need help with your site, do a search on this site, there are over 600 posts and 300 videos that will help you with social, advertising, marketing, site design, content creation…the whole thing. Just search. I wish you luck and if you need a bit more than luck, give me a shout and let’s get the needle moving for you!