When Business is Slowing Down, What Should You Do?

When Business is Slowing Down, What Should You Do?

If you’re dealing with slow business at the moment, don’t forget: This doesn’t last forever. You can focus on the parts of your business that haven’t been at the top of your to-do list normally.

The things you’ve been procrastinating on can make a difference in your business. For example, you can automate processes that take up time; you can give your brand a makeover to bring in more clients; and you can make your client experience better to ultimately make more money. Focus on these things now so you’re ready when business picks up again.

Business is slow? What you should do:

Improve your branding

Upgrade the client experience

Diversify the business

Go over your strategy financially

Write blog posts

Improve your email strategy

Pinpoint bottlenecks and solutions

Show up on social media

Make standard operating procedures (SOPs)

1. Improve your branding

If you’ve been thinking about refreshing your brand, now’s the time. Think about what’s been working and what hasn’t.

Natali Morad says good branding is all about the three Cs.

The 3 Cs are to be clear, consistent and competent.

1. Be clear

• Be clear about your business, from what you’re offering to how potential clients can get in touch with you

• Create a short tagline so clients know what your business is all about

2. Be consistent

• Add your tagline and logo everywhere, from your website and invoice to your Instagram account

3. Be competent

• When you show clients your work and testimonials, you build trust

2. Upgrade the client experience

Think about the difference between shopping at Target and Nordstrom. Although both are great stores in their own right, they offer very different experiences, and their prices reflect this.

If you want to raise your prices and know that you’re delivering a valuable service, think about upgrading your client experience to justify the price change.

3. Diversify the business

Make sure you don’t put all your services in one place. If you couldn’t provide your services in-person during the pandemic, what could you do instead? Maybe you could provide virtual services instead, or make deliveries without contact. It’s a great idea to have many delivery options for your services.

4. Go over your strategy financially You can change the way you approach your finances. Forming a healthy money mindset when you’re thinking about business slowing down can help you focus on and work towards your financial goals and help you expand your business.5. Write blog postsWriting blog posts is great, especially when business is slow. Not only can you share your brand’s perspective with your customers, you’ll have lots of content to include in your newsletter. Once you’re attracting the ideal customers with your content, they’ll want to know more. Online tools can help you turn more of these leads into actual clients. (Hint: proposals with our proposal software are your biggest friend.)6. Improve your email strategy

Invest time into creating your email marketing strategy. This helps you stay top of mind with your audience and makes them more likely to buy from you (or send referrals your way).

7. Pinpoint bottlenecks and solutions

This step happens in two parts. The first is making a list of bottlenecks in your business. Where are you spending more time than you’d like or is really necessary? The second step is coming up with solutions. The more bottlenecks you can solve with one solution, the better.

For example, are you constantly going back and forth with your clients, trying to find a time to meet? Use an online meeting scheduler to schedule meetings 2x faster and increase your chances of winning their business by 40%. Simply set your availability so clients can find the time that works best for them.

8. Show up on social media

The Instagram algorithm is unpredictable, and it can mess with your engagement. The solution to this is to go live. Even though IG Live can feel terrifying, it could lead to a serious bump in your engagement metrics.

9. Make standard operating procedures (SOPs)

Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) are going to be your best friend. Instead of remembering the 10 steps you take to send a new customer a welcome package every single time, you could write down that process in an SOP and follow it automatically.

This is great for tasks you need to do often and it also helps you bring in new staff members. Write down your main processes and the steps you take to get them done.

Once you have that information in front of you, you can turn that process into an automated workflow.

Let’s say your process to respond to a new inquiry is to email your potential client a brochure. If you use a good client workflow automation software, you can make sure that an email with your brochure is automatically sent out for you. You can even include questions in your brochure to learn more about your potential clients (all without having to actually speak to them).

When business is slowing down, take the opportunity to focus on what you can do. Invest in your brand and automate your processes. You’ll find yourself in an even better position to get where you were going.

I write about the tools of crms to help other small businesses and freelancers who are getting started themselves or just want to gain more knowledge. I hope that the information I provide helps you grow your business!