As fall is quickly approaching, all of the kids are headed back to school! Similarly, small businesses are also getting back to work after summer vacation. The summer is often filled with employee vacations, varying schedules, and shorter work weeks, but now that we’re headed into fall and the holidays are just around the corner, it’s time to get back to business.
We asked our small business experts how they’re getting back to work after a summer of fun. Here are our favorite answers:
“Most of our customers are off work during the summer, but we actually find that we’re a lot less busy between June and August as our customers have the time to complete their house moves themselves rather than needing the help of a removals company like us. So once summer has ended we tend to get busy very quickly, which means we have to be prepared for the sudden increase in customer queries and work. Most of my staff have had a pretty good summer break too and I’m well aware that most of them will still be in ‘holiday mode’, so to try and get them back in the mood for work I like to introduce a few things after the summer, including 4 staff nights out in September and early finishes on Fridays throughout August and September. I find that most people need to be reintroduced to work slowly rather than at a million miles an hour (myself included!) so this is how I run my business after the summer.” -Max Robinson, Guardian Removals Edinburgh
”For me, kids going back to school means a shift in work schedule. I have to get up a good two hours earlier in order to get a little work in before it’s time to get the kids ready and take them to school. In order to do that, I have to force myself to go to bed earlier as well. So as opposed to waking up at 7 and going to bed at 12, now I’m waking up at 5 and going to bed at 10.” –Chris Brantner, CutCableToday.com
“We all love to be on a “vacation” and be away from all the worries we have. How do we get back to reality after a vacation mode? First, read books that will help you be inspired/motivated and be realigned to your mission in the company/business. Second, schedule a meeting with the people who should give you the reports (as soon as you’re back) so it’d be easy for you to be back on track. Lastly, find ways to still de-stress once in awhile, look at photos of your vacation and have some staycation whenever you can so you
won’t miss the vacation you recently had. When you enjoy working, there’s no need to escape reality and have a vacation. Cherish the mini-vacations you have as much as you cherish the work you value!” –Daisy Jing, Banish
“Task management and product management tools are a huge help when it comes to buckling down and laying out longer-term projects. For more complex or longer-term projects, project managers like Basecamp or Asana let managers outline and assign tasks, use conversation threads, upload and edit files, and set deadlines. I personally like using Trello, because it lets you see your tasks laid out in multiple lists that you can customize (e.g. pending, doing, done). There are a few other apps that have a similar layout, including LeanKit and KanbanFlow.” –Kate Harrington, FindAFax
“After the fun of summer, I try to focus on the business until the next fun holiday pops up, that gives me the motivation to keep doing what I’m doing to succeed.” –Charmaine Weems, Spicy Good BBQ
“Believe it or not, PromotionCode.org started getting its first look at Black Friday and Cyber Monday offers last week. Like most online coupon sites (and retailers), we start aggravating our sale items in August and September then have a surge of seasonal labor to help (in our case) verify and collect offers for each of the 15,000 stores we work with. It feels strange looking at holiday deals while sitting in a 100+ degree office in Las Vegas towards the end of summer but the work we do now all but guarantees a smooth retail season in a few months.” –Mike Catania, PromotionCode.org
“Business certainly picks up in early September and we just make sure that everyone in our organization is rested and ready to commit 100% until Thanksgiving. So basically three months of meetings, calls, sales pitches and travel so we can enjoy the Holiday’s. Then it picks up again in early January and the cycle continues!” –Nick Braun, Pet Insurance Quotes
“As our new product, a warm winter beanie, has been announced for pre order, and our third anniversary party has been announced for a date in October – my team and I are ecstatic to grind through the end of the summer blues to push to the holiday season. We see the bright opportunity for us to keep growing our giving company into 2017. We have our minds set and are ready to pursue.” –Zac Halloran, Twill
“Summer is our peak selling season due to family vacations and travel, so it is always all available hands on deck! That being said, summer is the toughest time for most companies, as we all try to take our vacation leave during school break. This means we are on a skeleton staff. What we find though is that our team is truly re-energized after the summer break and ready to hit the ground running when we all return to the office. We hold a meeting when we get back to motivate each other and share the energy. At this meeting, we typically find that we all have new ideas and fresh starts, which lead to heightened productivity. We also arrange a team day after the summer so that we can all get together again off site to refresh our minds and remind ourselves to think outside of the box.” –Grainne Kelly, BubbleBum
“Summer is our busiest time of the year. We help around 100 campgrounds and hotels with their marketing efforts, which results in nearly constant travel for us between May and September to take photos/videos. When the kids are going back to school, we are thinking about back to work from the aspect of sitting down to edit and finalize everything that has been done over the summer months for our clients.” –Brian Searl, Insider Perks, Inc.
“Each year as summer comes to a close, we begin to plan for our autumn/winter collection. Our winter collections always generate a great revenue, so there’s always a buzz of excitement going around the creative team when we sit down to select our fabrics and plan out our entire strategy, because we know that it will lead to great things. Naturally, we have to start planning this as early as August so that it is ready to roll out when cooler season hits us, meaning the transition between summer and autumn is a smooth and fun one.” –Darren Green, Roman Blinds Direct
Are you looking to start your business as we say goodbye to summer? Do you need some business maintenance as you crack down and get ready for the holidays? Visit us at MyCorporation.com or give us a call at 877.692.6772.