The summer of 2021 is here and it’s looking like it’s going to be a busy one and in the US.
My wife and I are blessed to be able to travel around the country and spend time in different areas. While we haven’t been to the entire country, we have covered wide swaths in the past few months and one thing is clear – People are moving around and spending money.
Is your business ready?
Those industries that were hurt last year by the shutdown need to be ready and those that did well should plan on continuing to do well as long as you’re prepared.
This past week we spent time in Duluth MN and along the north shore of Lake Superior. It’s a beautiful area and is popular in the summertime.
However, there are businesses here that are still closed. It doesn’t appear that they’re closed permanently, it just looks like they weren’t expecting people to show up so they didn’t open.
Others have limited service and are blaming the lack of staffing on not being able to offer their usual services.
I get it. Staffing has been challenging.
But what can you do? Do you have to raise your wages or offer different incentives? Do you have to look in different places for people?
When you focus on what you can do and stop talking about why you can’t, you’ll find solutions.
Another possibility for solving staffing issues is restructuring what and how you do things so you don’t need as many people.
One of my clients in the restaurant industry has restructured what he does and maintained his service level and now needs fewer people. This means he will be more profitable on an ongoing basis.
And others say there are people but not enough yet.
What are you doing about making sure that enough people come to YOUR business?
Do you have an email list to reach out to? Are you using Facebook? Do you have an audience you created already?
If not, get busy creating one.
After all, you need to dig a well before you’re thirsty.
The businesses that come out of the pandemic the fastest and most successful are the ones that have these audiences.
Another of my clients in the resort industry, which was hit hard last year, is coming out of the pandemic exceeding the industry average for sales by a sizeable amount.
We’ve focused on what we can do and we have a sizeable list of past customers to market to, and we have an active Facebook presence that generates traffic even without paid ads.
All of this adds up to increased sales and others are left wondering what we are doing.
I’m telling you here what we’re doing but few others are willing to do it.
People often wonder how many sales they can really generate from email and think that Facebook and social media are a waste of time.
We just smile and let them keep complaining about how slow their sales are while we watch ours continue to grow.
Yes, you will have to learn new skills and try new things. Some will work, some won’t, but keep moving forward.
It will be uncomfortable at first, but it gets easier and before long you and your business are growing and others are wondering what you’re doing.
When you tell them, most won’t believe you either but you can smile and move ahead, knowing why your sales are growing and how to keep them growing.
Are you ready?
If you’d like help implementing any of this reach out to me at http://fearless-cattle.flywheelsites.com/workwithus/.
Brian
P.S. If you think you can and plan to have a successful year, you will. There is still time to put a plan in place and implement it.