How Do You Prevent Seasonal Slowdown?

Many businesses and industries see a seasonal slowdown in their sales. This creates a domino effect throughout the company. These companies are forced to cut hours, cut pay and sometimes cut employees knowing that in a few months they will be trying to re-hire once the sales start coming back in. So how can you avoid putting your company in this position?

The answer may lie in finding a new market for your product with a different ‘season’. For example swimsuits sell best in the US in early spring and throughout the summer. As the summer wanes the sales of swimsuits goes with it. However, summer is just beginning to get underway in South America. Their season is opposite the US. So look to them to balance out your sales cycle. What about a company that depends on US sales and a recession hits that industry in the US? Again, look to a foreign country that is having an upward sales growth in that product. If your product line is entirely seasonal, for example you only produce Christmas lights, try producing a line of patio lights for back yards in summer. A small US flag manufacturer almost went out of business several years before 9/11 as US homeowners were no longer purchasing flags for their houses. One employee came up with the idea of designing decorative flags to hang outside the house. The idea caught on and saved the company.

Think of ways of re-purposing your product(s) and/or finding new markets to keep your sales healthy all year long.

The author, Marge Bonura, is the Director of Sales & Marketing for New England Machinery, Inc. (NEM). NEM is a leading packaging machinery manufacturer of bottle unscramblers, cappers, orienters, retorquers, lidders, pluggers, pump sorter/placers, scoop feeders, hopper elevators and much more. The company has been in business since 1974 selling to the food, beverage, pharmaceutical, personal care, chemical, household products, automotive and other industries. For more information on NEM, visit their website at www.neminc.com.