Guide to Preparing Your Small Business for Summer
For many, summer means vacations, beaches, relaxation, spending more time with family and friends, and simply enjoying life. Now, what does this mean for business owners? For some, it implies more downtime, and for others, it means that the booming season is coming. No matter which group you belong to, things are going to change.
Summer comes with many new possibilities and challenges that all small businesses need to prepare for in advance. Therefore, since the vacation season is just around the corner, we're giving you an ultimate guide to preparing your small business for summer. Let's see how you can handle whatever this season throws at you!
Get vacation requests from every employee
Summer is for vacations, and spring is for planning and booking them. This means most of your employees are in the process of booking their summer vacation or already have a set plan in place. Therefore, they will need to make a request for a Paid Time Off for a week or more.
That's why you need to request that your employees submit their time-off applications immediately so that you can make plans for the summer workflow. Obtaining vacation requests ahead of time helps you see which members of your team will be absent and when.
Of course, certain vacation dates are bound to overlap. That's why early notice will provide you with much-needed time to devise a strategy and keep your business running smoothly while your staff takes well-deserved time off.
Knowing your team's availability ahead of time helps you shift work, modify deadlines, clarify commitments to clients, and manage processes to keep your company running as always, even without a full crew on board. This is exactly why preparing your small business for summer is crucial.
Think about your employees' needs
In addition to requesting time off, take this time to assess if your company's workforce needs to be adjusted for the summer. For example, to fulfill client demand, some companies may need to increase their workforce over the summer. Some of the businesses in question may include:
- Restaurants
- Air Conditioning Service Providers
- Home and Garden Stores
- Pool Supply and Cleaning Services
- Coffee shops
- Mall Retail Stores
- Lawn Care Services
If your small business is tied to any of these services, you'll have to think about increasing your workforce for the upcoming season. Getting an early start on vacation planning and seasonal employment now can help you stay cool and collected over the summer. This is a great way to increase productivity and motivate your employees.
Manage Your Cash Flow
As a business owner, monitoring your cash flow may be difficult, especially if you run a seasonal business. So, if you do have a seasonal business, developing a forecast for your future cash flow is critical to remaining afloat.
Therefore, to remain in control of payment inflows and outflows, we recommend creating a 13-week forecast. This further evaluation of your financial systems provides you with the information you need to effectively plan for times of drought and excess.
This is one of the challenging parts of preparing your small business for summer. However, you need to bite the bullet and do what needs to be done.
Cash flow forecasting will assist in ensuring that any concerns are identified far enough in advance to be resolved without a fire drill. By predicting cash flow gaps, you may ensure that your company has a backup plan (such as overdraft insurance, a padding savings account, or a line of credit). In addition, you can even prevent the gap entirely by strengthening your cash flow strategy.
Set contingency plans for your small business
Unfortunately, when it comes to summer in the U.S., the season is not simply fun in the sun. Here, summer also has a negative reputation for extreme weather catastrophes.
Hurricane season has officially begun, and businesses along the Atlantic Coast and the Gulf of Mexico must be ready. On the other hand, tornadoes are more likely to strike businesses in the country's middle. And, as we've seen more regularly in recent years, even a strong rainstorm or flash flood may knock out electricity, sometimes for many hours.
Therefore, it's critical to have a strategy in place for when nature strikes in order to keep your business functioning efficiently and with as few inconveniences as possible. Here is a short checklist every small business should use to prepare for times like these:
- Have a generator ready somewhere in the office.
- Securely back up all business information.
- Prepare your workers for remote work if your business allows you to.
- Develop a cloud-based financial system so your company can run smoothly no matter what strikes you.
It's critical that your staff understand your contingency plan in the event that your workplace is damaged or they are unable to go to work. Fortunately, technological advancements have made remote or hybrid work a simple adjustment.
Declutter the office
When it comes to preparing your small business for summer, you can't overlook decluttering your workspace. This is something that all businesses should think about, implement, and start practicing on a regular basis, especially during the summer.
When we say decluttering, we don't mean just throwing away the things you no longer use in the office. We also imply getting rid of negative impacts and outdated technology. All this is in order to boost profitability and overall growth of the business. So, let's see what you can do:
- Go paperless by automating everything. Begin with processing invoices and billings. Some of the most significant advantages you'll experience right away are cost savings, increased efficiency, and heavy security.
- Preserve data integrity. Have your bookkeeper perform a full examination of your accounting and verify that it is completely and routinely backed up. This will save you a lot of trouble in the long run.
- Invest in maintenance. Take inventory now to determine if anything needs to be tuned up, upgraded, or replaced.
- Create an open and inviting workspace. Working in a cluttered and stuffy office can decrease motivation and morale. That's why you need to get rid of everything in your office that makes it an unpleasant place to work at. Experts at cleancutmoving.com suggest picking up moving boxes and packing up everything you don't need anymore.
Final thoughts
The summer will affect its productivity and overall company flow no matter what type of business you run. That's why we gave you this ultimate guide to preparing your small business for summer. You'll have to think about your employees and future cash flow as well as make plans and organize everything in advance. This may sound scary, but with these tips, you'll survive the season trouble-free.
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