8 Strategies for a Mid-Year Checkup

mid-year-checkup-whiteboard

 

For some businesses the rising temperatures equate to a slight slump in revenue which makes it easier to shift your focus away from business and toward vacations and a slower pace.

However, there are plenty of business owners that are working diligently through the summer months and view this as an opportune time to dedicate their efforts to continual growth.

They use the slower summer months to focus on business development, professional growth, developing new products and services, in addition to building and strengthening relationships with their clients. If this happens to be a slow time for your business consider this a positive thing for the moment as this will give you more time to fully evaluate past performance, perfect your strategies for future growth and assess your business’ strategic positioning.

Are you unsure where to focus first? You can begin with the following 8 strategies for a mid-year check up:

1. Create a plan for growth for the next 6 months. If November and December are slow months for you, address this in your plan. Offer a program that increases with intensity for 3 months October, November, and December and get your clients to pay in advance or make 3 monthly payments. This will assist with any end of the year lulls.

2.Include a review of ongoing marketing efforts. Look at possible strategic alliances and connections, and possible new programs and products.

3.Create a plan that will make you more visible to your target market. Use all methods that have proven effective in the past; articles, post cards, special reports, webinars, workshops, teleconferences in addition to what ever is standard for your industry.

4.Refine your client services process and get to know your clients better. Establish a follow up process and other client management services that will keep communication open. If your only contact with your clients is when they make a yearly purchase look for ways of keeping in touch quarterly and include them in your referral building strategy.

5.Evaluate your current partners and alliances. Define what you have to offer to a new alliance and revisit past alliances. If you have some partnerships, which ones are just not working out as how you had hoped in the beginning? If you are looking for partners, remember that this is a two way street. Cross-promote, contribute to each other’s newsletters, co-host a workshop or webinar, and share an in-house mailing. Also, evaluate how can you bring more value to a partnership.

6.Establish a well defined plan follow up system. This can be essential to converting leads to clients. Take the time to create a plan if you do not have one in place. Consider how often you should follow up. What materials do you have on hand that addresses common questions or objectives? Work on these things and be prepared.

7. Identify the weak areas in your procedures.  When you find these weak areas, look for ways to strengthen them by automating that particular process. Include your staff in the process. Pre-schedule phone calls, send updates to your database, and practice sending out ‘thank you’ letters.

8. Do you have the right support to make it all happen? Get an intern or open up a summer job opportunity. If you have an assistant or a Virtual Support team be sure you are using their services, skills, abilities and talents to the fullest. Create an action plan and assign portions to your support staff.

 

Carla Kroger

Carla is the founder and secret weapon behind Daily Administration where she works with small businesses assisting them in establishing manageable marketing strategies that attracts, engages and enrolls clients. Along with the Daily Administration team, she works with her clients to establish processes for profit¬able and repeatable growth.

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