Ideas for How to Make Your Business Profitable During a Period of Slow Activity

Embrace practical advice and activities that could make things better for you and your business

All businesses experience high and low periods, so it’s important to know how to manage both.

If you’re experiencing a drop in sales, I would like to encourage you to make the most of this period of slow activity to trial some ideas that could make things better for you and your business.

Quantity doesn't mean quality. Quarantine is a good time to stop creating and spend your time working on strategic activities that could help you keep moving in the right direction.

I want to share some ideas. What do you think? Shall we begin?

Take care of those tasks that are important but not urgent–the ones you’re forever putting off.

I know it doesn’t sound fun, but you will feel like a weight’s been lifted off your shoulders, and your mind will feel a lot clearer. Close your eyes and imagine how good it will feel to relax afterward. Are you more convinced? If this hasn’t worked, then approach it like you would an ice-cold swimming pool: don’t dwell on it and just dive straight in.

If you’re familiar with “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” by Stephen Covey, you’ll know that they are all of those jobs that always come second: tasks that aren’t urgent but are IMPORTANT. They are the tasks that you usually put on the back burner and ignore. However, were you to focus 25% of your time on them, it would make a huge impact on your productivity long term.

I propose the following exercise.

Grab your to-do list and check:

—Which tasks from your list have been put on hold?
—Which of your business processes could be automized or systemized?
—What do you need and what must you learn to improve and build your confidence?

2. Make a list of all the things you want to work on in the short term.

Here are some examples:

—Build up your database of contacts for potential clients, journalists, and influential people
—Improve your business and sales skills
—Review the photos of your products online
—Plan an editorial content calendar for your blog and social media
—Revise the prices of your products

3. Choose 3 tasks that will make a significant impact on your business and the way you develop your work

4. Divide up the biggest tasks and smallest tasks so that they are more manageable. This way, you assure yourself that you will be able to complete them in the time assigned.

5. Plan time during your weekly time table to carry out these tasks

Put this routine into practice during your business’s “low season.” If you can keep this up during the rest of the year as well, you will work on tasks regularly and, this way, avoid them accumulating and becoming urgent. As you will have already learned, choose a set day in the week (or continue with the routine you already had in place) to carry out these tasks throughout the year.

Have you found an opportunity to kickstart a new habit without it being a huge chore? Of course, if you’re able to delegate, do it. Why wait? While business is a bit slow, take the extra time to explain the details of each task to a coworker or assistant and supervise them. Soon they will be able to take over, and you will have offloaded some of your responsibilities.

Go over the objectives you had set for this year

Reserve a morning for a date between you and your other list–the one filled with objectives for the year. This date should include tea, coffee, or some refreshing fruit juice. Make it special. Why? Because it’s the moment in which you’ll adjust the sails on your boat so you can arrive at the destination you have marked on your map.

Now’s not the time to feel overwhelmed; it’s the time to ask yourself questions, such as:

—Have you set yourself a financial or sales goal?
—Did you want to start any new projects?
—Did you want to renew, update, or launch a web page?
—Did you want to increase visibility?

This way, later, you can ask yourself more intelligent, concrete, and direct questions about your objectives, for example:

—What is your objective for the next few months?
—What is a key change that will improve the situation?

Remember to divide up your monthly goals and tasks into weekly and daily goals and tasks. This way, it will be easier to do a bit each day.

Teach yourself: read a book or do a course

We can make the most of our days in lockdown to find inspiration, get up to date, and learn new skills.

Start that book you were recommended, or the one left abandoned on your bookcase. Find a course that helps you to strengthen your weaker business skills so that you keep getting better and better. There are infinite opportunities to learn and grow.

During this time in which you perhaps don’t have as many daily tasks accumulating, take the time to improve your processes calmly and carefully.

What do you make of these proposals? Have they been useful? Are you thinking about putting one of them into practice? Tell me about your plan and inspire all of us.

Translated from an article written by Mònica Rodríguez Limia (@rodriguezmon), who is a mentor, coach, author, and speaker. Mònica is a specialist in creative businesses and what she refers to as “slow business” and the founder of Empresas Creadoras. She teaches the Domestika courses Managing your Finances as a Creative Professional and Business Models for Creators and Creatives.

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