Small Business Strategies: Slow summer can be opportunity - USA Today

Memorial Day, the unofficial kickoff of summer, is here.

Earl Neikirk, AP

An 8-year-old rides his bike though a fountain in Bristol, Va., in this summer 2010 file photo.

Earl Neikirk, AP

An 8-year-old rides his bike though a fountain in Bristol, Va., in this summer 2010 file photo.

Some small businesses, especially those in the travel or hospitality industries, will be having their busy season.

For the rest of us, summer can mean the doldrums: Fewer customers. Prospects out on vacation. Lower income. And a house full of kids and visitors to top it all off.

What's a small-business owner to do?

You could sit by a pool and drown your sorrows in a margarita. (I'll take mine on the rocks with salt, thank you very much.) But if you can't afford that, I've got six steps to help grow a more successful small business this summer.

1. Make a splash on social media. You've been meaning to learn how to use one of the many social-media sites — such as Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Twitter — for your business, but you've just been too busy.

Use these slower summer months to spend some time figuring out which ones are right for you. Be sure to check out some of the many tools that make ongoing management of your social media activities easier and faster, such as HootSuite or Roost.

2. Network like crazy. All those backyard barbecues, softball games, and pool parties you get invited to are potential networking events, especially when they involve more than immediate family and friends.

If you're not getting many invitations, check out what's going on in your community. Try going to a Meetup group, Chamber of Commerce mixers, even neighborhood chili cook-off. Be sure to bring your business cards, mingle, and have a good elevator pitch ready so people you meet can easily remember what you do.

3. Update — or launch — your website. If you're like me, your website is outdated, but you haven't had the time to freshen it up.

Perhaps you don't have a website at all.

Summer is a good time to give your website a facelift. It doesn't have to be extensive, but make sure you have all the newest — and correct — information. Perhaps you want to add some e-commerce functionality, so customers can buy directly from you. And check to see that it looks good on mobile devices, too.

4. Turn those business cards into gold. I know you've got a stack of business cards from people you've met, but they're not doing you any good lying around your desk.

Yes, I know they take time to enter into a database. But, hey, it's summer. It's the perfect opportunity to get all these contacts into something like Salesforce or PipelineDeals. At least enter their contact info into your digital address book in Microsoft Outlook or Gmail.

If you have a ton of cards, like I do, you might want to buy a digital business card reader. They work fairly well now.

5. Start a simple e-mail newsletter. I'm a huge fan; I've got a monthly newsletter of my own with business tips.

They're easy to create and manage, and they keep your name as well as any specials or news in front of prospects and customers. Once you have names in a database or Microsoft Excel file, it's easy to import them into a simple newsletter program.

Or you can just enter the info into the e-mail newsletter service.

We use Emma, but other options include include Constant Contact; Vertical Response; and a free or inexpensive one that many small-business owners use, such as Mail Chimp. If you're very ambitious, you could even write 12 newsletters in summer and have monthly newsletters ready for the whole year.

6. Tackle a project. We all have a wish list of projects we would like to take care of someday.

You may have some new products or services in mind to develop, a new marketing campaign, organizing inventory, or cleaning out a back room to turn into an office.

Summer is a good time to take care of at least one of these. You'll feel a real sense of accomplishment if you do.

Of course, summer is also a good time for recharging your batteries. So maybe sitting by the pool with a margarita isn't such a bad idea.

Rhonda Abrams is president of The Planning Shop and publisher of books for entrepreneurs. Her most recent book is The Successful Business Plan: Secrets and Strategies. Register for Rhonda's free newsletter at PlanningShop.com See an index of Abrams' columns here. Twitter: @RhondaAbrams. Facebook: facebook.com/RhondaAbramsSmallBusiness. Copyright Rhonda Abrams 2012.

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