How can Seasonal Business Keep busy out of Season? (Here's how)

Speaker A: Welcome back to another episode of Benevolent Business. This week we're looking at how seasonal businesses can make their marketing more evergreen. How they can keep their diaries, their work team busier, uh, throughout the whole year rather than suffering with these seasonal drops in their lead generation in customer drop off rates and see how they can just keep that flow steady through the year. So let's get straight in. First story, how can I make more money in winter? I run a business teaching skateboarding. It's in the summer, it's crazy. Calendar is full, I'm doing one on ones every day or group bookings and m making a killing. Problem is it all dies off in the winter. I end up barely scraping by. I kind of have to work as much as I can all summer to keep me funded through the winter. I've been trying to think how I can make more money from my business in winter, only I'm governed by the weather. I end up with a backlog of lessons because they keep getting rained off. I've tried running lessons indoors with other, uh, instructors I but attendance can be so unpredictable that the lessons could end up actually costing me more. So how can they make this a much more evergreen business? That's a good point, definitely in skateboarding, as a skateboarder myself, hence why this is a great story to discuss, but it is something that really drops off in the winter. You get a lot of seasonal skateboarders where it just won't be as active in the winter. And as soon as the sun's out again and it's summer, everyone's much more excited to go skating. Of course, the same for many of us with our mentalities, like you wake up in the morning, if it's warm and sunny, it's going to be a much better day than when it's cold, wet and windy. When I think of this, that big thing they're saying about the indoors there. So I think the first thing is to have a venue that you can work with to keep it going through the year because pretty much there's going to be six months of unpredictable. I mean even summer's unpredictable, but definitely throughout the kind of earlier spring, late autumn, and then obviously all through the winter, it's just so unpredictable with the weather in England, depending where you're listening to this in other countries, but in England especially, like for those six months it could just be raining. And the issue is it could just rain for 10 minutes, but that could then make it wet for the whole day. To overcome that, you've definitely got to find yourself A venue that you can work with throughout those winter months. How would I go about that? I think looking at who the customer base is, like who are you teaching and where are those people? I'm going to imagine that a lot of it is students, like students at school. And with that, could you work and partner up with schools to offer extracurricular activities where they can do after school clubs. In skateboarding, which of course is going to give you a steady revenue stream, you can look uh, at setting up a contract where it's a year long program. In addition to that, if it does go well, you could then start to look at uh, depending what the facilities. Like, could you use that as your base throughout the whole year for your additional lessons as an example? I think like with schools, you're probably going to want to target the private schools more so than the state schools. I uh, might be wrong. But test out the market, see what the response is. Like contact, maybe get a list of 5, 10 of each, contact them, ping out an email, follow up with a phone call, try and get that face to face. Have your pitch refined so you've got a nice concise presentation to demonstrate the value, the benefit, what the cost is to them, of course, and, and see how you can work with them. I think private schools will be more accepting of it. They'll have more funding available, they'll have parents obviously willing and able to afford skateboards for the children and look at doing it as one of many extracurricular activities. That's not to say it won't work in state schools. It might work very well, but I think as well, depending with my knowledge of school setups, you'll probably find it's easier to access private schools. I might be wrong, but I'd imagine the way it's work, uh, and funded, I'd imagine there's more going on in private schools, after school hours and during the weekends and such in terms of extra curricular activities. Just because there is more funding there, there's more money than obviously the people attending generally are uh, wealthier. So obviously if you've got that deal and you're working at school, depending how you've got it set up. What um, I'm based on people, someone I know that does this. I'm imagining you've got a selection of ramps, rails and such. And obstacles that you bring with you is then the obstacles that you will teach people on. I mean it could be done at a skate park, but if you've got those obstacles that uh, are mobile, I mean if You've got one school that becomes your base. Just to start with one school, most basic setup, then just have all your stuff kept at that school. It then means obviously you're doing the after school programs with the students or weekend programs with the students that attend the school. So it means during the week, at the weekends you could have all these programmes running. And it means obviously when it's dry, you just set up in the playground. When it's wet, however, you just set up in one of the halls or the hall and of course that can then perpetuate through to the outside clubs that you do like separate from that school. But if you've got a good strong relationship with them there, this is the risk though if you do find you have a school where you've built up a good rapport, you've got a really strong relationship, you've got a program going. Well, there is going to be a risk element in the fact that if you approach them to say, can I run my external lessons at uh, your facility as well, given all the stuff's there, given we've got a good system going, I'll just schedule certain times. So then that's when we're allowed to use the facility and such. The risk, obviously, if anything goes wrong, then you're going to lose possibly your biggest client. Just nurture that relationship, look after them is the important thing I would state there. But if you have got a number of different schools you're working with, then of course your options are much greater too and there's less risk on your business. But that's the key there in resolving this issue is then you've then of course got that venue. So when it comes to those cold winter wet months, you can then of course run all the programs in the hall rather than outside in terms of keeping that customer load, I imagine. Of course, like many activities, we just become less enthusiastic in winter. And so with that is to then look at your marketing and your sales strategies in terms of how you're marketing your product and what the services you're offering, how you apply that to them as a prospect, as a client. So they just paying X per hour for a lesson, whether it's one on one or, or whether it's in a group. Is it just a case of they show up and they've booked a block, maybe they've booked a block of 10 lessons or something, or maybe they just pay as you go system what you've got there while it's convenient and it's free. I mean it's convenient in the sense of this flexibility. But it often can become quite inconvenient for people because it means it's not solidified in their diary. And obviously if they're paying every time they attend it's then, oh, I've got to make sure I've got my card more, all these payment methods on me. Whereas what I'd advise is looking at a more long term structure so scheduling something. Whereas like a block of 20 lessons or it's an academy in itself, you structure it in the sense of when people come in it's a bit like the school year. You wouldn't just, I mean people do, but generally you wouldn't show up to school. When do people even start school? I can't even remember now. September. You wouldn't start up in September and then just start moving schools or like changing what you're going to do in like December, January, you're going to stay at the school for a year and chances are you're going to follow and pursue that school in every year. So if you can set up your business in the same way and communicate with that vocabulary in terms of it's an academy and we take you through the program so that you can learn X, Y, Z skills in skateboarding. And of course with that what other skills are you teaching? I mean yes, you're teaching little Jimmy to kickflip eventually, hopefully. But what else is little Jimmy picking up that the parents can see as the benefit? I'm thinking things along character building or personality building in terms of how they'll communicate with one another, how they'll encourage one another and how you will start to look to build this character that's very empathetic and very excitable and is encouraging of others trying to achieve and like helping them overcome their fears. Especially around like skateboarding there's a lot of fear in it. Whereas when you compare it to like the mindset of football, it's a much more self centered sport where it's like yes, you're working a team but there's a lot more, it's us against them. Whereas in skateboarding it's more of a community sense. There's not an us against, I mean there's us against uh, them being society in some sense. But um, in terms of skateboarders it's just like oh, skateboarder friend and helping educate that. So that's part of the program. So even then if you've got people that are falling behind on the skateboarding terms of things, it's like yes, but if their character and personality are building much more with that, and it's just a delay in the skateboarding element side of things, then that can be something that keeps them in for the longer term as well. Because you're still providing a lot of value there. But on the whole concept there, if you've got a much longer journey that you're taking people on with it and you demonstrate the benefits of that long term commitment and that consistency, the biggest thing in picking up any new sport is that consistency. And so you want to address that early on so that when people are thinking of little Jimmy M. Going to his weekly or fortnightly or I mean I'm um, saying weekly or fortnightly, but why not look to do it something where they can go twice, three, four times a week if they really want to scout or even run intensive courses, is try and focus on the fact of if they persist at this for years, they will develop a great skill in it. But obviously that will fundamentally comes down to your marketing, your sales strategy and how all of that works. There's a lot, there's a lot going into just how can I be busier through the winter? But hopefully that's given some great ideas around how you can obviously market and communicate to your customers and other prospects of this long term commitment and how it is something that's weak, it's perpetual, it's, it's an evergreen commitment. It's not something that picks up in the summer and drops off in winter. Then of course from that, if you want to try and make it more exciting, if you have got a core group of people that you're working with and you're coaching them, is then can you look to partner with indoor skateparks in the area through winter? I mean indoor skateparks are going to have the opposite problem in summer. They're going to be busy in the winter, but then come summer they've obviously got an indoor facility. But no one's going to be going to it in the summer because why pay to go skate or do whatever you want to do indoors in a skate park when you could just be outdoors for free? So there you could then obviously look to incorporate that into your lessons and partner with indoor skateparks and apply the same method there of they want to benefit with something evergreen there. They obviously have a big seasonal issue. It's just the opposite of what yours is. So could you look to work synergetically with each other in that sense? Maybe you do something where your lessons are at the indoor Skatepark once a month, and you have that booked time allocated to yourself. No one else will access the park. But obviously it means they're getting business in the summer and the winter. But it means obviously you've got a consistent place where you can take your core students to somewhere where they can practice on bigger obstacles and such. And again, you're providing more value there. And of course, you're introducing them to indoor skate parks or introducing them to other facilities and other benefits of skateboarding. Uh, so that's. I've kind of crammed in a lot there, but hopefully it's something helpful to understand how to make that business much more evergreen and overcome those seasonal drops in the winter. Next one. What am I doing wrong? I have an ice cream fun. I have an ice cream truck. You can guess where my problem is. All through summer, I'm making money hand over fist, event after event every weekend. But come October, I'm dead. I barely scrape by. I pick up a few bits of work with my mate over winter, but it's nothing compared to what I can make in the summer with my ice cream truck. Trying to think how I can balance my income more. Any ideas? I love this question because this is something I've always thought, when it comes to ice cream trucks, I don't run one. I haven't run one. I haven't spoken to anyone that has run one. But something I've often considered is what do ice cream trucks do in winter? Because no one's buying ice cream. Like right now, I'm recording this in the middle of June, it's 25 plus degrees outside, everyone's thinking about ice cream every day. Part of that, I do wonder how much of a business model is there for ice cream trucks driving around locally? Just because everything's so accessible and you can just get things at a click of a button. But obviously, uh, at those events, when you go to the beach, when you go to a festival, when you go to an event in the park kind of thing, ice cream trucks are gonna make an absolute killing. However, come winter, bit of a different story. Something I've always considered with ice cream trucks. Why aren't you selling hot chocolate? Like, come wintertime, if you're doing a lovely hot cocoa or hot chocolate, whatever it is, but whipped cream, chocolate flake in it. Marshmallows, uh, on top. Like, if you've seen the Simpsons movie, there's that moment where Ned Flanders offers Bart the hot cocoa and he's like, no, I don't want cocoa. And then all of A sudden Ned's like, well, I'll leave it on the side if you want it. And then it's like makes this incredible thing and obviously Bart drinks it. Oh my God. But yeah, as an ice cream truck, why not? Look at, uh. Maybe there's a reason. Maybe I'm missing something. Or maybe just all of them are missing something is I would think if you've got the machinery in there and it's capable of doing it, I suppose it's a bit like where you've got all the ice cream machinery is then having the machine for coffees and hot chocolates and stuff. I mean you could then do coffees and teas and such. But I just think there's this huge selling point there for the hot chocolate of getting something really nice that you can't necessarily make or if you were to make at home is a lot of effort. I mean there's obviously people that are gonna have ice creams at home, but then they'll go to the ice cream truck. It's part of the experience. Yeah, of course people can just buy, uh, just have ice creams at home anyway, so why would they go? Part of it is the experience of going to the truck and getting the ice cream. So introduce that with the hot chocolates it will take. It will be a slow journey, I think, in educating people. But once people pick up on it and they know you're going to stop by, I'm thinking more the domestic route. When you're driving around the roads and uh, like with that, make it part of your marketing. The leaf, like just leaflets in the areas that you're going to drive down. It's then going to educate people on what you're offering over the winter. And then of course, if you can find your way into events, you're not going to have so many festivals and outdoor events going on in winter. But there are still going to be things going on. Like when you think of rugby clubs, football clubs, they're still going to be doing things like that. And then obviously when they walk out, there was, uh. What's the story? I heard of a business like Snack Shack and the way it was like a mobile tuck shop, I think it was, or a food truck or something. But this guy, the hackie, found to sell out instantly. He would make something like a few hundred pounds in one hour or a few hundred dollars. I think it was an American story in one hour just because of. He knew his audience and where his customers were and he just parked himself up outside a barracks knowing exactly what time they would leave for lunch and therefore every day whole troop of people would come out queue outside his truck, bang. He sold out within the hour. Whereas other trucks are driving around all day long trying to sell their produce for the day and make the money. Whereas he would just go out for the hour a day would make a few hundred dollars. He's done or they are done. But what can you take from that is obviously look for those opportunities within that model. Obviously of course that applies to ice cream. But in the winter where can you apply that to a ah, hot chocolate truck is then what extracurricular uh, activities are going on for students and such in schools? Where are they going to be, what clubs are open and it's just a case of networking with those people to find them in what areas and where to park up. But obviously going to be outdoor events going on in winter. There's just far few between. But seek those out, identify where they are. Obviously people aren't going to want to buy ice cream. However hot chocolate on a day like that, people are still going paintballing, people are still going running, people are still doing dog walks and such in the park. So if you can find where people are congregating, you've got your opportunity there to sell some great hot chocolate. Make sure to have a vegan option. I think I've solved that one fairly quickly. That was like a few minutes. I'm assuming there's a reason that you don't see ice cream trucks doing this. Otherwise I've just created a hack for all of them. But it's something I've always consider them. Why are they not making really incredible hot chocolates all through the winter? And obviously you can spice it up from there if you've got like big industrial velvetisers and stuff making other kind of things. And well look to expand on what a hot chocolate could be. Could you sell especially if you're changing up the flavors. This is something to entice people obviously with the whole concept of building a regular list is then could you introduce some unique flavors that are going to big changes. Like McDonald's does this with like the wrap of the day or whatever or Subway does it with sub of the day, that kind of thing where it's changing up and you can get a deal on a certain item. But for you, for this business idea it may be more a case of you just have one off flavors that come in once a month or so. So you've got your flavor of the week and that's the special flavor so you do your standard hot chocolate, vegan hot chocolate, and then you've got flavor of the week. And that is something that changes up every week, whether it's a, uh, tantalizing orange or it's a, uh, strawberry and cream hot chocolate, whatever that flavor is, obviously it's something that will entice people into, oh, what's the flavor of the week this week? I want to know. So it's not just about getting another hot chocolate. It's about the fact that they're going to get this, this unknown what is the flavor of the week. But obviously they've still got the great option of the normal hot chocolate and kids are going to enjoy it. It's going to be something great and it creates that experience again as people going out to the ice cream truck when you're driving around. But make, uh, sure to educate people on that. And leaflet social media posts about it are going to help as well. And it's, you're offering something that's much more exciting than just a coffee van. And I think that will help scale and grow the business through the winter and help you stay busy in that time as well. Next one. How can my business make more money this summer? I'm a plumber. All through winter, I'm booked out for weeks. Everyone is thinking of the heating boilers are going wrong and I'm on call out after call out. It's great. I only problem is come summer, everyone has turned off their boiler and gets out in the garden. I have a list of regulars for their servicing, but it's nothing compared to winter money. Trying to think how I can build the revenue for every summer. Judging from that description, my understanding is that as a plumber, they're kind of very set in that they work with boilers and they do the servicing, they reinstall repair boilers, that kind of thing. So my first question there is, is that all the services you offer, could you look to do? Because when I think of a plumber, I'm not a plumber at all, but when I think of plumbers, I'm thinking bathroom fittings, I'm thinking taps and whatnot. And obviously, like, come summer, you've got the outdoors, uh, out. Well, literally in my house, this is a problem we've got now is we're now starting to think of watering the plants every day. The outdoor tap has gone, so we've had to ring the plumber and get them round to come and fix it. So that's obviously part of something to do in the summer and people are always looking to improve the home. So if you're able to fit, I mean, bathroom fit, a plumber is, when it comes to bathrooms, part of that is going to involve plumbing works. So in terms of this, I think it's just a case of growing. There's a lot. A few elements are going to pull in. So firstly, it's like growing a network of people that you can partner with or like referral partners, kind of thing of, uh, I scratch your back, you scratch mine. So where is their synergy? Obviously, with builders, with. If you're not a bathroom fitter, then with bathroom fitters, or with plasterers, electric, all the other trays, if you've got a pool of people you can rely on and you're passing work between each other and that's who you recommend. Because, of course, chances are, uh, like, I've run a business where you're working with homeowners and such, they're often going to ask, oh, you wouldn't happen to know a so and so, you wouldn't happen to know an X, Y or zed, would you? And of course, if you can build that, uh, trust with people where you're a bit of a go to, and obviously you can answer those questions because you've got a great network of people, you then stay in their minds and you stay fresh. This is something I did with my garden company. I always offered a, uh, I called it like, free home care or something. So it was like, we basically could manage their home in a sense of when they've got something come up and there's an issue and they don't know anyone for it, they literally ping a message to us and we would put them in contact with someone that could solve that issue, whether it was their electrics, whether it was they wanted an extension, whether they had something going on with deeds and they needed solicitors. Like, we just kind of educate them on all the connections we had or I had, and how we could help them out with that. Obviously, we were gardeners, we were there every fortnight, every week, whatever. So they were building quite a strong rapport with us anyway. But even when it came to the less regular, it was a way of us staying in their mind and obviously helping them out. So when it comes to ideas that we could introduce them to, we've always got that kind of line of communication there. But then, of course, if you're able to help people out and refer lots of work to others, that's going to come back for you, they're going to be able to get you involved on their projects and such. Or it'll be something along the lines of, I don't know, a plaster is working on, on a house. I mean that's more of a later stage once the plumbing's done. But you might find no doubt that they're doing something, something's gone wrong, they've come to repair something and they've discovered, oh, it's in your pipeworks. Oh, here's the plumber. I can recommend that way you're building much more of a network there to bring in more referrals and more work to you rather than you may have very few sources you're relying on or a list of customers that word of mouth spreads for you. So that's one element is obviously build your network. Another element is educating prospects throughout the year of the services that you do offer. So going on that there's going to be work that you're doing in the summer and perhaps you can look at expanding like increasing your skill set, upskilling in other areas or cross skilling into other services you can offer. But then of course educating your existing clients and educating prospects, that's where it comes into your marketing and your sales. So within marketing is like social media is huge for many, uh, small businesses, especially service based businesses. You've got to be getting plenty of content out in terms of educating your audience on what the services you're offering are, what the problems you're solving are and how you do that. And obviously given an element of your personality to help build that rapport. And if you're doing that so like with a plumber, um, like you've said, you're doing the service in there. So in the summer I'd recommend something of like, is your boiler winter ready? Act now, be prepared, be proactive, that kind of thing. Whereas if you're just kind of putting generic posts out, then you're not gonna get people's minds thinking and ticking and thinking of you. Whereas if you're telling them exactly what they need to be thinking about in summer, uh, in preparation for winter, you're gonna help them think a bit. Oh actually, yeah, maybe we should be proactive and get the, get the plumber in to check the boiler and such, I might be wrong if that works. But there'll be something in your business that's, that's applicable. As an example. Like in my garden company people often would say to me, just be like, what do you do in winter? It's dead. You don't do anything in the garden in winter. I'm like, of course you do. Depending on like if you live in a new build estate and you've just got one square lawn, there's not really anything to do in winter. You might do a bit of like lawn treatment ahead of winter and at the end of winter as the seasons are changing, but come winter time generally you're not doing anything. But then that's where we look to cross sell other services like jet washing the patios and such. Like come the end of winter or, or when you've got the larger estates and such, especially if you've got deciduous trees, you're then clearing up an unholy amount of leaves throughout the winter. So then part of the marketing then was of course educating customers and prospects on it's now winter, our leaves a problem in your garden, in your grounds, we can help with that. And then of course we can help through the spring, summer. But it's about educating people. And of course that's like how do you know what to make, how do you know what to post and how do you know what to talk about? Well when you're having conversations with people and they're saying, well aren't you dead now? Like what, what can you do? There's nothing to be doing in your businesses there. Oh well actually there's xyz. Well there you go. That's the content that you need to be sharing to educate and inform your audience the prospects that you want to obviously make clients. That's the content you need to share, the stories you need to share in order to bring them in, get that revenue coming in. So that's kind of as I said, your network, your marketing and then obviously that follows down into your sales. So once you're doing this actively to market, but then in your sales in terms of educating prospects and customers as they come on board is then putting them in a way of how can you provide a service that obviously is great for them but benefits your business? As you've like stating as the plumber, they do like servicing and such through the summer. Well, is it feasible if you are particularly busy in winter, could you do all of your servicing in the summer? I don't know if you've got a number that you're just, you're doing some in winter, some in spring, some in autumn, some in some, uh, could you do all of them in summer? So then that helps build up your business there. And then in the winter you're focused on the re, the installs of boilers and such and the larger works, larger projects and then, of course, part of the sales, I'd imagine there's going to be things where once you've done something, obviously you're going to say to people, once you fit the new boiler, I can service it for you. Do you want me to book that in for you? Now for June, July, whatever, in the summer. But they will know there'll be other things that. Or even if you're too busy, it's just looking for those other opportunities. So I used to have this in gardens and such where I would speak to people and we'd get an understanding of what they're looking for. Like, we might do an initial clearance and then maintain it afterwards. But I'll be looking for opportunities and ideas. Like they're. They want to have a great garden. We're there to educate them and help them achieve that. And it's not being sals, like, apply this to your plumbing business or whatever your trade is. It's not being sleazy and salsy to be like, oh, we can do this. Like, depending how you vocalize it and articulate it, you can sound very sleazy. But the fundamentals that you want to help your, your clients and you want to help them get the best out of their home, out of their garden and such. So, of course, when it came to gardening, I would look for the opportunities that we could fulfill in certain times. Like if we had certain periods in the year where we were going to be quieter, or I knew I had to be much more active and proactive to get that working, I would then obviously be looking for those opportunities within the garden. Like scarifying, for example, you scarify the lawn. Generally, if you're going to do it once a year, you kind of do it February, March time before you start mowing the grass. Well, obviously, of course, that's something that I'm trying to get in the minds of people, rather than waiting until it's the middle of summer and they're going come in. Actually. What can we do to solve that? Oh, we need to scarify. Whereas if you're educating them ahead, you can obviously get all of that booked in before the summer and then get loads of work done in early spring, late winter kind of time to keep yourself busy. And so how can you apply that to your trade, your industry? There's going to be a vast amount of opportunities and all kinds of different nuances and niches within each trade and such. So in plumbing, where does that apply to you? As I've kind of touched on with the service, uh, and getting it all into the summer. But then as I said, cross selling and upskilling. Cross skilling and upskilling. Like could you go into bathroom fitting? Or like obviously if you can find a great tile to work with, you're a plumber. I'm assuming that means fitting sinks and toilets and baths and such and showers. People are going to be thinking about that all year round. It's not just going to be like in a specific time. So then look to provide that as a service and keep yourself busy all year round. Hopefully that's been helpful. If you've got any other things that Is there something I've missed out on? Another idea? Chuck it in the comments below. If you're enjoying the content so far, make sure to give a like because it helps YouTube and whatever podcast platform you're listening to. Well, I say this but on podcast platforms you don't have a like button, but you do have an ability to review the podcast and give it five stars. Just saying. But thank you for that. Onto the next story, which is Help me get through the autumn please. I'm a personal trainer. I work exclusively with women, ideally 30 plus women all the way up to the 80s. My oldest client is 86. Go on girl. That's quite incredible. Problem I have is I often see regulars drop off as soon as the nice weather disappears. It's like a cold day appears and a switch is flipped in people's minds. Suddenly they are not so fussed about their health and well being. Of course there are people always focused, but it's been a recurring theme for me, losing regulars in autumn. Then I gained most of them back in January or by spring. I'm trying to think how I can keep hold of clients through autumn or have a list to replace them with any ideas. So with this it kind of ties into some of the previous stories we talked about. But something here I'm thinking there's like in the same regards to the skateboarding lessons. It's about educating your clients and getting them in on that program and explaining educating them on the benefits of perpetuity of having this as a long term plan. I mean when it comes to working personal trainers, depending on what you're trying to achieve, generally it's something where you would only use them for, I say a short period of time but as in six months, couple years to get yourself to a point where you're at the stage you want to be with your health and wellness and then you kind of step away from them because you no longer need them. Some People however, will just want to have that person keeping them accountable perpetually through, through the years and such. And it may become, if you've got something where you're working in groups of people, obviously it becomes a social element to it as well. It's not just about that one on one and of course there's the social element or the human connection there on the one on one in addition to as well which could obviously make it much more longer term. But in thinking of this there's a lot to be said there for the education around getting people in on a program and as well how are you marketing your products? Which comes into the marketing the sales and such. But what is it within what you're offering? Are you setting out for a long term plan? Are you helping them establish an end goal that you're working towards? Whereas if it's a case of you're just taking people on of like oh I'm 30 pounds an hour and $50 an hour, whatever it is, and just saying we'll do a weekly session, we'll do two a week, whatever the schedule is. If you are just more of a pay as you go kind of system, you're not, you're going to find that the drop off is or the churn rate is larger just because the psychology of what you're communicating to your clients is not something of a long term, it's just a pay as you go. Like when you think of your phone like literally if you get a pay as you go, it's just, I mean there are people that have pairs and goes for decades but it's obviously seen as a very short term arrangement. Whereas when you have the contract, you know it's for 12 months, 24 months, 36 months and such. So where can you look there is that something you introduce with your clients is that they're on a 12 month contract, they're on a 24 month contract and there's clauses in terms of like you probably won't find that you, you'll be able to tie people in for that time but it'll be something where they're on a 12 month contract or a 12 month plan, but it's just a uh, rolling 30 day contract that they have to give 30 days notice to cancel with that then I think as well is looking at each season using the start of the season as a time to reflect and then obviously pre plan. So look at what they've achieved, where they've come, are they happy with that? Is there anything they thought could have been Better in such way could you improve and then look to see how you can adapt and evolve going forward and what needs to be there and obviously where is their mental and emotional mindset when it comes to committing to the work and the personal training? I'd like to think if you're doing that you won't see such a drop off but if it's something where it is just kind of a reactive pair as you go system that's just come on in. We come for the session this week, we'll do some HIIT training, we'll do some cardio, whatever it is, then people are going to stop thinking about it in that way and they are just going to drop off. But as I said, if you are more proactive on that and sitting them down at the end of summer to say, right, how have you found the summer? Where are we now? We originally discussed the end goal being X. Is that still what the end goal is or do you want to adjust it? Do you want to go for 2x, 3x whatever it is and how can we look to achieve that over the next few months and what is it we're going to make sure to do throughout the autumn? How can I best support you in this time to help achieve that goal for you? And we want to make sure that we're still committing to it and getting it done and obviously then you're getting their mind thinking and getting them into that long term perpetuity of oh, I've got to commit to this and keep it going. If you do still have that flicker off and people are dropping off, then I think that's where you look at your marketing to see and identify when you need to be most active. So if you are like, if you're just like this sounds like it's someone on their own, just as their own, like lifestyle business as such. Well then look at your ad campaigns and such. What activity have you got going on on social media? What are you doing in terms of leaflets or paid ads, that kind of thing? What's the, what are you investing like SEO on your website and such or whatever marketing strategies you're using. Can you look to increase it over the kind of end of summer into the autumn so that you can be prepared and get those leads in so that as they start, as your clients start to drop off and such, you've got more regulars coming in ready to start improving their lifestyle. And of course with that is the marketing in terms of how you're communicating. So are you communicating like the messaging could be Something about, has it been another summer where you told yourself you was going to have that you're going to feel great for summer and yet you haven't achieved that? Well, let's start now to get you ready for the following. Some of that kind of thing or uh, something about we all get a bit lazier and we like to have a bit more treats and such over the winter. So that could be a bit of a concern for people as summer ends. Is then that's part of your marketing message to say worried about the winter, like the, what you call it? I don't want to be, I don't want to say like the winter fat building up, but the uh, padding over winter growing too easily. If you're concerned about that, then let's start working now to make sure you're in great shape over the whole Christmas holidays and obviously into the summer. And let's look at transforming that whole lifestyle to something where you are much fitter, healthier and happier. As we said there, like that is the element of the marketing, but then as it comes into your sales is that whole communication around the prospect journey of when they start interacting with your business. They might see a social media post, they might see a flyer come through the door, they might see a bulletin board, whatever in the local town, or it might be a recommendation from a friend or family. But from that moment, as they start to make contact with your business, what messages are you conveying to them and what communications are you sharing? How are you communicating what it is that you offer? What is the product and service that you are putting forward to them and how is that, how are you communicating that based on their life plans? And so as it just comes back to that whole thing of like, are you just looking at uh, are you providing a pay as you go service or are you looking at uh, creating a plan tailored to them to get them to their end goal? And I don't really think that anyone's end goal can be achieved in the space of a month or three. You're going to be doing something with a personal trainer where it is going to take minimum six months, it's going to take more likely like a year. As I said, you get to a point where you get to the end goal and they've created a much healthier lifestyle for themselves and they don't need you anymore. But obviously you can then look to provide other benefits and extra value that then is obviously providing a great service for them and benefits to them that they never want to stay on. But is definitely there's a lot to be said in the sales pitch as such, the sales call and just those early communications of exactly what it is you're offering to think much more long term and that. So like uh, tying it into my garden company, this is something I did where we created annual plans for people, where it broke down, what we'd be doing in the garden throughout the year with each month, what the focuses are and such. Obviously there's going to be crossovers and there's going to be periods where you've got blocks where it's the same priority. But then of course, especially at the start of season, end of season, there's a lot more one off things going on that are just going to happen in that month. And then we educate them on what needed doing throughout the winter. And then of course we had upsells, cross sales and down sales and such in the winter as well to add on, to keep ourselves busy and such. And so with that, could you apply it to PT in a sense of you create a plan for them and when someone comes on board, you look at where they are and obviously you've got the knowledge, you've worked with people time and time again. So when people come to you with that goal that they've got, I want to be able to get down on the floor and play with the grandkids easily and be able to get back up again without my knees clicking five times. Or it might just be that uh, they want to be fit and healthy and they want to run a marathon. Whatever it is. Obviously you've got your niche and what you're focusing on there, you've said it's exclusively with women and you know what the problems they've got and how you can help them solve them. But from your knowledge that you've built, how long are these things taking and are people generally achieving that goal? I mean this is all gonna be great data. If you've got some positive results there where 80% of people achieve their goal that they set with you or whatever the stat is, that's something obviously great to share. But when you sit down with people, you've got the knowledge to say ah, based on your goal. This is something I've done with X amount of women in the past and with those women it took them between six months and five years. So this is something where based on that, how do you see for yourself what kind of vision have you got and what is the time frame for this? Let's look to map m that journey out and Create a tailored plan for you so that we can work on that over the next X timeframe. And so there you're getting into their mind the idea that this is something, a long term commitment, it's going to perpetuate. This is not a seasonal thing, this is evergreen. You are going to be working with them one on one or however it works but through every season there. So they're combination of all those things should then obviously work with your clients in making sure that they're evergreen with you. Something else, I'm just wondering, you say they drop off over autumn. Is it maybe that you're working outdoors and you're meeting up at parks and such? Uh, I sent my mum to a PT and this is exactly what she did. So they met up outdoors at a park. So of course that would be something that as the winter sets in you start to uh, you wake up in the morning ready to go for your session, it's raining outside. Do you really want to drive to the park to meet your PT knowing it's going to be soaking wet when you could just click the snooze button, lay back. And I do this as well. Like I go swimming a couple times a week and I can definitely say in the winter my alarm goes off and I think it's freezing cold. I've got to go out into that cold, drive to the swimming pool and then obviously get changed. Walking over into a pool that's going to be cold, that's the last thing I want to do. Whereas of course in the summer, alarm goes off, I'm too hot as it is. So I get up and I'm thinking I can't wait to actually get in that pool and cool down a bit. Very different mindset from the season to season. So there's something to consider. If you are always working outdoors with your coaching clients. With your coaching clients, can you work in an indoor facility, partner with a gym and such or even just a hall, local hall, therefore that people can avoid the harsh conditions of winter and such and be a bit warmer. Something to consider. But I hope I've given a number of different ideas there to work with to help improve the business, make it much more evergreen. As you said, it comes into the sales, the marketing and the network you've got and how you're communicating to your clients. That'll be the biggest thing I think most important, imperatively will be how you're communicating with your clients and that can be a quick fix even when, even if you've got customers. Well, we're in the middle of summer now depending when you're watching this. But I'm recording this in the middle of summer so even thinking now start having those conversations with customers to start say right what's the plan? Especially if they've been customers that have dropped off of you previously and then come back is then start to have that conversation now to say uh, planning out the diary or even just make it all about them and empathize with them. I've noticed you've dropped off in the past before. So how can we ensure that we like you want to achieve X goal. How can we ensure that we achieve that? Obviously I don't don't want you to fall behind on that goal. I want you to feel great and motivated and inspired to achieve it. How can we ensure that that's what going to work for you this year and make sure we achieve that goal this time around. I hope I've been helpful there. But yeah, if I've missed anything of course jump in the comments below and let me know if you're listening to this on a podcast. Then come over to YouTube. Last story where am I going wrong? I live in Canada and have a snowplow business. Key problem I have is the severe lack of snow over summer. Who would have guessed I pick up a few odd uh, jobs in the warmer months, mainly laboring or in my if my truck comes in handy for moving larger stuff around. I want to manage my business much better though I need to work out a way I can keep my business busy in the summer with a predictable revenue stream just like in the winter. Any thoughts? I mean apart from shipping your truck out to other countries when there's going to be snow, when obviously it stops snowing in Canada, don't think that's going to be an idea you want to pursue. However, I think look for versatility. Like you've said, you pick up a few odd uh, jobs in well it's you're laboring but you've mentioned because you've got a large vehicle, it's handy obviously for people to be able to move stuff around using your vehicle or whatever, hiring, hiring you to transport equipment and such. But I think look there, there's definitely opportunities with diversity, versatility and the fact you've got such a unique truck, you've got the snowplow. I don't know much about snowplows, but is the plow actually able to be utilized with other things? So as an example like in the summer beaches. If you don't know if Canada is Really renowned for its beaches, but obviously in the summer they're leveled out each morning. Could that be a contract that you get? So in the winter you're plowing the roads free from snow, and then in the summer you're leveling out the beaches. I mean, even if a snowplow can't, I'm sure it's something that's quite a minor adjustment to be able to. You're literally taking a material and leveling it out or moving it from A to B. So I'm sure that can be applicable. But look for things such as that. And if you've got a big truck, I'm assuming they can fit big trailers on. And then of course you can look to transport. It might be some kind of delivery thing. It might be working with other businesses in the area. Like there's going to be businesses the exact opposite to you where all through winter they're kind of steady. And then in the summer they become booming, busy. And so they need extra hands on deck to help get things around. And if you've got a big vehicle to help make that happen, whether it's like yard work, transporting stuff around, or it's a case of like going out deliveries and such and whatnot, or it's some other kind of niche that requires heavy machinery and that kind of transportation that you can offer is where can you partner up with other businesses like that to be useful and add value to them? Where you're subbed in as a contract subcontractor or a contractor to work with them. I'm trying to think of some m ideas while I'm on the spot here being a bit vague, but this is obviously your business, your industry, and you know, the other networks that are around in your area. But I'm thinking like, if, like in Canada as well, you've got log a lot of woodland forest. I, um, imagine there's a big logging industry. And part of that is getting logs from one location to another. I don't know if that'll be all year round. And you've got obviously like, uh, farmers with hay bales and transporting hay bales around. I don't really like trying to. I'm imagining a pickup truck, basically, but with obviously the point on the front for plowing snow. Another thing you could look to introduce as well is especially with commercial contracts, is maybe having like a annual contract. If you have got like, I mean, like in England we haven't got guaranteed snow every year, whereas in Canada, I feel like it's much more of a guarantee you know, from generally from like certain month to certain month, you're going to have snow to tie your clients into contracts in terms of a fixed monthly payment. So rather than having to pay. I don't know how this business structure works, but I imagine a lot of people be like a call out kind of thing or it'll be like work will pick up and it's just a case of per visit. It is X amount of dollars and such. So people are paying you that $200 or whatever to go clear their car parks or 50 bucks, whatever, whatever it is to clear their driveway. Whereas instead, especially more commercially, could you look to have it on a rolling annual contract? So they pay X amount per month as a fixed rate and you just guarantee that it will be clear of snow. So it helps them manage their cash flow. So it means that in the winter they haven't got this huge payout to make when they're having their car, uh, parks plowed every week or whatever it is. Whereas instead they could spread that cost. I think definitely there's an opportunity to look with working with tree surgeons and it could be something where the skill. I'm just thinking because you've got the truck and the ability to move stuff, that aura, uh, on sites of when people are just building, moving stuff around, you can then obviously use the plow to push mass around. Like if there's a pile of dirt that's just in the wrong place or a pile of rubble, it's in the wrong place. I don't know how robust the plow is. I'm imagining it's still quite a heavy piece of kit that you can just push it out of the way. Be an idea for you though, feel like this one I've been a bit more vague with and I haven't really gone into depth of how it can be resolved with more specifics. But I'm not Canadian and I don't have a snowplow. And there's just a business that doesn't exist in England. But hello from Canada. If you're watching the other element of it, obviously like you've said, you kind of want to get your business much more predictable with revenue streams. I mean you haven't specified if you've got staff and such. I'm thinking if this is something where you are on your own and it's just your lifestyle business is could you look to see where you've got skills yourself? And like for myself personally I don't do anything like solid for five days a week. I have a Number of different ventures I'm involved in where I'm just doing components of each. And I have set days for certain things and then other things just kind of based on what the focus is and what the problems that need to be solved. That's what I'm working on. And could that apply to yourself in a sense of yes, you run a snowplow business, but is it something where that's obviously a vehicle of transport and you can get from A to B? Have you got a skill set in yourself as an example? I don't know. You're a skilled, you're a qualified carpenter or something. So it just means that in the summer months you can pick up a few one off jobs. In carpentry, I'm just making something up or something like gardening. If you've got the skills of how to maintain look after a garden. If you've got a snowplower, it means you've got a big truck which means you can fit a lot of equipment on the back of it. I'm just thinking there to have uh, a kind of like multitude of skills that you can obviously offer and add value to people. Because in my head the idea of just doing the same thing every day, five days a week, weeks nine to five, year after year, decade after decade, just kind of boggles my mind. Like my hobby and passion for many years has been skateboarding. But there's no way on this earth that I want to go skateboarding every day 9 to 5. It's something that I will wake up and feel incredibly motivated to go skate. But there'll be days where I'm just like, the last thing I want to do is go skate. Despite the fact I absolutely love it. It's my passion and I'm obsessed with it. But there are definitely days where I'm just like, cannot be asked to go skate. So I always find it mind boggling the way the world of work is structured in that sense for employment. Despite the fact I employ people for years. I think bringing that versatility as well just helps the brain stay active, helps you solve different problems and engage with different parts of your brain. So if there is something where you can have a multifaceted skill set and obviously add value there and it might be something that uh, three months a year you're a snowplow business. Three months a year you're a carpenter. Three months of the year you're a logger. That's not a word. Timber. Arborist. Yeah. And if you've got a business and you've got staff, I think. Well, I mean what are you doing to pay them their wages? And I mean, are you working with employees or are these subcontractors that you bring in and just obviously apply a markup to the service that you're providing for your customers and such? Yeah, things to consider there. I hope I've been helpful and help solve it in some way giving you something to think about there. But otherwise I hope you've enjoyed the episode and of course all those good things that people always ask for on as content creators. Please leave a five star review. Please subscribe. Please tell every single person you know on this great earth they should listen and watch. That would be great. But until next time, if you've got a seasonal business, let me know. It would be actually really interesting to hear your stories and if there's any other businesses and other stories I could have included as seasonal business problems and how to overcome them and what problems have you got? Let me know in the comments below or get in touch via. Yeah, just contact me on YouTube or Insta. Anyway, have a great week. See ya. Uh, bye.