As we continue to head towards the end of the year, the dark and the cold will have a significant effect on all businesses, as people will be less inclined to shop and buy in these conditions. The impact will be felt most by businesses geared to operating in the summer.
While you may feel as though your business has to close down over the winter, you shouldn’t stop thinking about business expansion, even if the customers are not coming through the door; the winter is the best time to plan and enact your business expansion. Our experts at Tower Leasing tell you why:
1. Physical change won’t affect trade
Having significantly fewer customers actively using your services will have a detrimental impact on your revenue, but it does mean that you can use this time effectively for making any physical expansion changes to your business. Whether this literally means adding an additional room to your shop or office, installing new machinery, or taking your website down temporarily for an expansionary update, it’s best to do these things at a time when they won’t impact on trade or overall customer experience.
2. Plan and implement strategy
Along with making physical changes, you can also use this time to create and envisage strategies for your future business expansion. Not only can you plan your next moves when trading increases again, but you can also lay the foundations of the next season through marketing and promotion. The downtime will allow for you to spread your brand name and message through the local area, while also setting up business deals for the coming busy season.
3. Additional contingency time
Business expansion doesn’t always go smoothly – there can be problems. By undertaking the process during a less busy period, your business has contingency time should things go wrong. Whether this means seeking alternative finance or looking for new suppliers, you have the time to solve problems before they escalate, allowing for a more successful expansion overall. It also means that any delays which occur won’t adversely affect customer trading or consumer experience, removing this distraction when trying to find a solution.
Far from being a time of little business operation, winter is the ideal opportunity for business expansion, so businesses should make sure they don’t waste it!
Business expansion in winter – where to find out more
If you’d like to expand your business this winter, but need help with finance, please get in touch, we can help.
To find out more about the business expansion finance we can help with, please visit our Alternative Finance page.
Image: Winter Road by Pavel P. licensed under Creative commons 4
