Tips For Small Businesses During Slow Seasons | Business Tips | B2B Vault - The Biz To Biz Podcast | Episode 259

You are now watching the Biz to Biz podcast with Allen and Justin. Yo, what's up everybody? It's Justin live from B2B Vault, the Biz to Biz podcast sponsored by Nationwide Payment Systems, hosted by this guy, the beekeeper himself, Allen Kopelman. And in today's podcast, we'll be discussing options or some ideas for you if you have a small business during slow season. Like in South Florida during hurricane season, there's a lot of businesses that suffer from downtime, uh, etc. So I'm sure there's other— there's a lot of, you know, places that deal with the same types of things. How you doing, man?

I'm doing good. I missed you. You were gone for a few days.

Aww.

So we missed you around the office.

I missed— I missed everyone as well.

We were worried about you not feeling too good.

No, I had the vids, man. Finally, uh, well, I think I've said it on a podcast before, um, I'm pretty sure I caught COVID before it was COVID COVID, like in at the very end of 2019. Yeah, um, but yeah, I haven't, uh, so I got the, the flirt strain of COVID Flirt?

They have names for it?

Yeah.

Whatever that was, it wasn't too good.

Uh, the worst part about it for me was the, uh, the shortness of breath. I was talking to Sam, uh, about it yesterday. It's like that, that's it. It's just a really weird illness virus. Uh, it feels very targeted, like everything that it's like Like, you know, like when you're sick and you have like the body aches?

Yeah.

Well, this, it was like my joints hurt.

That's not good.

Like, it wasn't like a normal body ache. And, uh, I had the chills and I was shivering and it felt like I was gonna— I was but my teeth were about to explode because I was so cold, but I was sweating at the same time.

Yeah, when I had— when I got sick with it, though, I had it like twice. The first time was like before there was any vaccines, and they— I'm not—

what it was—

I'm not vaccinated either. It was before, you know, they were even talking about any of that stuff.

I'm organic.

And it was like that. I was freezing and sweating at the same time.

Yeah, that was a— I didn't want to eat. I had, yeah, no appetite. It was just— that was just a terrible, terrible 10 days.

And we both ended up watching The Beekeeper movie, which was crazy.

It was just decent. It was decent. I mean, for, you know, like, gun-toting Action. Yeah, I mean, Jason Stratham, whatever his name is.

Jason Statham.

Uh, he's like the OG of that now. He's kind of like— he's taken over for Sylvester Stallone and all those guys.

Arnold Schwarzenegger.

I mean, yeah, he hasn't been— who else is before him? There's someone.

Chuck Norris.

Chuck Norris.

Yeah, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Jean-Claude, those guys, you know, Jet Li.

I guess Jet Li had a— he's a— he's like a— on a whole super like philanthropy trip. Yeah, like, uh, something happened to his family, a tragedy happened.

Well, like, family—

oh, that's crazy. And, um Yeah, so ever since that, that's happened, that's why you don't see him in any movie.

Like Keanu Reeves, he's in a lot of fighting movies now. Yeah, now Matrix, and then John Wick.

I mean, I just remember Bill and Ted, dude, Bill and Ted. Watching John Wick is a little— I haven't seen part 4 yet. I've seen the first 2. My wife really enjoyed them, so The first one was really good.

Second one was really good. They're pretty good movies.

I haven't seen 3 or 4. I don't— I fell asleep on the third one.

The thing I liked about The Beekeeper, he was after the scammers who were doing all the shit that I'm always talking about that I hate.

He sent me that to watch while I was bedridden, and of course it had to do something with payments. So I've watched it. So I mean, if you got nothing to do on a Saturday morning, or I mean, you know, afternoon or whatever, it's definitely worth the watch. I did not watch Beverly Hills Cop yet.

Oh, you got to watch Beverly Hills Cop. I watched—

I heard that. I don't know, one of my— one of the homies that I know back home was, you know, I'm 44 years old.

Okay.

So he's like, if you've seen the first Beverly Hills Cop, yeah, then you've seen this movie because they have the same music, they have the same characters for the most part, and it's the same movie. And then he said personally he would rather watch the original. The only re— like the original version is so old that it looks like shit.

So he's like, he does pull some of the same stunts that he, you know, it's, it's kind of, I mean, the one thing that made me laugh, he was like, they had Eddie Murphy running up some stairs fast as hell.

And he was like, that was not Eddie. I was like, word. So yeah. No spoilers, but I don't know, I didn't really, uh, I didn't watch that yet. I got caught up on, uh, the Power series, Book of Kanan, um, Ghost— not Ghost, whatever the hell.

There's so many of them, but I was very happy when Jason Statham blew up the scammers' computers and their building.

Oh, he blew that— that part was ridiculous. That was when he walked up with the two gas cans. Yeah, yeah, it was whatever.

But what are you doing with those? Beats everybody up. Yeah.

Then I watched, uh, I started— did you ever watch Suits?

Yes.

So there's a season 9 on.

Yeah, it's like just start— they like revived it.

Mike was even in it.

Yeah, they revived it. Oh, I'm sure they replaced his wife. She's now the queen. They're Princess or whatever. She—

their characters are like living on the West Coast or some shit. Oh, that's— they're not in it, this, this one? Just Mike was just in it.

Oh, okay, interesting. I haven't watched it yet.

I haven't finished it. I, I figured I should give myself something if I ever, you know, want some mindless television to watch, right? Should save that because that's one of the shows I thought Reacher had a new season up.

I think it's— yeah, it's on Amazon. Reacher, that part 3. Season 3. 2 is out, not 3. They only did part 2.

I thought it was part— season 3 was—

no, they just put—

what happened to the good— the, the— not the Good Samaritan, but whatever, the one with, uh, uh, Tulsa, the Tulsa With Sylvester Stallone.

That's on some channel.

Paramount.

Yeah, Paramount Plus.

You didn't watch that? No. Oh, you're tripping.

Okay, you gotta get Paramount Plus.

And then, yeah, because then they also got King of Meristown on there.

Yeah, I like that show.

So that— I didn't watch the new season.

I like that actor, Kyle, whatever his name is.

The guy, he almost died, got ran over by a tractor.

Yeah.

How the fuck does that happen? Sorry.

No, that's a different guy. That's Jeremy Rainmer.

Yeah, that's the guy who was in King of Mayorstown.

Oh, that's right, he's in it, and Kyle MacLachlan's in it too.

His brother. Yeah, I think he's dead.

Oh, he died in the first season.

Yeah, his brains blew the fuck out.

Yeah, he was—

noodles got tossed everywhere.

No, but The Beekeeper, the funniest part— I shouldn't do a spoiler. But when they tell everybody, they're—

no diddy. Uh, yeah, it was a very delayed no diddy there.

Okay, anyway, we'll give the spoiler away.

Yeah, no, that's a good— that's a great series. That's a really good series. Um, and there's one other one I was watching, but whatever, I'm all caught up. Yeah, stay— uh, I would say if you're, you know, healthy and you haven't had COVID Don't get it. Don't get it. It's not fun. I went to the gym for the first time last night and I got a decent— well, not even— I wouldn't— I got a workout in.

Okay, but let's get to the podcast.

So yeah, man, uh, it's hurricane season in South Florida.

Yeah, but that's a boon for some businesses, like if you sell batteries and flashlights, right, and supplies. You know, there's a tax-free week for that. There's also, you know, in the summertime it's a great time to, you know, businesses, you know, a lot of times people are going to spend their money on sending their kids to camp, or they're spending their money on back-to-school stuff.

So, you know, it just depends what kind of business you're in, but it's also a great time where It's definitely dependent on the type of business you're in because a friend of mine owns a pool renovation company and this is a terrible time of year for him because you can't work in the fucking rain.

That's true.

Contractors are suffering, landscapers are suffering during the business.

Well, you gotta diversify. That's when you gotta look at your business and make sure you're diversified into more than one, one thing. So they—

because I'm definitely— if I was— when I was paying for my grass to get cut. Yeah, you're not paying for your grass to get cut twice a month during the raising season because it's just not worth it.

My grass grows like crazy now.

Depends, certain areas, right? But anyway, like, yeah, so, but there's a lot of, you know Like you said, there's, you know, there's good, the good with the bad type of, type of vibe. I think, uh, what a lot of businesses have done down here, obviously they know it's going to be hurricane season, right? So, you know, they, they create, you know, seasonal promotions around this time, you know what I mean? Like, especially, you know, like school's out, so, you know, a lot of restaurants are busy. Stuff like that. You know, people, they don't want to cook at home because it's hot, you know what I'm saying?

Yeah.

So you gotta like, uh, make sure you're ready for that surge as well.

But yeah, then a lot of businesses hire students during the summer, and then those students leave. Like my son, he told me, goes, oh, now he has a bunch of students working for him. At the mall, and then, you know, comes the— then they're all going to go back to school, to college, to high school. Yeah, that's tough to kind of restaff.

That's super stuff.

A few people because of that. So, you know, businesses, and you know, sometimes in the summertime if there's a change that you're looking to make, now's the time to kind of do that.

Yeah, it's a great time. Great time to, you know, implement some things if it's slow, you know what I mean? Like maybe even want to get a loyalty program going or something and you just didn't really know how to do it or couldn't afford, you know, to do it during such a busy season right off away, right away, you know what I mean?

You know, you have more time. So, you know, it's a time to, you know, say, okay, what can I implement? Do I need to Is it— we have a lot of people now like swapping out POS system, you know. Oh, our POS, we want to update it, now's the time to do it, you know. You got your, you know, July, August, July and August, this is the great time to, you know, you have more time to train people to do things, you know.

So maybe, yeah, maybe.

This depends on where you're at in the country. Other— some places are busy, some places are slow, you know, people, you know, business, you know, every—

I used to think that Florida was super busy during the summertime, but it's the total opposite. It's the slow— it's, it's like it gets slow. It gets, it gets slow because people don't go outside, that people don't go outside. 15 degrees outside, right? Or it's pouring rain.

It's the same thing like Vegas in the summertime. You don't see— there's not people marching up and down the Strip, you know, doing stuff. Everybody's more—

one of my homies that live down there, he's— I don't know how they— that's just insane.

It was like 120 there the other day.

Yesterday.

Yeah, 120 yesterday.

Phoenix is getting hit too, man. Yeah, like, I mean, Arizona in general, but Yeah, those arid states right now is hot, hot. It's hot all over the country.

It's hot in Milwaukee, it's hot everywhere. Hot in Iowa, it's hot all over. No, you just have to figure out, like, you know, if there's changes that you want to make when it's slower, that's a good time.

I don't know why you're, you know, I know I get it, Rebecca, it just irks the out of me that you're wearing that Iowa Hawkeye hat. Like, I cannot stand it. I don't know why. I don't— I guess because, like, there is— is there a bit of a rivalry between Wisconsin and Iowa?

Oh yeah, for college football. Yeah, for football and basketball.

That's probably why.

Okay.

Because I literally want to just slap your hat off.

If nothing else, listen, they got nothing else going on in Iowa. They got the Iowa Hawkeyes.

They got nothing.

And the university got nothing.

Nothing. Nada. And they have Rebecca on the news channel. That's all they got going anyway.

Yeah, a lot of corn and soybeans.

I wouldn't know.

I got a—

I was on my way back from Peoria, Illinois one time with like a trunk full of keys and pounds of weed.

No, I'm kidding.

There was a lot of guns in the car too. No. And Hennessy. We were drinking Hennessy. That's the problem. We were drinking Hennessy on the road, and I was in charge of the, the navigation. Yeah, back then you didn't have an, you know, a phone. We actually had to print out the thing from MapQuest. Yeah, and like go on, you know what I mean? And I was in charge of the directions, and I had a couple too many shots of Hennessy in the passenger, and the next thing I know, we ended up on some giant bridge in Iowa. And we— my homeboy Allen Kopelman, he did a U-turn on the freeway, bro. Like, it was terrible. But yeah, we got home safe.

Okay. I remember back in the day, you used to have to go to AAA and you would get the triptych thing. It was this map and it flipped over, kept you on your way. But if you had a— if there was an issue on the highway, you had to figure it out yourself. Oh yeah, no, you got to look at the map and figure out like, oh, this is blocked off.

Shout out to technology. But yeah, man, so like, you know, the slow season in my mind, you know, there's a lot of different things that you should— you could be doing with your time, right? Like you could be setting up your new marketing plan for the upcoming busy season, right? You could be trying new specials, or, you know, if you're, uh, venue, right? Maybe you can have an open house during slow season to invite the community over there to get people to come in. Or, you know, like you want to have like some sort of contest, right? Like a burrito eating contest or some shit.

I think today, like, if you— any kind of business you have, I think you gotta look at like, oh, if I'm building pools, what if I can't build pool? What else can I build? Right? Or what else can I be doing? And, and making sure that you diversify kind of your business, your services.

You gotta— yeah, you gotta think about how you can, you know, adapt and pivot to, you know, make some money, right? Like, yeah, like you said, like, if you're— for him, it's tough. Like, that pool renovation, like, that's tough because, I mean, you're working with concrete and stone, and you can't do that in the middle of a rainstorm.

No, that's not fun.

So, you know, like, you know, he's thought about, you know, cleaning pools, but the competition behind that is so massive, you know what I mean? Like, it's just, it's tough. I wouldn't want to be fighting. That's a bucket, a barrel I would not want to be trying to crawl out of.

Yeah, a lot. Do you see like a lot of like pool guys. Like, there's one guy that I know and he like builds up a pool route, cleaning route, and then he sells it. That's his whole business.

It's smart.

And then he does it again and again and again. And he just— that's what he does. Goes into an area, gets, you know, 100, 200 pools. And then he—

and that's insane to me too, because that's the other thing like that he says too, because the competition is so high, like your prices, they got to be dirt— it's dirt cheap. Like you got to be charging the cheapest on the cheap to even get in, unless you're at new communities, you know, you're looking at new, you know, uh, what are those, like development communities, right? Yeah, like Port St. Lucie, for example. That's a busy spot because there's all the new growth, right? You know what I'm saying? So, but yeah, I mean, you got to really think about like how different ways that you're going to make some money during the slow season.

Yeah, these guys that like clean the pool at my house, dude, they come like 6 o'clock, 7 o'clock in the morning because they're out all day. No, they do it because they don't want to be out too, too— they don't want to be out during the hottest time of the day.

Well, yeah, of course, but so they try to knock it out. I knew a guy who clean pools, and he would start— him and his son, they would start in the morning at 5 AM, right? Get on the road, and they would be out until 5, 6, 7 PM at night. There was a— they, they had a cool little side hustle too, though. Like, they were doing like— they'd get the coconuts, so they would sell the coconuts, the mangoes, the avocados from different properties and stuff like that, you know what I mean? So there was— again, they were pivoting, right? They're figuring out different ways to make money or save money. But yeah, I don't know, like, you know, there's a lot of different ways that, you know, you could essentially take advantage of the slow time, right? You know, like, you could maybe remodel your inside of your business or or paint, give it a paint, give it a good makeover or something. It doesn't have to be extravagant. A simple coat of paint on the wall goes a long way, man. I just painted my daughter's room and I walked in there the other day and it was, the lights weren't on and it was still like, it's just like bright. You could just, it just feels better in there.

I think people don't think about that with their business a lot. You know, how you can do some little, some, you know, like a little thing. Let's say you have carpeting in your store, right? And you just go, okay, let's just move everything out of here, rip out the carpet, you know, close for 2 days, whatever, paint the walls, change the carpet, or, you know, or, you know, move things, you know, move things around.

Switch it up.

Yeah, to switch it up, give it a new look, you know, change your, you know, then post all, you know, then, you know, make a little video, post about it.

All of that is content, right? For your social, from the second you close the— you turn this little sign to close, that's content. This is when the renovation begins, blah blah blah. It doesn't— the renovation doesn't have to be a huge thing. It could be a big cleanup, right? Like, you know what I'm saying? And a coat of paint on the wall, and now you have a new shop.

Yeah, or maybe you throw a couple of chairs in there and a couch, some art, some new art or something. Yeah, you switch it up and now people walk in and they're like, oh look, it's all— they don't even— sometimes they don't notice, but they notice subconsciously.

Yeah, right, right.

You know, like, so they come in and it looks cleaner because one thing I see a lot is especially like in the restaurant business, you know, you'll just see somebody and they're just never touch the place, right? They never touch it. And then 70—

some places that works for though, like the nostalgia of it, right? But some places— there's a place that came to my mind as soon as you said that.

Yeah.

And it's like, yo bro, like you should at least dust, right? You know what I mean? Like it's a pizza spot and it's a cool spot, it's a great spot, it's a well-known establishment in Fort Lauderdale.

Okay.

But like, if you can go like this on one of the books that's on the shelf and there's like that much, that's not good. No, you know what I mean? But whatever.

No, police has got to be— listen, today, you know, cleanliness is important.

Cleanliness is next to godliness.

No, but I'm just saying, like, you got— even in places like, you know, I don't like going into a restaurant and the chairs are rickety or the tables are rickety and it just doesn't—

again, to me, for certain places that works, right? You know, like the back alley, uh, burger spot, you know what I'm saying, that's got like milk crates for seats and, uh, abandoned wire spool for a table, right? You know, sometimes that shit works, right? But, you know, again, it all depends on the environment and the vibe that you're trying to give.

Yeah, yeah, exactly. But I'm just saying, it's, you know, it's important for— it's important that, you know, people want to look at the, you know, appearance of different things, and you want to keep things fresh, even if you just move you know, even if you just move stuff around, like relocate, you know, one thing, one place.

Yeah, maybe you can— you got space outside and you can put a couple of tables outside or something, you know, switch it up. Like, even— yeah, it's rainy season in South Florida, but it's still nice. Like, there's days, like, even today it's beautiful outside. Yeah, it's got a nice breeze, you know what I mean? It's hot, but it's still nice out. Right? So, you know, if you got room, maybe go online, find a used umbrella, you know what I mean? And, and, or, or something. Hire a local artist to paint your concrete, your sidewalk in front of your— yeah.

But even like if you have a retail store and you're in like a strip center, sometimes, you know, you can put a rack of clothing outside or like an A-frame stand. Yeah. And then people driving by, they go, oh, what do they have? Oh, there's sale. Yeah. Or, you know, post on social media that there's a special sale. You know, you got to do things to bring in traffic. It's not like, oh, build it and they will come.

No, for sure. Like, check out what your competition is doing. Don't be afraid to— you know, if your business is suffering and your competition is booming, you need to look at— and you guys offer very similar products or whatever it is then you need to literally study that, what they're doing from top to bottom, and copy that to a T.

Well, and it's also a good time—

don't copy and paste, but you know.

No, but it's also a good time to look at all different, you know, different things that you pay for, make sure like, oh, am I paying for a service I'm not using, or am I paying too much for a phone service?

If it's that slow, maybe it's just you got to decide like, okay, this is a seasonal business.

Right.

And then you decide that, okay, I need to figure out something, a different business for 4 months. I did it 4 or 5 months.

Like when I had my restaurant in the summertime, for the summer, I used to concentrate on booking parties.

Great idea. So that's why I said, like, you know, hosting events.

Yeah.

You know, birthday parties, weddings, you know, business conferences, stuff like that. Try— maybe you need to cater, or maybe you need to, you know, offer just different things. Like, there's a lot of different ways. Be creative. I would say this is a great time right now in the state that we're in, in general. It's a great time to be creative and try new things. Yeah, don't be afraid to do that. Definitely think outside of the box. Also hit us up if you're trying to save some money. We could probably save you some money, but that's besides the point.

All right, that's it. Let's get creative. And it's like I always say, my favorite book, Who Moved the Cheese? Sometimes the cheese moves, you got to make adjustments.

Damn right. So smash that subscribe button for us for the one time. Peace.

Peace out. Carpe diem.