5 Things to Improve Your Business During Slow Months (Double Your Business Next Year)

Hey, everyone, it's Mike Andes and welcome to Business Boot Camp podcast. Today we're actually recording this at the shop live outside, not in the studio. And today we're going to talk about the four or five different things that you should be focused on during this winter, especially after what's happened in 2020, what you need to work on in your business. Before we get into today's show, though, a big thank you to today's sponsor, which is Gusto. If you haven't Already, go to gusto.combootcamp for a free 90 day trial of their software, where you can do all your W2s and reports at the end of the year, very quickly, very seamlessly. It's like nine bucks a month per employee after that free trial. So check it out. Today, go to gusto g-usto.combootcamp for that free 90 day trial. All right, so now we have basically finished 2020. It's been a horrible year for most of us, whether it be the health thing, going on, election season, election, a lot of stress, anxiety in businesses, people getting shut down, all the rest of it. And so what do you need to work on in the winter of 2020? Now that we head into the last part of the year and then heading into 2021, the first thing I really recommend that you do is work on your team. If you have employees, if you have any sort of a management staff or people out in the field, whether you have services or products that you sell, whether you have manufacturing, whether you sell a specific type of product, whatever it is, work on your team, develop your team, invest in your team. Whether it be team meetings, whether it be through off site meetings, whether it be training them about finances and about how the business did in 2020, doing an off site meeting and really showing them the numbers behind the business, showing them how you did the reports, all of those things. Developing the team that is working with and for you is very, very important in the winter. And that might mean taking them to a conference, taking them to some sort of a training event, or getting them audio books or podcasts and really getting them on, developing themselves and their skills. These are all things that can be done during the winter when possibly you slow down a little bit. It's Christmas season, people have time off, all the rest of it. That's a perfect time for your team to be developed and for you to invest back in your team, because you also have time. The next thing you can do in the winter is focus on cutting out waste and inefficiencies so here we're at the shop. You can see we got trucks rolling out. The parking spaces are here. And you'll notice that when we came in the front entrance, that's where we're parked closest to the entrance and the exit of the shop. And that was because on our first year and during the winter, taking the time to actually look at some of the inefficiencies of the business and realizing that we don't want trucks driving from the back of the shop to. To the front when they have to leave, or having to drive to the back to park when they come at the end of the day. Cutting out those little few seconds here and there, those inefficiencies within the business, that's something you can focus on during the winter. Of course, I'm assuming that you get a little bit slower during the winter. But again, it's just like if you're slow season in the summer, these are the things you should be doing during the summer. Whenever you slow down, this is an opportunity. This is not time to be like, oh, well, there's nothing to do. I'm just going to, you know, go on unemployment. I'm gonna go find something else, like, focus on your business and take that downtime, take that slow time to really develop, number one, your team, and number two, cut those wastes and those inefficiencies out of the business. Whether it be a few extra steps every morning, whether it be your setup for your truck and your trailer, whether it be your office setup, whether it be how your phone system is being run. We're gonna be changing phone systems at command center this winter. Why? Cause it's our time that we can actually really make a big change. And it's not easy. Change is hard. Change is not of fun. But change is necessary. And that's what you need to focus on during the winter when maybe you don't have the phone ringing off the hook, when maybe you have a little bit of downtime, you have a couple weeks off, that's the time to develop your team. That's the time to focus on the inefficiencies. Draw a schematic of your shop or your office or your layout for manufacturing, whatever business you have, and really start to look at the inefficiencies. Where are those extra steps? Where is those extra 5, 6 seconds being wasted on, and think very, very lean. So number two is cut out the waste and create efficiencies. The third thing I want you to do, regardless of your industry, is to really focus on Your pricing strategy now 2020 happened. And yes, there's a lot of craziness in the stock market and our politics and our health system and all the rest of it. But I guarantee you something changed in your cost of goods sold, your cogs. Cost of goods sold is cogs. And generally your cost of goods sold are going to be labor. It's going to be the cost of supplies and materials to build your product or your service. For example, this is our supplies right here. The mulch, the soil, the gravel. These are the different supplies we use in our business. And they, guess what, they went up in price this year because trucking went up. And that cost needs to be reflected. That increase in cost of materials is increasing our cogs, and therefore, we need to increase our prices. And so looking at your pricing strategy this winter is very important because I guarantee you, your prices have changed in 2020, and your cost of goods sold, your labor has probably gone up. The cost of unemployment insurance, your L and I, whatever it is, those costs have gone up. Your supplies, they've gone up in price. You need to take a hard look at your pricing strategy and see if you need to raise prices and increase your margins come this winter. This is the time to look at those numbers, analyze 2020 and see if you made enough profit or if you need to raise your prices because your cost of goods sold, those costs have gone up. Your labor, your materials, and your subcontractors, people, you might subcontract out some of that labor. The next thing you can work on during the winter is systems and standardization. So whether it be trailers, whether it be trucks, whether it be the type of packaging that you're using, whether it be your office setup, whether it be the computers that you use, whether it be your software, this is the time to focus on systems and standardization. Creating some sort of standardization in your service offering and in your product is very important. This is the time to focus on creating that system and implementing that software system, making the change to have a CRM instead of Excel spreadsheets and, and printed off documents, creating systems around your hiring and around your estimates and making the changes that are going to allow for Greater profitability in 2021. Standardization. Very, very important to focus on during the winter. This is the time to actually look and say, okay, If I have five SKUs, if I have five different products, five different services, is there a way that I can standardize them and reduce them and reduce my product offering? Everyone's talking about, oh, this is the time to add products and add More services. Maybe during the winter, you got to focus on standardization. Look, we're only going to focus on two or three of our core competencies in those types of services or products that we do really, really well. This is the time to do that during the winter. Take this time and make sure you've created systems and procedures to make 2021 more profitable. The last thing you can focus on during the winter is personal development. And this is something that takes a little bit of, you know, hit on some people's pride. There is no pride in saying that I don't need help from anybody. That's just absolute ludicrous. It's stupid. As a business owner, we got to realize that there's people that have more experience than us. They have more money than us, they have more employees than us. They have more systems and procedures, and they do things better than us. Being able to realize that and be humble enough to realize that is going to unlock a huge amount of development for you personally during the winter. This is the time to read podcasts, read pod, read, read books, listen to podcasts, listen to audio books, figure out the method of communication that works best for you, whether it be live conference and events, whether it be books, all the other things we've mentioned. Regardless of it's a meetup every Saturday with local business owners. Start developing yourself, not just in business, but also in your health. Like, if you've been so busy this entire year and you've seen what's happened with COVID and now you got to, like, look, your own immunity and your own health needs to be improved this winter. Maybe you need to start going to the gym. Maybe you get a peloton bike. Maybe you start running outside and bundle up because it's cold. Regardless of what it is, may change your diet. Stop drinking five energy drinks every single day. It's killing you. It's reducing your immunity. It's not developing your health to make you the most lean and efficient, the same way that we talked about making your business more efficient, making it more lean. This is the time for you personally to focus on your own development. Learn something about personal finances. Learn about the stock market, learn about real estate. Learn about different types of businesses that have changed their industries, like Toyota and Apple and Google. What are they doing that's made them so special and made them so successful? This is the time. Just get humble about where you're at and realize that there's people and businesses and other organizations that you can learn from. Don't be proud. Work on yourself. Do the deep work of focusing on you becoming better you as a person, you as a business owner, you as a husband, you as someone as a community member that gives back to other people. This is the time to develop yourself and be humble enough to realize you aren't the best, you aren't the brightest. There's always something you can learn and improve. Do those five things this winter and make 2021 the the best year yet. You can listen to Mike Andes on the Business Boot Camp podcast. I'll see you next time.