By Debbie Gregory.

Once the holidays have officially ended, most small businesses face a significant drop in business. Generally, people are on vacation or saving to recover from their holiday gift spending from the middle of December through January.

Preparing for this lull in business can be challenging.   There are a few strategies that can help minimize the negative impact of the drop in sales and revenues. Below are a few ideas to help you save some money and possibly minimize the negative impacts of a slow business season:

Increase Social Media Posting:

Increasing your social media presence is always a great place to start when your business needs a boost. Social media is incredibly effective for reaching potential customers in your local area as well as helping you build overall brand recognition and trust.

Implement New Marketing Strategies:

If you are experience a slowdown in business, this might be an excellent time to re-evaluate your current marketing strategies to determine what has been and what has not been effective. Cut out any ineffective strategies and move forward with new ideas.

A few ideas to consider:

• Improve or update your company website’s overall SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
• Start new pay-per-click campaigns on social platforms or search engines
• Start attending in-person marketing events
• Sponsor relevant local events

Eliminate Any Unnecessary Expenses:

The start of the year is also a great time to review where your money goes and cut out any unnecessary expenses. This includes cutting out ineffective marketing programs that was addressed previously as well as reducing spending on office items that aren’t necessary as well as holding off hiring. Saving money is one of the best ways to help you bounce back from a lull in sales.

Revamp Your Pricing:

If you lowered your prices to be competitive and attract more customers before the holidays, this is the time to consider what your pricing strategies going forward now that the holidays are over.  Most small businesses simply go right back to their standard pricing but this might not be the best option if you still have a lot of holiday inventory on your hands. Consider staggering your price increases to sell off your surplus inventory.

If You Took Out a Loan Now is the Time for a Reasonable Repayment Plan:

If your business was one of the many that needed to take out a loan to have adequate cash flow through the holidays, now is a great time to establish a reasonable and affordable repayment plan with your loan provider.

The holiday season is always challenging before, during and after for a variety of reasons and this is especially true for small businesses. If you find that you are struggling to recover from the holidays you should seriously consider one or more of the above strategies to help you get back in your groove and recover.

By Paul Mara

According to the Office of Advocacy for the U.S. Small Business Administration in their publication, Veteran-owned Businesses and their Owners, data from the Census Bureau’s Survey of Business Owners, Military Veterans are a driving force in our national economy. The census estimated that in 2007:

• There were 2.45 million businesses with majority ownership by veterans
• These veteran-owned firms had sales/receipts of $1.220 trillion, 5.793 million employees, and an annual payroll of $210 billion

The vast majority of military veterans business are small businesses. In 2007, for veteran owned firms:

• More than half (53.4 percent) had from one to four employees
• Businesses with fewer than ten employees accounted for 80.4 percent of firms
• Those with fewer than twenty employees accounted for 90.2 percent
• Businesses with twenty or more employees accounted for 9.8 percent of all firms
• Those with fifty or more employees accounted for only 3.6 percent

VAMBOA is committed to the success of these military veteran business owners, and does so by working with corporations to meet their military veteran supplier diversity goals, as well as their hiring initiatives for veterans. VAMBOA is also in the process of creating local infrastructures around the country to provide one-stop, turnkey resource/referral communities; the goal of which is the overall success of these veteran owned businesses.

VAMBOA is a California based 501 (c) 6 non-profit trade association, established in 2010, with a nationwide membership of over 6,000 Veteran & Service Disabled Veteran Business Owners.  Along with our sister site (www.MilitaryConnection.com), we have over 524,000 combined followers (and growing!) on Twitter and Facebook.   VAMBOA is quickly becoming the Go-To-Trade Association for Veteran and Military Business Owners, and those who want to support them.

For information about corporate sponsorship and local associate memberships, contact Mr. Paul F. Mara, Director of Development at paulmara@vamboa.org or 612-889-5887.