Are You Ready For Q3?
No great invention springs out of thin air. Despite all the talk about spontaneous genius or claims that “it just came to me,” great innovations are almost always built on the backs of smaller ideas that came before. Most of the time, progress is evolutionary more often than revolutionary.
Your business year is much the same as these inventions. By now, you’re eyeballing Q3 and wondering how you can keep the momentum going or possibly wondering how to get some momentum started after a shaky few months. Like great inventions, you’ll want to build on the back of what came before— namely Q1 and Q2.
The start of Q3 is sort of like a halftime, so it’s a great time to take stock of your year-to-date and see what went right and what may need a little more work. It’s also a great time to revisit the business plan you set up for yourself at the beginning of your calendar year (you did set one up, right?) and gauge how you’re coming along.
A good business plan should include SMART goals. How are you doing with those goals? What metrics are you watching? Are you meeting your targets? If not, why? If things are going well, what can you do to super-charge them? If you’re not on track, it may be time to change things up. Remember that while a business plan is important, it’s also meant to be a flexible document.
What are the unique challenges for Q3, and how will you overcome them? If you’re on a calendar year like most businesses, these are the hot summer months of July, August and September. Ask yourself what you can do now to improve things during the traditional ‘summer marketing slump.’ Is it time for a hot sale or a tropical themed giveaway? What about trying your customers out on some new products?
You may also decide to take advantage of the relative calm to do some work ‘on’ your business. Plan where you’re going to be with your business in the next six months, the next year or the next five years. If it’s a slow time anyway, why not take advantage of some summer retreats and seminars. After all, there’s really no time where you can’t benefit from learning something new.
You may also want to work on positioning yourself for Q4. Starting in September, the weather cools down, people return from vacations and the pace of things begins to pick up again. September also brings the start of the holiday season, starting with Labor Day and ending with New Years’ Day. Is your marketing ready for the fall blitzkrieg?
There’s a saying that invention is 99 percent perspiration and 1 percent inspiration. They also say to work smarter, not harder. With that in mind, what can you do to make Q3 your best quarter yet?