What happens when business slumps?
No matter how amazing your marketing is. How much “business acumen” (hello Apprentice!) you have. What an incredible teacher / therapist / practitioner / expert you are. At some point business will take a downturn.
During these moments it’s easy to get disheartened, in fact, it’s normal to get disheartened. It’s your livelihood, your business. What I want you to avoid doing is catastrophising. And seeing it as the sign your business is going to fail. It isn't.
These are my tips for what to do when the bookings slow down.
#1 Review your history
Analysing bookings month to month will lead you to feel dissatisfied. As you will know, there are natural high points and low points in the year. I’m sure we’ve all seen the difference between a gym in December and January! It’s normal that the year ebbs and flows. Comparing week on week or month on month is not always helpful.
When you think about your planning, you need to factor in seasonality. For example, a lot of us in the wellbeing industry see a surge in September as customers adopt a back to school mindset, or a flurry of gift vouchers in November.
Instead of tracking month to month, you need to focus on year on year. What was happening this time last year? If it’s your first year of trading then plot out your months, think about what services you offer and when the highs and lows will be.
#2 Understand what’s going on
This might sound obvious but spend some time going through your bookings, what part of the pipe has sprung a leak.
Are you having less new enquiries?
Are you having the same number of enquiries but they aren’t converting to being paying customers?
Are your regular customers spending less?
Are you losing more regular customers?
Whatever the reason is, or maybe it’s all of them, you’ll need to take a different approach. The first step should ALWAYS be to understand the situation.
#3 Give yourself a Marketing MOT
Look across your core areas and see if anything has changed. It might just be a sign you need to try something new, have a refresh or it might be troubleshooting…
I would consider:
Google Business Profile
Have you fallen off the wagon and stopped updating this? Does it still have all your key services listed?
Take a look at your performance data. Have impressions reduced? What about website clicks? When was the last time you got reviews?
If you don’t have a GBP then this is a VERY EASY action to take. More on this blog about setting it up.
Website
Has your web traffic gone down? Review your service pages, are your keywords in your H1 tags, have you filled meta descriptions? Do you have enough text to tell your customers (and Google) what you actually do? Is your information clear for new customers? How is pricing displayed? Do you answer frequently asked questions?
Go through your site as if you were a customer, is it as easy as it could be? If you want to review your booking system, this blog might help.
Social Media
How is your engagement? Have you changed anything with your content? Can you notice any trends of what is working and what isn't? Is it time to try something new?
Local Marketing
Are you active in local groups? Are there any local websites that could provide backlinks to your site?
Email Marketing
How is your newsletter performance? Have you changed anything? How engaged is your database? If someone signs up on your website, what happens next? If nothing then set a welcome email, or better still, send a personalised hello.
Follow Up
Do you engage with customers after they’ve had their first service with you? Could you spare 2 minutes to drop them a quick email to make them feel special?
Other Channels
If you use Google Ads or Meta Ads, local ads, flyers - same rules apply. Analyse, scrutinise what’s going on, you need to play sleuth.
#4 Take A Break
Sometimes we need to step back, we can’t see the wood for the trees. If you’re struggling to understand why business has taken a slump, take yourself out of the situation. Go for an afternoon out in nature, take a short break, try to switch off. You might be amazed what a fresh pair of eyes can do.
Unfortunately the world of business is a crazy rollercoaster, except you can’t see when the plunging drops will be. Sometimes it’s a case of riding it out, sometimes it’s a sign you’re ready for change. It can be difficult to know which one you need. If you want a second pair of eyes, an MOT, a full physical so to speak, my door is always open! It’s a cliche but during periods of challenge.. it’s really when we see what we’re made of, it’s times like this when you want to dig deep for those reserves inside you that tell you to keep going, this is just a chapter it’s not your life. You got this.
