What to Do in a Slow Season in Business

The year was 2012. I’d just graduated from law school and taken the Bar Exam, yet I wasn’t in a courtroom screaming “OBJECTION!”

I was unemployed and crying into my iced vanilla latte in a South Jersey Starbucks, pretending I wasn’t accumulating hundreds of dollars a month in student loan interest.

I’d graduated into a recession. My classmates were losing jobs they hadn’t even started, or taking huge pay cuts to keep the ones they had.

My then-boyfriend, now-husband, and always-employed-as-a-professor, Ryan, called.

“What are you going to do today?” he asked.

“Absolutely nothing. This sucks. I’ve applied for over 200 jobs and heard nothing,” I told him.

“Take advantage of it. You’ll get a job. When you do, you’ll wish you took advantage of the freedom you have now,” he said.

But I didn’t want his wise, sage advice. I wanted to be busy. To carry a briefcase down Market Street in Philadelphia, on my way to a glass-encased office lawyers have in movies. I wanted to pay off my loans. I wanted to actually be a practicing lawyer, not a lawyer drinking lattes at 2pm on Thursdays in a Starbucks (that would come later, by the way).

Just weeks after taking my last sip of that iced vanilla latte, I got a job at a fancy law firm, for a quarter of the pay I would have made a year earlier, living out my “dream” of looking like a child wearing her mom’s suit.

I was there about ten minutes before I realized: Ryan was right. I should have enjoyed my time.

The Question I Keep Getting Asked

The other day, a subscriber wrote and asked, “What do we do during slow seasons besides freak the F out?”

That post-law school freak out was an unintentional slow season, and I have compassion for why I couldn’t just enjoy it. Now that I’ve built a business that makes sales every day, I can slow down on purpose.

If you’re not as busy as you’d like right now, here’s what I’d focus on, because slow sales don’t have to mean a slow business. No freaking out required.

Dress Rehearsal

Pretend I just emailed you: “I’m ready to sign up. Can we start today?” Are you ready? Are your systems set up? Is your onboarding ready?

A slow season is the perfect time to test your own process before the rush hits.

Voice of Customer Research

This is like Rosetta Stone for your niche. Learn exactly how your ideal customers talk about their problem. What are they feeling? How would they describe it? How is it showing up in their lives? What is it costing them, literally and figuratively?

You’re going to use this research to fuel the next step.

Build an Intentional Content Plan

A slow season is your invite to create content that speaks directly to your ideal customer.

Start small: one Instagram or Substack post plus one newsletter per week. Point each post back to your newsletter so you grow your list. That’s your first flywheel.

Add one to two podcast or YouTube episodes a month, if you’re that far along.

Make each piece a “cornerstone” one, built around a FAQ, a common problem straight from your voice of customer research, or a key piece of your program or freebie.

Go Back to Basics

If you need cash this week, not this quarter, go back to basics:

• Try in-person marketing for your online business. It’s such an underused tactic
• Follow up with warm leads
• Ask past customers if they’re ready to renew, at a “renew now” discount for a little cash flow boost
• Offer a smaller version of your service to bank experience or a testimonial

Recharge

This next part might make you want to slap me. I get it, I was right there with you. But hear me out.

You can work on everything above and still spend the rest of your time taking care of yourself.

If you love roller coasters as much as I do, you know the fun is in that slow crawl to the top, right before you speed up and plunge back down.

If you’re in that slow climb right now, take care of yourself. Because when you’re inevitably flying downhill a few months from now, you’ll be so glad you banked the energy.

So tell me, are you going to try one of these? You’ve got this. I’m cheering you on.

Links You’ll Love

If you want an email expert to tell you what to email your list each week — Liz Wilcox is opening her annual pass for two days only, starting July 23rd, and you won’t want to miss it. Get on the waitlist here→ (affiliate link)

​I got to chat with Bjork Ostrom (half of Pinch of Yum!!) on The Food Blogger Pro Podcast all about “Why Personality Is the New Competitive Advantage” | Listen on Apple, & Spotify

I’m writing about reclaiming joy, getting off my phone more, and what it’s really like to run a 7-figure business behind-the-scenes here on Substack. Recently I wrote about what happens when you start paying attention and how to let go of having the best in an Amazon-paced world.