Year-round ideas & opportunities for seasonal businesses: tried and tested!

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Oct 25

Don’t go from one season to the next just hoping for the best.

Having worked in many seasonal companies before, I know that feeling before the tourists arrive, when you’re eager to start work and make some money, then 4 months in and you’re ready for them all to go home and leave you in peace.

Seasonal businesses are a challenge to run at best.

There’s the constant worry that you need to be making enough in a short window in order to see you through the off-season.

No one wants to have to pick up a part-time job, acting like a zombie and repeating menial tasks to keep them afloat until the busy months come around again.

Especially right now, when our summer season has been hijacked by this damned COVID-chaos. We’re on the brink of the busiest time of year down here in Cornwall, where I live, but the current scenes on the beaches aren’t what we’re used to this time of year.

What happens if Coronavirus gets worse and there are no summer holidays? What will these seasonal businesses do to see them through to next spring?

If International travel is in lock-down, what are the winter businesses going to do when they have no customers to support them?

The aim is to maximise engagement all year round.

Give people some kind of content to consume when they’re only skiing once a year, the weather is crap or they live too far away from the sea to don 6 millimetres of neoprene and brave the winter waves.

Here are some ideas + opportunities you should be utilising to make your seasonal business more sustainable in supporting you and your passion.

1. Choose your content carefully & expand your following.

Start a blog.

I can see you rolling your eyes.

That might be because when you think about blogging, you think about endless hours at the computer, writing stuff you have no idea if anyone will be interested in, then watching tumbleweed breeze pasts once you’ve hit ‘publish’.

Go back to who your ideal client is and write a list of things they’d find value in that you could write about.

By doing your keyword research as well as writing for your ideal client, you’re killing two birds with one stone (or as the main guy in Trailer Park Boys says, ‘getting two birds stoned at once’): you’re not only holding the attention of your ideal client, but you’re also expanding your reach and sphere of influence online, by using SEO to grab the attention of completely new potential customers.

2. Get your audience on top form ahead of the season.

There is a fitness element to most outdoor activities. I know from experience that going on a week’s ski trip with no preparation is pretty excruciating for the old legs.

By helping people with their flexibility, strength, mobility and endurance, they are ultimately going to get so much more out of the on-season. And that is going to enhance their experience with you when you’re back up and running, achieving or progressing at a rate far superior to that if they weren’t in shape.

Preparing your audience doesn’t have to be just about physical fitness.

Try teaching your audience a new skill, give them more info about the location you’ve chosen for your activity and why, weather systems, etiquette on the mountain/in the sea, or swot up on the legacy of your activity.

3. “Borrow” the audience of someone who is more year-round.

Are there any opportunities for your small, seasonal business to collaborate with another company that shares the same values as you? If you share the same values as a brand, the likelihood is that you’re going to have a lot of followers or past clients that have a lot in common too.

Try reaching out to other successful brands that might offer something that could be of value to your own audience during your off-season. This could be something adventure/fitness related that they can do closer to home, like someone running cold water swimming tips, a climbing centre, health food shop or a dry slope ski centre.

You could find a brand offering equipment that your clients might use (or vice versa, if you sell equipment try partnering with a company that uses your equipment).

You’ll want to search for opportunities to create affiliate links with other brands where you can offer something to them in return, to expand your audience. Mutually beneficial collaborations can have financial implications too, like having referral rates if you can send a certain number of your clients to the other company.

By running competitions where both parties contribute to a special offer, you are drawing in more of an attentive following. It’s also great for your SEO if you have another respected, credible websites linking over to your own website.

4. Set challenges to build credibility.

If you’ve already had even a few customers before, the likelihood is they’ll be missing their favourite activity or action sport as much as you are. What are they doing to get their fix in the off-season?

Try getting your followers and past clients to use a particular #hashtag on social media or tagging your business account in a photo or video of them trying to stave off their activity-drought. By sharing the content that your followers post, you are showing you listen to your client base, making them feel valued and appreciated.

(Now don’t pretend you don’t get a cute little feeling inside when anyone tags you on an Instagram story or in a friend’s post showing their appreciation of you and what you do.)

Recreate the feelings they get when they’re engaging in THE activity that fires them up, reminisce about all the things you do after a surf/apres-ski/post-sweat.

Surf companies could try to get people to do as many pop-ups in a minute in their living room. Snowsports companies could share photos of other people trying to recreate that feeling of being in the white room. Travel companies could get people to share their recipes recreating their favourite meals from abroad. Hiking companies could challenge their followers to find the weirdest named places they’ve ever been to.

Could you encourage your followers to rep your merchandise on the other side of the world?

5. Extend your season by creating an alternative.

Especially for seasonal businesses who are struggling with finances, it might be worth seeing how you can pivot on your main offering in order to shorten your off-season. If you’re minimising the amount of time where you have no income at all, there’s less pressure in the main part of the season to keep turning over double what you’d need to if you were open all year round.

Create a product or programme people can use with you remotely. Take some ideas or your own suggestions from point #2 to work out how you could monetise something that people could do from the comfort of their own homes that will develop and deepen their experience with you when they come back next year.

Or if you’re in an environment where it’s still possible to operate (but the conditions aren’t as reliable in the main season), create a product or service that takes advantage of it being quieter.

Can you have smaller, more intimate groups, or cheaper private sessions?

Can you offer warmer/adapted equipment to suit the changes between the seasons?

Can you create something that appeals to the more pro or experienced people who have outgrown lessons, but would appreciate a more advanced version of what they’ve now outgrown?

Try involving the locals to extend your trading year. It could be a special event or day-retreat for the people who have to put up with those pesky tourists for half the year.

The people who hibernate or travel away from home when it’s super busy might well not have made the most of their location and are yet to engage with you. Even though it’s right on their doorstep, the locals might find the main season is too busy, but when it’s quieter you’re closed.

6. Reevaluate your offerings + plan for the next year.

This is the perfect time to take stock and reevaluate. I know the only thing you want to do is jump on a plane, put your feet up and order a margarita, after what has felt like the busiest season yet.

But when seasonal businesses are coming up with fresh ideas, with their fingers always on the pulse, that’s when the pre-seasons worries ease and you find yourself in a stronger position, year after year.

What’s gone well this season?

What’s not been popular?

Have there been things people are always asking for that you could add to your repertoire of services or products?

Is there one particular thing you offer which you could pivot to better suit your ideal client?

Are there areas you can tighten up to give yourself less work or make something more efficient?

This is the time to now plan out new launches and how you’re going to create some hype leading up to it. If you’re planning on special offers, can you get people excited for next season already with early-bird bookings?

You’ve now got the chance to spy on what your competitors are doing and make sure you’re always one step ahead. You’ve got a bit more space to assess what’s going on with your website, check out your analytics and implement more effective copy, better navigation, a fresh design or put some energy into your SEO.

Whether you can diversify and stay open in what was once your off-season, or keep hold of your audience’s attention even when you’re not officially open, the key to a seasonal yet sustainable business stems from knowing your ideal client.

Your ideal client represents a larger target market that you specifically set out to attract + the segment of your audience that will find the most value in what you have to offer.

By building a three-dimensional character, with wants, needs, hobbies, a social media account, aspirations and fears, you can start to understand what they would engage with, and what would repel them (not just related to the main product/service you offer).

Tap into their characteristics and values to retain their interest even when you aren’t actually operating as a company. There’s only so many times you can brag about your winter trip to warm waves and post pictures of piña coladas at sunset…