What You Should Do with Your Business During the Awful Month of August

August is a welcome arrival for few businessowners. In fact, unless you’re in the tourist business or you’re selling products specifically for the summer, it’s the worst time of the year.

Online businessowners have it incredibly hard because summer means that people aren’t online. They’re on vacation, so it’s to be expected that every year August will be one of your worst months.

So what should you do in August?

You can whine, bitch, and complain about it, or you can accept the reality of the situation. If you run a great business, August is a mild irritation not the end of the world.

August also gives you something that, as a businessowner, you rarely have: time.

Now, what should you do with that time?

Reflect on Your Business Over the Past Year

The financial year ends in April and the calendar year ends in December. I don’t understand why people use these months to reflect and review.

December is an awful month because everyone is so busy. And in April everyone is already selling in time for summer. It’s the last great time to sell before the downturn.

August is the month I use for reflecting and reviewing everything from my businesses to my personal finances.

It’s the one month of the year where nothing is going on.

Prepare for the Winter Season

Winter is always a terrific time for businesses. Eagle-eyed entrepreneurs have their eyes on the following year and a lot of retail businesses are entering their bumper period.

The earlier you plan for winter the better. This even goes for non-retail industries, such as freelance writing.

In freelance writing, you have to remember that businesses don’t want copy for the holiday season during the holiday season. They want it three months before.

A lot of brands are seeking out writers to produce this content in September.

Whether you’re offering services or products, the best time to start preparing for the most chaotic time of the year is now. It’s the last peace and quiet you’ll have until Christmas Day.

Completing Those Tasks You Didn’t Want to Do

There’s always something to do when you run a business. The non-essential tasks are always pushed to the back of the line.

If you’re like me, they never get done. Some tasks have lingered for more than 12 months because they weren’t urgent and had no deadline.

August is the best month around for something like this.

Use the month of August as the time to pick up the slack. Do those projects you never had a chance to do in the past.

Opening Up New Streams of Income

Attempting to open up a new stream of income is always a tricky, time-consuming business. Whether you want an existing business to monetize further, or you just want to start a side hustle, it can take months of planning and testing.

For me, the end of July is the best time to start this. Then you have the whole month of August to dedicate to it before things start to ramp up again.

For example, you may want to jump from freelance writing over into starting your own blog. Writing and queueing a bunch of posts well in advance can enable you to keep that blog going when you’re snowed under with work elsewhere.

Here’s another example:

Perhaps you have a normal day job and you run a separate business selling things like stickers and t-shirt designs. During your normal day job, summer is often quiet. People are constantly leaving the office to go on vacation.

Producing new designs now or working on your marketing can yield huge benefits later on when your boss is riding you like a donkey during the hectic months of the year.

Concoct a Plan for the Months Ahead

This is more of an addendum to the ‘reflection’ stage. You now know how your business has done for the year.

But reflection means nothing if you can’t use those lessons going forward.

One of the most effective things I do during August is I look into my marketing. Whether that’s right here on Medium or through the KDP dashboard for my novels. I examine my stats and I think about whether I’ve reached my target market and, if not, how I can reach it going forward.

I learn lessons from what I discovered through reviewing my performance for the year so far. It also helps that August falls in the middle period of the year, so it’s the perfect time for a half-time break.

August Can Be One of the Most Valuable Months of the Year

It’s easy to bemoan the natural dip caused by summer, but it’s not going to change anything. Sadly, climate change means we’re less likely to see a washout during summer.

But if you see August in a new light, you’ll merely see it as an opportunity for change, rather than an annual collapse in profits.

What is your priority in business in August?