This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
How can you make a slow month more productive? The off season can be a frustrating time for anybody running a seasonal business. We got lots of folks out there doing all kinds of different businesses and side hustles. And it can be tempting to view the quiet months as downtime, which by the way, nothing wrong with downtime, but it can also be a great opportunity to prepare for future growth. So if you have a seasonal business or otherwise experienced fast months, slow months, busy months, quiet months, how can you kind of balance that and use some of those quiet months to make them productive for future months?
We're gonna hear today from a freelance photographer. She specializes in weddings and family portraits. And so that is kind of a seasonal business, or at least there are times in which her business is much busier and more frequent. So she's wondering how to use the slow months of January and February more effectively. Let's take a look.
Let's look at some practical strategies and hopefully this will be helpful for Katie and others out there. By the way, welcome to "Side Hustle School." My name's Chris Guillebeau. Detailed question and my answer coming right up. [Music]
Hi, this is Katie. I'm a freelance photographer specializing in weddings and family portraits.
It's been a dream to work for myself, but the off season, especially January and February always feels like a dead zone. I don't wanna waste that time, but I also don't know the best way to use it productively. Should I focus on marketing, new skills, or, you know, something else? I'd love some tips for making the most of these quiet months, so I'm better prepared for the busy season. [Music]
All right, a couple of notes here, Katie.
First of all, for this kind of business, the off season is actually one of the best times to work on it, to work on your business instead of just in it, which is a concept that we talk about from time to time. When you're working in your business, you are providing services, you are sending invoices, you are doing all of the normal kind of businessy things. When you're working on your business, you're focusing on growth. You're focusing on what is a new service I can add, a new product, a new way to serve other customers. What are systems I can build into my business that will save me time or make more money for me in the future or otherwise make my life better?
So typically that's the kind of thing you want to be thinking about during the slow months. You could also learn new skills that could be part of expanding your services eventually, or just doing your own kind of professional development. And I mentioned systems, spending some time systemizing and streamlining your business can really help you for when times get busier again. So you might want to audit some workflows. You might want to create email templates.
Is there any kind of organization you can do for your finances and bookkeeping? Anything you can do on a calendar end of things? What kind of revenue goals can you set? I mean, that's the kind of thing that I think is really helpful to do during slower months. Now, last but not least, I do want to mention though, that it's also okay to not work on your business.
It's also okay as a side hustler to say there are busy times and less busy times. And the reason I have my side hustle hopefully is to make my life better, right? So I don't always have to be working. Like most of our listeners have day jobs. They have families or if they don't have a day job or a family or both, they have significant responsibilities.
They have things that they are doing a lot. And so I want to encourage you. You don't always have to fill like every hour of your day with something productive, right? The business should ultimately be working for you or it should be working to serve your goals as opposed to the other way around. So just leave you with that reminder today.
But I know it's an important question for lots of folks. If you have a question of your own, you know where to go, sidehustleschool.com/questions. We're excited to feature them throughout the year along with updates from other listeners as they launch and grow their projects. Thank you for being out there. Much more is on the way.
My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is "Side Hustle School." [Music]
- From the Onward Project.
