How your business can avoid a post-Christmas lull

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January might be the start of a new year and usher in a host of good intentions, but many businesses find that the first few months of the calendar year are their slowest. Particularly if you’re involved in a sector like retail, you might find that customers (or at least their finances) are still recovering from the exuberance of Christmas and they are less willing or able to put their hands in their pockets as a result.

All companies endure slow periods, so it’s important to minimise their impact and use them constructively. Here are a few ways you can avoid a long and slow start to 2015:

Ramp up your networking

With other businesses likely to be in the same boat as your own, the early stages of 2015 offer an opportunity to build relationships and get your company more widely known.

An Open University survey of networking trends during Q1 of 2014 revealed that the internet is a driving factor in the way we interact, particularly in the early months of the year, with two thirds (66%) of those who were members of a networking group stating that they feel social media and the web have changed their outlook to building relationships. If you don’t have an active Twitter or Facebook strategy, now is the time to consider it.

Now that the holiday calendar has settled down a little, you are likely to find more business events springing up near you, so be sure to make the most of them too. While an online presence is vital, there’s still plenty to be said for physical networking.

Study patterns

January is a great time to reflect on how your company performed over the previous 12 months, and this can help you identify where you might have succeeded or gone wrong this time last year.

You could, for example, look at your working capital cycle. With Christmas often throwing a spanner in the works, companies sometimes find that it takes longer for invoices to be paid. A flexible outlook, therefore, can help your business avoid being stung by a cash shortfall.

Ease your own workload

An ideal way to start the year on the right foot is to ensure that you are using up as little time in such practices as bookkeeping and financial management as possible.

Using an outsourced provider of accounting services, especially in a financial director capacity, is one way to make sure that you are managing money as smartly as possible on a month-to-month basis, thus going some way to making 2015 the year you really gain control of your business.