Running a Seasonal Business

Kathleen Shannon 0:02
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Emily Thompson 0:29
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Kathleen Shannon 1:13
All right, what are we talking about in today's minisode?

Caitlin Brehm 1:16
Today we have a question from Paloma. She is wondering about running a strictly seasonal business. She says I'm a mom and I have this desire to create a product or a little business of my own. I honestly don't have a lot of time like every mom. But I would like to create something that can give me a good side income. But at the same time, I can take time to prep and create so that when it is time to sell it, it can be a great product. For example, if the product is for Christmas, I can plan prep and create from January to June, start my marketing around summer and have everything ready for September. Any thoughts are greatly appreciated.

Emily Thompson 1:55
I mean, it's still a year round business.

Kathleen Shannon 1:57
I know it's not to say this doesn't sound very seasonal, it sounds like you're working on it all year long,

Emily Thompson 2:04
right. But it still is awesome. And that's how you should do it, I think you can definitely build businesses that where the selling portion only happens seasonally. I think most businesses kind of fall in that anyway, it's just a little more spread out with like these spikes, here and there. But um, but I have no problem with someone as if it's it all comes down to me and judging it, I have no problem with with a business that is hugely seasonal, and that you have these specific seasons for creating and marketing and selling, especially if it's just going to be a side income, or something that you just want to do that you just want to do. seasonally. I know a lot of entrepreneurs get overwhelmed, or at least creative ones, the ones that don't want to run companies but just want to have creative side hustles can get overwhelmed with the idea of this like year long pushing, marketing, creating selling sort of sort of scenario that goes down with traditional businesses. But if you can build something where, where you're only focusing on it a couple of months every year, it is important to understand that you can really maximize that revenue by marketing it all year where you're consistently having some sort of buzz or output so that so that people are having that consistent brand recognition. But it is I think is a beautiful thing to build a very small micro business that could grow into something bigger or not, that really only functions on a purely seasonal basis.

Kathleen Shannon 3:32
All right, I'm gonna play devil's advocate here a little bit because as a mom, myself, palomas email made me feel exhausted. And the last thing I want to be doing during the holiday is selling something so I think that she had a really great plan as far as making the thing and marketing it so that it's done from January to September. Um however again, that sounds like a full time job. So here's a solution I'm going to present to somebody who just wants a smaller micro business or a smaller side hustle and they don't really have a lot of time to spend on it. It's just it just make one thing like just make one thing and sell that have I talked about Kylie's Lip Kits here on beat boss yet.

Emily Thompson 4:17
Okay, free to repeat.

Kathleen Shannon 4:18
So one of the things I like about Kylie Jenner, which is of Kardashian clan, is that whenever she launched her makeup line, she started with just three lip kits. So three lipsticks, that's it and now it's turned into a huge empire that she started really small and that really inspires me whenever I see anybody not just Kylie Jenner, but anybody doing one thing and doing it well. And so and becoming like known for that thing. Again, there might be pressure there around what is the thing, but I would say Paloma, think about the one thing that you're thinking about selling at Christmas time and just narrowing it down to one this year at least. And then next year, maybe you do two things. After that you do three things, I would keep marketing really super minimal. And Emily, something that you said made me think about this where maybe in the summertime or even spring, I don't know what the seasonal sales models are like, but you're marketing to other businesses that might carry your stuff, where it might not make sense to be creating buzz online, you could be creating buzz within the marketplace, I'm sure that there's trade shows that are sharing holiday things in the summertime or even earlier. So I would say really getting in on that circuit and seeing what it's like. And then the last thing I want to say is just get a mentor, find somebody who is also selling things seasonally, and really put yourself under their wing and ask them what works and what doesn't work and what challenges they face and what what's really great about selling seasonally. So that would be another thing, because I don't personally have experience with this. And I'm sure that there are a lot of bosses who have a lot of experience with it, who have a lot of advice to share.

Emily Thompson 6:03
For sure, I think specifically about people who'd run be like holiday market gamut. So they're really just selling during those holiday markets. So it may be as easy as going to the kinds of markets that you want to be at and picking the brains of some people who are there to see how it is they do it because it is possible. You can absolutely do it if you want that sort of minimum commitment of just selling seasonally. And once you dive into it, you can see how far you want to take it.

Kathleen Shannon 6:34
So all this to say you should totally do it start small and find some mentors. Kaitlyn was there something else that you wanted to add to that?

Caitlin Brehm 6:43
Yeah, I was just gonna say that if you are planning a business like this that is seasonally where all of your income or the bulk of your income is just coming from one month or a few months to make sure that you're being very mindful of that payoff, since you won't see it immediately following your work that you aren't putting so much work into the marketing and production that you don't get compensated come your payment season, especially if you're not necessarily relying on it as I mean it sounds like pulwama this is more of kind of like a fun side income sort of thing. But you want to make sure you're not taking on so much that you end up giving yourself a full time job that you're not getting compensated for.

Emily Thompson 7:26
For sure agree with that. 100%

Kathleen Shannon 7:29
Yeah, I'm so glad that you mentioned the money thing because I was thinking about that earlier too. And if you if your income does rely on it then I would maybe create like for seasonal things like around different holidays not just Christmas or you know maybe think about Halloween or New Year's or all the holidays Valentine's you're gonna need that money honey.

Kathleen Shannon 7:56
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Emily Thompson 8:10
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