Prepping Your Business for Summer

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You may not own a seasonal business like a winter lodge or even an ice cream parlor, but as seasons change, certain aspects of your business should change as well.  As the weather changes, we adjust our clothing accordingly, trading in our winter coats, scarves and gloves for spring sweaters and eventually trading them in for flip flops and bathing suits.  Likewise, making minor adjustments to the way you do business each season could help your business.

Test the Waters

With the summer come various opportunities for small business owners to step out of their elements and test out new waters.  Merchants can test new products and/or customers at flea markets, carnivals and fairs.  Testing the waters at events such as flea markets can give your business new insight into the market, your regional competition, and local consumers’ evolving desires, wrote Christine Lagorio, in her article, “How to Use Your Local Flea Market as a Business Incubator.”

Offer Internships

In the summertime, students are on break and eager to fill up their resumes with work experience, so the summer is the perfect time to offer an internship program.  “An intern is someone who works in a temporary position with an emphasis on on-the-job training rather than merely employment,” (Wikipedia).  These internships can be either paid or unpaid; however, if you are offering unpaid internships, it is important that certain rules are followed.  Unpaid interns should meet the following criteria, set forth by the Labor Department:

• The intern shouldn’t replace regular paid workers
• The work should be similar to training the intern receives at school
• The employer should derive “no immediate advantage from the activities of the trainees
• On occasion the employer’s operations may actually be impeded

Market for the Summer

Summer presents opportunities to advertise and market in ways that are not as convenient, or even possible throughout the rest of the year.  Upstartagent.com offers some creative summer marketing ideas for small business owners.