MSPs in Summer: 5 Tips for Optimizing the Slow Summer Season

It’s the summer season – for most of you, anyway – which usually means that business slows down. There are fewer projects, reduced client demands, and deadlines are a bit further ahead. You might not know what to do with all this time on your hands, but you’re going to want to use it productively. After all, when businesses aren’t as busy during the summer, employee productivity drops 20%. Don’t let lazy summer days get in the way of getting quality work done. You want to make the most of this precious extra time pocket, so here are a few suggestions of what you can get done:

1. Improve marketing

Give some love to your website and marketing strategy. If your website and social media have gone stale, that’s a bad look for potential clients. On your website, update any outdated copy, write that blog post you’ve been procrastinating on, post new images, and, if your site isn’t already, make it responsive to mobile. Engage with followers on social media to make meaningful connections. Brainstorm creative ideas for marketing collateral. Be sure to check out our blog posts to learn how to implement an inbound marketing plan, use innovative marketing apps, and develop a social media strategy.

2. Learn new skills

Enrol in your own personal summer school! Learn new software, or new code, or build new sales tactics. Heck, get on Duolingo and learn a new language. Is there is something you’ve always wanted to implement, but never had the time to see if it would work? Now’s your chance. Take on a new task every so often and see what challenges arise and what you can learn from it.

3. Revisit business goals

Now that you have a breather, do a mid-year review. How is your progress so far? How did you do in comparison to last quarter? Are you on track or do you need to make any adjustments? Monitor and analyze your performance, then set new goals for next quarter. Keeping up to date on business objectives is also important for employees – they need to know how they are doing so you can either reward them, or increase their motivation.

4. Automate, document, scale

Now is a great time set yourself up for future success. Consider automating processes and review documents to position your MSP for growth. Identify any gaps in your documentation and fill these gaps in. IT Glue’s information management system can help you do this effortlessly. IT Glue standardizes documentation and SOPs to give you a greater ability to scale your business and significantly improve the consistency of your team.

5. Make a calendar

Plan staffing and tasks in a detailed calendar to stay productive with the extra time. Check off that “to do” list and set time aside for yourself as well. Planning a calendar will help you and your team work more efficiently because you’ll be able to keep track of what needs to get done.