We just relocated my life and business from Oklahoma to Arkansas. Sure, it is a relatively short distance (a mere 5 hours), but having to inventory, pack, move, unpack, and reorganize my entire business while still shipping out orders within a reasonable amount of time gave me some food for thought. We had visualization on what’s been selling and what products we needed to find a way to either promote better.
The summer is an excellent time to think through your business plan & to think forward for holiday product planning, new product development, and trying to reach a larger audience.
Here are some things we have been thinking about for Gingiber.
1. Prototyping
We spent the good portion of Jan-May preparing for the National Stationary Show.
Launching a new line is difficult, but I have to be able to do that while still planning other expansions for the Gingiber brand. Now that the card line is off and running, We are using the summer to dream about where else we can take the brand. We are prototyping new ideas, using our best sellers as inspiration for related lines, and are trying to dream bigger.
*If summer is a slow season for you, use the time to experiment with new but related products.*
2. Advertising
We have always targeted the same audience. Generally we sell to early 20’s to mid 30’s women who are very active on social media, tend to have children, etc.
Now that we are prototyping new products, we using our down time to study sales trends, identify where our future ideal customers would shop, and how we could reach them. We have taken informal surveys of a different sales market, and are using our data to craft an elegant marketing campaign for Q3 & Q4.
*Have you tried to reach a different audience for sales? Think about how you could grow your business if you reached a larger audience!*
These are just 2 focuses for Gingiber this summer.
What are you doing over the next few months to set yourself up for success? Is your holiday line already planned and photographed? Are you taking a “creative retreat” to refresh yourself before the busyness of a new school year?
Try to find the best use of your time and run with it!
