What to do when everyone else is "leaning out"

Does your business go through its inevitable Summer slowdown?

For a lot of service providers, this can be especially true! The "school's out" bell rings one last time somewhere around Memorial Day, and clients are no longer in a hurry to launch their websites, get their graphics looking just so, and work on their businesses.

Whether B2B or B2C, you may find that people prioritize things like vacation, giving their kiddos adventures galore, spending time with family, sunshine, beach days, and only taking care of the absolutely essential tasks required to keep work/business running during the Summer.

And perhaps a slowdown is self-imposed!! You might implement less working hours, take on less projects, meet with less clients, and free YOURSELF up as a business owner to have more time to enjoy.

This was a phenomena long before 2020, but after experiencing two adventure-LESS Summers, people are more prone than ever to checking out as they carpe diem the sunshine-filled days!

How do YOU navigate as a business owner?

What can you focus on during a slow Summer? Here are FIVE ideas of what to focus on WITHOUT sacrificing your OWN FUN and leisure time this season!

When everyone else is leaning OUT, LEAN IN.

While you might feel spread too thin, trying to run in a million different directions, racing far and wide during these months... what if you focus the time you spend in your business to go DEEPER vs. WIDER. Let that be the area in which you LEAN IN when everyone else is leaning out. How do you do this? Focus on what matters most to you to accomplish, share, do, work with, and work on this Summer in your business and go all-in on that.

1. Be Intentional With Your Time

Spend your time working wisely so you can be more present throughout your life. Whether working or playing, being intentional with your time will help you to focus on where you are when you're there. This may mean you agree to working with fewer clients, don't say yes to alllll those networking calls, attend fewer events, unsubscribe from things, scroll social media less, and give in to fewer distractions overall. Make your time more impactful by being clear about what you're spending it on.

2. Hone in and Refine

Rather than painting broad strokes or throwing heaps of spaghetti at the wall (especially with your content/marketing), what if you go DEEPER and hone in even more on the most important themes and pillars of your business? For example, I'm using the Summer months to talk about things that are perhaps a little scarier to put out there. I'm focusing less on the "how-to's" and a little more on the exchange of deeper ideas and experiences. People's attention spans may be shorter, so now is the time to go deeper and refine to speak clearly and intentionally to those still listening vs. trying to cast a wide net and grab those who aren't.

Sidebar: this is almost ALWAYS a good M.O. but now even more so!

3. Reconnect and BUILD ON Relationships

Just like #2, reconnecting is all about deepening relationships you've already started investing in! I don't want you to NOT make any new friends or connections, but what if instead of trying to meet tons of NEW people, you reconnected with that one fabulous collaborator you made magic with but haven't worked with since? What if you formed a mini-mastermind of people you want to share ideas and resources with? Or dedicated time to build on and nurture a relationship you'd like to foster?

• Collaborators
• Clients
• Colleagues
• Connections
• Even friends and family fit the bill!

Build on the foundations you've already laid.

4. Sharing What You Haven't Dared to Yet...

Where have you been holding yourself back and too scared to speak up and share? What haven't you said and expressed? What are you keeping locked instead out of fear? What have you been hesitant to just GO for!?

Perhaps you can turn down the fear because, ya' know... hypothetically less people are watching/listening? Perhaps there's a way to dip a toe in and see how it feels... a baby step? Or perhaps, you can just harness the vibe of the Summer and carpe diem - dive in!? I hereby personally double-dog dare you to try it :)

5. Think Outside the Trends and Tactics

Maybe you're lucky enough to disconnect from your business completely. Maybe you're considering auto-pilot tactics or riding the wave of trends all Summer long to avoid sharing anything real.

For many of us, we're responsible for keeping the lights on and bills paid even during the Summer months and need to continue to earn a living. We have to keep making progress and momentum in our small businesses during what can be a very frustrating and slow time. TRY to embrace the slowdown as an opportunity to reflect, reconnect, and deepen, and ENJOY a pace that supports you.

But please don't succumb to leaning on trends, tactics, and shiny objects to get you through the Summer. Lots of people try. I can spot these cop-outs for "showing up" miles away and don't recommend you employ them in your business. People want real, genuine connections no matter the time of year.

Even if your people appear to be taking a pause right now, they STILL want real, genuine, and honest when they return. Keep showing up consistently, intentionally, authentically, and YOU.

If you can keep focusing on what matters most, business won't just bounce back to normal at the end of the Summer, it'll come back even MORE abundantly than before!