Every business has it, the dreaded slow month where the phones barley ring and everyone in the office goes on vacation. Well if you are still stuck at your desk here are a few ideas to turn your slow period into a productive period. 

When it is nice and slow is always a good idea to straighten up the office. Clean off your desk of all the piles of paper, file what is important and recycle the rest. Why should I clean my desk you say well here are some statistics from John Campanelli on the matter:

·       85%of workers believe that a clean desk says that “someone is on top of things.”

·       40%of workers admit to “frequently” losing paperwork because of their messy desks.

·       There are almost 21,000 bacteria per square inch on a average worker’s desk.

·       There are more than 25,000 bacteria per square inch on a average worker’s phone.

·       Compare that to 49 – the number of bacteria per square inch on the typical office toilet seat. 

Clean off your computer desktop. Go through all of your emails and file the important emails and delete the rest. Go through your office supply closet clean it up so you know what you have and what you need to buy the next time you go to the store. 

Pick up that brand awareness book or the social media expert book and read. Read articles and industry reports. If you are like me you make a pile of to-read material. I would like to say I get to it all the time, but I don’t. During a slow period I find when I read these documents I get inspired to improve my business. 

Need some inspiration check out the 800 CEO read list of the Business Book Bestseller List for 2012.

After you get inspired by that awesome Time Management Book review your business and see where you can implement your new knowledge. Look for everyday tasks that could be made easier. Try to stream line processes and reduce nonsense paper pushing. The goal here is to try and make your business as efficient as possible while still covering all of your bases. 

During this review process it is a good idea to do some research. Take the time to research your new idea and see how it would benefit your business. Make sure you talk with your staff about procedures before you edit them to make sure it would truly improve their work flow. 

If you think you don’t need to review your business because it is already perfect, check out this blog from Under30CEO. 

Now that you have decided to improve your business, put your ideas into action. If you have wanted to start a welcome campaign for all your new customers now would be a great time to do it. Follow through with your implementation and test out your results while it is slow. Then during a busier period you will not be trying to learn a new thing, making it even harder to serve your customers. 

Need some inspiration check this Brit out for some advice. 

Right now if you are like, uh I have already done all of this stuff. Then you should start planning ahead for your busy period. Start writing blogs for the next 3 months. Use social dashboards like Hootsuit to plan out your social media posts and tweets for the next month. Write free reports to give to your customers. Refresh old letters and emails that you send to your customers. 

If you have done all of this and can’t think of anything else to do then your slow period can only end with you taking action. Hit the cement and go get yourself some more customers and when they flock to your business you will be organized and prepared to serve them.