How to Earn Profit in Off Season

Introduction

• Do you run a seasonal business?
• Are you unable to run your seasonal business during off season?
• Do you know how to make profit in off season?

Ice cream, cold/hot drinks, woolen cloths, summer clothes, agro products, tourism, 
firecrackers, and colors are among those businesses, which are either fully seasonal 
or semi-seasonal.

Such products or services are sold only during one particular period or season, while 
the rest of the time, sales of these products drop so much that merchants find it 
difficult to cover even their operational cost.

If you are also running a seasonal business, then let’s find out the answer to how 
to make profit in off season through following ways:

Tip #1: Go Where the Season is

It is the first tip of how to make profit in off season. It means think geographically. Select
 those places for your business where the demand for that product is, or where 
you can sell more products.

Example: A merchant running a business of woolen cloths will find difficult to sell his 
products during the summer season. He can “explore hilly places” to sell his products
 where there are “winters for an extended period”. 

Tip #2:Build a Referral and a Loyalty Program

There are some businesses that run during some specific period or season and remain saturated
 during the rest of the time such as Aviation, Hospitality, and Tourism, etc.

During the summer season, hotels in hill stations get maximum customers, while their business 
remains saturated during other seasons.

To know how to make profit in off-season, you should:

✅  Build loyalty with your past & existing customers

✅  Give them attractive offers and deals through various mediums

✅  Try to get the reference of new customers from existing customers

Tip #3: Contract Manufacturing/Channel Partner

Instead of selling your products with a small brand name and limited reach or customer base, 
you can make a deal with big brands to sell your products even during off-season through a heavy 
dose of branding.

It is one of the tips on how to make profit in offseason.

✅  Contact with Big brands to sell your products with their brand name.

✅  Build business partners in locations where you don’t have to reach.

Tip #4: Serve Other Industries

Even during off-season you can explore the opportunity to sell your products to different industries 
by creating market demand through marketing and sales strategies. 

Don’t depend only on one Sector or Season to sell your products.

The below example will tell you how to bring customers in offseason of your business. 

Example: A cracker manufacturer, apart from Diwali season, can sell crackers to event organizers, 
wedding planners, national festivals and other celebrations. 

Tip #5: Stay on the Top of your Customer’s Mind

Through various marketing and branding strategies, you can influence customer’s minds during the
 off-season to increase sales.

Make optimum use of “guerrilla marketing” to stay on top of customer’s mind via Social Media,
 Print Media, TV/Radio Ads, and Hoarding/Billboards.

Tip #6: Extend Your Season

Seasonal businesses can also be extended by giving off season promotions and schemes
 to attract consumers before and after the season.

If your business Season is Diwali (Business Period - 1 week)	If your business Season is Winters (Woolen clothes) (Business Period - 4 Months)
You can extend your period by giving off season promotions like Pre-Diwali offers.	Add 2 months pre-winter season.
You can extend your period post-Diwali offers.	Add 2 months post-winter season.
Extend your season for 2-3 months before and after Diwali.	Bring some schemes in pre and post-season  months to attract customers

By extending your business season you can increase the size of your business even during offseason.

Tip #7: Add Complimentary Freebies Product or Service

Instead of giving discounts during off-season, you can give your customers off-season promotions 
schemes like “small freebies along with the main product” to increase your sales.

You can give exciting offers to your customers like free home delivery, gift & voucher, and extended
 warranty, etc. These are some of the offseason promotions techniques. 

Tip #8: Focus on What You can’t do During the Season Time

During business season, since you remain too busy with customers and vendors in selling and buying 
products that you hardly get time to focus on other activities which can increase your sales and stop 
leakages.

However, you can perform such activities during off season to increase your sales in the upcoming
 season.

To know how to make profit in off season, you can focus on below given things:

✅  Build a low-cost infrastructure

✅  Reduce purchasing cost

✅  Create web/digital infrastructure

✅  Build a digital marketing team  

✅  Hire and train better manpower

Tip #9: Build a New Product Line Specifically for Off-Season

You can also bring required changes in your product as per customer’s demand to sell it during the 
off-season to keep your recurring revenue from fluctuating.

Example: A manufacturer of blazer can design a light waistcoat which can be sold even in the 
summer season.

Tip #10: Money Saved is also Money Earned

When there is a slowdown in your sales during off-season, you can work on implementing new 
ideas to reduce your operational cost by a leakage management system.

It is another tip to how to make profit in offseason.

You can reduce your operational cost during off-season by changing:

✅  Supply chain

✅  Hiring contractual staff

✅  Changing vendor

“Business can be seasonal but commitment should not be seasonal”