SEASONAL SENSATION

Your first business? Get it right from the start with a seasonal super enterprise. By Carla Goodman

Operating a seasonal business-whether a patio furniture store, winter ski shop or holiday gift company-can be a great way to introduce yourself to the many demands and rewards of small business ownership.

Whether your peak selling season is three weeks or three months long, you’ll need to approach your enterprise with careful planning. You’ll begin with a projected budget for your expenses, figured on a monthly basis, so you can anticipate large expenditures and arrange for credit terms with suppliers or apply for a short-term loan at the bank or with a willing relative or friend.

You’ll want to plan your marketing campaign months in advance of your selling season and line up temporary workers to help out during your peak selling season. In many respects, you’ll need to focus and work on your seasonal business many months of the year for it to be successful and financially rewarding. Learn from the experiences of these entrepreneurs who run successful seasonal enterprises:
Plan Months in Advance.

Putting out a line of holiday cards is a year-round business for Ove and Nancy Nordenhok, owners of Nordenhok Design (www.nordesign.com) in Dana Point, CA. Starting in February, the couple creates new card designs for their stand-up, fold-out Christmas cards, which have been seen in Neiman Marcus and other upscale stores as well as retail catalogs like Gumps.

New sketches for their Santas, angels, reindeers and other holiday figures are needed then in order to meet deadlines for the first holiday catalogs mailed by retailers to their customers each summer. This means the Nordenhoks must get an early start on complete the four-color wholesale catalog they produce to market their cards to their retail clients.

“We start putting money out in March and, if we’re lucky, start seeing money in September,” says Nancy, noting that the couple receives income from Ove’s corporate design clients year-round.

Running a business with a short selling season still holds great opportunity, as long as you find the right market for your product. “Once you find a niche market, work it,” advises Nancy, who notes that the couple’s smaller line of all-occasion, nonseasonal greeting cards “has not been as strong” as their popular holiday line.

Rather than divert revenues to building up this secondary line, the Nordenhoks remain focused on their holiday cards. “Diversification sometimes works, but it can be risky,” she says. “You might make greater gains by finding more of a marketplace within your niche.”

When one season ends at Camp Echo Lake in Warrensburg, NY (www.campecholake.com), brothers George and Tony Stein and mother, Amy Stein, are busy planning the next. They start by evaluating the past eight weeks of summer camp. Head personnel submit written reports and recommend program improvements and staff to be rehired.

The Steins look at the overall performance of each camp program and review how many kids played which sports, how often and what their experiences were. “We look at food service and transportation, take an inventory of supplies and see what equipment needs to be renovated or replaced,” says Tony Stein. Campers fill out questionnaires, staffers are surveyed through the mail and, in October, random telephone interviews are conducted with parents.

With this information in hand, the Steins meet with key staff members in early March for a weekend work session to review input and develop themes for improvement in the upcoming season. “By the time camp opens in late June, the staff knows our expectations, who the campers are and what they want to do this summer,” Tony says. “We’ve done our homework and have set the stage for a successful season.”

Off-season season sales are a great way to keep your name before your customers, reduce your inventory and generate extra income. Noel Charonet, owner of Sierra Nordic in Soda Springs, CA, holds an annual late-summer sale of cross-country skis and equipment. The shop also sends customers a newsletter about improvements in ski equipment and what to expect next season.

At Camp Echo Lake, the Steins stay in touch with campers, parents and staff with a quarterly newsletter and their web site. They host winter alumni gatherings for campers in nearby states.

Keep Cash Flowing.

Every seasonal business faces the perennial challenges of maintaining a steady cash flow throughout the year. Money is needed to pay ongoing expenses such as salaries, utilities, insurance and taxes. One way the Steins generate income while Camp Echo Lake is closed is through prepayment of camp tuition. Parents make a deposit with their October reservation and pay the balance in three equal installments by May.

You also can augment a seasonal business’s cash flow by introducing a sideline product during your off-season. At Pumpkin Masters, Inc., in Denver, CO, the company’s main focus is high-quality pumpkin-carving kits, which generate about $10 million in sales annually.

Since most of the company’s revenues are received during the fourth quarter of the calendar year, the company introduced watermelon-carving kits to generate summer sales.

The best time to repair equipment, update your web site, or write new ads for temporary help for next season is, when you’re not in your peak selling period.

“Do your thinking and planning when you’re not behind the eight ball,” advises Tony Stein. “Once your busy season begins, the day-to-day demands of running your business will take precedence.”

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