How to Beat the Summer Small Business Lull

Don’t let old myths hold you back when there’s business to be captured.

Business slows down in the summer. If you are a small business owner, or a professional whose income relies on selling goods or services, chances are that you dread the coming of summer when so many of your customers or prospects are more difficult than ever to catch live for a pitch.

I was told early on in my recruiting career that June and July are terrible months in the industry. And that I should try to close as much business as possible before Memorial Day because after that all my prospects would be off on vacation. I was smart enough to understand that this was being told to me, not as a truth, but as a belief that got started by someone somewhere.

It is implausible that all my prospects are all gone at the same time.

A belief is simply a thought that we think over and over again until we relate to it as a truth when, in fact, it is not. Then, that belief creates our reality.

I decided not to buy into this belief, telling myself that, while many people indeed do go on vacation in the summer, it is implausible that all my prospects are all gone at the same time.

Historically, in my career as a professional, as well as an entrepreneur, I have beaten the odds of the summer lull by producing record-breaking revenue during June and July. While many of my peers and competitors sit back being lazy or allowing their resignation to take over, I pump up my sales efforts and eat their lunch.

Small business owners have challenges

Entrepreneurs have a tough go as it is. So, when limiting beliefs creep up into our field of awareness, look out.

Limiting beliefs are not only stifling, but they can even be dangerous. By limiting beliefs, I am referring here to beliefs that do not serve us. I would venture to say that the average person is plagued with more limiting beliefs than empowering beliefs. Our belief systems create our reality. Always.

That is why it is imperative to maintain a belief system that is powerful and constructive.

We are born with the knowing that we have an unlimited capacity to express ourselves with joy and to manifest all the goodness that life has to offer.

Unfortunately, we are quickly conditioned into believing that life is hard, that we are incapable of having everything our hearts desire. We are given limiting belief systems by our well-meaning parents, teachers, society, government, religion etc. And even by our own self-imposed limited thinking.

I’m not 100% sure why this happens, but it does.

A cool example

A cool example is that we are born with the innate ability to swim.

However, our parents, in their fear that we might drown, pass that belief to us. As a result, most of us have to re-learn how to swim when we are children. Some people never regain their ability to swim and ultimately face the risk of drowning. My own children never forgot how to swim because I fearlessly threw them into the ocean when they were infants.

They were certified SCUBA divers by the time they were 12 and 10.

If you are serious about succeeding in your business, you must not buy into belief systems that hold you back.

Here are 5 easy steps to releasing limiting beliefs and freeing your mind so that you can soar as the successful and joyful human being you are meant to be:

1.   Know where you want to end up.

Create a purpose for the task at hand and keep your eyes on the goals, milestones and results. Commit to not letting anything get in the way of those goals. Utilize all resources and realize that anything is possible when you put your mind to it.

Believe in yourself!

Next- Steps 2-5