Lazy, Hazy Days Of Summer

Lazy, Hazy Days Of Summer
by Bob Osgoodby

Warm-weather months are a fun and busy time. It's time to fire up the barbie, plant your flowers, and maybe take a trip to the beach. The cold weather is gone and the lazy, hazy days of summer are upon us. It just seems that so many things have been added to our plate, we have little time for anything else.

But wait! Does that include the business you have worked so hard on during the winter? Unfortunately for some it does. It's like the race car driver, who speeds around the track and gets a lead of his competition, but then decides to coast the last few laps. Guess what - he is going to be passed.

A lot of people virtually take the summer off from their online business, and this is an opportunity for you. While they are taking 2 steps back, you can leapfrog over them and get the customers they might have gotten.

This is not a new phenomenon, and is as old as the web itself. Online business typically slows down during the summer months. But who is slowing down? It is usually those who work the web part-time in the evening. Now when it gets dark early, this is easy. But when the days are longer, it seems there just isn't enough time to do everything else, and also take care of business.

If you are serious about developing your online business, you must have the discipline it takes to continue. It's awfully easy to think you'll get it done tomorrow, but unfortunately, your customers will not wait for you to get motivated.

Rose Hay sums it up beautifully. She says "Remember, an Opportunity Doesn't Go Away, It Just Goes To Someone Else." How true - here is someone who has her act together, and will capitalize on the inaction of others.

Now is the time to renew your marketing efforts. Can you combine those lazy, hazy days with a renewed effort? If you can, the lost opportunities of others might just come your way.

Might you slow down a bit? Sure, if you do it right, and remember your short term and long term goals. Maybe you should investigate advertising in publications you hadn't tried in the past. You should consider running multiple ads with different copy in the ones you are already using. How about using an auto-responder in those ads. This will ensure you get back to an inquiry right away, and you can do the follow-up at your leisure.

Why not put a form on your website(s) to handle inquiries? Through the use of checkboxes, you can immediately categorize your potential customers requests. By using a mail package such as Eudora, you can then automatically respond with a "canned" response that is tailored to their request.

Will some of your prospects also be running at a slower speed? Of course, and this is why you must redouble your efforts. Don't forget that thousands upon thousands of new prospects get web access every day. They are hungry for information, and might just be looking for the type of opportunity you offer.

These "Internet Newbies" are like a fertile field that you can harvest during the summer. Bitten by the prospect of earning money on the Net, they are viable candidates that you will lose if you don't vigorously pursue them.

I know that with press of things we have to do it is easy to slack off. Much of your competition will succumb to those "Lazy, Hazy Days of Summer", and if you take advantage of their inactivity, you just might be pleasantly surprised at the results.