As a small business owner, I've experienced both busy and slow times over the years. When it is busy, all of our staff are "on the go" from the minute they start their shift right to the second they leave their workplace.
Contrastingly, when it is slow, some of the workers really don't have much to do and end up sitting around. This of course is never good on the bottom line. I used to often wait for the slow periods to end but this was sometimes not the best decision as I could see the profits decrease little by little. I didn't want to change my employees' hours as I knew they needed to make a living too. So I let things take their own course. This was not a great idea because the result was simply a large scare that my business and regular income would be negatively affected in a large way. I also realized that if I went out of business, my employees hours would be affected in the worst way of all.
With experience I realized that during slow times, either the employees need to be creative to help me with projects to drum up business, or if the motivation is not there, then the employees' hours would have to be cut during the very slow times in order to help reduce expenses and get the business through the tough time.
When you are running a business, you must look at every expense, no matter how small it may be, as all the little expenses add up! A big reminder for the small business owner - view a slow period as a very serious issue. Don't sit back and wait for the slow time to end. While you drum up business, keep all of your expenses down, even if it is the hours worked by your staff.
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