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Planning Ahead for Your Slow Season

For: Marketing · Difficulty: Beginner

The problem: Every January, sales drop by a third. You scramble for a promotion in week two, and it's too late to matter.

What you end up with: A simple slow-season plan built from last year's numbers: when it starts, what to promote, what to cut back, and what to get done while it's quiet.

What you'll need

Last year's monthly sales, your calendar of local events, and your list of products or services.

Getting set up

When does it get quiet, and what can you do about it? Anthropic lists a campaign workflow in Claude for Small Business that finds the slow stretch in your revenue and drafts a promo plan. Intuit lists scenario planning on QuickBooks Plus. Google lists Gemini in Sheets. Example: a family-run ice cream shop sees sales fall 60% from November to February. The owner pastes two years of monthly sales into AI and asks for a plan. Together they land on hot chocolate and pie in November, gift cards in December, birthday party packages in January, and a deep clean and menu refresh in February. (Our illustration.)

Step by step

  1. Pull last year's monthly sales, or weekly if you have them.
  2. Ask the AI to find your slowest weeks and how big the drop is.
  3. List what customers still buy when it's slow.
  4. Brainstorm two or three promotions that fit.
  5. Plan the quiet-time projects: repairs, training, updates.
  6. Check cash: can you cover costs through the dip?
  7. Put each step on your calendar, a month ahead.

A prompt to start with

Try this prompt, and tweak it for your tool. "Here are my monthly sales for the last two years: [paste]. Find my slowest stretch and how much sales drop. Suggest three promotions that fit a [type of business], and three projects to do while it's quiet. Use only my numbers, and show your math."

What you'll get

A one-page slow-season plan with dates. Time it takes: about an hour, once a year. Sample plan line (made up): "Weeks 1 to 2 of January: birthday party packages. Email past party customers Dec 15. Goal: 6 bookings."

If something goes wrong

If the AI's numbers don't match your totals, check that you pasted every month. If ideas feel generic, add details about your customers and neighborhood.

Keep in mind

Past years are a guide, not a promise. Keep an eye on cash, and talk with your accountant if the dip is big. Make it a habit: review the plan each year after the slow season ends, and keep what worked.

Sources

Where each fact came from

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