The September slide towards the big ‘C’

Whilst some will be celebrating that the children are finally back at school, those of us in small businesses are already cringing at the prospect of the ‘C’ word. Yes I know that it is still too early for most of us to be even contemplating the silly season unless of course you own a venue or shopping outlet, it has to be said that many still put a great deal of emphasis on this time of year. Those accounts that you have been chasing all summer will now opt for one of two scenarios; they will either decide that they want the work done now for a launch before ‘C’ or they will tell you that they want to leave it until the new year (insert inward groan here). The first scenario is great as it shows that there is a genuine interest in working with you and hey at least it’s not the end of November! The second one…does not look great, I lose count of the amount of times that I have heard this and never been able to reach the other party again.

For many years I have seen September as the ‘Slide Month’, it slides by at a record pace and before we have chance to blink, Halloween is upon us the the inevitable advertising deluge, debt making and panic buying of ‘C’! Oh don’t get me wrong, I love the season but unfortunately it now starts WAY too early for me and no matter what happens on the day, I always end up thinking ‘Was that it?’ by boxing day..

For those of you dealing with a small business, it is worth noting that your custom is just as (if not more) important at this time of year as at any other time and may in fact influence the type of ‘C’ that the business enjoys. Small businesses often do not have the luxury of saying “We will close for a couple of weeks and put everything on a back burner until January..” and may in fact be working right up until and over the ‘C’ period, whilst you lie in front of the TV watching re-runs and complaining that you have eaten/drank too much. The very survival of that business may hinge on the folks like you who have dealt with them for the past year and may suddenly decide to batten down the hatches.

Whilst we close down some of our business over the ‘C’ period, we are still monitoring and to some degree at least on call during this time – it is one of the perks of having a maintenance agreement with us, we look after the site so you can relax. So if you haven’t thought about it already, it is worth remembering that the hackers probably will not be taking a ‘C’ break, who will be looking after your site as you are cutting the turkey? Will it still be there when you throw your doors open again on January 2nd? Be a bit embarrassing wouldn’t it, if it was gone or worse still linked to a site that you definitely do not want your customers looking at?! Our maintenance starts at £11.99/month, not much for peace of mind over the ‘C’ period. Give us a call today or check out the maintenance section to find out more. Debayne Web Design – Weaving the Web your way.