6 tips to prepare for your business shutdown

Whether it’s for the holiday season, taking time away to recover from surgery, or just (finally) taking the opportunity to enjoy a European summer, businesses from time to time need to shut down.

Whatever your reason to hang the closed sign, it is possible to take a break without sacrificing your business or your sanity.

The good news is, it’s all in the preparation.

Here’s a checklist to set you up for a short closure, and help you wind up fast when you’re back on board.

1. Communicate your closure

First thing to do is to tell your customers and stakeholders that you will be taking a break. This will ensure everyone knows you won’t be responsive for a while, and they can organise their business operations accordingly.

Use every channel to communicate your business closure dates, including email, digital marketing, social media, website or by post. Keep in mind, you might need to communicate your closure dates more than once to account for emails sent to junk mail and missed social media posts.

If your business has a shopfront, place posters prominently in the window. Finally, turn on your email out of office and change your voicemail message before you go.

2. Predict demand and prepare inventory

One of the most challenging parts of business shutdown is provisioning for anticipated demand for your business’ good and services.

Map out demand by looking at past daily sales data for previous corresponding periods. You may also choose to look at daily sales data from previous years in the lead up to your intended shutdown. This may be useful if your shutdown is a once off closure that is not seasonal. Having a clear picture of expected demand, and how to prepare your inventory, will put you ahead of the game.

In all cases, you should consider any market conditions that might affect your business over the shutdown period.

Consider any lead time for your suppliers at the same time across previous years so you can be sure you can fulfil orders for your customers, both ahead of the shutdown and when you return.

Make sure you have a safe buffer of reserve stock to help you manage unforeseen demand, and plan out how you will reorder stock to offset the buffer or manage increased demand.

3. Get your bookkeeping up to date

This includes paying wages and invoices, and also receiving payments from customers.

Work with your bookkeeper to ensure all staff wages are paid on time during the shutdown period. Your employees will have their plans for the break – not having access to their pay isn’t one of them.

Carefully check all upcoming invoices and pay everything that will be due before and while you’re away. On the other side, delay any payments that are due after your business reopens.

Of course, provisioning for possible extra payments upfront might impact cash flow. This is why it’s also important to keep a close eye on payments from customers, especially those who often pay on the due date. Remind customers about the invoice due date one week prior, then again on the due date. Most small business accounting software allows customers to pay by clicking a link, which can help with receiving those lagging payments quickly.

4. Get your payments solutions sorted

On the subject of cash flow, having the right merchant facilities available can fast track payments straight into your account in the lead up to a business closure. If you are entering a busy period before taking a break, having simple mobile payment technologies like the Go EFTPOS machine or Tap to Pay on Smartphone can improve cash flow by taking payment on the spot. With less invoicing needed, you’re also reducing administration time. Win-win.

5. Switch off before you switch off

Save on energy costs over the break by shutting down all non-essential IT equipment. Unplug all printers, photocopiers and small appliances, and power down all computers – even stand by energy can add up. Do a quick check of equipment with the lights off. This way, you’ll be able to see any hidden glowing lights that needs switching off.

Check with your IT teams about which equipment needs to stay on as some hardware, such as servers, may need to operate 24/7.

Protecting your data is essential for every business to prevent a catastrophe. Work with your IT team to prepare your servers for backup. If you haven’t already, consider how your data is stored, and ensure your data is sufficiently backed up in multiple places, including cloud or offsite storage.

6. Prepare for your return

Even though your break is in plain sight, doing some financial prep work will help you hit the ground running when you switch on the office lights again.

For example, if it’s sale time of year, you might want to make some much needed purchases, like new IT or office equipment, or even new vehicles. Some forward thinking here might save you big dollars in the long run.

Your Business Matters.