New York Stiff A- “Hey Bill, where are you summering this year?”
New York Stiff B- “It’s looking like Montauk, or Nantucket, I’ll know when my $10,000 deposit is accepted which one we’ll land, I’ll be sure to keep you posted.”
Growing up in a affluent suburb of New York City it’s impossible not to learn about the term summer as an action rather than a season.
It’s mentioned in passing throughout the winter and spring at schools, workplaces, and even church. I’ve lived in South Carolina since May 2002, and haven’t heard the word used a single time in the New York context.
For the uninitiated summering goes something like this, to summer is to go somewhere posh, most likely the beach, around 3 months time. Kids typically stay the whole time, parents as much as humanly possible, if they have to work in the city, you can bet they’ll be out at the house every weekend, and call in as much as possible to get those coveted long weekends.
This concept of taking time off is wonderful for all involved except the company the summering person works for. How can your mind NOT drift when thinking of that lush barbeque on a private South Hampton strip of beach complete with Kobe beef, lobster tail, and caviar drenched French bread? Of course it does, and just as quick as you go into summer mode so does your productivity. It’s tough to snap out of a heavenly mix of relaxation and comfort.
I’m not kidding when I tell you growing up I knew more than a few families that literally didn’t work at all in the summer. That includes kids, parents, and in some cases friends of the kids.
Fresh off doing our corporate taxes for the past year I can give a resounding yes to the question, do you know when the busiest month of your business was for fiscal year 2008? Here’s a hint, ours was not in October, nor was it in January. Our busiest month in terms of both net sales and gross profit was in the month of May.
May will come knocking later this week, thus this timely blog post. I want you to know internet marketers don’t summer. They don’t stop what they’re doing just because it’s the weekend and those baby blue swim trunks with the crab claws on them just arrived in the mail.
Serious internet marketers realize that to many companies the prime time to do experimental marketing is the dog days of summer.
I’m willing to bet many social network ad buys will occur this summer, as will a record number of new online brand management campaigns, and dare I propose, Twitter management deals will become the new fad service among internet marketing consultancies, like the one I run.
The summer is the fourth quarter of the football game, the ninth inning of the world series, the summer is when businesses are built, at least that’s when mine seems to grow the most.
So be forewarned, those that work hard in the summer are the ones that are smiling the brightest come Christmas time, come the real fiscal fourth quarter, come the time when the dealer calls, and you show royal flush.
