Manager's To Do

Still Waiting for the Client to Pay You? Make a Year-End Push for Billing, or You Might Wait Be Waiting Months Longer

It’s a top-priority item from our October manager’s-to-do list, which also includes a fun idea for an employee costume contest that doubles as a marketing campaign.

Published

2 years ago

September 28, 2022

Signs of the Times Staff Signs of the Times October 2022 Issue

OCT. 2-8

SERVICE CALLS Shops often see an uptick in service calls starting in October, especially after Daylight Saving Time concludes in November. Ahead of that, start steering your marketing efforts toward scheduling maintenance calls.

RECYCLING Clear out your various scrap metal piles. Some may have been sitting around for a while. Steel, stainless steel, aluminum, copper and brass can all be recycled.

OCT. 9-15

INVOICING October is usually when one Brain Squad member does his “year-end push for billing, because I find invoices submitted to clients past October don’t get paid until after the New Year,” he observes.

MARKETING Take photos of projects underway in the shop. These are very valuable for the “as built” record keeping and for marketing if you choose to create a blog, social media post or press release.

OCT. 16-22

ESTIMATING Check the costs you’ve entered into your estimating software. You may find some items with questionable cost/price ratios.

OCT. 23-29

HOLIDAYS Start producing holiday gifts for your top customers. If you’ve recently brought new functionality in house, consider making the gifts a showcase of your new sign or other offerings.

YEAR-END SALES Focus on selling retail signage for end-of-year promotions. Also stick close to corporate year-end, budgeted “use it or lose it” projects.

OCT. 30-NOV. 5

HALLOWEEN “We did an employee costume contest last year and let social media vote,” one Brain Squad member reports. “It was a pretty big hit. We printed a backdrop banner with our logo repeated (to show off product, of course) and took everyone’s picture in front of that.”

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