Does Business Take a Summer Vacation?

by: Christel Wintels

    Ever wondered why they’re called “dog days of summer”?  According to Wikipedia, the phrase “dog days of summer” refers to the hottest, most sultry days of the season. This is credited to the ancient Greeks and Romans who referred to them as ‘caniculares dies’ (days of the dogs) in honour of Sirius, the Dog Star - the brightest star in the heavens, and Sirius is beside the Sun. Now you know!

In Canada, July and August are traditionally summer vacation months. We do our personal best to take off a week or two and enjoy the warmer weather that we have for such a short time. Since we take time off, the myth has always been that business slows down during the summer, even to the point where some networking groups cancel meetings altogether. Here’s why:

Although people take time off over the summer, business doesn’t. Most businesses don’t stop functioning just because it’s summer. Yes, maybe the pace slows to a calmer, more relaxed state, but those of us who are entrepreneurs know that we don’t stop working toward our goals. Our focus may change; we may choose to concentrate more on internal plans and projects.

In the referral marketing world, my opinion is that the summer months are two of the best months to deepen referral relationships. We have a bit more time, so we don’t feel quite as rushed. The kids are out of school and that often frees up a little spare time in our schedules. It’s a great time to catch up with the folks we haven’t connected with in a while! We can finally meet for coffee or lunch and take in an outdoor patio or two (isn't it great to do that!).

So while I’ve always thought that summer is a great time to build referrals, I haven’t checked the statistics to see if it’s true. Here are the statistics I found:

In my business, there are about 600 members. On average over the past 3 years those members gave each other over 3,200* referrals in July and August. That totals nearly 10,000 business opportunities shared during the dog days of summer since 2006.

So does business take a summer vacation? Absolutely not! The other great thing I’ve seen is that referral networks are also filled with people who want to have more fun over the summer, they like to socialize, catch up and are genuinely interested in helping each other. I was delighted to discover that not only do I think referral relationships thrive over the summer – the statistics show they actually do.

Well that's it, I’m off to have a frozen latte on the patio with my best referral partner!

*Statistics drawn from BNINET2 membership database where referrals are tracked weekly by each chapter. Stats were compiled from July 1 - August 31, 2006, 2007, 2008. 

Posted in: Managing your Business, Networking, Relationships