Post Labor Day-Operational Adjustments

Time Flys- summer is now over and its September already. For those procrastinators out there, a quick adjustment will be necessary in most FEC's from summer season operations to early fall. With kids back in school, Friday night football starting up, etc, many FEC's see slow traffic in the first few weeks of September, steadily building into winter. In my FEC operating days we had a number of things we focused on to ensure a smooth transition:
1) anticipate the change in seasons and the effect on operations, especially payroll and morale.
2) ensure that we adjusted –in advance- quantity levels on consumable orders so as not to run up our inventory,
3) schedule necessary maintenance to recover from summer and prepare for the busier months ahead.
4) take stock against our sales & expense budget. Since we’re entering the home stretch of our operating year we want to review where we are against plan. This is a great time for the management team to have their first conversation about next year’s budget and plans.
5) put specifics to our fall and winter marketing plan.