MANAGEMENT What’s going to be your big slow season project this year? A new training program, integration of a new software program, cleaning and organizing inventory … or is it to just catch up on your vacation time? Whatever it is, draft a solid plan and get to work.

SALES Combat the summer doldrums by offering a surprise commission once a month on an item through your POS system. At the end of each month, announce the item and the winner.

Jul. 9-15

MANAGEMENT The economic outlook remains uncertain. Create a playbook to ensure you’re not paralyzed should a recession hit. It should include guidelines on how you plan to respond based on different reactions by customers and competitors to a slump. PriceWaterhouseCoopers has suggestions for such a playbook at pwc.com.

OPERATIONS Streamline your working life. Throw out all the stuff from storage under the showcases, says Ruth Mellergaard, principal at interior design firm GRID/3.

TRAINING Most jewelers now have an online channel themselves, but you still need to be able to deal effectively with “I saw it cheaper online.” Be sure your staff’s Internet defense dialog is sharp and compels the customer to stay and buy. Draw up scripts if need be.

Jul. 16-22

SECURITY The spate of home invasions targeting jewelers in the last few years has highlighted the domestic threat to people in the industry. Install an exterior-door deadbolt to a bedroom door, so if a break-in does occur, you can hide in that room with your family.

BENCH Go green out back. Install a sink trap, capture dust in floor mats or carpets and vacuum frequently with a dedicated vacuum. Use a bucket instead of letting the water run when washing items and switch to environmentally friendly alternatives such as cadmium-free solders, fluoride-free fluxes and maybe citric pickle solution. There’s money to be made or saved as well.

INVENTORY Need to light a fire under sales? Once a week, hold a flash sale on older items.

Jul. 23-29

MARKETING Create a collection of photography for future use on your social pages. Having a portfolio of images on hand makes it much quicker and easier to schedule posts.

GOODWILL Before long it will be charity season again. This year, choose a group or institution that you can partner with to design a special piece that reflects their cause — say, a pendant for a cancer ward or hospital, or a band to support the high school football team. A percentage of all sales can go to the group or a major piece can be donated to an auction.

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2 Today is the halfway point of the year, which is why it was chosen to host I Forgot Day, a nifty opportunity for people to make up for all the birthdays, anniversaries, new births and graduations they missed in the first six months of the year. Urge your customers to take advantage of this great second bite at the apple to make amends for their oversights.

15 “Give me liberty or give me death … by ice cream.” On National Ice Cream Day, team up with a local ice cream parlor and offer a free cup (less messy than a cone) to anyone who comes in for a summerly browse.

25 Christmas In July. Yes, it’s 91 degrees outside, the last piece of music anyone wants to hear is Silent Night, but these sales work. Do you have any old stock to move as you begin initial preparations for the winter holiday period?

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6 On the 25th Anniversary of the premiere of Sex and the City, invite all the self-purchasing Carries, Samanthas and Charlottes on your database to an SATC-themed event in your store. Tie it in with a “Stacks are Back” promotion!

21 On National Daylight Appreciation Day, give some thought to how you can securely share the fiery wonder that happens when a ray of June sunlight meets a diamond.

26 Pageant Season is in full bloom across the country at high schools and social clubs. Offer to supply or sponsor the winner’s tiara. Now that’s top-of-head product placement!

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MANAGEMENT Set an ambitious store goal for Father’s Day with the promise of a day’s paid leave for everyone in August if the team achieves the goal.

MARKETING Summer is a time to experiment. The stakes are lower, and people are more open to trying new things. Could you do a piercing night, a buying or estate event, stay open later one day, or, like Barry Cole of Bere Jewelers in Pensacola, FL, hold a “60% off for 6 hours” event?

STAFF If you’re at the big shows in Vegas this week, call up your local pizzeria and order a couple of deluxe pizzas for your staff back in the store. They think you’re living it up. That may be far from the truth, but let them know you’re thinking about them.

LEARNING And while still in Vegas, take in as many educational sessions as you can with a goal to kick some life into big-ticket diamond sales. The wedding and anniversary seasons are on the way. Be sure to bring home some fresh approaches to try this year.

Jun. 6-10

MERCHANDISING Create fashion jewelry islands around the store to highlight that costume jewelry you got in for the summer months.

MANAGEMENT There’s a good chance you were exposed to some great ideas at a trade event in the last few months. Draw up a plan to implement the best of those suggestions before another year passes and you’re again sitting in a session at a trade show thinking, “Hmm, I should try that …”

MARKETING Get a jump on the summer bridal season. Look to partner with a local bridal boutique and arrange bridal fashion shows.

Jun. 13-17

TRAINING Write down one important skill that you can teach each member of your staff. By the end of next week, make sure that you’ve spent at least some time working with each staffer on that skill.

ONLINE Test your online channel. Purchase an item on your website to see how smooth and easy it is (or isn’t).

Jun. 20-24

MARKETING “The neighborhood comes alive with people,” notes Ellie Thompson, of Ellie Thompson + Co., Chicago, IL, who responds to the arrival of warmer weather by changing up her sidewalk chalkboard often and making browsers — and, increasingly important, their dogs — feel welcome.

SECURITY Do a mid-year review of threats and areas of vulnerability, including a test of your store’s motion-detection system.

Jun. 27-Jul. 1

INVENTORY Don’t leave your new goods from Vegas sitting in the vault. Get everything priced and in your cases within a day of it arriving.

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DISPLAYS Position your best Mother’s Day (May 14) specials in a showcase just inside the front door. Offer a wide range of price points but simplify the selection process by highlighting a few classic pieces or current trends.

SALES Set up what sales trainer Shane Decker calls T.O. teams. When you see two people who work well together, schedule them together. “The success of a T.O. team — two different selling personalities or opposite genders paired together — can skyrocket,” Decker says.

STAFFING Reach out to students who were superstar team members last summer and see if they want to come back.

May 7-13

OPERATIONS Step outside your store. Through your windows, assess the visuals and displays, but mostly watch some customer-associate interactions. It’s amazing how much more you can observe without sound. Research suggests words account for less than 10 percent of communication. What kinds of things are your sales staff communicating to your customers?

TRAINING Summer is a great time to send your staff for additional training (e.g., seminars, camps, summer courses). Start reading up on some of your options.

May 14-20

BUYING Whether you’re going to JCK (Jun. 2-5) or not, dig into your POS data to discover your best and worst sellers of the past 12 months and fine-tune your open-to-buy for the second half of the year.

OPERATIONS Another down-time project: De-clutter work areas to prevent fires or accidents.

MARKETING Place “Congratulations Class of 2023” signs in your windows. See if your high school or local college has advertising options in their graduation bulletins or final editions of school newspapers.

May 21-27

OPERATIONS Summer’s on the way. Start thinking about some minor “remodel” projects you could implement over the slow season.

MARKETING Send anniversary cards, along with a special offer for diamond upgrades, to customers with anniversaries in June.

May 28-June 3

INVENTORY Ever tried a “Christmas in July” promotion? Maybe this could be the year! Or if you’ve got a lot of lower-end inventory that won’t move, what about a sidewalk sale?

DISPLAY Redo your showcases to give them a fresh summery look. Replace tired florals and other décor pieces with new props that enhance new merchandise brought in for the hot season.

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2 National Teacher Day is a terrific goodwill opportunity. Donate a jewelry item to a teacher who has won a recent award. Alert the local paper and then set a time for that teacher or coach to come to your store to receive his or her prize.

9 On Mother’s Day, consider gifting a rose or a small flower arrangement to guests. “It’s the sentimental thought that counts,” says store consultant Megan Crabtree. “Plus, it’s also one less stop for the gifting father.”

24 On National Brother’s Day, celebrate fraternal bonds (biological or not) with a line of bracelets, pins, or cufflinks that can be given by union members, college kids, military vets or real-life brothers.

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1 It’s April, diamond’s turn as birthstone. Kick off anniversary season with an upgrade campaign.

15 Today, 74 days after the start of 2023, the average woman finally catches up to what the average man earned in 2022. On EQUAL PAY DAY, invite your women customers to come in to commiserate and reward themselves “fairly” for their hard work (because society seems in no great hurry to).

16-22 The organizers of NATIONAL KARAOKE WEEK claim the benefits of singing along to synthetic tunes in public are increased self-esteem, stress release, and, when done with the staff, improved bonding through shared experience. What are you waiting for! “It was a rock lobster. Rock lobster!”

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MARKETING In 2023, short-form videos are the way to go. Brainstorm content that will attract your ideal customer. And it’s not just TikTok. Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and YouTube all provide endless opportunities for short, bite-sized videos featuring fashion jewelry and engagement rings. Get creative and make the most of this trend.

OPERATIONS Spring cleaning out of the way, it’s time to turn your attention to maintenance projects. Review your building to see what needs repairing, re-tiling, a spot of paint, etc. Maybe bring in an outsider to catch those spots you just don’t see.

INVENTORY Scan your showcases. It’s time to make room for the upcoming buying season. Might also be time to look into launching that eBay account to clear those duds of yore.

Apr. 9-15

TRAINING Hold a mini-conference right in your own office. Assign each staff person a topic for a 5- to 10-minute presentation. Extra team-building points if you make the event a potluck lunch!

METALS Shipping gold to a refiner? Ask him if he’ll take your used watch batteries (they usually contain silver). Consider it your good deed ahead of Earth Day (April 22).

MARKETING Call a meeting with staff to come up with marketing ideas for Mother’s Day (May 14). Dad and child evening? Mom and daughter event? Cross promotion with a spa? Bring a list of ideas to the meeting.

Apr. 16-22

CRM There’s likely lots happening in your customers’ lives right now: school concerts, playoff games, communion, proms. Follow your top clients on social media and congratulate/acknowledge important events when they post them, says Kathleen Cutler, CEO of Kathleen Cutler Strategy. “Social media should be a two-way conversation if you want the goal to be a genuine relationship with your clients.”

MARKETING Brush off the cobwebs in your old marketing files. This is a great time to revisit successful promotions from the past and reconsider ideas that might deserve a second look. It doesn’t always have to be new.

Apr. 23-29

MARKETING Prom season, the biggest night of high school for many girls, lies just ahead. Focus your marketing on price-point gifting, says AGS-certified sales pro John Nicolosi. “Many parents also purchase jewelry gifts for their graduating students during April. Why not capitalize on the opportunity and keep your gifting price-point goods in stock and top of mind?”

APPRAISALS Use the slow months (April, July-September) to check client files to see who needs to have an appraisal updated. Send out a postcard reminder.

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SALES FLOOR Beware the ex-brides of March. Divorce filings are highest this month. Do you have a script ready explaining why the resale value of an engagement ring may not meet the customer’s expectations? If not, get busy.

SEO Run some tests to see how your store ranks when someone asks their phone: “Siri, where can I get my ring repaired?”

OPERATIONS Create an employee suggestion box but add a twist: Staff have just 30 days to submit ideas to make your business and their working lives better.

Mar. 5-11

STORE Get in touch with your electric utility. Many offer free energy audits, giving you more ideas on how to cut down on your electrical consumption. Some water utilities do the same.

MARKETING Your best customers are your current customers. Identify your “top 20 percent” clients. Draft a plan to cater to them over the next nine months.

SELF-CARE Catch your breath. You’ve likely been working non-stop since the end-of-year holidays. As Sue Parker of Nyman Jewelers in Excanaba, MI, says, “Take a break! Sneak out for a long weekend if possible to recharge yourself.”

Mar. 12-18

INVENTORY Traditionally, bridal sales followed a pattern: Men’s wedding band sales, for example, were strongest in April and May just before June, the most popular month for weddings. Now they are likely to be more scattered as millennials often marry in less traditional months. Closely scrutinize last year’s sales data to ensure you’re on top of your categories.

CRM List all the people who referred customers over the past three months. Thank them with flowers. If it was a big sale, perhaps send a gift certificate to a local restaurant.

Mar. 19-25

OPERATIONS If you don’t have a backup plan for your POS, create one, using either a cloud/network or removable drive to restore data if a new device is required. Make it a part of your end-of-day procedures.

MERCHANDISING Write a “designer profile” for each designer you carry. Keep each on “cue cards” stored near each merchandise line.

Mar. 26-Apr. 1

STORE LAYOUT Is your custom area as friendly as it could be? Does it feature a gallery highlighting the great designs you’ve done in the past, portraits of satisfied customers, updated displays, appropriate lighting, a signature scent?

MARKETING LinkedIn has many of the micro-targeting capabilities of the other social media sites but is less utilized. Build a quick profile and ask your staff and customers to connect. Then give thought to some targeted demographics, say “professional women over the age of 35.”

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12 Daylight Saving Time begins. Invite your customers to save on jewelry during your great Leap Into Spring Fashion Celebration with special “daylight savings” for today only.

14 What is infinite, irrational and indivisible? That’s right! It’s the everlasting love of your customers. It also applies to pi. On Pi Day, market 0.314 TCW diamond jewelry as the ultimate gifts of endless love.

21 National Countdown Day (3/21, get it?) is the perfect date to announce your next in-store event … and start counting down!

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