A weather dashboard could help your business!
What’s weather got to do with it? Apparently a ton and you might not even be thinking how it could be or is affecting your business.
In a recent ABC News article Professor John Dutton, Professor of Meteorology Emeritus and Dean Emeritus at the Pennsylvania State University‘s College of Earth and Mineral Sciences stated weather affects around $3 trillion in private industry alone!
Opposite Ends?
Stormy weather hit most of the country this year and continues. Inclement weather has a negative affect on people getting to your establishment, your deliveries getting to the door of your customer and people canceling appointments. Hiring slows down a bit, people can’t get to work and others can’t get to their job interview!
On the other end of the spectrum sits Lake Tahoe this year with a severe drought. Little snow left resorts scrambling for revenue as well as the neighboring businesses that rely on that traffic in the busy seasons. Late snow will push the summer out a bit so resorts and other businesses will get a late start. And without water the threat of fires exist. Ooof.
These days more companies are getting the picture that weather is important to businesses both small and large. Panaltyics, a company that helps businesses track weather helped Duracell get batteries to parts of the country that would be most hard hit by hurricanes. They also told TaylorMade-adidas Golf how many rounds of golf would be played so they could get manufacturing going accordingly. Pretty cool (and geeky!)use of data. We love it.
So what’s a small business to do?
- Keep an eye on what’s going on in the location(s) where you do business.
- Keep track of where you source any products you might need.
- Track weather in specific areas where you need to ship products.
- Order products that benefit customers for weather they’re experience far in advance.
- Have specials that attract people into your store or business around the weather.
We like Weather Underground for checking out what’s going on. Oh, that will probably be included in Dasheroo in the future.