Snow is an unwelcome guest for most businesses. So how can you make the best of the situation?

Notice how hardware stores always have the salt and shovels right next to the cash register when it snows. If you are a retailer, make sure the gloves and hats are next to your checkout counter and put a funny sign in the window:  “We have gloves for you and your snowman!”

Valentine’s Day often gets hit with bad weather, so have a plan B. Start marketing immediately: “Valentine’s Day Do-Over Day,”  or “Every Day Should be Valentine’s Day.”

Whatever you do, don’t panic. If you priced your product correctly, you have already built this unwelcome bump into your overhead.

Speaking of overhead, let’s talk about the budgets you just completed for the new year.  Did you build them on all sunny days and perfectly timed sales? Most business are doing rolling budgets these days, where you constantly update your budget each month adding a month, dropping a month, and making minor adjustments where needed. So if January and February fell short of expectations, try to make it up in the months ahead.  Not by lowering prices, but adding more marketing events.

So how do your financial statements survive a winter snowstorm? By making sure your product is priced correctly so you can take the hit. Pump up your marketing for the next few months and go make some snowballs.