Hi,

I was once in such an environment.

The company had an interesting way of dealing with the slowdown... they sold vacation time.

Here's how it worked (and it may only help you in 2019)

If you know you don't need a full complement of staff in the last weeks of the year, offer your employees the chance to take an extra week of vacation in that time which will be unpaid.

However, if they do want a paycheck, they can 'buy a week of vacation' by deducting 1/51st of a week's pay from each week's pay over the course of the year.

So a person who earns $1000/wk would have $19.61 taken off each week's pay in order to get a paycheck on the week which is essentially an unpaid absence. The money just goes back and forth.

The effect though is that your labor cost is cut in the slow period of the year.

People get excited about their extra vacation week. Happiness and fun fill the air in the lead-up to 'vacation time.'

Hope that helps.

dave
www.DavidCBarnett.com

Yes, It would depend on the nature of you product, the biggest burden will be the fix cost incurred. you can promote to have a discount sale, but make sure that you do not give discounts to make loss.
If you have many types of product you can do a cost analysis and couple ( piggy back Promotions) too.

I'd say hire a consultant to help you design some type of 4th quarter cashflow mechanism.

Even if this is an entirely different business.

Nothing motivates better than money flowing in + making money flow fun.