The Autumn Equinox: How to Apply This Change of Seasons to Your Business
The Autumnal (or “Fall”) Equinox happens in the Northern Hemisphere on September 22, 2021. For the Southern Hemisphere, this event is…
The Autumnal (or “Fall”) Equinox happens in the Northern Hemisphere on September 22, 2021. For the Southern Hemisphere, this event is called the Spring Equinox. At this time, the equinox sun is exactly above the equator of the Earth as it is moving from north to south, and the days around the equinox are approximately equal in length. There are differences between the calendar year and the tropical year, so the actual date of the Autumn Equinox occurs. annually anytime from September 21 to September 24.
According to the EarthSky organization, although the equinox happens at the same moment worldwide (at 19:21 UTC on September 22), your clock time depends on your time zone. For time zones in the continental U.S., this equinox comes during the daylight hours on September 22 (3:21 p.m. EDT, 2:21 p.m. CDT, 1:21 p.m. MDT, and 12:21 p.m. PDT). The name equinox comes from two Latin words: aequus (equal) and nox (night).
The official annual Labor Day Holiday in the United States and Canada occurs on the first Monday in September and is thought of as the unofficial end of summer, with children returning to school and businesses getting back to full-time non-summer schedules, etc. In actuality, however, summer ends and fall begins for the Northern Hemisphere during the Autumn Equinox.
All through September, you can notice the seasons changing and the activities of people and animals also changing. The cooler temperatures mean that people are changing their outfits from warm weather clothes to colder temperature clothing. Outdoor activities are moving indoors, and festivals that celebrate fall begin. Because the amount of daylight and time for photosynthesis shrinks, the leaves on the trees are changing colors and preparing to drop, and the birds and butterflies are preparing to migrate to the south.
It is harvest time for many plants, fruits, and vegetables, and picking apples at the orchard is a favorite activity. Many animals are growing their winter coats at the same time that people are preparing to don their winter coats. The days are getting shorter, and the nights are getting longer; this phenomenon continues until the Winter Solstice in December.
The Autumn Equinox also gives us the “Harvest Moon,” which is the full moon that occurs closest to the date of the Equinox. The Harvest Moon was so-named because the full moon rises around sunset for several nights in a row, giving farmers extra light to finish their harvests before the first frost.
5 Ways to Take Advantage of Seasonal Changes in Your Business
September is not only the end of summer and the beginning of fall, it is also the last month of the 3rd business quarter and leads to October, the first month of the 4th and last business quarter. Depending on your type of business, the summer is either one of your busiest seasons or one of your slowest seasons, and the fall is either a slower time or one of your busiest times getting ready for the holiday season.
Either way, the last couple of weeks of September around the changes of the Autumn Equinox is a great time to “change seasons” in your business as well.
Straighten up, clean up, redecorate, and reconfigure your office, even if your office is in your home. It is amazing and invigorating to change the scenery and ambiance around you in the space where you spend the majority of your working hours.
Clean out your digital and physical files. This is a good time to archive information you don’t need right now, and also a good time to check on your leads, your prospects, and your clients/customers to update all of their information and to plan for the necessary tasks and activities for the remainder of the calendar year.
Check your calendar for any upcoming personal and business events. With the change in the seasons, the number and types of events in your life also change, especially with the upcoming holidays. This is an excellent time to put all of these events on your calendar so that you can organize other personal and business activities around those events.
Review your business systems: your CRM, your task manager, your calendar, and all of the other online and offline tools you use to run your business. Are they still the right choice? Are they all upgraded to the latest version? Have they become bloated and inefficient? It will feel so good to start October with a “clean slate” with your systems.
Complete those projects and plan for new ones! Oftentimes, some of your projects go on and on and on because you have not planned how and when to end them. As old projects end, there is the opportunity for new ones to take their place! With the change in seasons, it is a good time to change the status of your projects!
As much as I enjoy the summer months, especially since I live in Michigan where summertime is relatively “short,” I also welcome the start of the fall season. I really enjoy changing my wardrobe, redecorating my home, including my home office, changing my schedule to fit into the shorter daytime hours, and especially checking on everything with my businesses and how they have changed since the beginning of the year.
What changes can you make in your business as you celebrate the Autumn Equinox? What changes will you enact for the 4th quarter of 2021? Let us know in the comments.
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