For most Australians December is either a time where your foot is flat to the floor, or you’re winding down and focusing on the next end of year lunch.

Knowing which camp you fit into is vital for all Australian small and medium businesses.

For the gelato store near St Kilda beach in Melbourne a warm summer with more tourists and beach days can make their business profitable for the entire year, even through the dark days of winter. The same goes for the retail stores, which despite declining economic environment, often rely on a very busy Christmas to buoy their annual turnover.

However, for others, like consulting firms or those in financial services, December signals a time to wind down. Often businesses will really slow down over late December and early January, with some taking a much needed break.

Whichever camp, or another, you’re in, it is important to understand how seasonality will affect you.

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Growth is good. But it comes with big challenges.

With the hype in the startup world, growth, in the form of a mythical hockey stick, has become one of the much vaunted and sought after business metrics.

As we frequently see reported globally, the highest growth and highest valued technology startups are rarely profit or cash flow positive – think Uber and WeWork.

What that means for the majority of business owners, is that balancing growth with cash flow or capital needs is one of the key operational challenges.

It’s probably what you’ll lose sleep over (if this is you, take a breath and fill out our growth early warning signs check list).

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