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The multiplier you'll use: your peak-season factor
By the end, you'll have your peak-season factor calculated and written down: how many times more you sell in your busiest week versus a normal week, ready to apply this year.
By Yodai · Published September 6, 2026 · Updated October 12, 2026
Knowing which weeks your busy season started and ended last year is half the job. The other half is turning those weeks into the number you're going to multiply by. "We sold a ton those weeks" won't help you in March, when you have to decide how much stock to order or how many appointment slots to open. What helps is a number: how many times more you sold at the peak compared to an average week. That's the number you multiply this year to know how much to prepare.
The date tells you when the peak arrives. What's missing is its size, as a factor and not a feeling.
The math, using what you already have
The factor comes from dividing two figures you already have saved somewhere: the sales, appointments, or orders from your strongest week, divided by those from a normal week. Normal means no promotion, no holiday weekend, no special ad campaign: just a regular week, the kind you'd call business as usual.
If your normal week brings in $900 and your peak week brings in $3,150, the factor is 3.5. Next year, when that same week on the calendar comes around, you'll know you need to be ready to sell 3.5 times the usual amount, not just "a lot more."
- 1Pick the peak week
The one with the highest sales last year within your high season, not just your best single day: a good day doesn't tell you how much stock you need to last the whole week. - 2Pick the normal week
A week with no sale, no notable date, and outside your busy season. If you have several like that, even better: choose the one that looks most like a typical week for your business. - 3Divide
Peak by normal. If you don't have the exact dollar amount, use whatever you've got recorded: number of appointments, orders, or receipts rung up. - 4Round to one decimal
3.5, not 3.47. It's a number for deciding how much to order, not a figure for a report.
- Take four or five weeks outside your high season and average them
- Smooths out the noise from an odd week with an equipment breakdown or an employee out sick
- The same week on the calendar, the one you'd use to compare year over year
- Works well if your business already has its own spikes outside of high season (Valentine's Day for a flower shop, for example)
Which one to choose: Use the average of several weeks if your off-season sales barely change from one week to the next. Use a single reference week if your "rest of the year" also has its own ups and downs and you want to compare the peak against an equally quiet moment each time.
- You've got your high season factor: how many times more you sell at the peak compared to a normal week
- You know which week to compare it against: a specific slow week, never the average for the whole year
- That factor is the number you'll multiply by to figure out how much stock to order or how many appointment slots to open this season
- With the peak date and this factor figured out, the next step is counting backward to know when to start spreading the word