---
title: In the Spirit of Cashflow
description: Discover how seasonal businesses like Spirit Halloween thrive by managing costs, planning ahead, and maximizing resources during their busy months.
image: https://hello.colbycrosscpa.com/hubfs/AI-Generated%20Media/Images/Cartoon%20People%20Spooked%20By%20Cashflow%20At%20Haunted%20House.png
---

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 October 23, 2026

# In the Spirit of Cashflow

 By  [Colby Cross CPA Team](https://hello.colbycrosscpa.com/colby-cross-cpa-blog/author/colby-cross-cpa-team)  ·   4 minute read

In 1983, Joe Marver was running a women's clothing store in the San Francisco Bay Area when Marver watched a nearby costume shop struggle to keep up with Halloween crowds. The next fall, Marver cleared the dresses out of his own store and filled the shelves with costumes, and the switch paid off fast: "When I did $100,000 in 30 days, they were astounded," Marver said later.

This year, Spirit Halloween is opening a record 1,575 stores across the US and Canada and hiring more than 52,000 seasonal staff to run those stores. Moody's estimated that Spirit's parent company brought in $1.86 billion in 2023, with Spirit Halloween bringing in more of that revenue than Spencer's. By one estimate, more than 90% of Spirit's sales happen between Labor Day and Halloween.

By mid-November, every Spirit Halloween store has papered over its windows and moved out. Most owners would see a three-month selling season as a weakness, but Spirit's CEO, Steven Silverstein, sees the short season differently: "We are just physically there for three months. The other nine months there is a tremendous amount of planning and preparation and background work that's being done."

Those months of planning are worth breaking down and implementing in businesses of any size.

---

## Key Take Aways for Small Businesses

### 1. Make your costs rise and fall with your revenue

What Spirit does: Spirit doesn't tie itself to permanent stores. Spirit's ideal lease runs from mid-July to mid-November, which gives each store enough time to build out, sell and clean up. Spirit signs most leases in the spring, with a clause that lets the landlord cancel the lease if a permanent tenant turns up by June. Spirit moves into whatever retail space went empty that year (former Rite Aids, Bed Bath & Beyonds and Sears stores) and hires store staff for the season only, so when sales stop in November, nearly all of Spirit's store costs stop too.

Short-term leases aren't cheap: short-term tenants often pay a 20 to 30% premium on rent, and Spirit has a reputation for paying above market. Silverstein says Spirit doesn't judge a site by rent per square foot. Instead, Spirit judges a site by what the store will earn and pays the rent that those earnings justify.

The principle: Paying a higher monthly cost that you can switch off often beats paying a lower cost that you carry all year. Most small businesses do the opposite without meaning to. The owner signs a five-year lease sized for the busiest month, keeps a full team on salary through the slow quarter, and carries equipment payments that bill every month of the year. When costs run all year, the busy season has to pay for all twelve months, and most owners never check whether the busy season's profit actually covers a full year of costs.

### 2\. Do the real planning work in your quiet months

What Spirit does: "Pretty much Nov. 1, the minute our door is closed... we are prepping for the next season," Spirit's real estate head once said. Spirit's field teams start scouting new store sites right after the stores close, and Spirit settles leases, products and hiring months before the first customer walks in. In October 2024, Silverstein said Spirit was deep into planning the 2025 season and already sketching out the 2026 season.

The principle: Your busy season is when your business collects the money, but the planning you do in the quiet months decides how much money there is to collect. Sorting out pricing, supplier terms, hiring and marketing is cheaper and calmer in the slow months than in the middle of the busy season.

### 3\. Reuse the equipment, stock and people you've already paid for

What Spirit does: When a Spirit store closes, the store fixtures are shipped out and stored for next year, unsold stock in good condition is stored too, and Spirit's website keeps selling Halloween products all year. Many of Spirit's seasonal staff are offered jobs at sister chain Spencer's. Landlords sign with Spirit year after year because of Spirit's track record, and one real estate broker said Spirit has "essentially eliminated all the risks of a standard pop-up." When Spirit wanted to test a second selling season in 2024, Spirit opened 10 Spirit Christmas stores, and eight of those Christmas stores were in existing Spirit Halloween locations.

The principle: Starting from zero every season costs money, so the equipment, stock, trained staff and customer relationships your business has already paid for should earn money again next season. When you test a new product or service, test the idea small and use what your business already has.

---

## How To Manage Cashflow in a Seasonal Small Business

Plan for the year. Add up every cost that bills whether you make a sale or not (rent, salaries, insurance, loan and equipment payments, software), then multiply the monthly total by 12. Use the season's gross profit minus the variable costs of delivering the work.

If your busiest season clears less than your annual fixed cost, your slow months have to make up the difference.

Mark which costs could flex. Go down your fixed-cost list and tag each cost as "stays all year" or "could follow the season." Look hardest at leases coming up for renewal, roles you only need at peak, and equipment you could rent instead of finance. Compare the full 12-month cost of each option, not the monthly price.

Map your cash month by month for the next year. Profit and cash are not the same thing. If your business pays for stock, materials or labor before customers pay you, your bank balance carries those costs until the customer money arrives, and a bigger busy season means a bigger amount to carry. Find your lowest cash month, then: set up a line of credit now, while your business's numbers look strong.

Move tax money into a separate account each time a deposit lands, so the tax bill from a good season doesn't arrive in January with nothing set aside to pay it.

Book during your quiet months. Put next season's pricing, supplier terms, hiring and marketing work on the calendar for your slow period, the same way Spirit starts planning for next year the day its stores close.

Find what sits idle in your slow months. Equipment, space, trained staff and your customer list can all earn money in the slow months. Pick one way to put an idle asset to work, such as maintenance contracts, off-season services or retainers, and test that one idea small, the way Spirit tested Christmas stores.

---

Spirit Halloween built one of the biggest seasonal retailers in North America with stores that are open three months a year, because almost none of Spirit's costs keep running in the nine months the stores are closed.

If you want a hand pulling your two numbers and finding your lowest cash month, let us know. Pulling the numbers is a short exercise, and most owners can find ways to keep cash strong even in slow months.  

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