Spring is here and this is a great time for solopreneurs to take advantage of this change of seasons to do some business spring planning. I think of spring as a time of resurrection, rejuvenation, renewal, and rebirth. It brings amazing bursts of color, warm breezes, and sunshine. Spring brings with it a unique hope and energy that invigorates, inspires, and changes attitudes, pulling us from the winter doldrums.
With spring comes the notion of spring cleaning. I spring clean my house annually. Admittedly, I have not always reached 100 percent completion. I do not especially enjoy cleaning and wish that I could twitch my nose like Samantha in Bewitched. Hey, is that a super power?
We discard stuff we no longer need/use/want, dust off those hard-to-reach dark corners, and scrub places we usually just pass over when we spring clean. Shouldn’t we jump on the spring cleaning bandwagon for our business also? We will soon be entering the fourth month of 2017, working toward those great goals we set back in January. Take some time this spring to critically look at the processes, procedures, and activities that make up your business: what is working well, what needs to be tweaked, what should be discarded?
Here are some “rooms” that might need to be cleaned in during your business spring cleaning time:
Networking. What groups are you participating in? Are you seeing a return on your investment of time and money? Is participation in these groups moving your business forward? Are you building speed of trust with other business owners? Have you established some referral partners with those sharing your same target demographic?
If you answered NO to any of these questions, it may be time to look for new groups. I especially like focused groups of entrepreneurs, building each of our businesses. I am choosing less general networking for more intentional networking. Clean out the junk, dust off your elevator speech, and find a group and system that works for you.
Your Email InBox. Are your unread emails piling up? I know a lot of us receive a ton of email that simply is no longer relevant to us (if it ever was). We’ve either changed direction in our business or the newsletter we signed up for has switched focus. Either way, it clogs up our inbox and just gets in the way.It is time to get rid of the irrelevant junk in your email InBox. Delete those messages a bit each day but also take 10 minutes to go through your InBox and unsubscribe to any email lists that are no longer relevant to your business. Most email marketing messages make this really easy for you with an “unsubscribe” button at the end of each message.
Advertising/Marketing. Are you spending thousands of dollars on ineffective advertising, because you believe that is the only option you have? With online capability today, entrepreneurs can find free or inexpensive advertising opportunities. Consider “new” ideas. Television, print and radio advertising are very expensive and do not necessarily yield the results you are seeking. Check out innovative programs to capitalize on the group purchasing power of millions of people worldwide.
Again, dump what does not work. I once participated in many vendor shows that were a complete waste of time and money (when I was an Interior Decorator). After each disappointing day, I’ would vow to never do another one; however, the next application would arrive and I would think, “maybe this one is THE one–maybe will meet that one person who will light my business on fire”. Guess what? I’ would finish the event, vowing to never participate in another one again 🙂
Do not be afraid to ask tough questions of your potential advertising partners. They are looking to sell advertising–not your product or service. Do not be afraid to “fire” your advertising partners. Remember Albert Einstein’s definition of insanity:
Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
After all, it is business…nothing personal.
Time Management. Are you setting a schedule and sticking to it? Are you grouping appointments by type and location? Are you batching orders, setting specific time aside for email and Facebook follow-up, and scheduling time to make telephone calls? Eliminate inefficient use of time by consolidating when you can, being firm about your schedule, and taking control of your time!
Record-keeping. It is nearing tax time, which glaringly points out how great or horrible our record keeping systems are. If you have a good system, what can you tweak to make it better or more efficient? Does your credit card swipe mechanism tie into your QuickBooks account? Did your accountant have helpful advice to make next year’s tax time smoother?
If it is not so good (my hand is raised), what simple steps can you take to improve the process? I am one of those people who would stuff all their receipts into a folder for 12 months, then spend a month sorting through everything during tax time. I know that I miss out on deductions every year because of my poor record keeping. My 2016 tax resolution was to enter all expenses, sales, profits – anything related to money- into QuickBooks quarterly. I’m doing a little bit better. A little advance planning will save lots of headaches next spring. I would love to be able to skip this “room” during next year’s business spring cleaning period.
You may have other “rooms” that need the once over as well during your business spring cleaning. Use your critical evaluation skills to rejuvenate your business with bursts of customers, sunny clients, and a hot climate of growth!
What other business spring cleaning tasks can you complete that will help you to organize the day-to-day? Please leave a comment 😉
Why wasn’t spring cleaning businesses a thing LAST YEAR! I’m totally doing this, this year. I feel like I invest in things without much reciprocation! Instead of working harder I need to work smarter. Also, my time management sucks. I write everything down in PENCIL because I already anticipate that I don’t stick to my schedule. whoops.
I really have any spring cleaning tasks, but more..management? Instead of sticking to long term goals, I have a long term goal, branched off into monthly goals, into weekly goals, into daily to-dos. This really helped me not become SOOO overwhelmed 🙂
Great “get straight” post about “cleaning out” for spring.
Love these suggested “rooms” to clean-up this spring. I always feel like I put my own business housekeeping on the back-burner while I take care of client projects and God knows what-else for everybody else. I certainly need to take care of these items and block off some time to take care of my own business stuff! Thanks for the tips.
One of the rooms that I have recently cleaned is scheduling, which would go under time management. I schedule certain consultations on specific days. On these days, I know that I am in the office catching up on administrative tasks.
I am SO guilty of the cluttered inbox! I hate cleaning it out but I feel so much better when I do. Great tips!
What a great idea, Rachel. I really need to spring clean my time management. I tend to take on more than I can ever do, and then those tasks just pile up like so many dust bunnies in the corner. I love the idea of dealing with them like this!
Gosh I love this post so much! Business spring cleaning here I come
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Nothing feels better than spring cleaning! I’ve always been one who loves to throw things out and organize! As such, I don’t have a ton to do come springtime. What I do need to work on is creating that schedule and sticking to it. I have a tendency to multi-task (which isn’t productive) and waste time with “busy work”. So for me, spring cleaning would include updating my to do list and restructuring my day to make it more productive. Love the tip on unsubscribing from email lists. Deleting a bunch of emails each day is such a waste of time!
It’s easy to overlook spring cleaning when it comes to your business. I love the idea of the ‘rooms’ that need looking at.
Ohhhh, love these tips. I make a point to purge on a regular basis… stuff in my house that doesn’t get used, gets sold or donated after a period of time that it still isn’t being used… I can all those email lists I no longer read, every great once in awhile I like to go deeper into stuff we have and get rid of, during tax time is where I trash all stuff that is no longer needed at the end of the year and those annual papers get filed with taxes… only work in progress is… time management! lol
I agree with you, I also see Spring as a time of resurrection, rejuvenation, renewal, and rebirth. That said, I seriously need to do some Business Spring cleaning especially with my emails. I also realized that I have been added to sooooo many Facebook groups. That is going to be my next task…leaving all those groups.
Fantastic ideas! I have been “funneling” for over two years now and am getting it all cleaned up! This blog motivates me to send an email to my list entitled “Don’t Leave Me” and then share specifically about my upcoming emails where they will receive free gifts. Think Spring!
Love how organized and thoughtful your tips are in this post, Rachel! As someone who works a lot by intuition, I could definitely do more to streamline some of my processes. Just finished my accounting for my accountant and although I was reasonably organized, I saw how I could tweak it even more. As far as my inbox. I do not let ‘unread’ emails pile up. I open every email and if I think it is worth reading, I do. If not, I send it to trash. And I get 5,000 emails a month. That alone, is reason to unsubscribe from lists I am not aligned with. Happy Spring cleaning. Feeling the urge in my house and garden as well!
I really enjoyed reading this blog post. I am trying to participate in more productive groups. There are a lot of groups out here but many are just promotional. I want to participate in the ones where people actually read the blog post and share the tools and resources that are helping them.
It is so important to do spring cleaning. I get magazines and catalogs and that paper adds up quite quickly. I have to make a conscious effort to keep it to a minimum. I usually recycle it.
Thanks for sharing these awesome tips with us!
Great tips! I just ‘cleaned up’ all my Facebook groups.. I had accumulated so many and was only participating in maybe 3 or 4 of them regularly. Next up is record keeping!
The tip about ten minutes per day to clean out your inbox really speaks to me. It is a great sense of satisfaction to have an inbox that is not cluttered with irrelevant information.
Great post! Happy Spring to you!
I do not Spring clean my house, as I am a neat and tidy freak all year. For my business though spring cleaning is a good idea. Networking I just joined my local chamber of commerce. My email boxes I
regularly clean up. I do advertise but use tools to do so. I have cleaned some of this up lately. Time management with a timer and post its. Record keeping I do need to work on. Good to clean checklist.
Rachel love this significant reminder. I usually clean my inbox about 3x a year. What I need to do is clean out my hard drive and delete all those must have never looked at downloads.
That’s a really great check list, Rachel. I agree that we should ‘spring clean’ our business too. I do it with my offline business, this time of the year brings an opportunity to replace anything that’s broken or tired, renew signs to make us more visible, re vamp our advertising. No reason why it shouldn’t happen with my online business too.
Enjoy the journey!
Oh my, these are ALL areas I need to tend to for spring cleaning!! Thanks for listing and explaining each one and the importance of this essential spring cleaning.
Hi Rachel,
Loved you linking spring cleaning with cutting business waste. Afraid you touched a nerve with ‘later email messages’ and deceased social groups. Thanks,
Edward
Hi Rachel,
The Spring Cleaning checklist is a great reminder to keep your house in order.
I appreciate this because after a long winter of “nose to the grindstone”… I need to take some time to step back and look at how some of my time management and advertising efforts have been serving me… and how to improve them going forward.
-Donna
One of my goals from 2016 was to be more diligent about cleaning out my email box. I’ve been making great progress as I set time aside to delete at least 100 at a time. I’m working on the taxes now and I didn’t keep up monthly as I promised myself. So, that one’s going to the top of my cleaning list.
All good tips…I do indeed need to unsubscribe to a bit of newsletters that were never that useful…
I’ve started unsubscribing from the million lists i was signed up to. I also schedule days for follow ups, blog writing etc. My time management is under control, i just need to block out time to do NEW things. Also network online.
My goal is to put together a course on teachable and social media, content etc (i want to do a few) so i need to get my head straight and then block time out for that.
Hi Rachel, I make it a habit to review and purge ‘stuff’ around the house. In December, I cleared out a LOT of business paperwork and old program information. It felt SO good to purge things I hadn’t looked at for a few years.
I periodically look at groups and networking events for effectiveness. I also look at my calendar:) That’s a good indication of how I’m investing my time.