The creation of the internet and social media has allowed hundreds of thousands of budding entrepreneurs to live out our dreams. Creating businesses, working for ourselves and on our own time has blossomed.
Of course, everybody wants their business to stand out head and shoulders above the rest. So how do you achieve that goal?
There are several ways to make your business stand apart from the competition. One of the biggest is to stay agile.
Staying streamlined and organized in your business helps stay on track towards your goals. It also saves time when you are a solopreneur so you focus on the most valuable tasks.
Because of that, I always like to bring the “household spring cleaning” into my business.
So, how can you spring clean your business to keep it fresh and organized? Read on for some quick tips.
Evaluate and Optimize Your Small Business
Start by evaluating your company from the top down.
Just like with your household spring cleaning, it always makes sense to figure out what you own first. Half the time, we have valuable items tucked away in drawers. Or, in the case of our business, in file folders we downloaded and never made use of.
Take inventory of the assets you already have, what you're not using, and what you could refresh. In the wise words of somebody… “work smarter, not harder.”
The best way to organize your business and set yourself up for success is to optimize things you have already created.
Here are six quick ways you can spring clean your business to get ready for the busy months ahead.
Analyze Where Your Business Has Remained Static
Take a good long look at where you have been static in your own company.
Has your company become stale and outdated?
Is there room for something new and innovative?
Can you improve a product or service?
If you have a successful business but have been riding the wave of success rather than staying on top of new trends, now is a chance to fix it.
What Can You Reuse?
There's a reason the saying “Don't recreate the wheel” is a commonly used English phrase.
In many cases we do want to innovate, as in the step above. However, there are just as many cases where there is no need to get overly complex about a product or service we know is already working.
Do you have a sales letter that you have sent out to customers that can be cleaned up a bit and reused? Or maybe there's a product a service you already offer that just needs a few simple marketing features to capture a whole new audience.
Evaluate those types of products to enhance what you already have in order to gain new potential clients and customers.
What needs recreating?
There are inevitably aspects of your business that you keep intending to get around to sprucing up but never quite make it to. It's just like how I insist that one day we will organize our garage during our spring cleaning venture.
Take advantage of the typically slower first quarter of the business year to finally complete these products.
Do you have a business department that needs reorganizing? Or perhaps you hire freelancers and haven't sat down recently to asses the terms of their employment or the quality of their recent work.
Often, facets of business that can use some revamping include better communication, polices, procedures and systems between business stakeholders.
Does your product or service live up to today’s standards?
Similar to the static nature of businesses, many owners don't take the next step forward to use the latest technology.
Check to see if your product or service lives up today’s standards and remains on trend with what customers have come to not only want but actually expect.
Are there new features that now come standard with your product that you don't include yet? Or perhaps your shipping times aren't as expedited as customers have learned to demand thanks to online retailers.
Wherever you have not optimized for new and improved trends, add the upgrades into your annual strategic plan.
Where do you stand with social media?
If your website does not incorporate social media, this is the time to include this all-important aspect into your business. Potential customers have come to expect an easy way to reach out to businesses through their website. Many even leave the site if they don't instantly see easily used social media buttons.
Even if you are a solopreneur with limited time, social media has plenty of tricks to help you succeed. You can use automated systems like Tailwind to preschedule business posts for a month ahead of time (or more!) Then, you can use chatbots and autoresponders linked to your accounts so that your customers gt instant replies until you are ready to sit down and respond to their specific questions one-by-one.
How can you reach more clients?
Think you have most of your business streamlined and ready for busy season?
Great! Then take initiative to investigate how you can reach more clients this year than in prior years.
Perhaps you use social media, but you haven't set up every account possible, like a Facebook fan page. Check to see if you are responding to comments that visitors leave on that site or your business webpage.
Engaging with clients is a sure-fire way to bring them closer to you rather than alienate them.
Additionally, start networking by reaching out to other businesses and blogs. Create a sharing opportunity on each other’s web sites through guest blogging or blog rolls.
Mom Has The Last Word
Today’s business is extremely fast paced and moves at a rapid speed through change. Keeping up with those changes is the only way to stay ahead of the competition.
Evaluate your existing business at the beginning of each year so that you can spring clean your way to success for the year ahead – and beyond!