Now that we are in March, and hopefully Spring is around the corner, this is a great time of year to carry out some Spring cleaning on your business and to help keep you on track for your 2017 goals.
Here are 6 top tips of areas to look at:
Brush Up Your Business Books – Not the most exciting area to start, but an area that is really important to stay on top of. Without keeping a record of what you are spending, how much tax you owe, what your sales are, which customers have yet to pay, you will never be able to know when you can take your business to the next level.
You should ideally keep a track of these numbers on a monthly basis as knowing your numbers is very powerful when running a business and means that you are able to make sound business decisions to help grow your business.
Seeing your figures on a monthly basis means that you become more in control, you begin to see patterns occur, will see when your busy and quiet times are, and from this you will be able to forecast and plan, and set yourself targets so that you can continue to increase month on month.
Review your Social Media Profiles- Social media is a great way to engage with customers and get exposure for your business, but it doesn’t mean you should always be on every platform. Go through your channels that you are on and see which ones are working for you – which ones have a good reach and are engaging with your customers. Come off the ones that aren’t working for you – there is no law to say you have to be on them all!
Take a look at your pages – does your Facebook & Twitter pages have the WOW factor? Is your header picture current and up to date. Is your page informative, interesting and engaging? Is your Linked In page current and up to date? It’s definitely worth spending a little time reviewing these pages as you never know when potential customers may be looking at them.
Review your Marketing – Have a look at your current advertising. Look at where you are advertising and is it working? If not have a think as to why. Take a look at your adverts, are they current and up to date. Do they have the right branding, or is this something that you have been thinking about updating for a while, now is a great time to clean up your image! Are the offers on your adverts current and up to date, do your adverts change with the seasons? Do you use tracking numbers so you can keep a log of which adverts are bringing you in the business?
Are you marketing in the right areas, have a good think about who your ideal customer is and where they might go to see your advert? Trial a new marketing pillar for a few months and see what the results are.
Review your Customer List – Take a look at your current customers. Which are your ‘ideal customers’ and why is this? These will be the customers you would like more of, in which case, why not ask your ‘ideal customers’ if they would be happy to refer a friend to your business? At the same time look at any problematic customers, ones that may not always pay you on time or that you have poor relationships with. Now may be a time to bring that relationship to a mutual end so you have more time to focus on getting your ‘ideal customer’.
Organise Emails – Set an afternoon aside for you to spend some time going through your over bulging ‘in box’! If you take the time to go through all your emails and file, categorise or delete them, you will walk away with a much clearer headspace. Whilst going through them, also take some time to unsubscribe to those emails that you never read or are no longer relevant to you.
Clean your Office or Van – Or wherever your work space may be. Throw out any pens that are no longer working, clean out your drawers. Go through the paper work and file the admin pile. Throw away any freebies from events or conferences you have attended that are still in the bags you brought them home in that are now in the corner of your room! Finally give your office space a good clean – when was the last time you hoovered behind that printer!
Giving your business as Spring Clean will help you to clear your mind and means you will be able to see more clearly and so hopefully helping with your vision to drive your business forward towards your 2017 targets.
