Business Spring Clean
It’s April the sun is somewhat out, weather is warming up, clocks have gone back and it’s time for our quarterly blog. This season I decided to scrap all hot topics in the media and focus on something refreshing. Arn’t you just fed up with all that interest/inflation rate talk? I’m sick of it, I covered it in my last piece and the rates have since gone up. Yes government has put an energy price cap on the utilities but hey Summer is coming so WTH?? Anyway I promised not to talk about this and here I go again. With the long weekend ahead many of you (or maybe not) may be planning for that all important getaway and so you should, you’ve earned it. You’ve survived the long harsh winter alongside the constant economical turmoil but, guaranteed some of you like me won’t pass on the opportunity to do some work. Yes, I am talking to all you budding entrepreneurs who, for the love of God, (people just won’t understand) why you are still tied to your desk. It’s okay no need to explain to me. I totally understand, after all we are peas of the same pod. Many people fail to recognise that we are so wrapped up in meeting our goals that when these holidays come to pass we do not even know or care to know for that matter.
I have decided to give my property business a spring clean in this quite period. It’s a much valued focussed time where distraction will be few and far between. I have a new agenda but before I strategise I need to tie up loose ends and tidy up my business inventories. What I mean by all this is to clear-up all the clutter and improve business processes. It’s a tedious job and I must admit it is overwhelming if you have several niggly bits that need seeing too. I’m no expert at organising but common wisdom tells me to break it down. Let's start with the following, not a comprehensive list as each business is different but it’s a good starting point. Honestly, it’s very therapeutic once you get the hang of it.
TIP: The delete button is your friend.
Emails: Might be stating the obvious but empty spam/junk mail. Skim read the mail and just start deleting. Don’t look into it. If it’s been sat in your inbox for a while and you haven’t dealt with it then it can’t have been that important. Even better is too unsubscribe, that way your inbox won’t be cluttered with mail that’s not of great value. I am an email snob and honestly you will have to have something of significance to reach my inbox. I don’t even want to spend a second looking at mail that shouldn’t be there In the first place. Next open up categories and bung these emails into certain groups so they are easier to get too. For example, Marketing, Banking and Compliance. This way you are not scratching your head looking for items from a long list.
TIP: If you must take a day or two off, schedule send emails so they will go out on auto without you having to be there and that way your mind is at rest before you break-out for Easter.
CRM: This is where I mange all my long winded tasks and sales funnel. Go through your list and/or tabs and tick off items that have been completed which you didn’t get round to deleting. Add updates to task’s which haven’t been updated. For example I am waiting to hear from Business rates, I managed to speak to someone on the phone last week and sent off some forms but didn’t put this onto CRM to chase up for a later date. My CRM is always open and despite my best efforts I still, from time to time, forget to update it at the end of the day or week for that matter. I know, shame on me…
OneDrive: This took a while to sort out as I am new to it and still learning this database. I shoved/saved everything onto the drive and it’s now all over the place. It’s causing me anxiety as it takes ages to find things. I have since vowed to clean & maintain as I go along. To start with I just opened everything from the main drive and started delating obsolete/duplicate files. I am showing all the signs of a hoarder so I went on a rampage to start exterminating files I no longer need. To create some order of the chaos I have created folders and inserted documents into these. This should simplify things and moving forward I might start to enjoy OneDrive again.
Gallery: Again this was in OneDrive and it seems one of the databases was creating albums on its own under the heading explore. Needless to say the categorisation was appalling. Try not to be startled by this but the sheer volume of photos can push anyone away from even attempting. Make yourself an indulgent drink and off you go to memory lane. I couldn’t even do that as I was fasting. So had to endure this hardcore.
TIP 1: Don’t get all loved-up with the photos and start reminiscing, as no time for this, your on a mission remember.
Tip 2: Don’t take so many freaking unnecessary pictures in the first place. Did the carpentry element of your project need 90 pictures, seriously??
Now that you are left with a smaller portion of the pictures, you actually need, you can now create albums to make finding them easier. For example; Project:Wainfleet House, Marketing videos and Friends & Family. Don’t ask me how those got into the OneDrive!!
Squarespace: All major sites like banks and business alike have planned maintenance. While people are away holidaying this is the perfect time to spruce up your website and social pages if you really want to impress. Organic visitors to your site will be less so now is a good time to test, run posts or make those much awaited changes. Remember it’s a clean-up, not the construction of a new website that is a different task altogether. Change headings, layouts etc but the bulk of it should remain the same.
Tip: Think about who your clients are and make the changes accordingly.
Desktop: These little icons on your screen as soon as you open your laptop is a real eye saw. I thought I needed all of mine until I started to click into these. Amongst all the important stuff I even found a shopping list, referral references for previous employees and cat videos of my cats of course. Don’t really want to keep repeating myself but I’m pretty sure you know the drill by now. Majority removed to recycle and too that I can say Iv’e earned a lovely drink.
Bonus Tip: (Downloads). Check your list of downloads and repeat the above steps till you only have a few big token items and even those can be transferred to Dropbox. Did I say Dropbox..oh dear does that need clearing too??
Here’s to a well functioning, productive and revitalised business everyone.
Happy Spring cleaning.