It’s time to Spring clean your biz.

4 Sept

As spring arrives in the Southern Hemisphere, it brings with it a sense of renewal and fresh beginnings—a perfect opportunity to give your business a little “spring cleaning.” Whether it’s streamlining processes, refreshing your marketing strategy, or decluttering your workspace, there are countless ways to breathe new life into your business. But with so many options, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. The key is to start with just one area that resonates most with you and your current business needs. By taking that first step, you’ll set the stage for growth and success, to kick your business goals as we end 2024.

Here’s 24 ways we are bringing the Spring-cleaning-vibes to our business this season:

1. Review Your Products and Services

Measure Your Profit Margin: Review each of your products and services to understand how profitable they are. Delete what’s not brining in enough profit into your business.
Measure Your Happiness: Review each of your products and services to understand what brings you joy. Yeah this might sound touchy feely, but it’s a great time to review what you actually enjoy delivering in your business. Delete what’s not working. It’s meant to feel good!
Consider New Products: Have you been sitting on new products/service ideas? Now might be the time to test something new!

2. Declutter Your Business Processes

Streamline Operations: Review and refine your current workflows to eliminate inefficiencies. Don’t have workflows? Then now is the time to start creating them in your business. The key is to start small, with one system or one process.
Evaluate Tools and Software: Are the tools you're using still serving you well? If not, consider upgrading or simplifying.
Leverage Automation Tools: Identify repetitive tasks that can be automated, such as email marketing, invoicing, or social media tasks (Manychat is an Instagram chatbot I’m currently obsessed with). Implement automation tools to save time.

3. Refresh Your Marketing Strategy

Audit Your Content: Review your content calendar, website, and social media. What’s working? What’s not working? What needs to be refreshed?
Update Branding: Consider a minor rebrand or a fresh look at your visual identity to stay current.
Try Something New: Take this time to review trends, new tactics or channels. What can you test out in your business this season?

4. Organise Your Finances (Don’t skip this one!)

Review Financial Goals: Revisit your financial goals and adjust as needed to align with your current business stage.
Tidy Up Your Books: Ensure your bookkeeping is up to date and accurate. Check in with your accountant on any deadlines for the end of the year.
Assess Subscriptions and Expenses: Eliminate unnecessary expenses that don’t add value to your business.

5. Revitalise Your Team

Host a Team Offsite: Organise a team get together away from the day-to-day of work. Whether that’s in person or over zoom, spend time strategising and building relationships to re-energise your team for the remainder of the year.
Reassess Roles: Ensure everyone’s roles are aligned with their strengths and the business's goals. Have you been putting off letting someone go? Now is the time, my love.
Promote Well-being: We are humans not robots. And without our health (both physical and mental) we don’t have a business. Encourage healthy habits and work-life balance as a fresh start for the season for both yourself and your team.

6. Reflect and Set New Goals

Review Your Goals: Are they still relevant? Do they still light you up? Or do you need to make adjustments to finish the year feeling both accomplished and at peace?
Review Past Performance: Analyse your business's performance over the last few months and identify areas for improvement.
Set New Objectives: Break down any new goals into daily achievable tasks.

7. Spring Clean Your Physical and Digital Spaces

Declutter Your Workspace: Organise your physical office or workspace to create a more productive environment.
Digital Detox: Clean up your digital files, inbox, and desktop to reduce stress and improve efficiency.
Refresh Inventory: If applicable, assess your inventory and clear out old stock to make way for new products.

8. Get some help

Shorten that to do list: It might be finally time to get a VA. What’s one or two things that you can take off your plate this season?
Join that membership: You knew I couldn’t write an article without plugging the SPARK membership, didn’t you? But seriously, even if it’s not SPARK find a membership that’s right for you and get support from awesome women in business.
Stop doing laundry: We all know that our personal life affects our business life. Perhaps it’s time to ‘gently suggest’ that your partner helps out a little more, or if it’s the right time get external help like a cleaner, order ready made meals or even a babysitter.

In a SPARKTV podcast episode with Shonavee Simpson-Anderson, we celebrated/commiserated over how there was always something more that you can do to optimise your business. Realistically this article has 24 different ideas that you can draw from to keep growing and improving yours. Why not start with one? In this Spring season, take a moment to pause and tidy up something in your business to bring renewed enthusiasm for the day to day! (Oh and maybe make some more money too!)

Danielle Lewis