Spring Cleaning for the Solopreneur!
Refresh your small business for a productive year!
Welcome in, friends!
As I mentioned in an earlier post, most virtual assistants love sharing and using organizational tools, so let’s talk about this productivity plan for solopreneurs and small business owners: Spring Cleaning!
Now, this idea of spring cleaning is not a new concept for most of us. We likely grew up watching our families clean out and tidy up as the weather got warmer and the days grew a little longer each Spring. For many of us, we follow these ideals for ourselves in our own homes and perhaps other parts of our lives. The ideas here aren’t new.
But…
…When was the last time you put them into practice in your workspace?
Quick Win Basics:
What does Spring Cleaning look like for the business owner?
At the time of this writing, it’s Springtime 2022, and the world has been through a tough couple of years. It feels like a good time to do a thorough cleaning of our businesses and our mindsets.
So, let’s explore ways to renew our workspaces. Let’s renew our focus to find greater meaning in our work!
Here are several tips to inspire us to action and get our creativity flowing. While these lists are not exhaustive, they can be ideal jumping off points.
Let’s go!
Physical Workspace Tips:
- Maintain a tidy workspace: Take five minutes at the end of every day to clear off your desk, workbench, kitchen table, or whatever surfaces you use for your primary work each day.
At first, you may feel you need more than five minutes for this project, but as it becomes habit and you maintain an orderliness that works for you, the necessary time will shrink!
Try to be methodical about this. Place each project’s materials together, recycle/shred/pitch now-unneeded notes and items, file or stack papers, folders, or supplies neatly in the drawer or cubby, and so on.
The benefits are boundless! Not only does this make you feel great about seeing that vast expanse of cleared prime real estate…but…
- You also know that your project details are once again all together, and you don’t have to search through unwieldy stacks to get started on tomorrow’s work,
- You’ve cleared the way for new, creative thoughts to blossom where clutter once distracted and overwhelmed you, and
- If your priorities shift based on your next day’s to-do list, space is already made for launching into that job immediately the next time you sit down to work!
2. Speaking of to-do lists, this tidy-up process could fit very nicely with making the next day’s
3-Item To Do list! Read more about that here!
As you clear your space, take note of any additional open to-do’s that aren’t yet on your list or that you forgot to prioritize.
3. As you
make a habit of your daily workspace tidy-up, pay attention to the new ideas you
have for decluttering or better organizing your workspace…or your work…to create greater efficiencies!
Carry through with your ideas. Experiment and learn! Create workflows and habits that work for you.
Digital Workspace Tips:
-
Clean up your email inbox!
Schedule time to…
- Archive, delete, or file unneeded messages.
- Make use of OneNote or Evernote (or similar apps) to organize and maintain reference materials that arrive via email.
- Set up automatic filters and rules to manage incoming messages going forward.
- Create templates for your most-used email messages and replies in order to communicate quickly and uniformly with just a few clicks.
- Set a habit of managing your inbox on a regular basis you don’t miss important to-do items in the midst of low-priority messages.
2. Tidy up your company’s website! These digital marketing areas collect clutter just like the
rest of our business spaces.
- Take time to review and update blog posts with current links, product info, images, and supporting data. Archive posts that no longer serve your customers.
- Browse your online product catalogs. Remove obsolete items and descriptions, and generally ensure that your offerings are up to date.
- Pro Tip: This is the perfect time to review your overall inventory.
Optimize your best sellers and decide what to do with the underperformers.
Do you need to revamp your product line or research new vendors?
- Do you feature photos on your website? Update your photos and be sure to use appropriate web tools to reduce photo file size so your site loads quickly.
3. Bonus online tips! While you’re clearing away digital clutter, look into these proactive
sales and service tools associated with your company’s website and online presence.
- Are your customers reaching out to you via your website? Are you and your team proactively responding to messages, and does your website help convert those contacts to sales?
- Find out: Does your website work well on a mobile device? A responsive, mobile-optimized site is crucial for building confidence and sales with today’s customers.
- Perform a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) check. Are the search engines finding your site easily and quickly? If not, look into options for reviving your SEO right away!
- Are your Calls to Action (CTAs) clear, current, and linked to your featured products and services?
- Take a few moments to identify top-quality sales and service content from your website that can be repurposed into social media posts and newsletter eBlasts to better serve your clients and prospects.
- Or vice-versa. What’s proven helpful to your customers on your business’ social media or email communications that could be useful on your company’s site?
- Engage with research on current tech trends for the type of business you own. What technologies should be upgraded soon to serve your clients well and keep your competitive edge?
Before we move to the final workspace list, here are two additional items
to consider now that we’ve made room in our spaces:
1. Review your business plan! After all, you spent a lot of time creating it, and it is the
touchstone of your company’s mission and operations.
Set aside ample time to read and update it now.
Review it on a quarterly basis, with a deep-dive audit of it annually.
2. Be in touch with your clients! This seems like an obvious daily task, yet—because of our
busy schedules—the need to be intentional on this point is imperative!
We have wonderful clients, and we’ve cultivated relationships with them over the years that we would like to continue for years to come.
Who haven’t you heard from in some time? Pick up the phone, mail a handwritten note, or send an email to those customers. Reconnect and offer to help them. Make your company top-of-mind for them once again. You never know where it will lead!
Mental Workspace Tips:
Spring is the perfect time to renew our focus to find greater meaning in our work.
This often means stepping away from our work…
...even if just for a few moments at a time…
...to make space for all the good things!
A handful of inspiring ideas to get us started–
1.
Maintain a sense of humor and take time for some self care!
We care well for others when we are filled up and charged up...and not taking ourselves too seriously.
Finding ways to genuinely enjoy life—in both the mundane and the miraculous—is a gift worth giving to ourselves and then overflowing to others.
2.
Embrace an attitude of gratitude.
I know it’s a cliché…but set that knowledge aside for the moment.
Let’s focus instead on finding time each day to reflect on our blessings and discover ways that we might extend blessing to others.
3. Be intentional with our time, focus, and energy. Here are a couple of Holly Mann quotes
that resonated with me recently—
❇ Time is a nonrenewable resource that you can’t get back once it’s gone.
❇
I have more than enough time to enjoy the life I intentionally create.
4.
Continue in a growth mindset!
Spring’s new life is the perfect time to reset our thinking!
Carol Dweck, the researcher behind the idea of a growth mindset said this:
Individuals who believe their talents can be developed
(through hard work, good strategies, and input from others)
have a growth mindset.
They tend to achieve more than those with a more fixed mindset
(those who believe their talents are innate gifts).
This is because they worry less about looking smart
and they put more energy into learning.
5. Appreciate the moments! We each have just one life, and we spend a lot of time racing from
one task or responsibility to the next.
Set aside time each day or each week to reflect on your blessings—small or large.
Use a gratitude journal or a quiet moment of prayer and thankfulness to mark those moments as valuable and significant.
And What Else?
Thanks for stopping by today! It’s delightful to have you here!
Now, if you are a small business owner or solopreneur who loves creating ways to boost productivity but is having trouble finding time to power through all of these cleaning lists…let alone cross anything off of them, then you and I just may be meant to be business partners!
But first, simply pick one thing off one of these lists and start there!
Finish that task, and then work your way through a handful more.
Then, consider this:
My strategic-planning and administrative skills lend themselves well to sorting through the “stuff” to create organized, efficient spaces for productivity! This is part of the value virtual assistance can bring to your business.
Click on the contact me button below to connect with me on this topic!
Primer & Scout, LLC
