In Part 1 we looked at having a self-upgrade as part of your Spring Cleaning.
Now let’s turn to the business:
Having a Business Upgrade
1. Clear up any hangovers. Clearing up all the stuff hanging over from the past is essential to signal that you are ready to take advantage of the opportunities and fresh volume of business on its way. In creating a clutter-free business and having nothing outstanding, you will often come across something to remind you of a business opportunity. Get up to date and you allow new opportunities to arrive. A signal to the “business universe” that you are ready to receive, and that there is nothing in the way of you doing all the new business which will come your way.
This requires you to get decisive about all those things in your “In tray” and the piles of paper on your desk, the emails in your inbox, and the odd files which seem to hide in briefcase compartments and get carried to and from the office every day, with all good intentions of getting round to acting on them. Clear your desk to the wood. And what about all thopse “archived files”?
Remember the F-A-R-T nemonic… There are only 4 things you can do with any piece of paper:
File
Act
Refer
Trash
That goes for your paperwork, your in-tray, your inbox.
2. Upgrade your office environment. Clear up your office, reception area, etc. Is your furniture really what it should be? Are you “making do”? Are you well supported technologically? What does your office, your reception area say to clients? Clients want to associate with success. Again, the small things will make a huge difference here, and you don’t have to spend a fortune to make the environment you work in very stylish, of high quality and supportive of your brand.
3. Upgrade your systems. To keep your business capacity up, and ensure you deliver first rate service from a world class practice, it’s essential you have strong business systems, procedures, processes. Take a look at the routine tasks your business does and ask “how can these be systemised so I can spend more time with clients, doing what I do best?”
What is your client’s journey through your business like? What is their experience from the moment you are in contact with them, right through the process of them becoming clients and beyond? This is not just about the personal service you provide, but also the experience they have in every minute detail. How can each detail be improved? Apply this to everything that affects your interaction with your existing clients and potential clients. What they experience in their interaction with your firm will either work for you or against you, and so should be deliberately chosen… not an accident. For example, how the phone is answered, or your voicemail/ answer phone message. Do these project your brand, inspire confidence in prospective clients, speak volumes about your values?
4. Upgrade yourself and your team Professionally. This could include an upgrade in Skills, Knowledge, Activity Levels, new performance standards, professional regimes and structures. For example, when do you have your regular team meetings, and how they are formatted?
What new skills need to be developed? What courses (or even self-study and research) need to be taken to improve knowledge of products, services, the market place, technical developments?
What needs upgrading in each of these areas? Make a hit list and go to work ON it.
And maybe it does mean getting all those niggly little jobs done and finally sorted, clearing out those dark cupboards where nobody goes, but where who knows what lurks!
Just as a body finds it difficult to function with clogged arteries, and just as we feel re-energized when we spring clean, so too in our business and professional lives a “spring clean” will yield immediate results. It may be that a day dedicated to a “Business Spring clean” will energise you and your team at just the right time. But if the thought of taking a day (or two!) out to “spring clean” your business fills you with horror as you are just too “snowed under”, just work on a piece at a time.