Many people are reporting Overwhelm, Busy-ness, and a general malaise that is dragging them and their teams down. After 3 years of continuing change and uncertainty, it’s perhaps little wonder that sometimes energy levels are low, and the intent is a bit lacking! It feels like a big winter has been endured. Time for a Spring Clean. And what better time than now… in Spring!
Spring represents renewal, rebirth, and the start of new life, and spring cleaning your business means injecting this fresh feeling to your own operation.
Part One: Start with yourself – Have a Self-upgrade
In 5 steps:
- Upgrade your thinking – clear out the doubts and the procrastination
- Upgrade the way you act – posture, poise, body language
- Upgrade the way you speak – are you clear?
- Upgrade the way you look.
- Upgrade your environment.
You are your shop window.
Is your posture correct? Are you exuding confidence with every stride? A purposeful poise will generate confidence in yourself and in your clients and in your colleagues and team members.
Have a declutter of your environment… your desk, office, reception area, car, home.
Part Two: Have a Professional Upgrade
- Upgrade your knowledge – what do you need to improve in this arena?
- Upgrade your skills
- Upgrade your activity levels – (and clear out the time drains)
- Upgrade your performance in key activities
- Upgrade your professional regime – is your time, energy and focus directed to the most productive work? (and clear out the energy drains)
Part Three: Have a Business upgrade
- Key areas
What are the 6 key areas of your business?
(example: marketing, sales, ops, service delivery, client-care, finances)
What 3 things do you want to change and improve in each area?
Which 1 of these changes are you going to work on, immediately?
2. The Team
Is the Vision clear and communicated in an inspiring, engaging, compelling way?
Are the goals clear?
Is the collaboration what it could be?
Apply the same 5 steps as you did when having a self-upgrade:
- The way the team thinks
- The way the team acts
- The way the team communicates
- The way the team looks
- The team environment
3. The Systems.
What are the niggly things getting in the way of the smooth operation of the business?
Make a hit list and make it part of your spring clean.
Maybe it does mean getting all those little jobs done and finally sorted, clearing out those ‘dark cupboards’ (literally and metaphorically) where nobody goes, but where who knows what lurks!
What is your client’s journey through your business like? What is their experience from the moment you are in contact with them (or they are in contact with you), 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 little detail. How can each detail be improved?
4. Environment.
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? Your clients only 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.
5. 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 volume of fresh new 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.
Of course, you might extend the concept of having a spring clean to other areas of your life… such as having a clear out at home.
And maybe it does mean getting all those niggly little jobs done and finally sorted, clearing out those dark cupboards where nobody goes, but 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 time dedicated to a “Business Spring clean” will energise you and your team at just the right time.
Every Success.