Spring cleaning your business: 5 tips for a more productive season
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It’s the time of year for spring cleaning your business (that’s right, it’s not just for your home!). Read on for ideas to get your online business in tip-top shape for spring!
The energy of Spring is all about fresh starts, inspiration, and new ideas. It’s a time for planting the seeds (intentions) and making preparations for what we want to harvest (create or achieve) in the coming months. This makes it a really exciting time as a business owner!
So, the last thing you want during this really important time is to have a mess of things dragging you down, distracting you, and sucking your energy from the important preparation and “planting” that you need to be doing in your business.
That’s where spring cleaning your business comes in!
Spring cleaning your business isn’t about soap and water cleaning (thank goodness, because who wants to do that?!).
It’s about decluttering, getting organized, and making space for the new ideas and inspirations that come with Spring.
If you’re a solopreneur running an online business, below you’ll find 5 ways to tidy up your business so you can save time, get more done, and make space for all the fresh ideas and inspiration that comes with Spring!
(And by you, I mean we, because I need to do almost all of these things, too!)
5 Ideas for Spring Cleaning Your Business
1) Clean up your business systems, processes, and workflows.
If you’re a solopreneur, this is a great place to start spring cleaning your business. Since you’re the one handling pretty much every aspect of your business, it’s super important to have simple and efficient systems, processes, and work flows in place to automate and streamline as much of your work as possible.
Take a look at what’s working and what’s not, and do some restructuring to make them more efficient and easier to use.
This is a BIG (and ongoing) one for me, and I’ve been working on it even before spring arrived. I’ve been creating and overhauling every system and workflow in my business. It’s been a huge undertaking, but SO worth it! Now if I could just figure out Dubsado! I’ve just started using it and think it’s amazing, even though it makes me feel like a total dummy when I can’t figure out how to do the simplest things (like send an invoice?!). Big learning curve there.
If you don’t have systems and processes in place, now’s the time to create them!
A few ideas for systems and processes you might need . . .
Client workflows
Onboarding process
Project management system
Client management system
Time blocking and batching your work
2) Review & refresh your email sequences
If you’re a solopreneur with an online business, this is another really important thing to do when spring cleaning your business. Your email list is your lifeline to your audience and potential clients and customers, so you want to be sure your email sequences are right and tight.
This is one that’s so easy to overlook or put on the back burner (guilty!).
A few things to be on the lookout for:
Do you have older email sequences that are promoting programs or freebies you no longer offer?
Are the links in your email sequences still valid, or do any lead to 404 pages?
Are the “voice” and messaging of your emails still on-brand for you?
3) Audit your opt-ins
Along the same lines as #2, spring cleaning your business should probably include an audit of all your opt-ins.
I’m pretty sure I have opt-ins floating around on my website and blog that I don’t even remember making, aren’t relevant to anything I’m currently promoting, are no longer on-brand for me, and maybe don’t even work? (I hope not on that last one, but I won’t know for sure unless I do an audit!).
The last thing you (or I) want is to have someone go to opt in to a freebie on your website, only to have it not work. So make sure you audit these, remove any that are no longer serving you, and make any updates needed while spring cleaning your business.
4) Spruce up your work space
This one’s kind of obvious, but I think it’s a really important part of spring cleaning your business. Your working environment has a huge effect on your psyche, mindset, and energy. A cluttered, unorganized, or uninspiring work space can be distracting and demotivating. So declutter, get it organized, and spruce it up with things that uplift and inspire you.
If you’re a solopreneur, there’s a good chance you’re working from home, which makes it that much easier for your work space (which might be your sofa) to get cluttered with laundry, cat toys (at least that’s what happens in my work space), and other distractions. And if you’re a HSP (highly sensitive person)like me, then clutter and chaos are extra distracting and stressful — so this one will be extra important for you.
Related post: 17 ways to find more time and energy for your goals
5) Review & update your website plug-ins
When was the last time you updated your plug-ins? Do you have plug-ins you no longer need? Do you even know what all your plug-ins do?
I’ve been hearing so many horror stories lately about websites getting hacked, and I’ve had two clients go through huge ordeals with this, so this aspect of spring cleaning your business is HUGE.
This is all about security, so be sure you don’t skip this one! If you only do one thing on this list, please do this one!
Final thoughts
Spring is such an exciting time for your business. It's a time of fresh starts, new beginnings, and planting the seeds of the awesome things you want to create and achieve in the months ahead.
Spring cleaning your business will really help you make the most of this exciting and positive spring energy, so I encourage you to do at least some of the things on this list.
JOIN SUNDAY SOUL CARE ✨
Every Sunday, I’ll send you an Oracle card reading and a message from my soul to yours to inspire and uplift your week. ✨