Taking part in the 2019 Spring Conference was a bizarre experience for me. I went there with my “mom friends”—the kind of people that I hang out with to talk about mommy duties. Despite my busy career as a businesswoman, I find ways to go with them to such events, knowing that I can always learn something new about being a mother. So, when someone in the group got tickets for the conference, my brain instantly registered it as a convention that could teach people about the best way to do spring cleaning.
In all fairness, I did not have time to read everything on the ticket. I merely thanked my friend who brought it to the house, took note of the date and time, and set my alarm for it. I felt genuinely interested in knowing how to clean my house from top to bottom, given that I only had time to do it at least once a month.
But you could envision how surprised I was when It dawned on me that the organizers’ idea of spring cleaning was not very literal. Yes, a cleaning expert came to offer tips on how to be thorough about it. However, there were also people from the business sectors who said that spring cleaning was applicable to businesses, too.
Below are some of the tricks that I have learned and applied to my business.
Tidy Up Your Office
Assuming you always follow a tight schedule, your office may be in absolute disarray all the time. That is especially true if you do not allow the janitors to scrub the room clean for you. They may be able to empty your trash can, but you may not allow them to at least vacuum your carpet or organize your desk. In that case, the best thing that you can do is to clean the office by yourself.
Allocate one day during the week when you will come in only to tidy things up in the office. You won’t be accepting any calls or appointments; your focus will solely be on making the room as clean as possible. It is better than outsourcing this specific job because you can feel more attuned to the space when you work hard to transform it.
Go Through Your Emails Once And For All
I cannot tell how often you go through your emails, but I am the type of person who only pays attention to the most significant ones. E.g., letters from sponsors, inquiries from clients, and applications from potential employees. All the others, such as product offerings, newsletters, and even SPAM messages, remain ignored for as long as possible.
Like with idea mentioned above, though, you should spend at least a day to deal with your emails. Delete the ones that you do not care for; keep the emails that you still have a use for. It is also the perfect time to take your address out of websites’ mailing lists so that you won’t receive three to five announcements from them daily. By doing so, the number of unopened emails won’t pile up and bury the business-related items.
Assess Every Employee’s Performance
The key to being a fantastic boss is letting employees excel in their respective positions. You give them the freedom to grow career-wise instead of telling them everything that they should do. You show compassion to everyone, to the extent that you often provide free lunch at work.
Nevertheless, if you want to become a successful business person, a little change is in order. It is ideal to assess every employee’s performance objectively instead of keeping everyone who has been friendly to you. After all, you have been nothing but kind and generous to them, but you are not running a charity here. Your hard work and effort must pay off, and it will only happen if every individual in your team is as dedicated as possible.
Analyze Your Online Presence
So, you already have a working website, complete with many pages. Your business also has social media pages on various platforms. The question is, are the pieces of information there enough to drive more traffic or sales to your company?
It matters to answer this query with brutal honesty, no matter how painful the truth may be. If your website does not appear on the first page of Google search results, for instance, you may still have a weak online presence. Because of this realization, you can look for ways to build it up or make it visible to more virtual users.
Final Thoughts
How satisfied was I about going to the spring conference, you might ask? Well, I could not contain my gratitude for being bought to the event, so I treated my friends to a fancy dinner that night. I even volunteered to host our kids’ playdate instead of merely letting them do all the planning. Of course, the next day, I started spring cleaning my business until I was satisfied with the outcome.
If the tips above worked for me, why would it have a different effect on you? Spring clean your business now!