3 Areas to Refresh Your Business This Spring for Greater Productivity
The first quarter is just about over and Spring is quickly approaching! Establishing an effective spring cleaning tradition just doesn’t mean tidying up the office. For a business, spring cleaning goes a lot deeper than that. By refreshing your business, it is a time to clean house, get rid of the clutter, and make room for new opportunities. Spring cleaning your business can show you what processes need improvement, help you streamline everyday operations, and give your company a renewed outlook, which is like a breath of fresh air.
Are you ready to spring clean your small business? Here are three areas where you can freshen things up at your company.
Update Your Website & Conduct a Digital Audit
Your website needs to be a reliable source of information about your business, so make sure it’s up-to-date. Are all of your links working properly? If not, it can send people to page-not-found messages or 404 errors. Spring is a good time to fix all the little details that can make a big impact. You want to find these errors before your customer does. You want your target audience to stay engaged on your website and reinforce your company’s reputation as the go-to source for information. Bonus Website Exercise: Custom brand your 404 error page so that if a reader is sent there, you can share a message you can be proud of. View sample custom 404 pages.
If you’re like most business owners, the content on your hard drive and other storage locations can get away from you! Here are five ways you can free up space on your computer’s hard drive and help your business run more efficiently:
- Delete unnecessary files or documents “downloads” folder. Oftentimes we download files but never go back and delete them once they are used. If you do need to save a file or document in your download folder, save them to folders that are specifically assigned to them.
- Purge your email inbox and folders of messages you’ve already responded to or that are no longer relevant. And don’t forget to empty your trash folder!
- Consider backing up all of your files with an automated cloud-based file storage solution. When you store your files in the cloud, you can access and update files from anywhere on any device and this also frees up more storage on your computer’s hard drive.
- Clear your browsing data, and cache and even review your bookmarks. Remember, simpler is better!
- After validating that files are not needed, delete accumulated files from your recycle bin.
Eliminate Unnecessary Business Expenses
The main objective of any business is to earn a profit. Often, we focus only on the earning side of the equation. But that is not the full picture. In order to increase profit, you can generate more income, but you can also cut down on unnecessary expenses. Springtime is the perfect time to review your expenses. For example, are there training, internet or other monthly subscriptions you no longer need? If you are not actively using them, why pay for something you do not use? This money could be used in other areas which could help you generate more profit.
Another simple way to eliminate waste is to go paperless. Technology now offers cheaper and better alternatives to using paper. Besides reducing waste and helping the environment, going paperless can make your business more efficient. There will be less paperwork to push, documents to physically store, and important records that could get lost. Look through your vendor list to identify any bills you can switch to paperless.
Clean, Organize and Personalize Your Workspace
Productivity is the heart and soul of a business. Cleaning or organizing your workspace can help you be more successful in achieving goals. Think how nice it is to walk into your workspace when it’s fresh and clean versus covered in chaos! You’re likely much more productive.
You can also personalize your space with colors, plants and other personal touches and encourage your employees to do the same. This personalization supports individual creativity and expression, which in turn supports productivity. And that impacts your bottom line!
Another place you can refresh is around your old paper files. Most of us unnecessarily hold on to old files longer than needed. It is a good practice to set a time limit for how long to hold these files (unless it is paperwork that is required to be held due to regulatory, tax, or government requirements). At a certain point after a project’s completion, dispose of any files related to that project. If you absolutely need them, see if you can store old files in the cloud or in an off-site location. This is a good business practice, and it helps free up room for new accounts and projects.
Incorporating the above tips will help you spring-clean your small business and head into summer feeling more refreshed and organized. Your workplace will look better, and you will maintain focus on managing your business more effectively throughout the year.
So, how are you going to refresh your business this spring?
About the author: Autumn Edmiston is the CEO and owner of the Edmiston Group. The Edmiston Group is a multifaceted Pittsburgh-based marketing consulting firm providing senior-level marketing management services to businesses and non-profit organizations on a short or long-term basis. Core areas of service are business development strategies, website creation and management, social media management, marketing, strategic planning, and public relations. The Edmiston Group has consistently delivered and implemented real-world, proven business marketing ideas and strategies for business.
4 Tactics For Business Growth
Running a small business is not easy! As a business owner, you are responsible for many things, including payroll, accounting, sales, customer servicing, and marketing, not to mention your actual work. It can be a bit overwhelming especially when things aren’t going according to your business and marketing plan. You want to achieve more business growth, yet you just can’t seem to make it happen. What do you do?
This is a time to review and strategize around business growth tactics that many companies have used time and time again.
Know Your Audience
Defining your target audience will go a long way to help you better understand your clients and help you position your products or services accordingly. Let’s face it, it is impossible to reach and appeal to all consumers at once. By identifying your target audience, it allows your business to focus its marketing efforts and dollars on the groups that are most likely to buy from you while doing it in an efficient and affordable manner. If it’s been a while since you’ve reviewed your description of your target audience, this is a perfect time to consider changes within your company and within the business landscape and refresh your customer avatar(s) accordingly.
Practice Proactive Marketing
What is proactive marketing? First, let’s talk about what it is not. Does your business implement marketing campaigns through the same channels and then analyze the data and metrics to see if the campaign was a success or failure? If so, this is referred to as reactive marketing. In other words, you are reacting to your customers’ feedback to determine if there is a demand for your new product or service. Instead, you may want to consider implementing the proactive marketing approach. The proactive marketing approach involves anticipating customer needs and taking steps to meet their needs before they arise. It involves marketing your products or services through new channels of distribution where people are not already looking for your products or services. By taking a proactive approach, you might be able to create customer demand, opening the door for your business to grow.
Know What Your Competitors Are Doing
To stay relevant in the marketplace, keeping track of your competition is essential. You can do this by creating a competitive analysis. Competitive analysis helps you to understand the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors in relation to your own products and services. This analysis can help you develop and implement stronger business strategies, uncover market trends, as well as help you capture more market share. It will also support designing a proactive marketing strategy as defined above.
Offer Referral Programs
A referral program is a great way to grow your business. A referral program is a strategy used to encourage customers to promote your products or services. Simply put, a referral program lets your customers share their experience and satisfaction with your products or services with partners, colleagues, and friends at little or no cost to you. You may have heard the old adage, the best form of advertising is through word-of-mouth. According to Semrush, Word-of-mouth marketing is even more effective than paid ads, resulting in five times more sales.
Growth is the key to a successful business! What tactics are you using to help grow your business this year? If you need fresh ideas for growing your business, give me a call at (724)612-0755.
About the author: Autumn Edmiston is the CEO and owner of the Edmiston Group. The Edmiston Group is a multifaceted Pittsburgh-based marketing consulting firm providing senior-level marketing management services to businesses and non-profit organizations on a short or long-term basis. Core areas of service are business development strategies, website creation and management, social media management, marketing, strategic planning, and public relations. The Edmiston Group has consistently delivered and implemented real-world, proven business marketing ideas and strategies for business.
Plan Ahead: 4 Ways to Reduce Overwhelm
Starting a new business or managing an existing business can be very rewarding. However, with the ever-changing landscape of business and the challenges of keeping up with new ideas, it can also create a lot of stress. Having too many things to do in too short of time often forces many small business owners into working extremely long hours and fostering feelings of being out of control… leading to a sense of overwhelm.
If this is your case, know that you are not alone. According to Small Business Administration, there are 33.2 million small businesses in the U.S. Small businesses are defined here as firms with fewer than 500 employees. So you’re in good company! Although you cannot add more hours to your day, here are some tips to help you stop feeling so overwhelmed.
Plan Ahead Around Social Media
Blog writing and social media have changed the way we share information and how to stay in touch with one another. With so many apps and so many platforms, it is easy to be overwhelmed. The more platforms you have, the more work you need to do to create each post specifically for that platform. Here’s a tip: Try writing and sharing posts around your next blog across all platforms at the same time, while it is fresh in your mind. Or better yet, schedule your posts well in advance using your favorite scheduling tool. Extra pro tip: Customize each post for each platform. A Tweet is very different than a post on LinkedIn.
Segment Your Time
Your time is valuable. When sitting down at your computer to work on a task, you might get sidetracked and then realize that you’ve spent a lot of time accomplishing very little. Try segmenting your time by setting aside specific amounts of time, or even times of day, to focus on particular tasks. For example, set 1-hour blocks of time for such things as checking and resolving email. Once your segment of time is up, move on to the next segment and continue until you complete all of the segments for that day. Make it fun! For each segment, stretch, grab a coffee, dance for a minute, or grab your favorite snack. This is a great way to help make the time more enjoyable and also help you stay focused on the task.
Use Scheduling Tools
For any small business to be competitive and flourish, you need to take advantage of the power of technology. Scheduling tools allow you to eliminate antiquated methods and help you run your business much more effectively. Whether your need is for scheduling appointments, scheduling social media posts, or keeping projects on track, there is an app for you. I personally have worked with all three of these apps based on the client I’m working with.
Asana is an example of a scheduling tool app that helps you manage projects. Let’s face it, between meetings, phone calls, and answering emails, a lot of your time at work isn’t focused on the actual work at hand. With Asana, you can assign project tasks with deadlines, which provides accountability for each assigned task. The communication is focused and actionable and you’ll always know the status of the work happening across your team.
Monday is a tool much like Asana and allows teams both internally or externally to collaborate, set due dates, and manage projects.
Teamwork is another project management software platform that is used to manage projects and communicate amongst team members.
Outsource
According to the Women’s Business Enterprise Council, “When your business begins to grow, it can be difficult juggling everything in-house. Outsourcing allows you the time and resources necessary for focusing on other aspects of the company, while still providing customers with high-quality service they expect from their favorite brands“.
By outsourcing tasks to other individuals or small businesses that perform various tasks better and more efficiently than you can (no, you can’t do it all!), your business will likely experience faster turnaround times for launching new products, be more competitive within your industry, and help you cut overall operational expenses.
By planning ahead and implementing the above tips, you can create the space to focus on more important activities, thereby reducing your stress and your feelings of overwhelm.
If you need help with your marketing activities, send me an email so we can plan your next steps.
About the author: Autumn Edmiston is the CEO and owner of the Edmiston Group. The Edmiston Group is a multifaceted Pittsburgh-based marketing consulting firm providing senior-level marketing management services to businesses and non-profit organizations on a short or long-term basis. Core areas of service are business development strategies, website creation and management, social media management, marketing, strategic planning, and public relations. The Edmiston Group has consistently delivered and implemented real-world, proven business marketing ideas and strategies for business.