Spring is in the air and I’m itching to have a spring clean and re-focus my priorities!
If you too are thinking of taking advantage of the new season to clear a path and re-energise your small business, here are a few tips to get you going:
Paperwork
This is usually the thing that gets left until last but block out a day to get that mountain of paperwork under control.
Make sure everything is scanned, filed correctly or shredded if no longer needed so you aren’t constantly looking at a forest of documents - it will make a huge difference knowing everything is where it should be, and that you are on top of your paperwork.
Reconciliation
Have you been neglecting those slightly awkward reconciliation transactions because you haven’t got the time to investigate it properly? Can’t find the receipts to get that last one ticked off, “it’s in my bag somewhere”? Get down to it and get your reconciliation done, not only will this give you a sense of achievement in clearing down your transactions, it will help with your accounts reporting also – two for the price of one!
Electronic Filing
Knowing that everything is where it’s supposed to be not only gives you a sense of satisfaction, but it can save hours of your time when you don’t have to search about for that one important document.
If your Dropbox, Google Drive or the like is looking a little like a dumping ground for PDFs and JPEGs with file names like “P0AOFN15631.png”, spend a few hours sorting through your files, renaming and refiling so you always know where to look to find that all important contract or design.
Profit & Loss Reports
This time of year, as it coincides with the start of the new Financial Year, is a great opportunity to have an in depth look at where your hard-earned money is being spent.
Looking at your P&L reports and reviewing each of the accounts on it can throw up real insight into where you could shave a few £’s off certain areas (stationery is my weakness), invest in others and stop wasting money all together on other accounts.
New Technology
If you are using systems and technology that are a bit outdated, spend a bit of time researching new ways your processes and tasks can be done – we live in amazing times, do you want to organise your team’s holidays, shifts and personal documents on one, easy to use platform? Someone’s got an app for that. Do you want to communicate with your teams online, create teams within those teams, assign projects and tasks and report on the overall project progress? Someone’s got an app for that – and sometimes, these apps and software is free!
Peruse the web and have a look at all the new and exciting software available to you to get your business running smoother than a bar of Galaxy chocolate (one of my other weaknesses)!
Review your Social Media Accounts
Just like your software, your Social Media accounts need a refresh every now and then.
Block out some time and a local Eventbrite workshop to get a handle on the new social media marketing trends, spruce up your images, re-write your LinkedIn profile to celebrate all your recent achievements, update your hashtag lists, create Instagram Storyboards, update the videos on your website, connect with your networking contacts or even create a Pinterest board for your business (it’s much more of a search engine than you would think).
Phew, after all of that you should be finished just in time for a summer holiday!
I hope this post has been helpful and insightful and I wish you all a productive week!
See you soon!
Naomi | VIRTUALESQUE
