Saturday morning I spent four grueling hours doing dirty yard work for the first time in our new house in Apollo Beach, FL. I must admit, it was fun but exhausting. During my quest to rid my yard of weeds I realized there is a correlation to the mundane, but necessary maintenance required to keep a business operating smoothly just as my yard requires a little tender love and care every week to stay beautiful.
- Pull the Weeds - What things come up in your day-to-day that suck the life out of you? Is it tending to your email? Following up with dead-end prospects? Answering the same questions over and over and over and over and … ? Figure out what’s eating away at your time and profits, and fix the problem or get rid of it all together! But be sure you get down to the root of the issue or else the problem will keep coming back. For the next three minutes write down all the weeds in your business. Now that you’ve jotted them down, give each problem a good 60 seconds of thought – what can I do to fix this problem? How much is this costing me? What should I be doing instead?
- Cutting and Trimming - Be sure to keep your expenses in check. Cut back on unnecessary subscriptions, ineffective advertising, excessive office space, etc. Be able to track and measure the ROI from products and services. Are your employees using the products and tools you purchased for them? Are the service providers delivering as promised? Evaluate your return before renewing another contract. Know for sure the business is benefiting from it.
- Watering and Fertilizing – You can’t grow your business if you don’t feed it new opportunities, all the while continue to nurture the business you already have. Try new things like promote your website through a strategic Internet marketing campaign, join a networking group, give informative seminars, be a guest speaker, or perhaps even ask for a referral from your existing clients.
- Fix and Repair - Just like problems in our house that we tend to overlook every day, there are problems in your business that you’re aware of, but you just feel too busy to deal with them. Most likely, it’s the printer! Fix one problem a week… you’ll feel better because you’ve checked off a to-do, and eventually you’ll be all caught up! The best part is, you’ll probably be more efficient. You’ll realize how you’ve been doing things “the old way” or not at all because of those known issues that pop their head up every once in a while.
- Preventative Maintenance – If you don’t change the air filters in your home, you’ll have poor air quality and will likely be replacing your A/C unit years shy of the expected lifespan of an air conditioner. In your business, keeping things like computers up to date and free of dust bunnies is one of many things you can do to reduce costly, untimely repairs.
- Test the Smoke Alarm – Some things in your business are in place for that rare occasion such as a fire, theft, etc. But if the batteries in the smoke alarm in your home are dead, then the alarm won’t be able to detect the smoke and sound the alarm! Likewise, we should be certain that our business is ready for disaster recovery such as off-site file backups, etc. You should have a step-by-step plan, and evaluate the plan at least once a year to determine if anything should be added/removed. Before a real life disaster occurs, test things like the generator to make sure it starts!
Just like being a proud new homeowner, there are certain things that must get done in order to enjoy your business. Now get out there and “cut the grass”, “pull the weeds”, etc. You know the old saying… “The grass is greener wherever you water it.”
What have you done on a daily, weekly, monthly, or annual basis that has revolutionized your business?