A spring clean traditionally marks the final farewell to winter for the year, but it’s not just your house that can benefit from a good scrub down.
Businesses should be looking at how they can clean out and organise their business to make sure everything’s working effectively and re-energise everyone for the warm months ahead.
Tim Reed, CEO of MYOB, acknowledges that business owners can find it tough to keep going during the winter months.
“As tempting as it is to bunker down, it’s the perfect time to energise and engage your team with a thorough business clean-up. In the weeks before spring this can renew everyone’s enthusiasm about their work plan during the warmer months,” Reed said.
There are a number of things business owners can do to improve the way their SMB operates.
The best way to start is to take a look at performance reports from the past year and evaluate the systems and processes that contributed to, or detracted from, that performance.
For many, this may be looking at ways to streamline different systems and processes in order to save time. In today’s business world, this means working online.
If you find you’re often buried under a mountain of paperwork, it’s time to move your accounts into the cloud, and if you still haven’t got a website, it’s time to make one.
Australian SMEs with a website were 60 per cent more likely to have seen an increase in revenue in the year to February 2013, according to the latest MYOB Business Monitor.
“A key revenue generating activity that surprisingly few SMEs take advantage of is a business website. It puts you online where your customers are researching their purchase decisions,” Reed said.
“If you already have a business website, consider how you can make it even easier to find. Can you update it more frequently? Provide more visuals of products and services? Link it to your social media profiles? Offer an e-commerce facility? Take a look at websites from your competitors and other companies you admire to get ideas,” he said.
Reed also added that a key aspect of any spring clean should be to check in with the progress of the business against your plan in this financial year so far.
“Successful operators use a business plan as a living document, regularly referring to and reassessing it. Rather than making a plan and filing it away, use every opportunity to revisit your progress towards goals and to celebrate key milestones with your team,” Reed said.
Celebrating milestones and other occasions like Christmas in July with your team is a good way to keep spirits – and staff engagement levels – up during the dreary months.
It’s also important to encourage staff to work from home or take leave if they’re sick to ensure that germs aren’t spread around the workplace and impacting productivity.
It can be difficult to stay motivated during winter, but getting a head start on your spring cleaning will ensure that your business is ready for the busy warmer months ahead.
