Spring cleaning for your small business

Small business owners have a multitude of responsibilities to tend to every day. Naturally, as they focus on what’s most important in the moment, some tasks will either fall through the cracks or pile up. Over time, that can cause distraction and hurt a business’s efficiency and effectiveness.

If you’re discovering that what’s left undone is thwarting your productivity, why not commit to fitting time into your May schedule to do a little “spring cleaning” for your business.

Here are several suggestions to help you give your business a breath of fresh air this spring. Most are small changes, but they can make a big difference in your ability to focus clearly:

• Free up space on your computer’s hard drive by deleting files/documents you no longer need. Pay particular attention to your “downloads” folder. If you need to maintain files and documents within it, save them to other folders that are appropriate for them.
• Reduce clutter at your workstation by doing two things:
• Review the pile of business cards you’ve collected at networking events, and connect with those people on LinkedIn. Then dispose of the cards in the trash.
• If you have vendors’ brochures and the other marketing literature laying around for future reference, consider bookmarking their website addresses instead so you can learn more about them later—and then throw away the paper collateral.
• Purge your email inbox and folders of messages you’ve already responded to or that are no longer relevant.
• Create a Word document or Excel spreadsheet to store all the blog topic ideas that have popped into your head. That way you’ll have a central place where you can capture your creativity and pull topics from when you need them.
• Consider backing up all of your files with an automated cloud-based file storage solution. There’s nothing like peace of mind to help improve focus.

Also take a fresh look at your business plan and update anything that’s no longer accurate or relevant. This may take more time than the other suggestions, but it’s something every entrepreneur should do regularly in good times and bad. Likewise, review your marketing strategy to assess what’s working and what isn’t.

A little spring cleaning now can help you maintain focus on managing your business more effectively in all seasons. For more guidance on navigating the many demands of entrepreneurship, reach out to your local SCORE chapter to talk with mentors knowledgeable in all aspects of starting and growing a business.

Since 1964, SCORE “Mentors to America’s Small Business” has helped more than 10 million aspiring entrepreneurs and small business owners through mentoring and business workshops. More than 11,000 volunteer business mentors in over 320 chapters serve their communities through entrepreneur education dedicated to the formation, growth and success of small businesses. For more information about starting or operating a small business, call 1-800-634-0245 for the SCORE chapter nearest you. Visit SCORE at www.score.org.