As I’m trying to find a place for new gifts and packing up decorations it’s clear to me that the holidays are officially over. As 2016 came to a close I am sure each of you were right there with me thinking about new goals and theme/manifestation words to help make 2017 the best year to date.
Did you know that January is National Organization Month?
Organization is a major to success (and sanity). So here are a couple of tips to help get your business organized and ready for an awesome year.
Email Inbox Sweep
If you are anything like me, you have a few emails accounts for business and maybe a couple for personal use and keeping up with them can be exhausting. Here are a few suggestions to get your back on track and in charge of your emails instead of them being in charge of you.
- Take some time to re-evaluate if you need each of these account or any of them can be consolidated and deleted.
- Unsubscribe from email lists that no longer serve your needs.
- Folders, filters and rules are your best friend!
- You can create folders for individual clients and team members and create filters and rules to automatically send their emails to that folder so you are always able to easily find correspondence at a later time
Website Updates
Whether you have a web developer or you manage the site yourself, this is a great time to take a look at your site to make sure everything is up to date. A few things to look for:
- Make sure all links are working. You don’t want to visitors to come to your site and click links to learn more about you or purchase a product and get the dreaded 404 Page not found error. It only takes one or two of those before the potential client gets bored and moves on to your competitor.
- Make sure your offering and prices are current. As you were planning for 2017 over the past few months and have made any changes to your services, products or pricing, you want to make sure that information is correctly displayed.
Online Document Storage & File Management
Do you have files everywhere – on your hard drive and a couple of different cloud based storage places? First, there is nothing wrong with using more than one service or method but you probably want to create a process or rule for which one you use for what purpose. Once you’ve done that, here are a couple of suggestions:
- Look across your various platforms and make sure that
- All client work is in their designated folders
- All company related information is in the proper folders
- If you are using a service like box.com or dropbox.com, now is a great time to evaluate how much storage you have available as it may be time to upgrade .
- Archive inactive client folders and company materials that won’t be reused in 2017.
Accounting & Bookkeeping
Financial responsibility leads to financial stability. If you aren’t currently using a system for bookkeeping, you should ASAP. Things to consider:
- Does it have an app that allows you to enter mileage, track expense and also attach copies of receipts while on the go ?
- Does it allow you to categorize expenses so they are easier to find at tax time?
- Does it allow you to link to your bank and/or other payment gateways to have an accurate picture of where you stand financially at all times?
- Does it help calculate taxes to be paid quarterly so aren’t caught off guard with a huge tax bill at the end of the year?
Here’s what I would do: There are 4 weeks in January, take one task per week and get ‘er done. By the end of the month you will everything in order and will be ready to move from idea to implementation on your next big move for 2017.
As Your Next Big Move Catalyst, Twanna has worked as THE Business & Project Strategist for Empress Business Solutions. For more than 5 years, she’s worked exclusively with solopreneurs to start and grow their businesses. For more tips on how to stay more productive and motivated in business, please sign up for our newsletter.
