As springtime brings the promise of warmer days and longer stints of daylight, now is an ideal time to get cracking on your spring cleaning responsibilities—both at home and at your small business!
Six Small Business Spring Cleaning Tasks to Tackle Now
1. Tidy up your online presence.
Check to make sure your NAP (name, address, phone) info is consistent and correct across all platforms where your business appears online. This includes any online directories and review sites, such as Yelp, Trip Advisor, Citysearch, and others. Most SEO specialists agree that Google and other search engines look for NAP consistency across the web as a way to validate that a business is legitimate. If your NAP info is outdated or incorrect on various sites, Google might reflect the wrong information in (or omit your business from) search results.
Also, review your website for broken links and other errors that should be fixed. The more hassle-free and user-friendly your website, the more likely potential customers will make repeat visits to it.
2. Review your business plan.
Revisit your business plan and identify any sections you should update to better reflect your aspirations and goals. A business plan is meant to be a living document that changes over time. As a roadmap for your company, it may need to be tweaked to reflect a modified course that will help you overcome competitive pressures, regulatory changes, and other influences.
3. Assess your cash flow.
Are you receiving income from your customers in time to meet your expense obligations? If not, you might want to consider updating your payment policy (or creating one in the first place). Some potential ways to fix a sluggish cash flow are requesting a down payment or full payment in advance of providing products or services, invoicing immediately after you’ve provided services (rather than waiting until the end of the month), and following up with customers sooner rather than later when invoices are past due.
4. Eliminate clutter.
This is spring cleaning in the literal sense. Clear your desk and files of unnecessary paperwork that’s taking up space and creating a distracting environment. Declutter your digital files, too. Identify and delete messages in your inbox that no longer require your attention. Archive and organize the files on your computer or in the cloud for easier access. If you need to keep a record of them, consider creating a special folder for that purpose or using an online app like Evernote or Dropbox to save them.
5. Be a task master.
Explore productivity and task lists apps like or Hours or Todoist, or a good old fashioned desk calendar and notebook to keep yourself on track. Consider new, streamlined ways to work with your team with task management software such as Asana or communication apps such as Slack. Identify you or your teams obstacles (prioritizing tasks, delegating tasks, meeting deadlines) and create a system to overcome them. Remember, it’s all about creating a system that works best for the way you work and your goals.
6. Get a fresh perspective.
Contact SCORE to connect with a business mentor. SCORE mentors provide unbiased feedback that can help your company succeed. From marketing to product development to pricing to customer service and more, SCORE mentors have expertise in all aspects of running a small business.
No matter what the season—spring, summer, fall, or winter—SCORE can help your business move in the right direction and achieve its goals.