5 Things to Purge in Your Small Business for Spring

Any time of year is good to get rid of things that no longer serve a purpose as far as your business growth is concerned. However, the warmer temperatures and flowers blooming of the Spring season inspires a lot of people to do “spring cleaning” at home as well. According to House Digest, the term “spring cleaning has ancient origins. While forms of spring cleaning exist in many places worldwide, the practice can be traced back to Persian, Jewish, and Chinese traditions and culture.

In Western society, spring cleaning is seen as early as the 19^th Century and was a mainstream custom by the 1970’s with the New York Time having article archives on the lively tradition from as early as 1978 according to House Digest.

Most people would agree that Spring is a good time to consider purging and decluttering your business just as you would at home. The two ultimate goals for most small business owners are to be productive and profitable. However, there is a nemesis that can derail your success when it comes to productivity and profitability and that is clutter. It’s easy to accumulate clutter or junk just on a day-to-day basis. However, in order to become effective and more successful, we must set aside time to clear the clutter and get organized.

Below, I’ve listed a few options to help you do exactly that. Read with an open mind and think about what you need to clear away in your business.

1. Purge Unnecessary Clutter Internally and Externally

When it comes to purging things in our lives, we often think about junk mail or old furniture. However, I believe that we can purge things in our physical (our surrounding), mental (our minds) and emotional spaces (our hearts/soul).

You may need to purge things in your physical space (your office) to declutter and give your environment a face lift. Whether it’s excessive amounts of paper, boxes or old mail, you may need to purge some of it to make room for the new. Whether you realize it or not, your brain may function a lot better when your environment is free from unnecessary paper or clutter.

You many need to purge things in your digital space like old files, old data, old marketing materials i.e., videos or commercials, and old contacts that are no longer relevant (your laptop/CRM system). This can save space on your Knowledge Sharing System as well as cloud storage apps like Dropbox where you might be paying an annual rate.

You many need to purge things in your mental space. For example, are there any self-sabotaging thoughts that you have that may be causing you anxiety, fear or imposter syndrome?

2. Purge old or bad habits

You may need to purge bad habits that are hindering your growth and success. For example, are you taking an excessive amount of time during normal business hours to handle personal items? Or do you fail to market your business when you should be creating more content?  Many times, we don’t even realize how much time we are wasting on non-revenue generating activities until it’s too late. I challenge you to spend a week and log your time. Get out your stopwatch and keep track of how long it takes you to do certain things and write down everything you did in a given day. You will start to see where your bad habits are and the things that need to be adjusted or eliminated altogether.

3. Purge unnecessary items on your website.

It’s no secret that your website is the gateway to your online business and brand. That said, you must keep your website up to date. You should be checking links to make sure they still work as well as eliminating any products or services that you no longer offer. Additionally, you should look at your media files to determine which ones can be deleted and which ones you are still using. Photos, videos and graphics take up a lot of space, so if you’re not using those old items anymore, delete them.

4. Purge Excessive Expenses

At least once per quarter it is a good idea to review and track your expenses to determine your profitability level. A good place to start is to draft a profit and loss statement that tracks what you spent versus what you gained. This is an exercise that will force you to look at where your money is going and whether or not you have some money leaks that are draining your checking account. You’ll definitely want to pay attention to subscriptions and any items that you have on autopay or auto ship. Pay attention to things you don’t use any longer or things you don’t necessarily need. You may find that it’s time to review what you pay for various platforms that require memberships and/or annual dues. Of course, I’m not saying that you should cut anything you’re using, just that you should cut anything that you are not using and anything that is unproductive.

5. Reduce your Paper usage and plastic usage.

Needless to say, that many businesses kill a lot of trees with all of the paper they use on a daily basis. In order to save our planet, going green should not just be a slogan or buzz word. Find a way to reduce or eliminate physical files. When it comes to taxes for example, you only need to keep physical or digital files for seven years. Anything older than that, you are free to shred or recycle.

Another area you may want to eliminate is the use of plastic cups, water bottles and anything else that can be replaced with more earth-friendly options like stainless steel, bamboo, and platinum silicone options which are all reusable.

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