At the start of a new year, personal health and wellness naturally makes the top of our goal or resolution list. Although we believe fitness is important for a well-rounded life, today we are collaborating with other Indianapolis based business owners discussing ways to get your business into shape for 2018! Check out their inspiring tips below!
If you haven't already, review what worked for you in 2017. I like to simply go through my Outlook calendar and write down everything I did in the year - time spent working, networking, planning, etc. This takes some time and effort but I think is the best way to audit where you’re actually spending time and deciding if the 'dog is wagging the tail' or if the 'tail is wagging the dog', so to speak. I also like to have a rough plan for the year ahead for professional development, whether with trainings, conferences, or masterminds - which can all be great accelerants for your business.
Katie Smith
Founder
Examine when your business was put under extreme stress in the last year - be it from the crush of sales or a time-consuming project - and identify which processes broke down. Is your order fulfillment too time consuming when scaled from 1 order to 10? Are you spending too much time on data collection and not on analysis? Once you’ve pin-pointed tasks that aren’t working for you, find ways to make them more efficient or automate them completely so you can stop doing them. If you deal with physical goods like me, find software solutions to automate areas like inventory management, packing lists, shipping labels, and gift messages. If you’re in the digital space, find ways to automate tasks such as data collection, reporting, social media scheduling, and customer support. If you’re new to software automation, check out Zapier and IFTTT to get ideas. By working to automate my business, I’ve made pain points like order fulfillment and customer service more efficient, freeing up time to create products and grow the business.
Kat Rudberg Gordon
Founder and CEO
This year I scheduled a couple days in late December to focus on my business plan for 2018. And I am so thankful that I did - I analyzed my financials and set up my marketing/advertising budget, made sure that all of my partners and clients had actionable next steps listed in my CRM, mapped out stretch goals and actionable steps for what I WILL achieve in the year to come and got a head start on my blog content for Q1r. I found that I was able to consolidate all of the notes that were living on paper, in my phone and on my calendar into a single space that I can reference as needed. Now, as business picks up, I feel like I know exactly what needs to be done on a daily/weekly basis.
Maria Baer
Residential Organizer + Party Stylist
Do an audit of your website! Check for broken page or image links. Comb through and edit or update content as needed or remove outdated content. Perhaps your copy, images, or design could use a bit of a refresh. Make sure your social links reflect the platforms you are actually active on. Set up a Favicon if you haven't yet. Check your analytics and see if you can streamline your navigation to reflect how visitors navigate your site. Run the speed tests from GTmetrix.com and neilpatel.com/seo-analyzer and make as many improvements as possible. And if you haven't done so, this is the year to make sure your site is optimized for mobile!
Kara Gladish
Big Kahuna
In 2018, I am really narrowing in on my time and scheduling! I have started the year knowing I will have designated office days and meeting days, which keeps me grounded throughout the week and feeling more prepared to sell and service our current and future clients. It's easy to get wrapped up in the weekly demands of a small business, but I believe having a solid plan for the week will benefit our business in the best way possible! My business partner and I share an Iphone calendar and I've decided to also keep an old-fashioned planner - double duty planning has to be a good thing, right?!
Courtney Walker Pope
Co-Founder and Lead Interior Designer
Polish Interior and Art Design
What are your business savvy tips for getting in shape? Share below or comment on our Instagram!