Want to Declutter Your Business? The 4 Areas You Need to Consider | by Jennifer Britton

Many coaches are solopreneurs or manage a small team, making it easy for clutter to accumulate over time. The new season can be a great signal to take time to declutter your business. When was the last time you took a walk through, and organized different components of your work?

Start Your Business De-cluttering with these First 3 Steps:

1. Consider what's important to you as a business

While it's tempting to jump right into the task of organizing and streamlining, it's important to connect with your business vision: What's important to you as a business? Customer service? High touch (i.e. personalized support)? Speed? Efficiency? What does streamlining mean for you?

2. Consider your own preferences

Next, think about yourself. What are your style preferences? Are you a minimalist, stored as much digitally as possible, or do you like to have everything on paper? Are you a visual person and like to see reminders, or are you auditory and would benefit from sound reminders?

Your business values as well as your own style preferences, will influence how you systematize and automate in your business.

3. Carve out time to Get Things in Order

While it's "nice" to think about what you might do, carving out time to get things done is key to business success. At this time of the year (or as seasons change!) it can be useful to carve out time (think 15-minute blocks) to review and or clean up.

Now Consider these 4 Areas of your Business:

AREA 1: Financial

• Revenue - What has been generating income for you? What has not? What do you notice about cash flow? What attention do you want to put on these elements?
• Invoicing - Has everything been invoiced as it should? What invoices are still open and need to be paid? Are there any outstanding invoices required?
• Expenses - What are the fixed expenses you have in your business? Are these aligned with what you have budgeted? Is there anything you need to change or scale back on? What have been your main expenses to date? Is there anything you're paying for that you're not using? Does anything need renewal? What changes could be made to your expenses?

AREA 2: Administrative

Think FARP: File it, Action it, Read it OR Purge it

• Paper Files - Are your paper files in order and secure? Does anything need to be reviewed? Is everything stored and secured as you would like? If paper has started piling up, block off 15 minute windows to tackle it. A useful tip in bringing down the pile is only touching each paper once. Tip: Check with your local small business center for advice on how long you should be keeping files.
• Electronic files - Have you backed up lately? What needs rearranging? Do password need changing? Is there file duplication? What files could use a clean up? Are there any files you're using regularly eg. presentations, client welcomes, which could be made into a template for easy re-use?

AREA 3: Marketing

• Marketing - In marketing, think about how you are creating outreach and continuing the conversation about what you do and offer. What's working for you in marketing? What might need to be reduced in terms of time spent? What should receive more focus and time? Would it help to blend social media and traditional approaches (speaking, writing, tradeshows) etc?
• Program Descriptions and Brochures - Are these up to date? Do you have one copy filed away? What feedback have you received from group members about what's attracted them to programs? Are all the links on your website active? What additional questions are surfacing which you might want to provide answers around?

AREA 4: Systems and Automation

Another key component of decluttering your business is in systematizing and automating parts of your business. Systems allow us to automate, and cut down on the repetitive tasks that can become "all consuming". Think about the last week - how much time did you spend on tasks which could be automated?

There are a number of areas we may develop business systems around including:

• Goals and results - Planning systems and tracking systems can abound. How do you keep focused, and measure progress around key goals? How can you share key results and successes with others on your team?
• Communication - Communication systems with our clients and prospects. Also think about meeting areas (Zoom, WebEx, Skype), Chat (Slack etc), Instant Messaging.
• Project tools - i.e. status updates, project requirements. Other project tools like Asana, MindMapping, or Basecamp can help with project sharing
• Contact systems - While it might seem 'old school' to have a directory of key people you communicate with, it's often only when new team members join us do we realize how invisible our networks have become. Who are the people you or others on your team will need to reach out to regularly? What are your scheduled points of contact this year? Is it time for some new systems to automate or freshen up what you have (think newsletters, blogs etc).
• Administrative systems - Whether it's key letters or reports which need to be submitted or financial and budget systems, consider what are the administrative systems will work best for you.

Wrap-up and Getting into Action

As you go through this list it is likely that a long "laundry list" of items may emerge. Consider creating a new "To Dpo" task list in your journal or planning system. Then consider, do you need to complete every task or are there some tasks which could be delegated? What is the relative priorities of these tasks? Which are your top 3?

Systematizing, streamlining and decluttering can take some time, and it might take a number of tries to find the systems best suited for you. Tackling this in regular bursts - 15 minutes - can quickly clear away the piles, and make de-cluttering more manageable.

As Peter Drucker has written "What doesn't get scheduled, doesn't get done". When have you put your "organizing bursts" in your calendar?

If you liked this article on decluttering your business, you may also like:

• Add Group and Team Coaching To Expand Your Practice! also from Jennifer Britton
• Create a "Spring Clean Your Life!" Coaching Program or Workshop with our Seasonal Toolkit
• Create Your Own Peaceful Planning Ritual to Grow Your Business & Stay on Target

Contributing Author:

Jennifer Britton, MES, CHRP, CPT, PCC, is the author of seven books and has influenced a generation of coaches in the realms of team and group coaching. You may have read her writing, including Effective Group Coaching (Wiley, 2010), the first book in the world to be published on the topic of group coaching; From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching; or her latest, Reconnecting Workspaces: Pathways to Thrive in the Virtual, Remote and Hybrid World (2021).

Since 2006, Jennifer's Group Coaching Essentials and Advanced Group and Team Coaching Practicum programs have become known as the must-do training in the area of group coaching. Focused on providing coaches with best practices in designing, marketing and implementing group coaching, these programs have helped thousands of coaches launch their own group and team coaching programs in a wide variety of settings (public, corporate, non-profit). Together both courses are approved for 18.75 ICF CCEUs. These are the first two of 10 course pathways leading to certificates in Group and Team Coaching.

Potentials Realized's ICF-CCE programs are geared for aspiring group and team coaches, especially those wanting to work toward the New Advanced Credential in Team Coaching (ACTC) with the ICF.

Also check out our neuroscience course for group and team coaches (NLE-A), Team Coaching Essentials  and ACTIVATE Your Team and Group Coaching Superpowers. Prefer podcasts? Listen in to the Remote Pathways podcast, which explores the many different pathways to remote work, business and leadership.

Learn more about Jennifer & see all their articles here >>