School’s out, your customers have disappeared for their summer holidays and you’re left swiping through Instagram waiting for your inbox to ping and your phone to ring.
It can feel frustrating to have this business slump in the middle of the summer but there are some essential business tasks that it’s the perfect time to be taking care of. So, when things pick up again in the autumn, you’re ready and able to take full advantage.
1 – Get on top of your email inbox
If wading through thousands of emails, sorting them into folders and deleting the old ones doesn’t sound like fun, it’s probably a task you’ve been putting off for a long time, but it is an essential one.
When your inbox is full you won’t receive new emails, which means you could lose out on business but there’s also the simple matter of being able to find your emails quickly and easily when needed. Having folders for your suppliers, customers, accounting, etc all make your day-to-day life as a business owner much easier.
And if the idea still fills you with dread, why not outsource this email management task to a trusty VA?
2 – Sort out your paperwork
If you thought sorting your emails was bad enough, the idea of filing your paperwork might be enough to give you nightmares. If you don’t love everything admin based like me, this is another task you’ve probably been putting off over and over again creating a mountain of paperwork that needs dealing with.
Now is the perfect time for you to be going paperless and making as much of your business as digitised as possible, setting up a Google Drive with folders as your online filing cabinet, and having important documents securely stored on the cloud.
Don’t panic if you’re not sure where to begin with this, a virtual assistant can guide you through the process and help you get the digital side of things set up and ready to go for your business.
3 – Review and improve your processes
One way to make your business paperless is by reviewing your processes. If you need new clients to fill in health questionnaires, contact details, etc then now is a great time to create an online form that can be sent to them when they book that first appointment.
Other processes you might want to consider include having email templates with answers to frequently asked questions, your price list, etc that you can just copy and paste when needed; moving your bookkeeping to a cloud-based solution like QuickBooks or Xero; and setting up an online booking system.
4 – Audit your GDPR processes
Data protection is an ongoing concern and something it’s vital to keep on top of, especially if you are recording and storing sensitive information like client’s health information, etc.
Using the summer break as an annual point where you can audit your processes, the information you’re holding and ensure that you’re not keeping hold of data from clients that no longer come to you, etc is important to stay on the right side of these Data Protection laws.
It’s also a good idea to read around the changes in the law each year to ensure that your auditing processes are still appropriate and relevant to you and your business. While this should be an ongoing activity, marking a GDPR day in your calendar during the summer so you can really spend the time to dig deep and understand the current legislation is a good idea.
5 – Revamp and refresh your website
Just like your emails, paperwork, processes and data protection can do with a summer refresh, so can your website. Changes to Google algorithms may mean your website is no longer ranking highly and your website needs a few tweaks to get to the top of search results again. Maybe you no longer offer a service advertised on your website, or your prices have changed, and so the information on your website is no longer relevant.
Google ranks websites higher when they are updated often, are accurate and relevant to their audience so it’s always a good idea to give it a total refresh at least once a year. Add in new reviews and testimonials, photos, create new service pages, etc. There’s always something you can be doing to your website to keep it up to date.
Batch writing blogs while you have the time is another website task I recommend for the quieter summer months. Being able to write the next six months content ready for publishing while you have the time can ensure your marketing efforts remain strong when the business does pick up again.
These are just a few of the business tasks I suggest you take care of when times are quiet as they can help you streamline, update and strengthen your business position. I know some of these tasks might fill you with dread and that’s where I’m happy to step in and assist you. If you’d like my support and guidance with anything I’ve talked about in this blog, don’t hesitate to get in touch with