It’s time to get busy
It’s been a longer and tougher summer than you might have imagined.
You never thought the kids would be off school for five months or that you might be furloughing staff for even longer.
Who’d have thought that a modern office could have a one-way system or divide itself into two shifts?
Your ingenuity, dedication and drive has been rewarded and as Autumn begins there are definite signs that the country and economy are slowly returning to a situation that you’d recognise.
But now what?
If this was just after the Christmas holidays then you’d go on a business spring clean to make sure everything was ship shape to start the year in great shape but what about now?
It’s later than you think
Here’s the thing. It’s now September which effectively gives you only the rest of this month and some of October to do the groundwork that will give your company the best chance of a successful end of the year period.
That’s assuming that there are no more unforeseen circumstances including a second wave of the pandemic, further local or national lockdowns or issues abroad that could interfere with supply chains.
Once we get into November then people will be thinking about Christmas which this year could take on extra significance because of events that have already happened and people realising that they might not have many more together. December even more so and before you know it we’re in January and a whole business quarter has gone.
So what productive seeds can you plant now, at traditional harvest time, to let you make sure this critical last period of 2020 is by far the most productive one?
- Hit refresh on your website
Make sure that your website is up to date and on-point for the rest of the year. As well as making sure that it actually works and there’s no broken links or out-of-date content; does it fully reflect and promote your company as it is today?
Can you rewrite it to make it more targeted to this crucial period or prepare it for any end-of-year events, sales or promotions you’re going to run?
Yes it’s a year-round activity but now is the perfect chance to get it set for the rest of the year and beyond.
- Fact check your finances
Get a clear picture of where your company is at – right now.
Regardless of your hopes and expectations for 2020, you need to understand your position at the moment and those of your debtors if possible too.
You can then see if you need to inject or raise money quickly or if you have the luxury to plan ahead more strategically.
You could draw up a mini-budget for the rest of the year and focus on what targets you’d need to hit to make Q4 the strongest of the year and possibly good enough to bring the rest of the year’s average earnings up.
- Revisit your roadmap
It’s a popular military amorphism that no battle plan survives first contact with an enemy – and it’ll be interesting to see how many business plans have come out of 2020 resembling anything other than a work of hopeful fiction.
Find out – go through your yearly plan of action and reexamine what you were going to do at the end of the year anyway and see if you are still in a position to execute your plans. If they need to be changed based on what’s happened then change it and use it accordingly.
- Give your promotion and publicity a last big push
In tough business times, cutting back on marketing has almost become received wisdom but is rarely the correct path to ensuring that customers know that you are surviving and able to serve them.
It’s the perfect opportunity to look at your existing advertising and promotional plans for this period and see if they still reflect what you want to do or need to achieve. This includes targeted social media plans or advertising campaigns.
This is also an excellent opportunity to reconnect with any local specialist agencies you’ve worked with in the past or have always wanted to. They will be happy to consider new business and it could be a great chance to strike a new partnership at a time that’s beneficial for you both.
- Clean up the clutter
Spring cleaning doesn’t have to be done in Spring!
If you haven’t been in the office for a while it might surprise you to find somewhere can still be clean but messy.
If you plan to be busy over the next couple of months then starting it with a clean desk and an empty In tray is a great start. The same goes for electronic inboxes and folders too.
If you haven’t already then it’s a good chance to reorganise the office safely for other staff returning and getting the hard logistics out of the way first before the hard work really begins.
In this unusual year we might finally have a chance for a couple of months of normality to end it on an upward curve.
But it’s not that simple for every business – some of whom are wondering how they might make it to New Years Eve unless things change.
Get in touch with us if you need some friendly advice on how your business can galvanise itself for the days and months ahead.
We’ll arrange a free, virtual consultation with one of our expert advisors at your convenience to discuss the main obstacles your business faces and the best way to begin surmounting them.
A strong final three or four months could really set you on the way for a far better 2021 but only if you address the fundamentals now.
Let us help you do that then you can concentrate on what you do best – your business.