The best way to start out the New Year is to close out the previous year with a plan to get your house in order. Don’t start January 1st in a panic. Use the down time of the last two weeks of the year to close out important administrative and marketing tasks. Here’s a list of suggestions to start your 2010 off right.
Are your business ducks in a row?
Organize Your Files. I can find all the proposals I created in 2009, because I have a file folder for it on my hard drive. Don’t waste time looking for things. Organize your files and create file folders for key projects and information. Delete duplicate files before you cannot remember which one was the final version. Once the organization project is complete, back it up. Invest in an external hard drive from Western Digital or another top brand. Remember this is your back—up system, so please have your information in at least two places. There are also online back-up systems such as http://www.carbonite.com or Mozy. It will be a sad day if you lose critical data, because you didn’t take the time to back it up.
Clean Out Your Inbox. Clean out your email. If you can’t get to an empty inbox every day, get busy deleting all unnecessary emails to get to zero before the New Year. Marsha Egan, of the Egan Group, Inc. has some great advice for changing your email routines in her book, Inbox Detox; And the Habit of Email Excellence. Here’s a link to a great article Egan wrote as a resource. If you make her advice part of your daily routine, you will reduce stress and increase your productivity throughout the coming year.
Review Accounts Receivable. Find out who owes you money! What is the total owed? Start making calls on all outstanding invoices. Try to negotiate at least partial payments. If you have been owed money longer than 180 days you may need to decide whether to turn them over to collections or write it off as a loss. Consult your accountant for advice.
Update your website. Every year you should update your website with new graphics and photos. You can get a new header graphic for under a $100 bucks. If that’s not in the budget, at least update your site with fresh content. Update your services or product offering pages. Make sure your tagline still best describes what your business does. You will need to fine tune your website as you learn more about your niche target market.
Organize your financial records. If you have waited until the last minute to do any accounting for the year, it’s time to get organized. Go online and print out all your bank statements, organize your receipts and bank withdrawal or deposit slips by month. Make sure you have copies of all invoices. Collect statements from any credit cards you use in the business or monthly draws from your account such as a merchant service accounts or any online memberships. Pull together copies of any monthly phone or utility bills and any quarterly insurance bills.
Update employee paperwork. Ask each employee and any freelancer to complete new 1099’s & W-2 forms. This is to verify the mailing address you have on file and make sure you have the social security numbers for current and former employees and your independent contractors as well. Your accountant or payroll company will need this information to prepare tax forms by Jan 31, it is best to collect the information before you need it.
Develop Your Editorial Calendar for 2010. Holiday downtime is an excellent time to start creating a library of content. Take time now to develop an editorial calendar for your blog. Write as many posts as you can and all your monthly e-newsletters for 2010.
Update your contact database. This is a great time to take the business cards that have been lying around on your desk or in your purse and get that info entered into your outlook database or contact management system. Aweber, Constant Contact, or 1shoppingcart.com are effective CMS systems. This is a great task to hand off to an intern or virtual assistant.
Get a new professional headshot. If you’ve changed your appearance in any way, you need a new head shot. If it’s been a year or two since you had a professional photo taken, you need a new headshot. Ladies, be sure to get your makeup professionally done, and remember to smile. Give your business a fresh new look with a new headshot.
Refresh your bio. Every business owners need two bios. You should have a comprehensive one-page bio and a 50 word bio. Be sure to include a mini client list, any national media, all awards, association memberships and any volunteer service. Ask at least two people to review it, if you’re really struggling, hire a professional copy writer to tweak it for you. Once it’s updated, be sure to update your bio across your entire social media footprint for consistency.
Special shoutout to @AliciaSanera who’s blog post The Cure For A Business Hangover was inspiration in part for this blog post.
Is there anything else you are planning to tackle before the year is out?
WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR EZINE, E-NEWSLETTER OR WEB SITE? You may, as long as you include this complete blurb with it:
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Melinda Emerson “SmallBizLady” is a Veteran Entrepreneur, Small Business Expert and Social Media Coach who hosts #SmallBizChat on Twitter. #Smallbizchat is the trusted resource on Twitter to discuss everything entrepreneurs need to know about launching and running a profitable small business. Melinda’s first book, Become Your Own Boss in 12 Months! A Month-by-Month Guide to Start a Business that Works! which will be released by Adams Media Feb. 9, 2010.
Melinda,
Great comments! Clutter is the enemy and I strongly agree that setting time aside for annual updates of your bio, database info, and financial records is critical. I think it can all make for better profits.
Morris
Great information! Preparing now to enter into 2010 with focus and clarity is key. This is an excellent checklist and I definitely need to update my bio and headshot. Thanks!
Awesome tips! Many of these are often over looked and can be delegated which I plan on doing. Thanks for keeping up on our toes.
Thank you for the acknowledgment and attribution.
Alicia,
I use an editorial calendar with my blog and had started working on this post in early November.
I did read and leave a comment on your blog; I was so tickled that you and I were thinking along the same lines.
At the end of the year, many of these type of blog posts get written, and we are all offering our take on similar advice to our readers. A quick internet search will find many more 2010 posts just like ours targeting small business owners.
Continued success with your blog.
Melinda —
This is a great list — and so very important to do! I truly believe it is imperative that business owners periodically review where they’ve been and where they are going. And this is particularly essential for reviewing their presence on the web.
I even wrote an Examiner.com article on New Year’s resolutions for Internet business people — http://budurl.com/NYresolutions
Phyllis Zimbler Miller
http://twitter.com/ZimblerMiller
.-= Phyllis Zimbler Miller´s last blog ..Focusing on attracting Web site traffic =-.
>Update your website.
Laughing – this is an ongoing project. I work on clients’ sites, and then I work on my own.
May I suggest you set up a Twitter Landing Page? It took me a bit of hunting to find your blog.
I like “refresh your bio” – I rewrote it again, but it could use a design refresh, too. One can write a bio, and one can present a bio in an exciting manner.
Any one of these tips could be a whole post. Good reminders.
.-= Leora Wenger´s last blog ..10 Noteworthy Twitter Landing Pages =-.
Excellent article. I see so many people who use the last couple of weeks of the year as an excuse NOT to do anything. Personally, I use those two weeks to transition into the new year – you can be very productive – especially with things like those listed in this article. Great information.
Melinda:
What a great post! I could write an entire blog post in my comments on this!
1. Carbonite – I swear by it and it’s the best $60/yr a business can spend. It literally saved “my life” when I had to wipe my hard drive earlier this year!
2. I’ve been working really had to get my inbox cleaned up – will go over to read the resource you provided!
3. I just finished updating my website, have been staring at the pile of business cards on the shelf, have been meaning to clean up the files on my computer – esp all those free downloads I was so eager to download and read! (but never have)
Michelle @mmangen
.-= Michelle Mangen@Your Virtual Assistant´s last blog ..How a Virtual Assistant can save you $2,044.08 =-.
Melinda, I SO appreciate these suggestions! Often times in the busy-ness of the holiday season, it can be easy to get side tracked and forget that this is the PERFECT time to ramp up for the New Year – I’m going to do these things! Thank you!
All of your 10 points are great suggestions for activities that should be completed before 2010 and also should become a regular habit. Of course my favorite of the 10 is that you should update your website. 🙂 Thanks for sharing!
.-= Kim Beasley´s last blog ..Business Tips: Developing Your 2010 Strategy Plan =-.
Great tips Melinda. I will be cleaning out my old e-mails and updating web content. These pointers can definitely improve productivity and are a wonderful way to wrap up the year and start on a good foot in 2010!
Susan
.-= Susan Young´s last blog ..Are You a Charismatic Communicator? A 7-Point Checklist =-.
Great post, Melinda! I’ve got most of the tips under control, but I’ll be doing some Inbox Detox and working on my editorial calendar this week and next. Happy Holidays!
.-= Sharon Mostyn´s last blog ..Almost Nuts About Southwest Airlines? =-.
Melinda, great tips here! Thanks for sharing them. I look forward to doing these and, as a result, being more productive in the new year.
Yes. Absolutely develop your editorial calendar. Better yet – write the content for all of your newsletters for 2010.
Not a writer? No problem. Just come up with 12 general themes and then outsource the writing to someone else. It’s super easy to do. One great place to find writers is http://www.elance.com.
Every blue moon consider publishing other people’s work. You can find that at http://www.ezinearticles.com. Hope this helps.
And great blog post Melinda! I have to get on those other nine points! – L
.-= Lisa D. Sparks´s last blog ..Love, Speaking and Email Marketing =-.
I’d also add clearing physical files and client notes. It’s easy to have these pile up along with to-do folders or the racks of stuff you bring home from conferences and training classes that can be consolidated, weeded out for the real goodies, or tossed. That’s on my to-do list for some downtime… along with many of the things you mention.