Small Actions That Can Make a Big Difference in Your Business

When you’re running a business, the chances are you know you can improve elements of it – whether that is in sales, profit margins, organization or promotion. After all, nothing is ever perfect, especially in business. Aside from keeping the company going, most of your focus as a business owner should be on making improvements, keeping your business growing and evolving alongside the world around it. However, this is easier said than done. Sometimes, you may not be sure how to change or resolve certain issues. Other times, you might know what needs to happen, but not how to accomplish it! In other cases, you might think that big, radical shifts are what is required – but you simply don’t have the time, energy or resources to address them. This can easily feel frustrating, and often becomes counterproductive. Here, patience may have to be your best friend. In the meantime, not all change needs to be seismic. There are plenty of small, low-energy-consuming actions you can take to make a big difference to your business.

Refresh Your Social Media

For many companies, social media is becoming the most important way they present themselves to the world. This means more important than a website, than mailing lists, than a shopfront. Social media can entice new customers, create loyalty from repeating clients, and boost your profile in previously impossible ways. Now, ask yourself, how up to date is your social media? Check across all your platforms and have a look to see if your company is as enticing as you can make it. Your design needs to be eye-catching and high-quality, your content needs to be relevant, your interaction with customers needs to be consistent. Fixing and refreshing your social media can be a brilliant way to spend a morning when you can’t quite bring yourself to tackle larger tasks. Furthermore, its importance can’t be underestimated.

Absorb Advice and Inspiration

All too often, we can get lulled into a false sense of security. We think we know it all, that we’ve nothing left to learn. When you get pulled into this mindset, it can be incredibly difficult to see how to improve your business – because to you, everything already looks perfect! One way to counter this is by using the internet as a resource for advice and inspiration. Tips and articles from experienced businessmen such as Deepak Agarwal are a great way to remind yourself that you don’t have all the answers. Reading articles, watching seminars and listening to tips are all low-effort activities for those lazy, rainy days – and they’ll inspire you to make a big difference to your business moving forward.

Tidy Up Your Files

Alright, so organizing old files and documents isn’t the most exciting job in the world. However, you’ll be surprised how quickly your company’s network can become clogged with old, unnecessary files. Organizing everything systematically might feel like a thankless task, but it will breathe fresh life into your business. You’ll no longer have to spend twenty minutes searching for an obscure document from two years ago, if you already have it neatly labelled in a logical location. Tidying files is a great way to improve your business without making wholesale changes – you and your employees will certainly thank you for it down the line.

Redraw Your Five Year Plan

When you start a business, everyone will be telling you to draw up plans. Five year plans, ten year plans, even fifteen year goals. However, what no one tells you is how quickly these plans tend to change. The best businesses are those that adapt to changing circumstances, and often life can throw up brilliant opportunities that divert you from your original plan. This is usually a great occurrence, and yet it can leave you feeling as if your business lacks direction and focus. The answer to this is simple. Pick up a pen, and draw a new five year plan predicated on your immediate business situation. Repeating this task every year, or every time your circumstances change, can be a fantastic way to keep yourself focused and on track.

Conclusion

The key to a successful business is a business that can evolve and change depending on the circumstances around it. However, this doesn’t necessarily mean making constant and drastic alterations to how your company is run – in fact, this would probably be a very unhelpful disruption of continuity! Instead, think about small actions you can take each day that will affect your business, keeping yourself focused, proactive, and in control.