Whether or not you typically spend the first warm days of Spring washing windows, beating rugs, and wiping the farthest reaches of your kitchen cabinets, I urge you to consider some Spring cleaning for your business. Sprucing and polishing your business once per year can mean increased efficiency, productivity, and bottom line. And I promise—this yearly practice requires no mops, spray bottles, or feather dusters. Here are some tips for easy cleaning:

Dust Off Your Services
Stop for a moment to question the obvious. Are the services you’re offering the right ones? The only ones? The ones you would most enjoy offering? The ones your clients most need? For example, if you offer one-on-one private training and often wish you had more hands-on dog time, or you hear your clients complaining about a lack of time for their homework, maybe it’s time to look into day training or board and train. Or if you live in an area heavily populated by working professionals, you might consider adding a high end daily dog walking service to your menu of options.

In contemplating your current and possible services look for choices that maximize your enjoyment of your business and that take full advantage of the demographics of your area.

Sort Through Revenue & Expenses
Update your information about what others are charging in your area and make sure you haven’t fallen behind the times. If you have, no time like the present to raise those rates. You should charge what you’re worth, and what you need to make a living. There’s no need to feel guilty about this—you are helping dogs and their people and you will help far more of them in your lifetime if you are paid well enough to do the work full time and for the long haul.

Assess where your money goes. Are there business expenses that could be pared down or cut out altogether? The usual suspects include marketing or advertising costs that don’t really pay dividends on your investment. If you have a tracking system in place analyze that data to make sure your yellow pages ad is really worth it (probably not) or whether it makes sense to continue to write your local column each month (probably does, but always best to check). If you don’t have a tracking system, set a simple one up—start with a chart that lists all the ways people might hear about you. Whenever someone contacts you ask how they found out about your business and put a check mark next to that item on your chart. Also have a column to keep track of how many of those contacts turn into actual business.

Other common culprits for wasted expenses include unnecessarily high fees on services such as phone plans, merchant services accounts, and credit cards. Once a year call all your service providers to see what they can do to lower your rates—after all, they wouldn’t want to lose your business! A little research to see what competitors are charging helps, too—then you know when to jump ship.

Spruce Up Your Systems
Systems that may have been working a year ago could be outdated now, especially if your business has grown. For example, is it time to invest in a more automated approach to class registration? If you are losing hours every week doing tasks like this by hand the money you spend on a streamlined solution will pay large dividends by allowing you more room to market your business or expand services. Other systems to check include book keeping, tracking client information, follow up calls or emails to prospective clients, check up calls or emails to past clients, etc. Good systems management will contribute to the efficiency and enjoyment of your business.

Polish Your Policies
If you’re losing income to cancellations, chasing clients around for payment, spending unpaid hours en route to outlying clients, or experiencing the frustration of unsolved cases or slow paced client progress, it’s time to retool your policies. Effective cancellation, payment, travel, and compliance or homework policies are essential to a smoothly run, profitable, and satisfying business. There are few rules here, and yours need not look like anyone else’s. A good policy fits its owner. For example, one trainer might need a full week to fill a spot opened by a cancellation, while another could reliably expect to close any gaps within 48 hours. I would counsel the first to charge for cancellations arriving with less than seven days’ notice, while the second trainer might choose to allow three days.

Freshen Up Your Materials
Contracts with waiver language are key to liability protection, and well designed forms for such tasks as phone screening, client intake interviews, and client session notes can save immeasurable time and professionalize your business. Take a good look at your current versions to assess their usefulness. For example, does your phone screening form help you to keep your calls short? Update or replace as needed.

If your class homework handouts or behavior consultation write ups are getting stale, spend some time updating information or adding new insights. “Less is more” is the rule, though—the less text, the more likely clients will read it all. So be brief and to the point and stick with just the most important information.
Presentation matters, so if your materials could use a face lift ask a professional designer to make sure they represent you well with polished, consistent branding.

Clear Off Your Desk
Okay, this one does feel a little like actual cleaning, but it has a twist—if you do it well once, you won’t have to do it over and over. I assume that if something sits on a desk for more than a couple days it’s for one of three reasons: there’s no logical place to put it, it has a place but it’s too much of a pain to put it there, or there’s a fear that if the item is put away it’ll be forgotten.

With that in mind, take a look at those piles on your desk. Really look at them— what’s in there? If there are items with no home, make them a place of their own. This could be a new file folder, spot in a drawer, etc. (Quick tip: keep filing supplies like manila envelopes within easy reach so you can easily make a new one whenever needed.) If you find things that have dedicated addresses but somehow never or rarely make it home, rethink their domiciles. Maybe you need to move that cabinet closer to you or that file folder within easier reach.

If you don’t file things away because you worry they’ll be forgotten, it’s time to develop a task organizing system. This could be a categorized weekly paper and pen to do list, a handheld device, or computer software—whatever will best match your style so that you’ll more easily incorporate it into your routine.

A Standard Spring Cleaning Routine
I’ve listed a number of areas to target in your Spring cleaning. Here are some tips on how to proceed:

1. Assess
Look at each of the areas discussed here and assess what is working and what seems a bit grungy. Analyze what is causing the grime—what about your business feels frustrating, inefficient, ineffective, unenjoyable? Are there tasks that take up too much time? Things you chronically put off—what do you dread about them? Can you put your thumb on exactly where the problem lies?

2. Plan
You’ve decided what the problems are and what is causing them. Now take some time to envision how you’d like things to be instead. What will need to be done to make these changes? Write down your goals, then break each one down into specific tasks— this is your Spring Cleaning To Do List.

3. Implement
Set aside the amount of time needed for your cleaning. Assign specific tasks to specific dates and times so you can be sure to get them done.
If the dirt is really caked on or the cobwebs too thick, don’t rule out taking some time off to dedicate to re-tooling your business. Taking a week or two (or more in extreme cases) to clean out the corners will not only result in a nice shine, but will ultimately allow you to make more money is less time. You can’t say that about reorganizing the hall closet or scrubbing the kitchen floor!