Greetings!

Happy Spring! Yep, it’s getting close. Daylight savings starts real soon (earlier and earlier) and I love it. While I am an early riser I really enjoy having more light at the end of the day.

And with spring, comes spring cleaning.  Now, my business type of spring cleaning is a bit different I think. It’s not just getting rid of samples or files we no longer need, it’s also our time to look at all of our processes and make any changes that are needed. We also look at our clients – who might we need to stop working with (it’s amazing how expensive some clients can be) as well as those we might want to really look to grow this year.

One of my key analyses was reviewing the financials by client and I have to admit I learned some interesting facts that at first glance weren’t blatantly apparent.

For instance, one of my larger clients has purchased a couple of other companies over the past 2 years and on our financials they are under the other company names – good so we can track their new business, but bad in the sense that I hadn’t realized how much those areas were spending with us. That’s a good thing right? Well, with their increase the main client is now a much larger percentage of my business than I would like.

While I know this client isn’t going anywhere anytime soon (we have a long term contract) it is not good to have such a large egg in my business basket.

Now, I am always on the new business development trail but with this new discovery I am working even harder to land some new business. Because you never know what can happen. Back in 2001 I was very heavy in one industry (travel & tourism), not just one company and felt I was secure, but then the tragedy of 9/11 occurred and the travel industry tanked for a very long time.

While my client base is much more diversified now I do think as a small business (really any size business) it’s important to always be evaluating where we are and making sure losing just one company or industry will not put you/me out of business. I survived 2001, barely. I don’t want to go through that again.

So my spring cleaning is of a different sort and one that opened my eyes to a more critical need to bring in some new business. What will your spring cleaning discover?