Suddenly Less Busy? Jump Start Your Business Growth Right Now

When something big happens, like a huge snow storm, viral outbreak, or economic downturn, it can be very easy to catastrophize and imagine your small business shutting down. But — with some patience, preparation, and grace, we can use these slow times to build a foundation for future growth. Here are some suggestions of work to do when incoming revenue slows down:

· Take a critical look at your marketing strategy, especially social media. Can you save money somewhere, by doing more work in house? Can you build a back stock of images for use in the future (especially product photos, behind the scenes, images of your office or staff)? Take a social media marketing course on Lynda, Udemy, Coursera or Skillshare if you need to build your skills.

· Get your finances in order. Get all of your auto-categorizations working properly. Reconcile your books. (Don’t know what that means? Maybe interview bookkeepers or take a Quickbooks or Wave tutorial on Skillshare.)

· If you write a blog, articles or newsletter, spend lots of time writing and stock up on content for future use. Pro tip: use helpful document titles like “Swap Post for September” so you can find things later when you need them.

· Take risks! Take time to think about projects you’ve put off or thought you didn’t have time for. Find a way to work on them now. If you want to run a workshop on Incorporating Moon Cycles into Your Astrological Sound Healing, do it! Go back to those great ideas you put off because of your lack of confidence, and make them happen!

· Clean and declutter your physical space — really truly getting rid of what you don’t need. A tidy workplace can work wonders for productivity. Make sure everything has a place so that the tidiness can continue when you get busy again. I highly recommend reading the actual physical book The Lifechanging Magic of Tidying Up, by Marie Kondo. For some reason it tends to resonate more in your hand than in an ear bud. She says that people’s lives can change when they declutter, because they have space to think and exist. After 4 years of shedding more and more physical items, I’m starting to believe she’s right.

· Read (or listen to) an inspirational book! A few of my favorites include: The 4 Hour Workweek, by Timothy Ferriss (read it with a grain of salt, but if inefficiency or lack of delegating is a problem for you, it’s extremely helpful), The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck, by Mark Manson, The Big Leap, by Gay Hendricks, and The Body is Not an Apology, by Sonya Renee Taylor.

· Think about how you can better support your local community — now or when things pick back up. Could you be partnering with local businesses, running a low key fundraiser for a local non-profit, or just sharing about awesome local shops?

· Dive into an exercise on your values, purpose and priority, so that when your life gets busy again you know which opportunities to take and which ones to turn down.

· Do a sustainability audit of your business or your home life (on your own, or with a consultant). What improvements can you make, like taking transit, eating less meat, recycling more, passing on materials instead of throwing them away (easy ones include padded envelopes for business uses, glass jars with lids for food storage, paper towel rolls for crafts, newspaper for fires, and old towels for your local animal shelter.) Find a local sustainable, zero waste, or barter Facebook group and see where you can improve!

· Record and post your first online course, whether it’s a small, free offering or a big launch. It doesn’t have to be perfect — your voice is unique and you have something to offer!

· Create a rigorous to do list with all of these strategies on it. Assume you have two months of slow down. Assign how much time you think each task will take, and then actually schedule each task on your calendar.

Another way we can weather slow times is to reframe our mindset and use it as an opportunity to personally slow down. Here are some suggestions:

· Get out into nature. Science shows this can help us calm down. Plus, moving your body can jump start great ideas!

· Find a self care routine that would normally feel decadent and time consuming. Perhaps it’s journaling, yoga, and meditation followed by a bath. Maybe it’s reading outside under a tree. Maybe it looks like downloading allllll the audiobooks and snuggling into bed.

· Volunteer! Find a local organization that needs volunteers and lend a hand. (Note that most organizations prefer volunteers who plan to come weekly or monthly, not, for example, just on Thanksgiving.)

· Check in on friends with chronic conditions, mental health issues, in high risk populations, or who are unable to leave their house. Events like snow storms or viral outbreaks — that can be stressful and inconveniencing to everyone — can be extremely distressing for people with chronic health issues.

· Write hand written cards to the top three people that jump into your mind. Even if it’s just to tell them they’re awesome.

· Pick up that hobby you left behind when you got busy, or start a new one!

Whether you dive into building a stronger foundation for your business, or take the opportunity to slow down your grind — don’t pass up this opportunity to shift your mindset and practices!

This article was previously published on Medium.com in March 2020