Business maintenance

I’ve sort of been down in the dumps lately, mostly with just feeling overwhelmed while trying to take care of my three chicklets, stomach bug, roadblocks to my exercise regime, the housework, being an awesome wife, getting on top of a bible reading schedule, and trying to balance my business with it all.  I’ve sort of lost my momentum as of late, and just not having the motivation to write, the inspiration to crochet, or the drive to get basic things done.  It isn’t exactly a good place to be in.

I haven’t written a blog post in over a week!!!  I went just as long without posting anything on my facebook page.  My etsy shop was experiencing a huge lull, and my website got half of the views from the previous month.  I think that “lull” might be an understatement here.

So, what am I doing to get out of this rut?  Well, first of all, I started with my business (etsy and facebook).  I did some research, purchased a few patterns, got in touch with a photographer, got a few ideas in place.  Found and concreted my niche – newborn photo props.  I am in the process of updating my website, focusing this blog, and making my website the center and focus of everything related to my business.  I’ve joined a blog challenge that will keep me focused on blogging and accountable for the month of June, and I did some more research and have about 20 blog posts drafted and awaiting further editing before getting published.

Any business requires maintenance for several reasons.

• The biggest reason is to keep from getting stagnant and to let customers know that they aren’t dealing with an inactive business.  There are plenty of these roaming around the internet still.
• Another reason for maintenance would be to fix and correct bugs or glitches.  Especially for the self-run home business it is vitally important to learn from your mistakes.  Don’t just let those slide, fix them and improve.
• I think that it’s also important to consider simplicity.  First of all, you want for things to be as easy as possible for your customers.  I really cannot stress that idea enough.  If your customer can’t navigate, he isn’t going to be able to figure out how to purchase.  But secondly, you need for things to be as easy on you as possible.  If your process for making a pair if earrings takes you all day, it is too complicated.  Make it easier.
• Maintain for efficiency.  Even if you’ve done something a certain way for years, if you can discover a more efficient way of doing it, you can save yourself a lot of time, energy, and revenue/profit.
• Revamp and restyle.  Maybe you had your site designed back in the eighty’s when you first got started, or maybe your business took a drastic turn for the better, or maybe you are just tired of the old look.  Just be careful about restyling, because as a general rule, people don’t like change (I’m sure you’ve heard more than a fair share of complaints when facebook goes through a face lift).
• Another biggie about updating and maintenance is to keep up with new products that you’ve released.  I’ve seen it several time before, when a person will keep their facebook page, or their etsy page, up-to-date on new products, but their website is seriously lacking.

Some people like to think of it as preventative maintenance.  You are preventing future problems, and keeping up to date on the world wide web.  Can you think of any other reason why to maintain a website/blog/facebook page/etsy shop or whatever?

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