I hate fall. And it’s not even fall’s fault, it’s just that it’s not summer, which is my favourite season. I love hot weather and summer is that (although this summer was a bit of a fail in that department) and also sunshine (again, what was up with all the rain – still, my tomato crop is tasting great). Then this week summer seems to be playing catchup with temps in the high 30s!
So while fall has all of its colourful wonder to recommend it, I refocus on my business in order to not become completely depressed at the thought of cold weather.
Fortunately, back to school is also in the air, and like many former children the feeling never leaves, does it? Here are some tasks I find useful to check off in this “second new year”:
Check in with past clients
I look at the list of clients I’ve served since January and if I am not currently working with them, I reach out with a friendly reminder that I’m still available. Sometimes I even look at my previous year to see which older connections I can revitalize. While I do this as a business, I think it’s also useful if you’re internal to just think about who you may not have reached out to lately and send a friendly hello.
Spruce up social presence and batch content
Like a little squirrel collecting her nuts, part of my fall preparation is to see how many blog posts I can batch away and other ways to prepare my treehouse for winter. Are my social media bios current? Does my LinkedIn profile need updating? Taking care of these basics at the start of each quarter means that I’m confident they are ready for action. I revisit my editorial calendar and write some posts on more evergreen topics so they are ready to go when I get busy.
Plan big goals
Since fall speeds up quickly, I like to take a moment in September to think about the me I’d like to be in December. What new things would I like to try at work? What do I want to stop spending time on? What can I outsource to someone else? Here’s where I check my New Year’s resolutions i.e. business plan and figure out how things went, then refocus on how I want to spend my last quarter.
