One of the annual rites of Spring is the opportunity to declutter. We do it in our house. As we put the winter wardrobe in storage, we take the opportunity to get rid of the clothes that we don’t want or the kids have outgrown. We box up the toys that nobody plays with anymore and the tchotchkes that we decided have outlived their usefulness. My job this year has been to clear out the piles of used CDs and vinyl records that I’ve scattered around my office. I had been making progress until a trip to a couple record stores in Athens, Ga. resulted in all-new stacks where the old stacks used to be.
Maybe you’ll have better luck than I did with a little Spring Cleaning of your own. Take this opportunity to not only declutter your home but also your business. I’m not talking about just getting rid of piles of outdated brochures, either. Is there anything in your business that you can afford to get rid of? Take a good look at the products you make. Perhaps there is a long-time item that’s just not popular anymore. Can you come up with a way to breathe a little life back into the product, or is it time to discontinue it and make other, better-selling things? Do you have a machine that’s at the end of its life cycle? Maybe it’s time to retire it and improve your operations with a new piece of equipment.