September Business Reset: A Fresh Start for Your Business

A September Business Reset

There’s something about September that feels like a reset button has been pressed.

The summer is over, the kids are back at school, routines start to settle down again and suddenly the year feels like it has a second beginning. I’ve always loved that feeling, although September looks quite different for me now than it did a few years ago.

My children are getting older and life is changing. There’s less of the frantic back-to-school preparation, fewer school uniforms to find and, thankfully, considerably less food shopping than there was when I had two hungry teenagers in the house all summer. There’s also a little more space to think about what I want my own days to look like.

For me, September has always felt like a natural time for a business reset too. A chance to step back, take stock and think about what I want the next few months to look like.

A gentler reset

I used to think a fresh start meant getting everything back under control. A new routine, a tidy house, a perfectly organised diary and a long list of things I was finally going to achieve now that everyone was back at school.

The reality was often rather different. I’d start September with lots of enthusiasm, make ambitious plans and then wonder why I felt overwhelmed before I’d even got properly started. There’s something about that “new term” feeling that can make you think you should suddenly be full of energy and ready to tackle everything.

But I’ve learnt that I don’t actually need to start again. I just need to take a look at what’s working and what isn’t.

That’s what I’m doing with my own routine this year. I’ve realised that just because I can sit down at my desk at 7.30am doesn’t mean I need to. Instead, I’m being much more intentional about starting work at around 9am, and using the time before that for a few household jobs, life admin or anything else that would otherwise be sitting at the back of my mind while I’m trying to work.

It’s a small change, but it makes a surprisingly big difference. I feel like I’m starting work because I’ve chosen to, rather than simply because I happen to be awake and available.

And it got me thinking about how often we can do exactly the same thing in our businesses.

Maybe your business needs a reset too

September is a great time to take a fresh look at your business, but I don’t mean sitting down with a huge list of goals and deciding that this is the month you're finally going to sort absolutely everything out.

Instead, think about the things that have been making your working life harder than they need to be. Perhaps your website has been on your list of things to sort out for months. Maybe it still has old information on it, you've changed what you offer, or you’re embarrassed to send people to it because it no longer feels like it represents your business.

Or perhaps your website itself is fine, but you hate updating it. Every little change becomes a job you put off because you know it’s going to be more complicated than it should be. You might have got used to working around it rather than expecting it to make your life easier.

And it doesn't necessarily have to be your website. Maybe you're still copying information from one place to another, sending the same emails manually, keeping track of things in several different places or answering the same questions from clients over and over again.

These aren't necessarily big problems. In fact, you may have been putting up with them for so long that they've simply become part of how you run your business. But just because something has become familiar doesn't mean it's the best way of doing it.

Take a fresh look

This is where I think a business reset can be really useful. Rather than immediately looking for something new to add to your business, take a step back and pay attention to the things that are already there.

Think about what takes more time than it should, what you regularly put off and what makes you think, “There must be an easier way to do this.” Look at the parts of your website that you avoid changing, the tasks you repeat every week and the bits of admin that seem to follow you around.

You might also notice that your business has changed while your website and systems haven't quite caught up. Perhaps you started out offering one thing and now do something completely different. Maybe you've taken on more clients, introduced a new service or simply realised that the way you worked two or three years ago no longer suits you.

You don't need to solve all of these things immediately. The point of a reset isn't to give yourself another enormous to-do list. It's simply to notice where things could be easier and decide which one would make the biggest difference if you sorted it out.

You don't have to start again

I think we sometimes put too much pressure on ourselves when we talk about fresh starts. There’s an assumption that we should use September to become more organised, more productive and somehow much better at running our businesses.

But a fresh start doesn't have to mean starting over.

Sometimes it means fixing the thing on your website that you've been avoiding. Sometimes it means getting rid of a system you don't actually need, finding a simpler way of doing something or finally getting some help with the thing you've been struggling with on your own.

Those changes might not sound particularly exciting, but they can make a surprisingly big difference to how your business feels day to day.

So as September gets underway, take a little time to look at your business with fresh eyes. Don't worry too much about what you think you should be doing this autumn. Instead, think about what isn't working particularly well for you, what feels harder than it should and what you would love to stop having to think about.

You don't need a complete overhaul. You might just need to make a few things simpler.

And if your website or tech is one of those things, that's exactly where I can help. I help small business owners sort out the websites and digital systems that have become a bit of a faff, so they can get back to running their business without constantly having to work around their tech.

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