The holidays are an odd time in business. Either you have something that can be gifted and you’re crazy-busy, or your prospects are totally distracted (or think they are) and you have a lull.

So if the holidays are NOT a big season for you,
how can you continue giving your business loving attention?

Looking outward, love on your current and alumni clients! Send them gifts or cards appropriate to the holidays to let them know you’re thinking of them.

And looking inward, love on your team, processes, and platform. This is a beautiful season, as the dark lengthens, to go within for your business. As you approach your annual planning, what systems and tools and processes do you want to have already designed, in place, and functional so you can hit the ground running come January?

Let’s look at the “Tool Temple” for your business. (I made a little assessment for you on SurveyMonkey if you want to play along!) Think about where you might some real bang for your attention in cleaning up one specific area…

Everything rests on a foundation of your personal productivity.

The elements of this foundation include your e-mail, to-do list, calendar, contacts, notes/research, browser, passwords, and backup programs.

Then you build out “pillars” of tools based on the kind of business you run.

Client management tools enable you to track session notes, programs signed up for, payment dates, and sessions remaining. For the most part, these are for your internal business process management.

Delivery tools, on the other hand, cover how you share your expertise with clients. This could be with designing slides, providing recordings, membership sites or groups, and audio/video webcast delivery.

Financial management tools are the basic bookkeeping, payment merchant account, expenses and receipts, mileage tracking, and status reports. You may want to discuss this with your CPA and/or bookkeeper to know which tools best facilitate interaction as well as give you a picture of how you’re doing.

Online marketing covers the popular process of using an opt-in form to gather a list of e-mails, send automatic nurturing messages, offer products and programs, and an online e-commerce or shopping cart site for purchases without your direct involvement.

Event planning/Project management tools track all the logistics, locations, registrations, scheduling, vendors, etc. involved in hosting a live event or delivering an extended project with many parts and players.

The capstone of your temple is your relationship management.

This is for real-life people you want to interact with directly (not your email marketing list). And it’s not just people’s name, phone, and email. This is a system that lets you choose when to follow up, track conversations, and move toward mutually supportive goals together. You can use it for prospecting, client status, and tracking speaking and marketing launches.

Check yourself on the free quiz:

SurveyMonkey Quiz

Loving Attention to Your Tool Temple