5 signs your business is still running on 2015

Be honest for thirty seconds. How many of these are true for your business right now?

The checklist

1. You still take bookings by hand. Phone, notebook, memory. Every step a customer can slip through.

2. You have no website — or one you would be embarrassed to send to a serious client.

3. You reply to every enquiry personally, one by one. Even the ones asking your opening hours.

4. You never follow up. Someone asked for a price two weeks ago and heard nothing since.

5. You guess instead of tracking. Which ad worked? Which month was best? Nobody actually knows.

The good news in the bad news

If you ticked three or more, you are not behind — you are one system away from a calmer, more profitable month. Most of these take days to fix, not months, and the fixes pay for themselves embarrassingly fast.

Start with the one that costs you the most sleep. That is always the right first project.