Hello beautiful people! I hope that as you read this, you are well and healthy in every way. If you’re anything like me and millions of others around the world at this time of the year, you’re working toward becoming a healthier version of yourself and have committed to exercise more and eat better. In pursuit of our wellness goals, we invest in equipment, memberships, new shoes, and ‘fits so we can build better bodies and get healthy. And that’s all well and good. But what about your business?

Is your business healthy?

As entrepreneurs, we take in soooo much. We take in information from various sources. We take on commitments and responsibilities that absorb our time and energy. We take on other people’s problems as we listen to our clients’ needs and try to solve them through our products and services. We take in the advice, words, and opinions of others – good and bad, and whether we agree with them or not. We take in other people’s demands and expectations. We take in our own pressure to perform and be productive. And above all, we carry the responsibility for whether our business fails or succeeds.

This is a lot! And if we’re not careful, the things we take in can build up and create an unhealthy business life full of stress, sleeplessness, overwhelm, and anxiety. It can mess up our mindset and have a negative impact on our relationships with God, others, and ourselves.

The good news is that entrepreneurship doesn’t have to be that way. We can establish practices that help us do business better so we can enjoy and be more present in the work we’ve been called to do. I want you to have a healthy entrepreneurial experience so you can flourish personally, professionally, and spiritually! And being a healthy entrepreneur starts with detoxing your business – getting rid of the unhealthy stuff in order to make room for the better and create the lifestyle you desire.

In my upcoming Healthy Entrepreneur webinar, I’ll show you how to dive deep into your business operations and uncover the toxins that keep you from fully thriving. In the meantime, here are 5 simple strategies you can implement to detox your business today:

1. Unsubscribe from email lists that no longer serve you. If your inbox is full of emails and newsletters that no longer interest you or help your business journey, unsubscribe. You’re not reading them anyway (I see those unread messages!) and if you are, they’re taking up time you could be spending on more fruitful things. Clutter is a sign of avoidance, procrastination, or indifference. And that includes a cluttered inbox.
2. Unfollow people or brands with content that conflicts with your character. As a society in general, we spend a lot of time following, liking, and scrolling. The average person spends 2 hours and 24 minutes per day on social media*. In that time, you’ll probably see some wholesome or funny content. But you’re also likely to see some things you wish you hadn’t. Point being, if you’re going to spend time scrolling, make sure your eyes, ears, and mind take in things that are beneficial in some way. If there’s a brand or page you follow whose content makes you cringe, unfollow them. What we repeatedly take in becomes a part of who we are.
3. Fire bad clients. Yep, I went there. Fire the clients who fail to appreciate your value but drain all your time and energy. This is a lesson I had to learn the hard way with my first business. When you’re trying to grow your business, it’s all about sales and getting all the clients. Because more clients means more money. But all clients ain’t good clients. Some of them want all of your expertise but want to haggle with you when they hear your prices. And if you do decide to take them on, they’re the ones who value your time the least and seem to want the most of it! It’s an unfortunate truth that some clients cost us more than their dollars are worth. If you have clients that suck the joy out of entrepreneurship or make you struggle in your spirit, it’s time to let them go.
4. Cancel apps or memberships you’re no longer using. This one speaks to detoxing your profit and loss statement, which is all about your income and expenses. In short, trimming the “fatty” expenses can improve your bottom line. Go through your list of subscriptions, memberships, apps, software, and any other services that automatically hit your account every month and ask yourself if you use them or really need them. Twelve bucks here and twenty bucks there can amount to hundreds of dollars each year. Increase your net income by detoxing the deadweight of unneeded apps.
5. Prune your partnerships. For the sake of this article, partnerships mean people you’ve aligned with who provide a service to you or you have a mutual arrangement. These could be referral partners, freelancers who do work for you, vendors who supply products or services to you, or anyone else you have a business relationship with. This one is hard because parting ways with someone can feel personal. But if the referral arrangement always seems to work in the other person’s favor, maybe it’s time to rethink things. If the freelancer’s work isn’t measuring up and you find yourself tolerating things instead of being happy with them, maybe it’s time to set them free. If your vendors are consistently late or their quality isn’t cutting it, it might be time to cut them loose. The truth is, everyone you align with affects your business and reflects on your brand. You’ve worked hard to build both, so maintain them by pruning your partnerships to make room for healthy ones.

Detoxing your business is the first step toward thriving as an entrepreneur, and these five simple strategies will get you started. Try these tips now and revisit them throughout the year to create and maintain the healthy business life you desire.

What are some of the ways you practice a healthy business lifestyle? Let me know in the comments!

*Source: https://umaine.edu/undiscoveredmaine/small-business/resources/marketing-for-small-business/social-media-tools/social-media-statistics-details/