Ran across a post in my RSS reader from Enterprise Nation about 5 steps to get your business ready for September and I thought it applied to home based business. The post focuses on kicking your business in the butt after the summer vacations. And they all could help a lot.

1. Update your website. Go through each and every page to make sure what you and your business offers is represented correctly on your website. It’s amazing how fast your business can change as you work with different types of clients or offer different types of programmes. Have you got your latest testimonials online? Are all your links working? What about your news page? Is it up to date?

2. Plan your event marketing. If you plan to run events, workshops or seminars in September, your marketing plan should have been done weeks ago, to be honest. But it’s not too late for events happening in October onwards. I recommend a minimum of 6 weeks hard marketing before any event and if you have very little database, then longer. So, plan your early bird offer, decided how you are going to get the message out there (leaflets, emails, website, local PR) and start writing your compellling marketing copy. If you have set up a weekly timetable then it makes it far easier to execute and ensure all your events are sold out.

3. Build your team. I have just gone through this exercise over the past month as I knew I wanted to delegate my newsletters and shopping cart to a new VA. The whole process took about 2 weeks from start to finish and I now have another fab new VA with all the skills I was looking for. By doing this now rather than wait until September, she and I can out how to get the best out of each other, get all the prep work done and be ready to go with the routine actions in September. I can recommend www.AssistU.com as a great place to go and recruit a VA, especially a VA with shopping cart and email newsletter experience.

4. Plan your articles, newsletters and blog postings. There is nothing like having a weekly schedule of the articles all set out, to make writing them easier. It can be as simple as printing out a monthly calendar for the next 2 or 3 months and writing in the topic or article headline in the day you plan to publish it. No more wasted time looking for much needed inspiration on the day. Oh, and make sure your articles help promote what ever newlsetter, product or programme you will be offering in the Autumn.

5. Clear out your office. A tidy desk gives a tidy mind. And if you have been building up paper clutter (like me!) over the past few months, it is easy to feel overwhelmed every time you walk in to your office. Get busy filing, recycling, delegating or throwing away all post-stick notes, invoices, paperwork and client forms. Start September with a clear desk and your head will be a lot clearer too.

Take a look at all of the steps provided and see if they might help you out too.