5 Daily Business Routines You Should Adopt

Wake up.

Check social media and email on my iPhone.

Handle personal hygiene.

Make coffee.

Turn on my computer.

These are the first five things that I do every day—regardless of what time I wake up or what the rest of my plans are for the day. I formed this habit a while ago, when I first really started my business and I began to rely on routines and schedules to keep me productive and functional throughout the day.

We’re creatures of habit—often following the same routines day in and day out in some manner. Whether it’s how we start our days or how we end them, somewhere within the ebbs and flows of our schedules are routines.

As an entrepreneur, you should develop smart daily business routines. Entrepreneurship is built on following routines or patterns that bring you closer to profitability. When you find something that works in your business, you’ll usually keep doing it until it no longer works or makes sense.

However, there are some business routines that you should be doing every day. In the morning, after you’ve handled all of your daily personal routines, it’s time to get down to business. Here are five business routines that you should be doing every day:

Engaging with your customers

Your customers are the lifeline of your business. And if there’s one thing you shouldn’t do is cut off your lifeline. Your customers are not people who should be talked to, they should be talked with. Try focusing on communications outside of your e-newsletters, blog posts, social media posts, etc. Create dialogue about the issues that matter to your business as well as their goals. The more dialogue you have, the more insight, opportunities, and possibly, revenue you’ll receive.

Crunching numbers

Take some time, perhaps during the beginning part of your day, and evaluate the financial viability of your business. You should know what’s going out (A/P) and what’s coming in (A/R). You don’t need to be a CPA to look at your balance sheet and figure out if your business is making dollars (and sense!).

Performing routine number crunching helps you to budget, itemize, and prepare for your next purchase, upgrade or adjustment. So go ahead, cover one eye, take a deep breath and look at your balance sheet.

Performing Quality Checks

When was the last time you looked at and actually used the stuff you’re selling to other people? Entrepreneurs spend so much time coming up with big ideas and trying to sell them that they rarely evaluate how well they work. Take the time to test it from a fresh perspective—as if you were your own customer.

Evaluate the details such as sensory observations, pricing, branding, effectiveness, but most importantly quality. You might find that you could save a lot of time and money by just getting rid of the product or service, or perhaps, paying more attention to it could make your business boom.

Reaching out to new people

Your business’s network can be attributed to your business’s net worth. Increase your territory with people who align with your business’s visions, goals, objectives and passion. These people will help you attract the opportunities you’re looking for and some you didn’t even think about.

It’s easy to become comfortable or complacent with the people you’re currently networking with. However, it’s extremely important to branch out and intentionally connect with at least one new person a day. In business, it about what you know and who you know. Get to know more people.

Practicing your pitch

Pop quiz! Would you be ready right now to pitch to someone who’s willing to write you a big check or create the opportunity of a lifetime for you? If you answered “yes”, then kudos to you. If you answered “Pitch? Huh?”, then you’ve got work to do. Again, becoming comfortable and complacent with how things are going often leaves entrepreneurs unprepared. You never know when your next “big break” is going to happen, so it’s imperative that you’re prepared with a pitch that’ll knock ‘em dead.

Practice your 30-second and 1-minute pitches every day. Know what you’re selling, why you’re selling it, the impact that it has made on your customers, the growth you’ve made with your business and the type of opportunities you’re looking for. It should become second-nature to pitch on the spot—because you’ve gotten used to practicing it every day.

So, after you’ve gone to the neighborhood coffee shop, done a few reps at the gym, watched the morning news or perused social media (for way too long), sit down and handle your business. Develop routines that’ll take your business to the next level.

Shannon Baylor-Henderson

Contributor: Shannon Baylor-Henderson is a content connoisseur who writes everything from business documents to fictional stories via her small business, ImShannon.com. When she’s not writing, she’s binge watching reality TV, lip syncing and dancing to ’90’s music or hanging out with her family and her Labrador pup. She’s the author of three books, a coffee snob and an entrepreneur with a trunk load of business ideas. Check out her commentary on Twitter @imshannondotcom