Unless you’ve been glued to your desk hatching plans to conquer the business world, you’ve probably noticed that spring is in the air. The leaves are green, the flowers are blooming, and the sun is shining. Dull old winter is gone and the great outdoors is refreshing itself for a new cycle. Maybe this year, you should take a hint from Mother Nature and do some refreshing around the office.
Every spring, the air is abuzz with bees swarming around, pollinating for all they’re worth. Bees are some of nature’s hardest workers, and there are more than a few things you can learn from them and apply in your own business. Don’t let the bees take all the shine. Spring is the perfect time to generate a little buzz of your own. Maybe try a start-of-season sale or launch a new marketing campaign. Tax returns are coming and the weather is turning, so people are going to be out shopping. Make sure they’ve got a great reason to visit your business. Flowers don’t pollinate themselves and businesses don’t grow by magic. Put in some hard work of your own and show those bees what real buzz is all about.
Historically, spring is the time of year when farmers hit the fields at the crack of dawn, ready to till, hoe, and plant until sundown. Every farmer knows that the work he does in the spring isn’t going to pay dividends immediately. If it doesn’t get done, though, the tables are going to be pretty bare come fall. You have to plant the seed in spring so that, months later, it blooms and goes to market. Business is the same way. Everyone knows that the biggest shopping seasons of the year come in fall and winter, but without laying a good foundation in the spring customers are likely to pass you by during the Holidays. Take a lesson from our farmer friends and don’t expect immediate results. Plant some new seeds, care for them year round, and when it matters most you might just find yourself raking in a bunker crop of cash.
If there’s one thing that really lets you know it’s spring, it’s the constant trill of birdsong. Birds are Nature’s great marketers. A bird who doesn’t advertise his virtues all day in the spring finds himself with an empty nest in the winter. To find a mate, a bird has to stake out his branch and squawk his virtues from sun up to sun down. It’s not about who’s got the biggest beak, it’s about who has the loudest tweet. You can have the best products and prices in the world and it won’t help you if no one knows. So, this spring, perch up on a branch and let everyone know why your business rules the roost.
Most importantly, remember that nothing lasts forever. Every year, Nature dies and then comes back, slightly changed, ready for a new season. Without winter, you can’t have spring. Don’t get too attached to the way you do things now or fool yourself into thinking your current situation will last forever. Things have to die in order for the cycle to continue. Constantly be striving to eliminate what needs to go and replacing it with something more timely.
