Why a Season of Intention Applies to Business, Too
Summer has a way of sneaking past us. One minute we’re digging out sandals and welcoming warm nights — the next, we’re packing away the patio furniture and wondering where the time went.
The first day of summer always reminds me to pause. To be intentional. To slow down just enough to notice what matters — and to make sure I’m spending my time on the right things.
And you know what? The same principle applies to how we run our businesses.
The Danger of Delayed Clean Up
In small businesses, it’s easy to let the backend of your company slide. You’re serving clients, focused on social media, juggling a million things, and as long as the work is getting done, you push off the cleanup. But later always comes. And when it does, it brings stress, rework, and missed opportunity. Now you are forced to stop and clean things up. This is the same thing that happens in big companies. There is no difference.
That’s especially true with your data.
Clean data is the quiet hero of a healthy business. You don’t notice it when things are working — but you definitely notice when they’re not.
Let me tell you about two clients who learned this the hard way.
Client Story #1: Trapped by Her Own Inbox
One client had everything in Outlook. Emails, contact notes, client history, even important follow-ups. She was diligent, but everything was siloed in folders and inboxes.
When it came time to build out her first CRM, she was stuck.
She needed to segment her contacts for follow-up, identify which leads were still active, and automate a simple check-in email — but all of that required data she couldn’t easily pull from her inbox. She had everyone from her life her contact list and not just those that were part of her business, her doctor, her sister, her plumber from years ago....how was she going to figure this out?!
To get what she needed, she would have had to manually open dozens (if not hundreds) of emails to piece together information. The time investment was so high, she froze. A task that could have taken an hour with clean data turned into a week of stress. She had to delay the automation and lost momentum on launching a new offer.
Client Story #2: When Your Platform Fails You
Another business owner had built a strong following through her LinkedIn newsletter. She had thousands of subscribers, consistent engagement, and a content plan she felt good about.
Then, without warning, LinkedIn shut down her account due to a policy error. Despite multiple attempts to appeal, she couldn’t regain access. And because she never exported her subscriber data or backed up her content, her audience was gone.
Years of work — wiped out in a click.
This wasn’t a content problem. It was a data ownership problem. She assumed the platform would always be there… until it wasn’t.
The Common Thread: Data You Can’t Use Isn’t Useful
These stories have something in common: the data existed. But it wasn’t organized, accessible, or protected.
That’s why I always tell my clients: Start with clean data — it’s the foundation for everything else. You are NEVER too small for a CRM!!
Whether you're planning to automate outreach, improve reporting, sell your business, or move to a new tool, dirty or scattered data slows you down. Worse, it can stop you altogether.
If you think about the worth of your company, for many of us it is in the network and customer lists that we've created over time. If you can't produce that information, then your company is ultimately worth less because information is in your head and not accessible to someone else, like a new owner.
How to Start Cleaning Without Overwhelm
You don’t have to overhaul everything overnight. But here are a few small steps that make a big difference:
- Standardize Your Fields: Choose consistent formats (like “First Name,” “Company,” “Lead Source”) and make sure they’re used across the board.
- Centralize Your Contacts: Pull them out of email inboxes, spreadsheets, and disconnected tools. Start consolidating into one system.
- Tag Strategically: Instead of using generic notes or folder names, start applying tags that reflect real customer traits (e.g., “past client,” “webinar attendee,” “hot lead”).
- Back It Up: If a platform holds your followers, subscribers, or messages — make sure you have your own copy.
- Audit Quarterly: Just like spring cleaning, schedule a recurring check-in to spot duplicates, fix broken entries, and archive what’s outdated.
It’s Like the First Day of Summer…
The start of summer reminds us to slow down, soak it in, and be intentional — because if we’re not, the season will pass us by.
Your business works the same way. If you take time now to clean things up, you won’t have to dig through the weeds later. You’ll be ready to build, automate, and grow without stumbling over a messy backend.
So this season, don’t just plan for the sunshine — plan for sustainability. Clean up now so you can move faster later.
Your future self (and your business) will thank you.
