When you operate a small business, there’s a lot that you’re juggling at any given time. You may feel like you have your hand in a little bit of everything, even if you have employees.
It can quickly get overwhelming and be tough to keep up with everything unless you have a system for organization in place.
An organized business is important for several key reasons. First, when your business is organized you’re going to be operating at a peak level of efficiency, which will improve productivity. You’re also likely to see higher revenue because you’ll be better equipped to build long-term relationships with your clients when you’re organized.
When your business is organized it also puts you in a better position to see potential problems and red flags and remedy them before they grow into something larger.
The following are general tips and steps you can take to get your business organized.
Set Goals
The first step to any small business organization plan is to know what you want to achieve. You need to set goals for yourself, for your business, and your employees. Set both small and large goals. Create small goals that you can achieve day-to-day or week-to-week and larger goals that you can achieve over the longer-term.
By setting goals, it gives you a direction, and that sense of direction is important to organizing your small business.
You can also give yourself a framework to follow over the coming months.
It’s important to realize organization in business is as much about your mindset as what’s going on around you and the organization tools you use.
Remember your employees as you’re setting goals because your organization isn’t going to be organized if they aren’t organized.
Organize Your Space
Once you’ve set a direction for your business and everyone who works in it, you can start promoting that organized mindset by cleaning up your office. It seems silly, but the type of workspace you’re in can play a big role in your mindset.
Use vertical storage and get rid of paper whenever possible to improve efficiency.
A digital archiving system can be a good approach to cut down on the paper in your office. The closer you can get to a paperless office, the better in terms of organization.
You may use a variety of platforms to help you along the way in addition to a digital archiving platform. For example, you can use online invoicing and accounting tools and use the cloud to create data backups.
Choose the Right Apps
Sometimes when you find yourself on a mission to improve the organization of your office, you might start relying on productivity apps and other organization-centric apps. These can be great tools, but be discerning in the ones you use.
You want to have a few good apps that do actually help you stay productive and organized.
If you try to use too many things at once, you might find that it’s overwhelming and makes you feel less organized and productive.
Organize Your Finances
If your finances are a wreck, then your business is too, no matter how great your office looks.
First, to get your finances organized, look at your income. You need to know realistically and honestly how much money your business is bringing in during any given period.
If you set an income goal for yourself as far as what you bring home from your business, start tracking that as well.
Once you have an understanding of your income, move on to your expenses.
If you don’t already, ensure that you have a separate bank account for your business. This isn’t something new business owners often have or make a priority, and it can be a big organizational mistake but also a financial mistake.
After you get a clearer idea of your income and your expenses, you can start looking at how to streamline your invoices and payments, both outgoing and incoming.
Stay In Touch with Prospects and Clients
Finally, find a way that ensures you keep all of your prospect and client contact information and stay in touch with them on a regular basis. You need to be tracking when you make contact and how it goes.
Consider email marketing on their birthdays or holidays and start using your communications with your prospects and clients as a way to personalize your marketing in general. This will give you a better idea of what works and what doesn’t so you can streamline how much you spend on marketing.
