10 Crucial Organization Strategies for Your Small Business
Disorganization kills productivity, wastes time, and ultimately hinders your business success. Even worse, disorganization comes with steep costs, negatively affects the company’s reputation, affects employee morale, and increases stress levels. Employees waste a lot of time looking for misplaced files, supplies, or tools, and ultimately miss deadlines that could result in lost business deals or missed opportunities.
This means that you need the best organization strategies for your business if you want to avoid having important information seep through the cracks, and essential business time spent inefficiently. Once efficiency and productivity slide, your profits take a hit and your business along with it. So how do you keep your business organized?
This post will guide you through ten of the best organization strategies for small businesses and help you stay organized.
1. Establish Procedures
To keep your small business organized at all times, you first need to establish the right procedures. If possible, write these procedures down in a way that everyone will understand and will be on the same page. The trick here is to get everyone on board on how to handle files and sort through what’s important or what’s not, how to handle office systems, and how to handle projects.
Implementing a solid quality management system can make all these tasks easier. Helping employees understand ISO 9001 requirements for a QMS and encouraging assigned professionals to obtain an iso 9001 lead auditor certification can make a visible difference in the way your organization applies these standards, ensuring everything runs smoothly.
Beyond that, you need to consolidate and condense everything. There is so much to organizing your small business than just managing or minimizing the visible clutter. You not only need to have procedures but tools as well, so your business can run as efficiently as possible. Streamline all these tools and make it easy for everyone to use.
2. Purge Your Office
Decluttering is one of the most essential organization strategies and a critical part of getting your small business on track. A little mess here and there may not count because some people consider a little clutter a creative mess, but too much of it can lead to stress. What you should do is purge your office and toss out whatever you feel is no longer important to your business.
Recycle broken electronics, delete old voicemails, donate what you don’t need, trash any duplicates, and keep the basic things your office needs. Working is so much better when you don’t have to deal with clutter every turn you make.
3. Organize Paper Files and Do Away with Paper Receipts
Did you know that you may be spending more than 4 hours every week searching for files? If you have filing cabinets in your small business scan, everything you may need in the future and shred everything else that’s filling up your space unnecessarily.
If you have paper receipts, consider ditching them for electronic ones since IRS accepts them. Get a receipt management scanner and use it instead.
4. Go for Cloud Sharing and Storage
In this day and age, it’s imperative for a small business to utilize the cloud for storage solutions. Cloud storage can be one of the best organizational strategies, and you can start using tools like Dropbox and Google Drive to share and collaborate amongst your team.
You can also try OneDrive for Business which comes with Office 365 suite. Know more about Dropbox to SharePoint Migration and how to switch from g suite to office 365.
Housing files and documents on the cloud mean you’ll save valuable time-sharing files and clean up personal storage. It can be very beneficial for your business if you decide to go paperless, so once you store all your information online, you can also combine your PDF files and make things easier. Check out how to combine pdfs here.
5. Streamline Your Email
Like most small businesses, you spend a lot of time on your emails regardless of whether those emails are urgent or not. To begin with, you need to clean the house and file everything you don’t need to respond to. Manage your inbox so much so that you still have every message you currently need to deal with, then have everything else archived for safekeeping.
Tame the number of emails you get by unsubscribing to services you no longer need and create folders where some emails will automatically transfer to, to avoid interrupting your schedule.
6. Streamline Project Collaboration
As a small business, it’s possible that you handle a lot of projects with your employees and with outside contractors. Keeping track of projects can be quite tricky, especially if you can’t afford secretaries and other people to do it for you.
The way you communicate with your team about these projects is very important, so find a great project management tool that everyone can collaborate on.
7. Take Charge of Your Books
For a small business owner, you must have a process that you use for invoicing, recording expenses, tracking projects, and processing payments. All these tasks can be time-consuming and downright confusing for most people.
Getting software or an application that helps you stay in charge can go a long way. There are so many tools out there that can make these administrative tasks easier and efficient for you.
8. Book a Meeting With a Tax Advisor
Filing taxes is an important part of your business, and avoiding it can bring you a lot of problems. The best course of action is to make an appointment with a tax advisor or an accountant and get everything in order. Depending on your business structure, you need to consider protecting your personal assets as well.
9. Take Care of Your Social Media Profiles
Taking care of your social media profiles is also one of the most essential organization strategies. Take stock of everything then take advantage of social media because it’s an avenue for growth.
10. Automate Meetings
As a small business owner, you probably have a lot of business meetings with clients, suppliers, employees, and vendors. A lot of meetings nowadays are happening online. Since everyone involved has their own busy schedule, it’s important for you to keep track of your meetings.
Setting up meetings could take multiple emails back and forth, essentially takes up too much time. Having a tool that organizes all your meetings for you can be indispensable. It’ll simplify scheduling, even if your clients are in different time zones.
How to Organize a Small Business: The Best Organization Strategies
As you can see, there are many organizational strategies you can use to stay on top of things. The small business organizations will minimize or eliminate distractions and clutter, allowing everyone in the business to be productive. If you can go paperless, that would eliminate a lot of clutter and make finding documents much easier.
To keep your small business organized at all times, you first need to establish the right procedures. If possible, write these procedures down in a way that everyone will understand and will be on the same page, incorporating more helpful hints.
Do you want to accomplish your company’s bottom-lines? You’ll find our content and services relevant. Check our other articles today.
Author: Usman Raza is the co-founder of Christian Marketing Experts and marketing strategist working with various brands online. Usman is the content marketing manager at PSD to WordPress, Gospeletters, and The Dressing Table. He is devoted to helping small businesses bridge success gaps by providing in-depth, actionable advice on digital marketing, SEO, and small business growth. Follow him on Twitter @usmanintrotech.
Disorganization kills productivity, wastes time, and ultimately hinders your business success. Even worse, disorganization comes with steep costs, negatively affects the company’s reputation, affects employee morale, and increases stress levels. Employees waste a lot of time looking for misplaced files, supplies, or tools, and ultimately miss deadlines that could result in lost business deals or missed opportunities.
This means that you need the best organization strategies for your business if you want to avoid having important information seep through the cracks, and essential business time spent inefficiently. Once efficiency and productivity slide, your profits take a hit and your business along with it. So how do you keep your business organized?
This post will guide you through ten of the best organization strategies for small businesses and help you stay organized.
1. Establish Procedures
To keep your small business organized at all times, you first need to establish the right procedures. If possible, write these procedures down in a way that everyone will understand and will be on the same page. The trick here is to get everyone on board on how to handle files and sort through what’s important or what’s not, how to handle office systems, and how to handle projects.
Beyond that, you need to consolidate and condense everything. There is so much to organizing your small business than just managing or minimizing the visible clutter. You not only need to have procedures but tools as well, so your business can run as efficiently as possible. Streamline all these tools and make it easy for everyone to use.
2. Purge Your Office
Decluttering is one of the most essential organization strategies and a critical part of getting your small business on track. A little mess here and there may not count because some people consider a little clutter a creative mess, but too much of it can lead to stress. What you should do is purge your office and toss out whatever you feel is no longer important to your business.
Recycle broken electronics, delete old voicemails, donate what you don’t need, trash any duplicates, and keep the basic things your office needs. Working is so much better when you don’t have to deal with clutter every turn you make.
3. Organize Paper Files and Do Away with Paper Receipts
Did you know that you may be spending more than 4 hours every week searching for files? If you have filing cabinets in your small business scan, everything you may need in the future and shred everything else that’s filling up your space unnecessarily.
If you have paper receipts, consider ditching them for electronic ones since IRS accepts them. Get a receipt management scanner and use it instead.
4. Go for Cloud Sharing and Storage
In this day and age, it’s imperative for a small business to utilize the cloud for storage solutions. Cloud storage can be one of the best organizational strategies, and you can start using tools like Dropbox and Google Drive to share and collaborate amongst your team.
You can also try OneDrive for Business which comes with Office 365 suite. Know more about Dropbox to SharePoint Migration and how to switch from g suite to office 365.
Housing files and documents on the cloud mean you’ll save valuable time-sharing files and clean up personal storage. It can be very beneficial for your business if you decide to go paperless, so once you store all your information online, you can also combine your PDF files and make things easier. Check out how to combine pdfs here.
5. Streamline Your Email
Like most small businesses, you spend a lot of time on your emails regardless of whether those emails are urgent or not. To begin with, you need to clean the house and file everything you don’t need to respond to. Manage your inbox so much so that you still have every message you currently need to deal with, then have everything else archived for safekeeping.
Tame the number of emails you get by unsubscribing to services you no longer need and create folders where some emails will automatically transfer to, to avoid interrupting your schedule.
6. Streamline Project Collaboration
As a small business, it’s possible that you handle a lot of projects with your employees and with outside contractors. Keeping track of projects can be quite tricky, especially if you can’t afford secretaries and other people to do it for you.
The way you communicate with your team about these projects is very important, so find a great project management tool that everyone can collaborate on.
7. Take Charge of Your Books
For a small business owner, you must have a process that you use for invoicing, recording expenses, tracking projects, and processing payments. All these tasks can be time-consuming and downright confusing for most people.
Getting software or an application that helps you stay in charge can go a long way. There are so many tools out there that can make these administrative tasks easier and efficient for you.
8. Book a Meeting With a Tax Advisor
Filing taxes is an important part of your business, and avoiding it can bring you a lot of problems. The best course of action is to make an appointment with a tax advisor or an accountant and get everything in order. Depending on your business structure, you need to consider protecting your personal assets as well.
9. Take Care of Your Social Media Profiles
Taking care of your social media profiles is also one of the most essential organization strategies. Take stock of everything then take advantage of social media because it’s an avenue for growth.
10. Automate Meetings
As a small business owner, you probably have a lot of business meetings with clients, suppliers, employees, and vendors. A lot of meetings nowadays are happening online. Since everyone involved has their own busy schedule, it’s important for you to keep track of your meetings.
Setting up meetings could take multiple emails back and forth, essentially takes up too much time. Having a tool that organizes all your meetings for you can be indispensable. It’ll simplify scheduling, even if your clients are in different time zones.
How to Organize a Small Business: The Best Organization Strategies
As you can see, there are many organizational strategies you can use to stay on top of things. The small business organizations will minimize or eliminate distractions and clutter, allowing everyone in the business to be productive. If you can go paperless, that would eliminate a lot of clutter and make finding documents much easier.
To keep your small business organized at all times, you first need to establish the right procedures. If possible, write these procedures down in a way that everyone will understand and will be on the same page, incorporating more helpful hints.
Do you want to accomplish your company’s bottom-lines? You’ll find our content and services relevant. Check our other articles today.
Author: Usman Raza is the co-founder of Christian Marketing Experts and marketing strategist working with various brands online. Usman is the content marketing manager at PSD to WordPress, Gospeletters, and The Dressing Table. He is devoted to helping small businesses bridge success gaps by providing in-depth, actionable advice on digital marketing, SEO, and small business growth. Follow him on Twitter @usmanintrotech.
