4 Steps to Organizing your Business
Productivity is apparently a big deal.
At the time of writing, you look up the word on Google you’ll get about 217,000,000 results in 0.73 seconds. And while you can find literally millions of articles online about boosting your productivity, if you truly want to become productive, you’ll have to become more organized.
A good number of people tend to agree with this. For instance, according to a 2016 Office Depot Small Business Index, around 63% of SMB owners think that their level of office organization directly correlates to their company’s profitability. Furthermore, 74% of them believe they could not operate their business without the proper organizational tools.
Basically, being disorganized makes your job harder. It reduces your focus and diminishes your strength. So in order to help you get more done in far less time, here are four simple steps you can take to organize your business.
Step 1: Reduce as Much Paper as You Can
Do you often find yourself searching for an important file? Well, don’t worry because you’re definitely not alone. According to the National Contract Management Association, an average worker wastes around 4.3 hours every week searching for papers around the office.
That’s why you need to reduce all of those paper files, and make a transition to the cloud as soon as possible (more on that later). And if you’re worried you might one day need those five-year-old files from a project, then just scan the originals, convert them to PDF files and throw out the paper versions to make more room. If you don’t know where to start with finding document management software then ask around. Hopefully, someone you know will be able to say something along the lines of “our firm switched to this DMS recently”, and be able to tell you all about it. Some DMS will also integrate with accounting software (again, more on that later) to further streamline that process.
Step 2: Reduce Meeting Times
Nobody likes overlong meetings. Just think about the last meeting you had, and just how much time you wasted dealing with useless banter and setting up the conference call. If you’re a remote worker, you’ve probably deal with situations like this on a daily basis:
Step 3: Develop a Cloud Strategy
Ever had a PC crash and lost important data? An EMC study from a few years ago suggested that these data losses cost the US business industry more than $1.7 trillion each year. But money is just one part of the loss equation – you also have to think just how much time and productivity you can lose in these situations.
Seeing how hardware failure is responsible for more than 40% of overall data loss in the United States, so should start uploading your file on to the cloud, where they’ll be organized, accessible and most importantly – completely safe. Most popular cloud services like Dropbox and Google Drive all free versions; you can test a few services before you pick the right one.
Step 4: Introduce Accounting and Scheduling Software
While we’re on the subject of the cloud, we should say a few words about online accounting software. If you don’t have an accountant on your staff, it would be wise a cloud-based bookkeeping tool like Xero that integrate right into your account, pull transactions and allow you to keep your books organized. There are also integrated business software available that will tackle every aspect of your accounting – from project accounting to day-to-day finances to pay. Sage 200cloud is a good example of this type of software.
And if you’re already trying to eliminate as much paper from your office as possible, it’s a perfect time to introduce a Humanity scheduling app such as ShiftPlanning. This software will not only allow you to create full working schedules in a matter of minutes, but it will also enable you to track when and where all of your workers are clocking in and out.
Final Thoughts
It’s practically impossible to run a successful organization if your office and workflow are not perfectly organized. Thanks to the emerging technologies, keeping your workspace in order and keeping track of all-important things within your business is becoming easier than ever.
Ultimately – time is money in your business. And if you take the necessary steps to help you and your staff become more organized you’ll ensure that everyone is working as productively as possible toward the same goals.