5 Tips For Organizing Your Small Business
When you’re running a small business, many people are going to give you different types of advice. But one thing that we know for sure is that you need to stay organized. Keeping your small business orderly is the key to success. Here are a few tips for organizing your small business:
1 ) Declutter your office.
You may think that a little mess is okay, but that mess adds up. It piles onto the daily stress that you already experience as a small business owner. Look through your office and get rid of anything that you don’t need. Keep your necessities as well as anything you’ve used in the past year. Everything else can be thrown out or donated. Any broken electronics you’ve stashed away can be recycled. It’s also a good idea to clear out your electronic inventory such as your voicemails. You’ll enjoy spending time at your desk when your workplace is organized.
2) Stop using paper receipts.
The IRS now accepts electronic copies of receipts. For this reason, you don’t need to keep holding on to all of the paper receipts you got from restaurants or convenience stores. Download a receipt management scanner or app for your smartphone. One good one is Neat. Make sure you can export data to whichever app you are using.
3) Get the right tool for taking notes.
As a small business owner, you need to jot down tasks and inspirations whenever they strike. This is a great way to run a business, but if your notes aren’t organized, it can be difficult to keep track of your ideas. If your notes are on documents throughout various folders on your computer, or they’re on sheets of paper strewn all over your desk, you’re going to have difficulty making sense of it all. You need to find a note-taking method that works for your lifestyle. You can record your voice on your smartphone, get a note-taking app like Evernote or even just use a pen and paper. The important thing is that the method you use is right for you and that you continue to use it.
4) Organize your paper files.
Searching for important papers in a stack of files can take up a lot of your time. Take some time to go through your filing cabinets. Anything that is out of date can go in the shredder. If you have old files that you’re worried you might one day need, scan them and then throw the paper files away. This way, you’ll have more room for new files and you won’t have to sift through a huge stack of papers to find that you’re looking for.
5) Share and save documents on cloud-based tools.
It’s important that you get into the habit of using cloud-based tools or storage and sharing. Google Drive is a great option because it stores up to 15GB for free, and your colleagues have the ability to collaborate. You can also use Box or Dropbox. Storing files in the cloud allows you to clean up your personal storage. It will also save you the time you would have spent emailing documents back and forth when you’re working with others.
When it comes to running a small business organization is key. If you follow these tips, you’ll be able to save yourself a lot of time, and your business will run much more smoothly.
Originally published at abogadoalybusiness.com.
