It’s no secret that entrepreneurs and small business owners are busy people, so making time to organize and declutter their workspace is not very high on their list of priorities. What many fail to understand is that disorganization can be a major detriment to productivity, especially when time spent looking for a specific document or email takes away from the more important tasks necessary to run your business.
Getting your business organized does not have to be a time-consuming or overly expensive endeavor, if you have a logical, efficient plan. Here are three smart organization tips to get your business back on the path to productivity:
- Designate a Time for Organization
The first of these tips may be the most difficult for busy entrepreneurs and that is why it’s the most important. Rome wasn’t built in a day and your office won’t become organized in one either, but with a dedicated schedule the process will become second nature. Start out by setting aside 30 minutes at the end of each week to go through the paper and digital clutter you have accumulated in a week’s time. Set aside or flag what’s important and then get rid of the rest. Getting rid of the clutter will instantly make you feel better but will also save you time in the future.
- Develop a System for Consolidation
Once you have sorted through the piles of paper and scrolled through the endless emails, you need to consolidate all of the important information contained within those documents and messages. Simply leaving a smaller pile of paper will only invite clutter back into your workspace. Don’t allow that to happen. Invest in a digital scanner or smart organization system that will extract the key data from your scanned documents and organize it for you into usable spreadsheets and reports. There are similar apps that will sort through your email and highlight information that you need. A well designed system will make smart organization easily achievable and can even cut down on the time you have already set aside each week to organize.
- Refresh Your Company’s Appearance
This may seem a bit unrelated to the organizational concerns of the first two tips but every well-informed entrepreneur knows that curb appeal is important and for small businesses, how you present yourself online can have a major impact on your success. When starting a business or new project, one of the key components of the launch is establishing a website and social media properties but after the initial excitement, many of these sites and accounts are deserted or occasionally updated with company news. Use this opportunity to take a look at how your company is presenting itself online and through social media. Are you regularly updating your site and accounts with interesting stories and relevant news? Are you engaging with subject matter experts and thought leaders in your category? These outlets can attract new clients and separate your small business from your competitors, so pay them some needed attention.
Spring cleaning is a great excuse for small business owners and entrepreneurs to step back, assess the functionality of their workspace and find solutions to improve their productivity. It is an even better time to set smart organization in motion by setting aside some time and developing a system that will allow you to maintain the productivity of your business well into the future. There is no time like the present to start organizing your business, so you can get to what really matters.
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This guest post is courtesy of Jenn Choi, Chief Marketing Officer of The Neat Company. The Neat Company is the leading provider of Smart Organization Systems for the small business and home office markets. Neat’s unique combination of cloud, mobile, desktop software and hardware scanning solutions transform important documents into usable digital information.