Being organized is an often underrated but essential skill to running a successful business and keeping clients and customers happy.
Without proper organization, business processes and important tasks can quickly go off track, projects can get delayed, and it can even stop you from being paid on time, negatively impacting your cash flow.
Here are 3 simple tips for getting organized (and reducing stress) as a small business owner.
1. Get your workspace organized
Knowing where things are is vital to good workspace organization. For most people, having a tidy desk is essential, but if you thrive in a more ‘busy’ environment, it’s still possible to be organized – as long as everything has a specific place. Even if it does look a bit messy, it can still be workable.
It’s not just your desk and environment that should be de-cluttered and tidy, but also your desktop computer. Regularly remove any files that are no longer needed and have a system for quickly and easily finding the files you want. A dedicated file naming convention will make it easier and faster for you and your employees to find what you are looking for.
Also, clean out any messages you no longer need in your email inbox. Leave messages that must be responded to, and create folders or archive the rest.
Part of being organized is also to know what paperwork you need to keep and what you can get rid of, which brings us nicely on to the next tip:
2. Know what needs to be done and when
Throughout the business year, certain things need to be done, and deadlines apply. These can range from delivery dates to client project deadlines, tax payment dates, and invoice due dates, to name just a few.
What applies to your business will depend on your circumstances, but you should keep a calendar note of what needs to be done and when and prepare in advance for it. Leaving things right up to the last minute is where things can go awry.
For example, not paying taxes on time can get you in trouble. So make sure you have a designated space (for example, this can be an online or offline folder) for all tax information, relevant filing dates, documentation and receipts.
Another essential business task that needs to be done on time is sending invoices so you get paid on time. Sometimes, this task can get overlooked, especially when invoices are not sent immediately once work is complete and you have many other pressing things to do.
Fortunately, you don’t have to spend hours compiling invoices, tracking hours or inventory and emailing clients.
Invoice Ninja is a leading free invoicing software for small business invoicing, online payments, tracking expenses and billable tasks. It also includes attractive, professional invoice template designs you can customize with your logo and brand colors.
Invoice Ninja can also help with chasing late payments with automatic email reminders and can even automatically include late fees on overdue invoices, allowing you to focus on doing what you love while improving the organization of that all-important paperwork.
Sign up to Invoice Ninja for free today – it’s easy to use, and can help you get paid faster.
3. Plan ahead
To-do lists are great for getting organized and can also give you a sense of achievement once you see all those tasks getting ticked off. Write down everything you need to do each day, week, and month and stick to it. Try not to procrastinate, as this is how things start stacking up, leading to overwhelm.
You can also consider color-coding tasks into different priorities, products, or activities. How you organize your to-do list is up to you.
You can even have a main checklist and smaller offshoot checklists if this makes sense for your business.
For example, the main checklist could include a meeting with a client. You can then add another checklist with all the points you should go over with the client. These details can be easy to forget unless you have them written down somewhere.
There are many online tools to help you with to-do lists and productivity, and you may also consider hiring a virtual assistant.
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Finally, remember that it’s important that the strategies you implement work for your business. Plenty of software is available on the marketplace that can streamline workflows, automate processes, and increase productivity, but it is not suitable for everyone. Some can be costly and inappropriate for your business and fail to provide either the cost or time-saving benefits you were looking to achieve.
