Let’s be real, running a business is hectic. It’s nowhere near as relaxing as you thought it would be, and you spend most of your days doing a hundred and one things at once. But, it’s worth it for the sense of accomplishment and pride that comes with running a company you built. Plus, the money isn’t too bad either!
Usually, being busy isn’t that much of a problem. Well, it doesn’t impact your business that negatively. If you’re busy, then it means you’re working on something. As a consequence, your business will benefit in some way. It’s stressful, but you see the rewards eventually.
However, there’s one particular problem that comes when you live a hectic life. You become disorganised. There’s no time to sort everything out, and your office looks like it was hit by a tornado. Now, this can be a problem as a disorganised business can lead to mistakes. You might misplace essential documents, forget to call someone back, and so on.
What can a lonely business owner do about this? You can definitely improve the situation, and you will see some benefits from being more organised. Here’s what you can do:
Stop getting mail sent to you
First of all, stop getting all of your mail sent to your place of work. This is even worse when you work from home as business email gets mixed with the personal stuff. The result is a mass of paper where anything important can go missing with ease.
To work around this, you should get a virtual address. This gives you a legitimate business address in a different location. All of your post gets sent here, and it gets scanned and uploaded to an online mailbox. Suddenly, you have no mail to worry about, and you can keep all of your business post more organised. There are plenty of cheap virtual addresses available in loads of different locations. As well as sorting out the problem with your mail, you also improve your reputation with a respectable business address.
Get a personal assistant
It’s okay to admit that you’ve bitten off more than you can chew. If you’re so busy that your business has become disorganised, then you need help. I’m not saying that as an insult, I’m genuinely serious; hire someone to help you out.
You don’t need to bring in an entire team – but think about getting a personal assistant. They handle a few tasks that keep you more organised. This can include scheduling meetings and answering phone calls. Sometimes, when you’re super disorganised, you can write down someone’s information and agree to call them back at a later date. Then, you lose their info and have no way of contacting them. The same goes for scheduling meetings, you agree to a date and time but lack the organisation to make a safe note of this. An assistant takes care of all these things, so your schedule doesn’t get messed up.
If you can’t afford a full-time personal assistant, then think about hiring an intern or getting a virtual assistant. Virtual assistants are similar to virtual addresses in that you get outside help from someone in a different location. They will mainly help you answer calls and maintain logs of messages.
Think About Working Smart, Not Working Hard
As businesses begin to develop traction, they soon realise where they fall down, and it’s usually in the efficiency aspects. It’s important to find the right processes that work for you, but then work out ways to assess and improve these components.
Many businesses turn to custom software development companies to create platforms or central management systems so employees can manage their workloads easier. But it’s also important to think about giving the employee more control over their work. Autonomy can help an employee to look at their work and decide the best way to manage it. After all, they do the job, not you.
You can also think about incorporating working practices that helps retain a high level of productivity, such as the Pomodoro Method, which encourages breaks, while still guaranteeing workers keep their energy and efficiency levels high.
Colour-coded storage
You must have some type of storage in your workplace. Whether this is a chest of drawers, filing cabinets, or even just a tray to put papers in on your desk. Storing things away will keep them off your desk. It stops you from piling loads of things on top of one another, which only leads to you losing items or spending ages trying to locate them.
So, storage will help, but you need to take this to new heights by colour-coding it. Stick labels on cabinets or drawers so you know what’s inside. Then, make sure you only put relevant things in them. So, one drawer might be exclusively for financial documents. In which case, you know where to look if you have to find some receipts.
When things are colour-coded, they’re much easier for you to find. This can save so much time and avoid instances where you lose vital information.
Being disorganised can harm your company. It makes you so unproductive as you waste time looking for things. It also damages your reputation as you might misplace important customer documents or forget to call a client back because you lost their details. Basically, you need to be organised. It’ll help you run your business more efficiently and with fewer problems.
