Spring could be the perfect time to clear out the cobwebs and clean up your business. There could be elements of your business that have become disorganised or simply too cluttered. Here are some ways that you can reorganise your business and become a more efficient company.
Go paperless
There are lots of reason to do away with paper and digitise all your information. Paper is slow, more susceptible to damage, costly and environmentally unfriendly. It could also be a cause for clutter in your office. By going paperless, you may not have any need for printers and filing cabinets. Even business books can be switched out for e-books to free up space. Switching to a paperless business may require alerting clients that you’ll no longer be using postage as well as creating digital copies of any legal contracts you have. Electronic signature apps available from sites like docusign.com could also allow you to sign contracts digitally.
Find a fast filing system
Even without paper, you may still have a clutter problem on your computer hard-drives. Files could be spread out all over the place, making it a time-consuming task to find the right information. Improving your filing system could help to make information easier to locate. This could involve creating more folders or merging ones that don’t need to be separated as well as getting rid of any files you don’t need. You may want to use software to keep certain files safe such as legal documentation – you can download such programmes from sites like symfact.com. Rather than keeping masses of spreadsheets, you may also be able to convert this data to programmes for accountancy and data metrics.
Organise your inbox
It could also be time to finally organise your inbox. To keep track of which emails you’ve acted upon and which emails need further action, you could set up folders. Every time you’ve read an email you can put it in a folder – one for informational purposes, one for emails that need immediate action, one for emails that need to be followed up within the week and one for emails that can be acted upon later than that. This way you won’t lose track of emails you were meant to reply to.
Redesign your office layout
It could also be time to redesign your office layout so that it’s more practical. This could include moving desks around or relocating phones and printers so that your entire team benefits. You may also want to use this time to update any old furniture or machinery as well as getting rid of anything you don’t need (if you’re going paperless, this could include printers and filing cabinets as mentioned previously). Consider health and safety whilst redesigning your office – there may be signage you can add or walkways that you can declutter. This could also be a good time to improve physical security.
Cut ties with suppliers you no longer need
It could be time to also cancel software subscriptions you no longer use or cut ties with suppliers you rarely use. You may also be able to consolidate certain services you pay for – instead of paying multiple insurers for different schemes, you may be able to find an insurer who offers all the policies you need under one package. Meanwhile, if you order stock from lots of different companies, consider using one supplier that can offer all this stock. You could even consider paying all your debts off with a consolidation loan. This could result in less costs to keep track of making your finances easier to organise.
Streamline your services
You may also want to reconsider the services you provide. Providing too many services could be causing you and your employees to spread your talents too thin. Think about streamlining your services by getting rid of services that are not popular or not cost-effective. This could include trimming down a large menu or targeting a more specialist client. You may not need to stock as much inventory, nor invest as much time into training up employees, saving you extra time and money.
