Running a small business, whether it’s in finance, service, health, accounting, repair, or mercantile, takes a great deal of hard work and dedication. It’s not an easy sinecure or a lazy person’s career. To keep on top of the competition and make your business run smoothly and efficiently, you ‘ve got to always be looking for better ways to organize your office, factory, sales floor, and/or warehouse. Lack of organization can only lead to profits slipping and staff morale plummeting. So here’s a few tips to keep your small business tightly organized:
Know where everything is -- and where it’s supposed to be
Spending a few minutes a day looking for items in the office or on the computer may not seem like a serious matter, but an extensive survey concluded that the normal employee spends up to seventy-six hours per year looking for things, which comes to over 177 billion dollars in lost productivity annually.
So make it a priority to personally know where everything is located in your small business, from copy paper to sales orders -- and make sure that when you delegate this kind of important work that those you hire are trustworthy and at the top of their game. Believe it or not, things like inventory and office supplies, payroll records and metal industrial shelving, are no longer ho-hum chores that can be left to amateurs. Get professionals to do it, if you really want to cut down on your staff wasting valuable time playing hide and seek. An employee who feels that he or she is on a wild goose chase when searching for something to complete a report or project can quickly become discouraged and lose motivation to stay a dedicated team player. Staff that know that everything they need is literally at their fingertips and can be found in a matter of minutes, if not seconds, also know that they are respected and appreciated by their managers.
Be systematic
While the kind of system you use is important to how well organized your small enterprise is, it’s even more important to stick to one basic system for everyone in your organization. Relying on a hodge-podge of methods to run your business is just asking for trouble. If accounting can’t follow or understand the system in sales, or if IT uses a different method than customer service, the resulting bedlam in policy and practice can be costly -- in inefficient waste of time and in customer retention. If your staff feels like they’re getting the runaround every time they need to do something a little irregular, just think how your customers will feel if they experience the same thing! It’s true you can’t account for every variation in your handbook, but you can provide a system that gives enough direction and leeway for your staff to make informed and standardized decisions.
Scanning to reduce clutter
Scanners should be an integral part of your organizing strategy. Portable scanners are relatively inexpensive, so you can have several in your office. And make sure to drill your staff, all of them, to scan every single document that they handle and file it properly. This will reduce clutter and insure that important documents and information are safely stored in the cloud, and can be recalled immediately when needed. It goes without saying that you should also keep an eye on your data security protocols so that sensitive information is never at risk of being either lost or hacked.
