Forget the excitement that comes with starting a business; it’s a lot harder to run one than to start one. To keep it going, you have to exhaust a ton of money, time, and effort.
What is more, you have to ensure that your customers derive maximum satisfaction from your products or services. But if you’re like other business owners, you know that it takes more than just using up a lot of money and resources to keep a company going.
You’d have to organise your workflow for the efficient and effective operation of your business. Organising means carrying out a systematic arrangement, keeping things in order, or preparing for an activity or event. It means you have to run your company in an orderly pattern. This would enable you to set your company on the path to success.
Let’s explore some ways you can keep your company organised.
9 Proven strategies to help keep your company organised
Many business owners boast of success because of the intelligent techniques they use to keep their companies in order. Here are nine of them:
1. Plan office hours
Every company needs a blueprint on the series of tasks it must undertake to achieve its desired end. Some activities need to be handled daily, weekly, monthly, or even yearly. Planning your workflow would go a long way in keeping your company organised.
It would also help you maintain a balance between work and your personal time. To plan adequately, you have to make a list of everything that needs to be done, the team members that should handle them, and when they should do these things.
Early mornings or late evenings are an excellent time to write out your plans. You can use a simple notepad or software like Google’s Tasks for this. Whichever you choose, ensure that your plans are precise and that the team can follow through with them.
2. Ensure your office space is always clean
The physical surrounding of your company is crucial in pushing it up the success ladder. It’s hard to get things done in a cluttered and untidy environment. It can affect your mental health, which will, in turn, hinder your productivity.
A study by the Staples Corporation found that 94% of workers felt more productive in a clean workspace, while 77% said they felt they produced a higher quality of work in a cleaner environment.
Another study showed that 88% of 1,481 respondents said their concentration and productivity were negatively affected by an unclean workspace.
So, you and your staff may be experiencing low productivity because of a shabby physical working environment. Clear out things that no longer serve you and make sure your company is cleaned up every day.
3. Cut down on paper
Getting rid of redundant items or cleaning up your office every day may not be enough to give your office space an orderly look. For example, office cabinets stacked with excess files or documents can still make your workspace appear untidy.
You can easily add storage space by creating more drawers, file cabinets, and other storage units. But cutting down on the number of files will give your office a neat, organised look. Plus, paperwork consumes a lot of time and resources.
Industry studies show that it costs companies $20 on average to file a paper document. The study further revealed that, on average, professionals take 18 minutes to locate each document.
Also, Gartner Research found that those in professional fields working with paper spend 50% of their time looking for information. So, it’s a better option to store your files virtually. It compensates for inadequate physical storage, a cluttered workspace, and throwing away files you may need in the future.
Also, cloud storage apps like Google Drive and Dropbox can help you backup your documents after saving them virtually. This helps you recover files you lose.
4. Keep your desktop clean and your passwords safe
In addition to storing your documents or files offsite, ensure that your desktop is clean and organised too. Clean up its main screen, trash, and delete unimportant files and links. Also, create a password that is hard to decode.
If you’re the kind that uses the same password for different apps and websites, know that this can be dangerous. If someone can decipher your password, they will have access to all files.
If, on the other hand, you’re interested in the safer and more secure password protection method, 1Password can help you manage multiple passwords properly.
5. Use an efficient customer management system
Customers can make or break your company. It depends on whether you fall on their good side or bad side. If you treat them like trash, they are likely to leave you for your competition.
Research revealed that it is 6-7 times more expensive to acquire a new customer than to keep a current one. On average, loyal customers are worth up to 10 times as much as their first purchase.
So, it’s important to make them happy and maintain a good relationship with them. While this can be demanding, you can use customer management software like Salesforce to lessen your burden.
A knowledge base system also helps you curate customer information in an organised manner that becomes a go-to resource for your team members. It ensures a unity in knowledge of customer information so that they all work in sync to produce the best results for your clients.
You can also store information about your products and services on a knowledge base so that they can always access it whenever they have questions about your offerings. It lessens the burden on your customer service teams and helps to portray your organization as professional and customer-focused.
6. Schedule your social media posts and appointments to save time
Forgetting to update your social media pages and missing your meetings might occur because you’re yet to take advantage of scheduling apps.
These apps save you the stress of publishing posts every few hours and the embarrassment that comes with always apologizing for missing meetings.
Social media scheduling apps like Hootsuite and Later help you create long-term content and upload them to your preferred sites on your desired dates. These apps automatically post all your scheduled content to help you save time.
Scheduling meetings or appointments also help to keep your time organised so you can plan and prepare appropriately. Apps like Toggl and Calendly can help you plan and schedule.
7. Keep track of invoices, receipts, accounts, and taxes
If you run a small company, the chances are that you can’t afford to hire an accounting firm or an accountant to keep track of your invoices, receipts, and accounts. But there’s a way out.
You don’t even have to do it yourself; with software to help manage your finances and keep accurate records of all your company’s financial transactions, you can run organised accounts. Finance managing software helps save you money, time, and stress.
Tracking taxes is also time-wasting and can be confusing. Expensify is one valuable tool that is easy to use and straightforward in sorting your taxes quickly and efficiently.
8. Don’t let your email drive you crazy
As you run the company, your busy schedule can allow emails to pile up in your inbox, which eventually becomes unread messages.
Over time, it gets frustrating and overwhelming to read. Manage your email properly by opening your messages as soon as they arrive and deleting messages you don’t need.
Tools like Gmail can help you get this done quickly. It categorizes your mail for you and makes it less frustrating to deal with thousands of unread emails.
9. Keep yourself and your employees motivated
Motivation is the lifeblood of continuously running a business to achieve success. It helps you to take your company from one level to another. When you and your employees are highly motivated, it improves efficiency.
From time to time, remind yourself of why you started the company and where you aim to go with it. Relaxing your body and brain is a good way to rejuvenate and re-energize for your daily working activities.
Relaxation is as good for you as it is for your employees, so don’t leave them out. You can show them that you genuinely care about them and their well-being by planning fun trips for them and offering them work-free days to enjoy some time with their family or loved ones.
Giving a bonus when they do an excellent job can also serve as a good motivation.
Conclusion
Running an organised company might seem like a lot of work, but the benefits surpass the sacrifice. Organisation shields you from the problems that come with running a disorganised company.
Some of these issues include losing your customers, misusing your company’s funds, and finding it challenging to keep track of your business’s growth and performance.
Endeavor to implement the strategies that we’ve discussed. When you’re tempted to slip back into old disorderly habits that no longer serve you, remember what it can cost your company.
